Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

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WERTA BEST
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Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by WERTA BEST »

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Hi everybody!
I am finding any information about demo version of cancelled game Kanaan (1999, FPS, Argonaut Software, UDI Soft). There are only screenshots about game, nothing more in www.
http://bill.bzaar.net/avoc/Html/Screenshots/kanaan.htm

These screens, definitely, were captured from gameplay, not from 3D-scene of some 3D-editor.
Unfortunately, we have nothing information about demo files of Kanaan project. Today I have received strange information that Kanaan was ready for sell in Germany. I can not be shure about it. An I would like to ask anybody: Is this game demo really exists somewhere?
Thanks!
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Last edited by WERTA BEST on Tue Jan 26, 2016 3:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by hogsy »

http://zpravy.idnes.cz/novinky-19-4-199 ... ovinky_ond
Kanaan game by Argonaut Software that was distributed Ubi Soft was probably canceled. Kanaan was to be a 3D action game with elements of adventure takes place on an alien world, torn by war between the two svářícími parties.
http://www.old-games.ru/wiki/Kanaan
The action takes place in the distant future, where for hundreds of years is a war between humans and a race of anthropomorphic dogs - Kanaan. In order to reverse the outcome of the war in their favor, Kanaan decided to seize peaceful Kamros neutral planet, inhabited by creatures almost identical to people. On Kamrose no troops, there is only a small detachment of Special Forces for emergency situations - Chaos Squad, who is killed in the first battle with the invaders after their invasion. They survived a squad captain Isaiah and one of the men - Gabriel Kane, were seriously injured and left his commander to die. Fortunately, he was rescued and cured Desteni Harper, head of the civilian population Kamrosa organized resistance movement. From it he learns that, it turns out, Captain Isaiah had long known of the impending invasion of Canaan, but not only did nothing to organize the defense, but also engaged them in a conspiracy in exchange for a promise by the alien to allow him to become adviser to the governor after the occupation. Now all hope enslaved planet - by Gabriel and a small detachment of the Resistance, who set a goal - to liberate their homeland or die.
Hard to find much about it, but I managed to track down one of the developers of the game and have made contact with him. I'll let you know if I get anything back.
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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by WERTA BEST »

hogsy, great thanks for attention to this theme!
Now I am contacting with three members of Kanaan's developers team who directly worked with art and programm code, But they can not help me to find demo version. Yesterday I have found some information from one German game magazines.

See in the bottom of page, in red rectangle (unfortunately, resolution is low).
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Is it means that Kanaan (perhaps demo version) was ready to sell?

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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by hogsy »

WERTA BEST wrote:Now I am contacting with three members of Kanaan's developers team who directly worked with art and programm code
Well guess I won't bother then. Good luck.
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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by Hallfiry »

WERTA BEST wrote:See in the bottom of page, in red rectangle (unfortunately, resolution is low).
Image

Is it means that Kanaan (perhaps demo version) was ready to sell?
First of all you should name your source (which is PC Games 10/99). Sadly, I don't have my copy with me, else I could offer a highres scan.
The ad claims the game is English and has a German manual (if I'm reading it correctly).
The full catalog of German entertainment software of 1998 does not list the game, neither does the full catalog of Dynatex for 11-12/1999. My flyers collection doesn't have product info on it either.

A quick google search for
inurl:"https://archive.org/stream/" "kanaan" "inurl:1998"
shows that it is also mentioned in Power Play 11/98 and 10/98 and Level 12/98 #15.
(10/98 has a short news bit on it, 11/98 mentions it in an ad with a long list of games)

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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by PaulF »

Thats the problem when you post stuff you didnt find! A user gave you this scan and may it would be easier to ask him. And he already translated you the text.

Source of the post: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater
Source of the mag: https://archive.org/details/PC.Games.N085.1999.10-fl0n

EDIT:
(PC Games No 85 / 1999

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Level 15 (Dec 1998)

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Power Play (Oct 1998)

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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by WERTA BEST »

Kanaan preview in PC Zone, 1998, November
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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by Hallfiry »

Gambler 28B and 29A feature four screenshots from the game (which aren't new, I guess, but at least they don't have ugly watermarks on them)
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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by WERTA BEST »

Hallfiry, thank you for your screenshots. I saw few another interesting screenshots. Here are screens from EDGE game magazine.

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These screens were published on Unseen64.
Unfortunately I can not find magazine EDGE, Sept, 1998 for download.

Maybe somebody heard why this game was cancelled. I can not understand why this almost 100% complete project has been canned. It's very strange...

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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

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Game preview in Polish magazine Gambler 01-1999
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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by LEOTCK »

Sometimes strange things happen to projects. Sometimes something pisses someone off. I've seen projects go for various reasons, hell even unreal psx was officially cancelled for three different reasons/excuses. Perhaps a switch in a publisher caused it to go down like with Unreal PSX and several other Unreal-related projects. In the case of Nintendo 64 port of Unreal it was the fact that N64DD took too long to complete and was released only in the Japan market...even though a prototype existed that slipped by my fingers.

There could have been a political reason behind this for all you know. Until you talk to them, you can't know.

And some of the less involved developers might believe a different story, like instead of knowing the full details they get told things like "well, you see, this person thought you are running away with it a bit" or "they thought the lighting looked terrible and would not sell well or put their engine to shame".

While some of those concerns might have been voiced during unreal psx developement, to name an example again, none of them were reason for the cancellation or the cause.
(or all of them were, depending how you look at it, but at the end of the day they are more like excuses because it was primarily a beuracratic decision)
my main project, pls read latest news

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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

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Kanaan (Chaos) demonstration on E3 1998, May 1998, Atlanta, USA (short fragment of video, no sound)

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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by WERTA BEST »

Here is 3D model concept for protagonist Gabriel Cane. From French PC Collector CD #16, volume #4.
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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

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Female character concept-art. From French PC Collector CD #16, volume #4.
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She is pretty and she has a blue skin like a main character Gabriel Cane.

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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

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Title about Kanaan from French PC Collector CD #16, volume #4.
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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by WERTA BEST »

Hello everybody!
We are still searching cancelled Kanaan game! Unfortunately, at this moment nothing files has been found.

I have grouped the series of little screenshots from Edge magazine (September, 1998, pages 36-38). It seems, at least three levels had been built for Kanaan in 1998.
1. Desert valley with high rocks
2. Green landscape with wind energy generators
3. Desert plain with road to far city at the horizon.
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The screens for Lev3 are very similar to video shown at E3 1998
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVkhgcSsPvc

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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by hogsy »

Hrm, would you mind sharing the video so that I can archive this on my website?
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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by WERTA BEST »

@hogsy, of course, I agree for share this video.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVkhgcSsPvc

Can you give me the link on your page about Kanaan? It's very interesting. Maybe have you some new rare screenshots or files? I will look it anyway!

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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by hogsy »

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough, I meant the original video and not the YouTube upload.
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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by WERTA BEST »

hogsy, that short video had been captured from another YT video.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugYtWnw ... .be&t=9799
Kanaan demo at time - 02:43:19

Unfortunately, I have not any original of Kanaan video demo. I have information Kanaan's demos was stored somewhere in UBI Soft. Maybe Kanaan demo also stored in the E3 1998 archives. So we need to search...

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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by ShadixAced »

Kanaan is a cancelled first / third person open world shooter that was in development by Argonaut Games in late ‘90, planned to be published in 1998 / 1999 by Ubisoft on PC. While many other lost games from Argonaut were widely known, this one seems to have been forgotten for many years, until in January 2016 Werta Oldgamesru noticed this title and posted about it in our Unseen64 FB Forum. The project was quite an interesting twist on the classic shooter genre, because of its open world environments and anthropomorphic animal enemies. As noticed by Ross Sillifant, a two-pages preview of the game was featured in Edge magazine September 1998 issue, where we can read a lot of details about its gameplay:

“Think dark tunnels, think robot enemies, think bleak future worlds. The stereotype defined by ID’s seminal Doom has been adhered to with a near-religious reverence by developers worldwide. So perhaps, it’s salient that Argonaut, a traditional console game company once strongly linked to Nintendo, should be chipping away at the genre’s mould. Argonaut first person foray is currently dubbed Kanaan, although the search for a name to replace the development tag of “Chaos” has been a protracted wrangle. While the game’s futuristic setting is nothing new, its dog-themed alien enemies are refreshingly different. Guiding lone human Gabriel Cain, the player must stop the invaders from capturing his home planet of Camrose. Cain is one of two surviving members of Camrose’s crack Chaos Squad, the other being the group’s traitorous captain deSoto. As the game progress, new plot elements are introduced, including Cain joining the underground resistance. New weapons, locations and environments will gradually be uncovered as Cain struggles to defeat the alien foe. His eventual target is the alien leader Commander Kray, who must be brought down for Cain’s final victory.

Through the careful use of tessellation techniques, Kanaan has been gifted with vast environments. […] However, the game also contains a large number of structures which can be entered, the action blending smoothly from interior to exterior. Using Kanaan’s powerful 3D engine fully, certain buildings will feature balconies, giving the player the ability to look across an area and attack enemies from a distance.

In order to move swiftly around these incredibly open areas, the player can capture and utilize a variety of vehicles. These includes jeeps, cars, trucks, speedboats, helicopters and bombers, each with their own armoury available at Cain’s disposal. […]

While Kanaan’s standard viewpoint is first person, Argonaut has strong opinions regarding character depiction, and to that end an additional third person camera is selectable. […]

Cain also has access to a sniper weapon (as seen in Goldeneye) so he can pick-off foes from a great distance by zooming in through the weapon’s sights. Traditional first person puzzle elements also emerge, along with console systems which reveal conundrums that block progress.”

A few more memories about Kanaan’s development can be found in websites of people that worked on it. Simon Grell recalls:

“Kanaan was the first game I worked on at Argonaut. I did most of the character and vehicle designs but unfortunately it was canned shortly before it was due to be released”

In an interview with Julian Alden-Salter posted in the GameOn Forum, we can read:

“I spent 5 years at Argonaut working on Hot Ice (unpublished), Alien Odyssey (unpublished), Croc, FX Fighter Turbo and Kanaan but was made redundant when the project I was producing (Kanaan) was canned.”

As the game was almost complete when cancelled and even Edge was able to try a playable demo, we hope that in the future someone could find a video or even a prototype of Kanaan that could be saved.

Thanks to Werta Oldgamesru, Maik Thiele and Ross Sillifant for the contributions! Screenshots saved from AVOC by Fabio Cristi

source : https://www.unseen64.net/tag/ubisoft/
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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by ShadixAced »

1997 - Argonaut didn't say anything about "Kanaan" but here's what they've said :

Due to publisher restrictions we can't tell you too much about our current projects, suffice to say that we are working on:

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A 3D platform game to die for

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An internet game setting new standards in massive multi-player fun

Picture
A tactical-action free-flying world-sim (lots of shooting!)

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A title for one of the premiere film companies in the World on a game based on a major forthcoming release.

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An incredible all action arcade game for the Nintendo 64 which utilises to the full all of its amazing features - more details will be available later in the year.

Check back frequently for essential updates.

source : https://web-beta.archive.org/web/199705 ... ut.com:80/


EDIT : another one ?

"Argonaut transform a pretty average tank shoot 'em up into a frenzied multiplayer frag battle..."
DC-UK Dreamcast Magazine.

???

EDIT : This time, it's real. Argonaut once had this page : http://www.argonaut.com:80/html/kanaan_faq.htm
but it send a 404 when you try it.
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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by WERTA BEST »

Thanks, ShadixAced!
Yes, it’s good idea to find any information about Kanaan in the Web-Archive.
Kanaan was planned to show on E3 1998. Here the UBISoft short games descriptions for E3 1998 (Kanaan has a old name – Chaos)
http://web.archive.org/web/199805240226 ... ation.html

Here the preview about Kanaan with screenshots. Unfortunately, not all the screenshots had been stored in the global archive.
https://web-beta.archive.org/web/199902 ... anaan.html
Last edited by WERTA BEST on Fri Apr 28, 2017 1:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by Hallfiry »

WERTA BEST wrote:Kanaan was planned to show on E3 1998. Here the UBISoft short games descriptions for E3 1998 (Kanaan has a old name – Chaos)
Taking that info, I went and checked the E3 1998 CD of PC Player. Here's what I found:
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Image
Image

The images are probably not cropped in the original cst file. However I've so far been unable to open it.
http://www95.zippyshare.com/v/eoqhWOJk/file.html

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Re: Kanaan – cancelled game (1999)

Post by ShadixAced »

http://web.archive.org/web/199909300440 ... es/kanaan/

Ubisoft's Kanaan site (french). Try by changing the .fr to .com

Ubi USA doesn't have that website archived on archive.org.
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