2001 Titus Interactive
Platform: Nintendo Game Boy Advance
Prehistorik Kart is a new entry into the GTW archives that should have a compilation bonus title to go along with the Nintendo Game Boy Advance release of Prehistorik Man – a 1995 Titus title that was released originally on the Super Nintendo.
When the Game Boy Advance update was planned, it was clear that Titus felt that there needed to be something a little extra included, and the plan was for a spin-off Mario Kart clone based on the franchise.
Development started around 2001, with code by Raphaël Groutchezky, art by Michel Savariradjalou and Vincent Jean (Characters + 3D graphics) and some more placeholder art also by Raphaël himself.
Around the time though, Titus were starting to hit financial troubles, so had to make some cuts from their schedule. They decided to stop work on the bonus game, and just release a standalone update of the SNES title, which would see release by the end of 2001.
At this point, the team had only got to a very early stage of rendering some tracks and controllable characters. The AI for the computer drivers had not yet been fully implemented, and collisions and pick ups also hadn’t been started.
Overall, just a few map designs and basic menus had been generated to create a playable prototype. We say “playable” in the loosest sense though, as there wasn’t really much to do apart from select a character, tweak track settings and drive around the track. There was no concept of laps or times or interactions with other characters just yet.
What is believed to be the final build has been thankfully dug out by an ex-employee from Titus (who wishes to remain anonymous) and we are pleased to present it here so you can check out for yourselves. You can select characters from a simple test menu at the start, and track (which seem to just be variations of the one single test track).
Although there isn’t much to do, it is another piece of gaming history preserved. Could it have been up there with the best of Mario Kart clones? We will never know sadly.
With thanks to our anonymous contributor for the kind contribution to the archive.
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