Well, I guess it's about time that I started a topic about this. I've spent a lot of time researching the development of 'Deathtrap Dungeon', but even after scouring through any magazine, previews and demos I could find the information is limited to say the least. It was far from being a success like Tomb Raider but has always remained among my favorite PlayStation games. The first previews were shown in 1996, (it's intended year of release) and there was a playable build at E3 in 1997. Over the four or so years that it was being developed, there were many differences such as more weapons/spells, different character/enemy designs, stages, game-play elements, sounds and other things like textures (Going by screenshots and videos). By the time it was released in 1998, the game was criticized for it's outdated graphics, poor controls and mediocrity. As such, Deathtrap Dungeon failed and was ignored. The slightly updated PC version could do nothing to save it from it's demise. In my opinion however, the game was quite underrated. I'd pay very good money for any pre-release versions of this game yet not even a review build has shown itself. Maybe someone here knows more? ray: Here are some screens from the Beta version: - A noticeably different HUD showing 10 weapons in the beta where the final only has 8, Also the Players Health, Ammo/Spell count was represented by numbers in the upper left corner - Taken from a 'PlayStation Plus' Video Preview. - Different armor textures for the female character, later changed to fit the rating. Better than the final IMO. - An interesting game-play element which was removed from the final game, suggesting that more features were originally planned. This was probably due to the delays the development suffered from.
I used to read that book over and over, It's probably the reason why I found the game to be enjoyable. Still can't finish the book without cheating though. Some more information, The original release date for the game was 03/01/96 published by Spectrum Holobyte later changed to October 1997. My guess is that Eidos relied on the success of Tomb Raider too much and it flopped, kind of like the hype surrounding Duke Nukem Forever.
More info I've dug up... A bit from ECTS 1996 and 1997 taken From SynTax Adventure Magazine (Issues 45 & 51): ECTS 1996... 'Eidos Interactive (an amalgamation of US Gold, Domark and a few others all rolled into one) were failing to convince anyone that "Deathtrap Dungeon" is anything other than a dodgy looking beat 'em up in a quick but creaky looking 3D engine. How much 'adventure' is in this game remains to be seen, but the 3D engine was falling apart quite often when I saw it running on their monitors.' ECTS 1997... 'The only reason why Eidos is still a going concern is solely down to the success of Core's original "Tomb Raider".... Also no surprise to see that "Deathtrap Dungeon" has had a major overhaul since the shaky version they were showing last year, and that one of the main characters has had a sex change from a Conan style man to an Amazonian style woman!' --- Pre-release character designs... The female character which replaced the original second male character (mentioned above) in it's early stages, wielding two swords. An early design of a Zombie, with completely different textures to the final. It also wields a battle-axe instead of a sword in the final. An early design of an Orc, green in the final with a different model and textures. A different looking Dragon, which is red in the final and has yellow talons.
Miscellaneous screenshots from the beta showing levels/designs not seen in the final version: These two images are very likely from the Alpha version of Deathtrap Dungeon, showing an early look at the male character later replaced by the female character. The enemies in this shot also don't appear in the game and the room appears to be just a demonstration for the engine. This third image shows the early design of the female character, very different textures, different enemies? and an early unknown level. Credit goes to Derboo for these images. Here is a link back to the original article on U64 - http://www.unseen64.net/2010/03/22/deathtrap-dungeon-psx-pc-beta/
Here in spain it got a lot of hype but later, when it was released, got bad critics I really hate the control scheme and some elements of the gameplay, but graphics rocks
It was delayed by two years and failed despite the hype. The PC version had a better re-definable control scheme, But yeah I always liked the graphics, they fit in very well with the games atmosphere.
