Microsoft A.I. Puzzler - Lost PC Puzzle Movie-based game
Jun 30, 2022 3:42:50 GMT
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Post by wadmodderpudu on Jun 30, 2022 3:42:50 GMT
We all know about Steven Speilburg's 2001 film A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and it's Alternate Reality game The Beast launched in March of that year and ended with the release of the film on June 29th. It was one of the few media that would've been followed up by three games based on the film, one being A.I. The Circuit for the Xbox which was a fighting game, as well as A.I. Guardian and A.I. Chaser. Ultimately, due to the modest success of the film at the box office, none of these three Xbox-exclusive games based on A.I. got released and were cancelled.
However, there was at least one PC-exclusive game planned to be published by Microsoft to be released in either 2000 or 2001, that game was called Microsoft A.I. Puzzler. It was a game being developed by Alexey Pajitnov of Tetris fame, and who previously worked on Microsoft Entertainment Pack: The Puzzle Collection. The game itself is commonly mentioned on many wiki and dictionary pages of Alexy Pajitnov and on many lists of Microsoft Game Studios published games, but there is very little information about this game online and the game itself remains a mystery, with only sources being a GameFAQs page and forum post, a GameZone article, a GamesFirst article, a GameSurge article, a Spanish article from Taringa, an old archived Microsoft news post, an old Warner Bros news post, a page from probably a developer who worked on the game, a Worthplaying page, a Russian article from Igromania, article from Igromania, an IGN article, a Hungarian article from Origo, a Hungarian article from PlayDome, a Spanish article from Meristation, a Russian article on Omar, a Russian page on Irgograd, a Polish article from Gry-Online, an article from The Guardian, a Dictionary page on SensAgent, a PDF document from Jane McGonigal who also probably worked on the game, a Spanish PDF file, a Japanese article on XTech, two different Hebrew PDF files, an entry page on SolucionesyTrucos, a forum post on BetaArchive, another forum post on WinWorldPC, a Spanish article on 3djuegos, as well as being mentioned in a Russian gaming magazine, among a couple others.
It probably suffered the same fate as the Xbox A.I. tie-in games, being cancelled after the modest success of the film. It's official website has at least two snapshots on the Wayback Machine dating from July 28th 2001 to August 1st 2001, with its first inaccessability date being August 9th 2001, which meant that the game was shelved between the August 1st and 9th timeframe. It also used to be mentioned on Wikipedia's List of video games published by Microsoft page with the earliest dated from June 15th 2011 and the latest prior to removal being being October 12th 2020.
All that remains is just a scan of the manual.
It's very unlikely that both Alexey Pajitnov and other developers behind A.I. Puzzler have any builds of this game either, making it unlikely for this game to ever resurface.
However, there was at least one PC-exclusive game planned to be published by Microsoft to be released in either 2000 or 2001, that game was called Microsoft A.I. Puzzler. It was a game being developed by Alexey Pajitnov of Tetris fame, and who previously worked on Microsoft Entertainment Pack: The Puzzle Collection. The game itself is commonly mentioned on many wiki and dictionary pages of Alexy Pajitnov and on many lists of Microsoft Game Studios published games, but there is very little information about this game online and the game itself remains a mystery, with only sources being a GameFAQs page and forum post, a GameZone article, a GamesFirst article, a GameSurge article, a Spanish article from Taringa, an old archived Microsoft news post, an old Warner Bros news post, a page from probably a developer who worked on the game, a Worthplaying page, a Russian article from Igromania, article from Igromania, an IGN article, a Hungarian article from Origo, a Hungarian article from PlayDome, a Spanish article from Meristation, a Russian article on Omar, a Russian page on Irgograd, a Polish article from Gry-Online, an article from The Guardian, a Dictionary page on SensAgent, a PDF document from Jane McGonigal who also probably worked on the game, a Spanish PDF file, a Japanese article on XTech, two different Hebrew PDF files, an entry page on SolucionesyTrucos, a forum post on BetaArchive, another forum post on WinWorldPC, a Spanish article on 3djuegos, as well as being mentioned in a Russian gaming magazine, among a couple others.
It probably suffered the same fate as the Xbox A.I. tie-in games, being cancelled after the modest success of the film. It's official website has at least two snapshots on the Wayback Machine dating from July 28th 2001 to August 1st 2001, with its first inaccessability date being August 9th 2001, which meant that the game was shelved between the August 1st and 9th timeframe. It also used to be mentioned on Wikipedia's List of video games published by Microsoft page with the earliest dated from June 15th 2011 and the latest prior to removal being being October 12th 2020.
All that remains is just a scan of the manual.
It's very unlikely that both Alexey Pajitnov and other developers behind A.I. Puzzler have any builds of this game either, making it unlikely for this game to ever resurface.
