darkSpyro

I was on Unseen 64 when I saw this article:

Quote:

In 2001 during development of Croc 3: Stone Of The Gobbos, Argonaut Games developed a tech demo for an unnamed Spyro The Dragon game. The game was not intended to be released, however it was playable and had a homeworld. The game prototype was done to expand on the engine both Croc 3 and Malice used. It was a tech demo developed for Playstation 2. Nothing else is known.

Croc 3 itself was never released either..

Was this demo something different from the planned-but-scrapped Agent 9 game, Prime 8?

Prime 8 was first thought of around 2003 to 2004, and it wasn't a tech demo, so yes. This sounds like a proper Spyro installment.

Apparently, Stone of the Gobbos was nearly leaked (although by the sounds of it, it wouldn't have been very playable).

I guess maybe we can hope they'll release this someday too.

Quote: RadSpyro

Apparently, Stone of the Gobbos was nearly leaked (although by the sounds of it, it wouldn't have been very playable).

I guess maybe we can hope they'll release this someday too.

Yea, it almost leaked before Zenimax Media, the current Croc IP holders, filed multiple cease and decist orders, which caused www.crocforums.com to shutdown. You see, when Argonaunt Studios shut down, their IPs went up for auction. Croc and Malice were bought by Zenimax with the intention of revival, however, Malice 2 never entered concept phase, and Croc 3 was cancelled after the developer, Mud Duck Games, was showing very little progress and Zenimax did not want to keep funding the development, so the entire franchise was Shelved.

And yes, the spyro tech demo was real. The founder of Argonaunt confirmed the existence long ago, but it was only a test for the Croc 3 engine. It was never intended for retail.