Widescreen Gaming Forum

Prey is old. No, seriously, Prey is really old. No, you're not listening. Prey was in development for almost as long as Duke Nukem Forever. That's how old it is. As a little blast from the past, check out this video interview from 1998 with Prey developer Paul Shuytema. This video shows off some of the original concepts for the portals and more than a few weapons that didn't make the cut -- some of them looked pretty nice, too. And of course, you get to see the jaw dropping graphics that only a Voodoo 2 could muster (in truth pretty amazing for 1998). We're rocking 266 megahertz, boyeee!

Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7844987544204140976


Source: xbox360fanboy.com

Yup. Got an old PC Gamer ranting on about how fantastic Prey is and how it is 'out in time for Christmas'. Well, yeah, it was. But... seven years late?! :shock:

:lol:

Will this also happen with STALKER, us looking at "ancient" graphics in 2012 or something. :lol:

Wow, I was actually very shocked at how good the graphics were, especially the spinning portal! And that was running on a 286?! That game would have been a best seller is theyd have released it back then. Now it's just another FPS.

And that was running on a 286?!

Nah, if it was on a 286 it would be really insane graphics. The text says 266mhz which is a PII(Pentium II) and it is quite a difference between those two. PII was introduced in 1997 iirc. The 80286 came out way back in the 80's.

Cool stuff. It must have been frustrating for Paul and whomever else was involved with the game to have been set back for so many years. Does anyone know the history of this game? Paul mentions in the interview (and btw is it just me or does that guy remind me of a pirate?) that the engine/levels were basically done, so what prevented it from coming out at the time?

I agree with jsynott - had it come out at the time, it probably would have been a standout. Right now it seems to be at par with many of the other Doom 3 engine games. Perhaps this was another case where direct download would have helped? Of course it wasn't practical at the time, but if publishing issues were at the core of its delay, then some sort of Steam like content delivery system may have been able to help them bypass some of those hurdles.

Does anyone know the history of this game?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prey_%28video_game%29

Scroll down to "3. The History of Prey" in this link:
http://www.3drealms.com/faq/preyfaq12_old.txt

Thx Bongo. 8)

Hmm...very interesting indeed.

However, despite the best of starts, Prey’s development was troubled. Seemingly insurmountable technical problems ground development to a near-halt, and eventually, the game was put on indefinite hold in 1999 (although never formally cancelled, contrary to popular opinion). Later, on an internet discussion board head engineer William Scarboro would comment that "In hindsight, portal tricks such as these should be used as tricks, not as an engine paradigm."[2]

Somewhat enigmatic, but if I had to guess I would say that Prey got too big for its britches. Perhaps they invested to heavily in eye candy or gimmicks whose wow factor ended after about five minutes without putting enough solid gameplay in place.

The Portal stuff (demoed by Paul in the video) may not have had any real practical application with regards to gameplay, which is an assumption that stands at odds with his claim in the video interview, where he hints at the fact that "creative players can start to see the potential for a multitude of uses" (paraphrase) for this technology.

do realize we are talking about 1997. This was probably right before Half-Life was launched, while nothing sounds remarkable now. Considering that Unreal and Quake II were kings might put it into respective

I'm still not even sure if I'll pick this one up - perhaps wait for a price drop? It really looks like Doom 3, I mean seriously, even for a D3 Engine-based game. Perhaps it is the gameplay that truly makes it stand out?