Thea Realm Fighters

Thea Realm Fighters (TRF)[1][2] is an unreleased fighting game that was in development by High Voltage Software and planned to be published by Atari Corporation on a scheduled October 1995 release date exclusively for both the Atari Jaguar and the Atari Jaguar CD add-on.[3][4][5]

Thea Realm Fighters
Promotional E3 1995 flyer
Developer(s)High Voltage Software
Publisher(s)Atari Corporation
Platform(s)Atari Jaguar
Atari Jaguar CD
ReleaseUnreleased
Genre(s)Fighting
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

The player takes the role from any of the playable characters to defeat other characters before SurRaider, a powerful warrior from another dimension, attempts to conquer Earth and add it to their vast empire.[6] Originally announced in January 1995,[7] Thea Realm Fighters was one of the many fighting games developed in response to Mortal Kombat and the series' popularity during the 1990s, featuring digitized graphics and characters, with some of them portrayed by known martial artists from the Mortal Kombat series and even the plot bears striking resemblance to Mortal Kombat II.

After several delays and expenses, Atari Corporation cancelled the game in January 1996, a decision that was seen by the video game press as an indication that the company was preparing to drop support of the Jaguar, particularly as one of the other games, Black ICE\White Noise, was also cancelled at the same time.[8] The game was close to completion before it was cancelled, according to one of the game's programmers.[9] Although never released, various playable prototypes of the game have been showcased at multiple Jaguar-dedicated festivals such as the JagFest 2K1.[10] In 2016 and 2017, several ROMs were leaked online by video game collector Nicolas Persjin.[11][12][13]

Gameplay
Gameplay screenshot from one of the released beta builds.

Thea Realm Fighters is a two-dimensional fighting game with digitized characters and graphics, featuring more than twenty-five playable characters, each one with four special moves and two finisher moves, four different gameplay modes with over 30 stages.[7][14][15] In the single-player mode, the player has to defeat twelve CPU-controlled opponents and after doing so the player was going to face SurRaider, a powerful warrior from another dimension.[6]

The game was going to feature over 25 fighters to play against, including twelve starting fighters, 12 special fighters, various hidden sub-bosses, the final boss and five hidden fighters. Characters known from the available screenshots online and press coverage include:[6][3][16][17][18][11][19][20]

Development

The game was unveiled during the January WCES 1995, where the game was reported to be unpolished and too early to judge, with spectacular backgrounds and lackluster character animation. Only four characters were available at that time, with only one featuring special moves.[21][5] The game was also known internally as SurRaider's Galactic Challenge.[1][2] It was also playable at E3 1995, with several more characters and stages available.[22][23][24] In a Slashdot post, a former programmer of the project stated that the game was 90% close to completion,[9] before Atari Corporation cancelled it alongside other upcoming Jaguar projects in 1996.[8]

At least four martial artists were known to be involved in the development of the game.[7] There were also other 20 martial artists involved in the game as well.[5] Some of them are:[25][26]

References
  1. W. Harding, Craig (September 6, 1996). "THEA REALM FIGHTERS (SUR RAIDER'S GALACTIC CHALLENGE) A.K.A. TRF - Trademark Details". justia.com. Archived from the original on 2018-06-18. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  2. W. Harding, Craig (September 6, 1996). "THEA REALM FIGHTERS (SUR RAIDER'S GALACTIC CHALLENGE) A.K.A. TRF Trademark Information". trademarkia.com. Archived from the original on 2018-06-18. Retrieved 2018-06-18.
  3. D. George, Gregory (May 9, 2001). "Lost Games: Thea Realm Fighters - We've unearthed another lost Jag title". ataritimes.com. Archived from the original on 2018-06-15. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  4. Gore, Chris (August 1995). "The Gorescore - Industry News You Can - Upcoming Jaguar Software Titles". VideoGames - The Ultimate Gaming Magazine. No. 79. L.F.P., Inc. p. 14.
  5. "ProNews: CES ProNews Flashes! - Atari Update". GamePro. No. 68. IDG. March 1995. p. 156.
  6. "Press Releases - ATARI PRESENTS NEW SOFTWARE TITLES AT "FUN 'N' GAMES" MEDIA DAY". atarihq.com. July 20, 1995. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  7. "Coming Attractions for Atari Jaguar". TheFreeLibrary.com. Business Wire. January 6, 1995. Archived from the original on 2018-06-15. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  8. "ProNews: Atari Axes New Games". GamePro. No. 79. IDG. February 1996. p. 17.
  9. Reutter, Hans (January 12, 2001). "Unreleased Or Unfinished Jaguar Games - Thea Realm Fighters". cyberroach.com. Archived from the original on 2018-04-07. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  10. Thompson, Clint. "JagCube's Jagfest2k1 Report". jagcube.atari.org. Archived from the original on 2018-04-02. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  11. Persjin, Nicholas (November 14, 2016). "Thea Realm Fighters early demo pre-alpha". AtariAge. Archived from the original on 2018-03-31. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  12. Persjin, Nicholas (November 21, 2016). "HVSCMAZE". AtariAge. Archived from the original on 2018-04-02. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  13. Persjin, Nicholas (January 8, 2017). "Thea Realm Fighters Alpha Version". AtariAge. Archived from the original on 2018-04-02. Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  14. Norwood, Jeffrey (February 1994). "Jaguar Gaming Journal Archive - February/March 1994". justclaws.atari.org. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2018-06-15.
  15. "Reportaje - Jaguar ya ruge en España -- Asómate al futuro". Hobby Hi-Tech (in Spanish). No. 3. Axel Springer SE. May 1995. p. 27.
  16. "The Jaguar: A Hungry Cat Looking for Food - Thea Realm Fighters". GamePro. No. Premiere Supplement. IDG. Spring 1996. pp. 116–124.
  17. Data, Jason. "Thea Realm Fighters- Prototype by High Voltage Software". megadata.sitesled.com. Archived from the original on 3 July 2008. Retrieved 2018-06-15.
  18. Leone, Matt (July 12, 2012). "Mortal Kombat's Johnny Cage, 20 years later". Polygon. Archived from the original on 7 October 2017. Retrieved 2018-06-15.
  19. Schaedle, Wolfgang (September 1995). "Profil - Atari News". Video Games. No. 46. Future-Verlag. pp. 44–45. Archived from the original on 2018-07-10. Retrieved 2018-07-09.
  20. "Atari Explodes With Fun N' Games". VideoGames - The Ultimate Gaming Magazine. No. 80. L.F.P., Inc. September 1995. pp. 56–57.
  21. "Atari Explorer Online - Jaguar Edition #3". atarihq.com. May 20, 1995. Retrieved 2018-06-15.
  22. Hans Reutter (July 11, 2020). Atari Jaguar @ E3 1995 - Atari Explorer Online (1h 14min 37sec). YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-15. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  23. Anthony Parisi (January 29, 2017). E3 1995 (2hr 47min 40sec). YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-15.
  24. "Primera Línea - ¡Preparados para la invasión Jaguar! -- Atari nos adelantó su futuro en la feria de Los Ángeles". Hobby Hi-Tech (in Spanish). No. 4. Axel Springer SE. June 1995. p. 20.
  25. Quartermann (May 1995). "Gaming Gossip". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 70. Sendai Publishing. p. 54.
  26. "Atari Jaguar Lost Games - Thea Realm Fighters". thejagzone.com. Archived from the original on 2018-07-09. Retrieved 2018-07-08.
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