Just some stuff from my past...

[Scream And Fly]

Back in 1999, I worked for Acclaim Entertainment in Glen Cove, NY developing games for the PC, Nintendo 64, Sony PlayStation, and Sega Dreamcast. That was a great job and I have a lot of great memories from that time. One of those memories involves one of the last games the company released, which was ECW Hardcore Revolution - a wrestling game. The ECW was marketed as a more brutal type of act compared to the WWE and they pushed to cater to a more hard-edged audience.

I was never really into professional wrestling, but this was a unique experience, probably partly because at that time Acclaim was mired in financial difficulties and all sorts of shenanigans of questionable legality. And so the push to get the ECW game released was high, and further aggravated by the fact that it missed a Christmas release.

To develop the game we had all of the wrestlers come in and their moves were modeled on computers, which would then be incorporated into their characters in the game. When that was all finished, and the game was about to be released, the ECW wanted to thank us in a unique way - by having a wrestling match right in our gymnasium at Acclaim! I'll admit, I didn't care much at all for the type of WWF/WWE televised wrestling, but this show they put on was just hysterical and awesome at the same time. They set up a ring, they brought their official announcers, and there were these wrestlers in full costume, doing their moves right in front of us. There was no seating, so we were all just standing around the ring. It was just so much fun, and it was impossible not to get into the moment. I suddenly realized why so many people enjoyed this kind of thing.

So the game was finished. I worked on the Dreamcast version and I learned to dislike that system a lot. Its controllers were constantly breaking, and the development units we were sent would always overheat. I can recall numerous times seeing those GD-ROM discs being flung around the place like frisbees. The Dreamcast would be released on September 9, 1999 and would ultimately be a failure in the market.

Back to the ECW game.. Right before release, the artwork for the package and promotional ads was being completed. Acclaim wanted to make a very big impression with this, and so the boundaries of sensible advertising and promotion would need to be pushed - a lot. And so, the images that we originally used were pretty interested when compared to the stuff the WWE was using. And they immediately became banned from magazines and retail stores. The images that would ultimately be used would be much more tame. I was going through old files and came across our original ad images - the banned ones. So I thought I would share. Naturally, what is depicted in the photos is acting, though it's a bit shocking nonetheless.

[CDave]

That's a very cool story. Thanks for telling it.

[Scream And Fly]

That's a very cool story. Thanks for telling it.

I really enjoyed my time there, but I knew I would not want to be there long-term. While I was there I began work on what would be the very first version of the S&F site. I probably worked on a number of games that people here played. The very last games I worked on there were Jeremy McGrath Supercross 2000 (N64), Armorines (N64 - I was actually on that project a long time), and South Park Rally (PC). I probably played through those games literally hundreds of times in the process. If anybody has those games, load them up and wait for the credit screens - you'll see my name in there. LOL!

[donmac]

well let's see the pics! we need to see the Female Feature! don't get yourself banned

[Merc 2.5]

I would had never thought in million yrs the creator or s&f was developing video games ! I no when I was kid all I wanted to do was work makin/playin games for a livin. Of course when I started driving the gaming slowed down to none , but what a great story Greg. Thanks for sharing. And yes I've played most all those games at 1 time or another. The jermery McGrath for sure!!