By Ben Mapp.
Red Dwarf is a British sitcom set in space produced by the BBC, and features Craig Charles as Dave Lister, the last surviving human, who sets out to return to Earth after a prolonged sleep in cryo-stasis. The show also starred Chris Barrie as a hologram of Lister’s dead bunk-mate, a servant ‘mechanoid’ called Kryten played by Robert Llewellyn, and a rebellious life-form that evolved from Lister’s cat played by Danny John-Jules. The show originally ran from 1988 to 1999 before being discontinued in favour of a live-action film (which never transpired). The franchise eventually returned to British television on Dave in 2012 with a new series, entitled Red Dwarf X (the tenth series if we are to count the 2009 three-part-story ‘Back to Earth’ as Series IX).
Red Dwarf is a British sitcom set in space produced by the BBC, and features Craig Charles as Dave Lister, the last surviving human, who sets out to return to Earth after a prolonged sleep in cryo-stasis. The show also starred Chris Barrie as a hologram of Lister’s dead bunk-mate, a servant ‘mechanoid’ called Kryten played by Robert Llewellyn, and a rebellious life-form that evolved from Lister’s cat played by Danny John-Jules. The show originally ran from 1988 to 1999 before being discontinued in favour of a live-action film (which never transpired). The franchise eventually returned to British television on Dave in 2012 with a new series, entitled Red Dwarf X (the tenth series if we are to count the 2009 three-part-story ‘Back to Earth’ as Series IX).
Fans of Red Dwarf will recognise that there was a lengthy period between the end of Series VIII, after a particularly frustrating cliff-hanger ending, and the promise of a solid continuation and any future installments of the franchise.
When the concept for a motion picture fell through, the franchise entered a long period of dormancy. The main cast and crew moved on, and Red Dwarf was, for all intents and purposes, over.
Now then, with the relevant history well out of the way, allow me to introduce you to David Banner. He’s an artist and video games designer who has been involved in the gaming industry since 1995, and has twelve published games (including Conflict: Desert Storm II, Conflict: Vietnam and The Great Escape) under his belt.
His role on most of these games was as an environmental artist, although he served as Creative Director on the UK and Ireland editions of the PC exclusive adventure game Paradise (released in 2006). His works vary across most of the major platforms such as the original PlayStation, the Sega Saturn, the Sega Dreamcast, the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox. His latest work – Conflict: Denied Ops – was released in 2008 for both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.
Upon investigation of Banner’s online portfolio I discovered that he had worked on an unannounced prototype for a video game based on the Red Dwarf franchise.
When the concept for a motion picture fell through, the franchise entered a long period of dormancy. The main cast and crew moved on, and Red Dwarf was, for all intents and purposes, over.
Now then, with the relevant history well out of the way, allow me to introduce you to David Banner. He’s an artist and video games designer who has been involved in the gaming industry since 1995, and has twelve published games (including Conflict: Desert Storm II, Conflict: Vietnam and The Great Escape) under his belt.
His role on most of these games was as an environmental artist, although he served as Creative Director on the UK and Ireland editions of the PC exclusive adventure game Paradise (released in 2006). His works vary across most of the major platforms such as the original PlayStation, the Sega Saturn, the Sega Dreamcast, the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox. His latest work – Conflict: Denied Ops – was released in 2008 for both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.
Upon investigation of Banner’s online portfolio I discovered that he had worked on an unannounced prototype for a video game based on the Red Dwarf franchise.
From the gameplay demo available on Banner’s portfolio we can see that the game would have included major characters from the series, as well as the beloved Scutters. The demo includes Lister walking down a corridor and then into the hangar bay of the titular ship, where Starbug and the rest of the crew awaits him. It also includes a flexible camera angle, and gameplay of flying Starbug around Red Dwarf in the middle of deep space. Banner also provides three screenshots from the game in the ‘Scenery 2’ section of his portfolio.
I did send an email to him as I wanted further input than what he reveals in his portfolio, possibly even a hint as to where the game’s story would have taken place should it have been green-lit, but did not receive any response. The demo itself appears to be quite old, utilising either the Dreamcast’s or the PlayStation 2’s graphical capabilities, placing its production not long after the discontinuation of the television series. It is not known which company Banner worked with in conjunction with to produce such a prototype, but the demo would have been presented to someone in order for it to have been green-lit and then pushed into full production. It appears however that they opted to decline.
I did send an email to him as I wanted further input than what he reveals in his portfolio, possibly even a hint as to where the game’s story would have taken place should it have been green-lit, but did not receive any response. The demo itself appears to be quite old, utilising either the Dreamcast’s or the PlayStation 2’s graphical capabilities, placing its production not long after the discontinuation of the television series. It is not known which company Banner worked with in conjunction with to produce such a prototype, but the demo would have been presented to someone in order for it to have been green-lit and then pushed into full production. It appears however that they opted to decline.
We know from Banner’s available softology that he has worked with a range of British gaming companies including Eidos, Genuine Games, Virgin Interactive, Broadsword Interactive, Pivotal Games on software over the years (including those games mentioned above) although, again, it is unclear whether or not any of these were involved in the production of the Red Dwarf game.
It’s entirely possible that the game was being prototyped in response to the Red Dwarf feature film, to potentially be released alongside it as a cash-in. It’s also possible that the game was made as a result of the film’s failure to take off, meaning that it had been intended to continue the story of the TV show or, as with many video game adaptations, the project could have been entirely standalone. It’s certainly a very interesting insight into the more unknown period of the franchise’s life, especially if the video game was meant to pick up where the series left off (although we may never know for certain).
With thanks to NeoGAF’s Mama Robotnik for assisting with this find. This article was originally published exclusively on Media Blasphemy.com on 21st October 2013.
It’s entirely possible that the game was being prototyped in response to the Red Dwarf feature film, to potentially be released alongside it as a cash-in. It’s also possible that the game was made as a result of the film’s failure to take off, meaning that it had been intended to continue the story of the TV show or, as with many video game adaptations, the project could have been entirely standalone. It’s certainly a very interesting insight into the more unknown period of the franchise’s life, especially if the video game was meant to pick up where the series left off (although we may never know for certain).
With thanks to NeoGAF’s Mama Robotnik for assisting with this find. This article was originally published exclusively on Media Blasphemy.com on 21st October 2013.
RSS Feed
