34 replies to this topic

[Roadkill]

A friend of mine from high school went to work for Virgin Interactive soon after graduating. I saw him several years later and asked what he had been up to. He passed me a copy of "Thrill Kill" and told me to go blow my mind. At the time it was pretty edgy and controversial. A dominatrix who pleasures herself between matches? A midget on stilts wearing a thong? A cannibal named Cleetus who uses a severed human leg as a weapon and takes bites out of it? This was long before Grand Theft Auto but slightly around the time of Doom 2. I'm not sure if the world is ready for the game yet, but I still have my original. "Pirated", "Bootlegged", whatever, I received my copy from a developer a few months before EA bought out Virgin Interactive and axed the project before it saw the light of day. Several gaming magazines previewed the game and had very positive things to say about it... But anyways, does this qualify as a prototype game? Not sure.

Thanks in advance.

[Buyatari]

That game has been bootlegged to death.

Unless you have a build not yet discovered its not worth anything. Is it on a generic CDR or it is on a company disc. If you have it on a company disc it would be worth something too.

[Roadkill]

Company disk, but the case was generic. Yea, it has been bootlegged to death.

Probably worth a 2600 E.T. cartridge with a crappy label.

[Buyatari]

If you have a "real" prototype meaning it was burned on a company branded CDR its worth something and there is a chance you have a build no one has.

I think 4 different builds have been discovered so far. If you have a 5th and its on a company disk then I'm sure you can find a buyer for at least a couple hundred bucks

[Roadkill]

Schweeeet. I have moved several times since I first received it, but I did copy it and I have kept several copies around. I have a lot of stuff in storage and I think the original is packed in a box with some CDs I began to rarely use. I also had 5 complete Atari 2600s boxed up but I can't find those. LOTS has happened since then; 2 wives, 1 son, 4 houses, 2 cities, and lots of my old stuff is missing... A few hundred bucks would be greatly appreciated about now. Gotta get my son something special for Xmas. He's 8 years old and wants to create video games .

Thanks for the info!

[Buyatari]

 Roadkill, on Fri Sep 28, 2007 1:12 AM, said:

Schweeeet. I have moved several times since I first received it, but I did copy it and I have kept several copies around. I have a lot of stuff in storage and I think the original is packed in a box with some CDs I began to rarely use. I also had 5 complete Atari 2600s boxed up but I can't find those. LOTS has happened since then; 2 wives, 1 son, 4 houses, 2 cities, and lots of my old stuff is missing... A few hundred bucks would be greatly appreciated about now. Gotta get my son something special for Xmas. He's 8 years old and wants to create video games .

Thanks for the info!

Don't get too excited just yet I really doubt you meet both criteria.

Did you compare the data against those 4 builds which have been found?

Do you have a picture of the disc? You are 100% sure its not on a generic CDR? Its on a company disc?

[madhatter667]

I think there are:
Beta censored
Complete censored
Beta uncensored
Complete uncensored

Do correct me if I am mistaken. I have read a little about Thrill Kill, and the various builds. There used to be a webforum dedicated to it. I haven't been on there in a long, looooong time though. I distinctly remember reading that there were 2 versions to be eventually released. One would bear the M rating, and the other would have borne the AO rating (which is something you don't see often. Nothing I have ever seen at a retailer for that matter).

The way you tell the uncensored version is Belladonna starts moaning between rounds I think, and I think some of the kills are different. The Beta is missing a few things, I just can't remember what. I have the beta, and one of the full versions. Generc CDR though.... so nothing special... I just wanted to play the game. Pretty fun for what it is and when it was slated to come out.

[NESaholic]

Would love to see a pic of it, i have a full version copy but that's it. The real deal would be worth quite some cash as stated before.

[Klove]

Virgin actually DID have both fronnt and back jewel case covers made for the title. I know, as I was working there at the time. I have probably one of the very few remaining covers ever made for the game. Even the product' bar code is on the back cover as well. The way I see / saw it, it was one of Virgin's last big ditch efforts to stay alive ("with a hit") before finally selling off it's only worthwile asset.. (Westwood Studios) at that time.

After Virgin closed down, they silly-like changed their name to Irvine Games, mainly while they were in the process of closing down. Irvine being the city we were located in. My guess is... by that time.. VIRGIN (the company in whole), really had no associattion with the games group anymore. Remember, by the time Virgin had closed down.. the were pretty owned by Blockbuster / Spelling.

When BB and Spelling got involved, that pretty much was the beginning of the fall. On-top of that, we were starting to pick up alot of no-talent Philips CDI people who knew absolutely nothing about games.

Virgin never used pre-printed CD's for in-house testing purposes. "Just the plain Gold or Silver CD bulk CD's that just about anyone could buy."

For awhile though, we did use Kodak pre-printed / labelle CD's, but eventually we just used whatver was half-way decent and didn't cost alot. That said.. my real TK CD was just dumped onto a normal looking blank CD.

:-/

"How the mighty fell." :-(

- Ken

[NESaholic]

Nice man, i think i saw scans of the cover, cool that you have the original. Piece of gaming history there.

[Buyatari]

Here is the one I have.

[CPUWIZ]

 Buyatari, on Thu Oct 23, 2008 10:17 AM, said:

Here is the one I have.

That looks like someone took a blank Activision disc and burned the ISO onto it.

[Buyatari]

 CPUWIZ, on Fri Oct 24, 2008 12:44 AM, said:

 Buyatari, on Thu Oct 23, 2008 10:17 AM, said:

Here is the one I have.

That looks like someone took a blank Activision disc and burned the ISO onto it.

I'm pretty sure all the Activision discs were black at some point before games were burned on to them.

lol

[CPUWIZ]

 Buyatari, on Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:38 PM, said:

I'm pretty sure all the Activision discs were black at some point before games were burned on to them.

lol

Looks pretty silver to me.

[NESaholic]

Adam if i may ask, were did you obtain this copy?

[Buyatari]

 NESaholic, on Fri Oct 24, 2008 9:08 AM, said:

Adam if i may ask, were did you obtain this copy?

Got it from an employee at Activision.

[NESaholic]

Ok, you tink it's the real deal or indeed a copied game.
It look like it's ripped but then again a proto also, you know by any chance? Just trying to know/learn more about this game.

[EmOneGarand]

you know this game was released.. but as that awful Wu Tang Clan game with all the characters changed into rappers.

[liveinabin]

Thrill Kill was a superb game. I must dig that out again. So funny.

[NESaholic]

@ EmOneGarand: I know they used the same engine for it although change alot also.

[Klove]

Ya' know... that game actually started out as an Aztec Basketball game entitled Earth Monster.

heheh "Great name, eh?"

- K

[tremoloman2006]

Correct me if I'm wrong (and I know you will), but I thought TK owned by EA/Virgin Interactive. I don't remember Activision having anything to do with TK but I'm probably wrong.

[Buyatari]

 tremoloman2006, on Wed Oct 29, 2008 1:39 AM, said:

Correct me if I'm wrong (and I know you will), but I thought TK owned by EA/Virgin Interactive. I don't remember Activision having anything to do with TK but I'm probably wrong.

They could have been looking at picking up the title. Often companies shopped out their canceled games to other companies looking for any and all takers. With millions invested who wouldn't try to find a buyer for whatever they could get?

[Klove]

Yeah, that's an odd one for sure. I remeber having quite a few of those blank Activision CDs. My guess would be either..

A) The developer (Paraddox) sent Activision a copy of the game as so they could see ("or evaluate") the engine' performance. That may have happened somewhere around the time they were in negotiations for that Wu Tang fighting game. If that's the case, then all Paradox would've done was probably some minor re-skinning or mods to the original TK characters, worlds, etc. BAM! You have a new game.

B) Maybe I let some copy my disk or something?

Hard to remember though. Those CLEAR Activision labelled disks came out only 3-4 Years ago. Before that, we were using white labelled one's.

- K

[MikeMika]

The answer to the mystery is right there under our noses! Actually, Ken is right.

This is legit - It's a copy of Thrill Kill used to demonstrate the engine to Activision for use in the Wu Tang Clan game. This and other copies were circulated at Activision to help make the decision to go with the developer.

I was working on a project for Activision at the time and our Producer told us about Thrill Kill and raved about the game. A little while earlier, I was working for NextGen magazine and got a copy of Thrill Kill with a Press Kit and an embroidered hat (Still have 'em!) for the game. When I heard Activision was looking at it, I was pretty glad to see the game was potentially finding a home. Then I found out that Activision was going to use the fighting engine for Wu Tang. Oh well, good for the dev. At one point, this engine was also being considered for a Kill Bill game.

Edited by MikeMika, Fri Nov 7, 2008 10:35 PM.