Canceled Arcade Game Being Released After 27 Years

Published: June 4, 2020 10:49 AM /

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Clockwork Aquario

Strictly Limited Games and ININ Games have announced that the game Clockwork Aquario will be re-released this year after being lost for 27 years. The game will be published on "current gaming platforms" and will be released in physical editions as well as digital.

Development of the title began in 1992, and is noted as the last game to be developed by Westone, which developed classics such as Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap. The game's 2D graphics apparently pushed the Sega System 18 arcade hardware to its absolute limit, and it was cancelled to make way for fighting and 3D games that were "dominating the arcades at the time". 

The game was designed by the co-founder of Westone, Ryuichi Nishizawa. Some parts of the game were unable to be recovered from the source code, so as much of the original Westone team was involved as possible in order to try and ensure that the release would remain true to its early 90's origins. These people include individuals such as the chief programmer, Takanori Kurihara, to the "musical genius" Shinichi Sakamoto, and the aforementioned Ryuichi Nishizawa:

"Clockwork Aquario is a great piece of 2D art, into which the pixel artists put their hearts and souls," Ryuichi Nishizawa said. "I would like to express my heartfelt respect and gratitude to those who have worked so hard to restore it."

The company that is trying to preserve the Clockwork Aquario is Strictly Limited games, whose mission is to "unearth unreleased games that are an essential part of the cultural video game heritage."

Clockwork Aquario will be re-released this year on "current gaming platforms". For more information, stay tuned to TechRaptor.

What do you think of this re-release? Are you interested in playing this game? Have you ever played the Wonder Boy series? Let us know in the comments!

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| Staff Writer

Patrick is a former Staff Writer for TechRaptor and has been gaming on every console he could get since he could hold a controller. He’s been writing for… More about Patrick