Journey to Silius

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Journey to Silius.

To do: There's a Japanese preview (circa May 1990) which has the protagonist using what would be his sprites in the final US version (the final JP/EU releases had him fully armored). There might be other differences as well.

Journey to Silius began life in 1988 as a licensed game based on the film The Terminator. The game was initially developed as a Dragon's Lair-style title that, based on the available footage, seems to have been a straight adaptation of the movie. However, due to memory constraints the game was scrapped, turned into a platformer, and shifted focus to be entirely on the future war between humanity and Skynet (something which in the film is limited to a few brief flashback scenes).

Unlike other licensed games, it was not presented to the licensor until it was finished in 1989; the license was then reportedly revoked because it did not follow the plot of the film at all. Thus, the game was turned into an original property (cf. Sunman).

Development Timeline#

1988

• Unknown - Development on The Terminator begins.

1989

• January - A promo video is shown at that year's WCES, showing off the game's cinematic Dragon's Lair-style gameplay.
• Unknown - The Dragon's Lair-style gameplay is scrapped after about 3-4 months of development, with The Terminator reworked into a platformer. The game's setting probably changes at the same time.
• July - Nintendo Power publishes a small preview of the platformer version of the game.
• Unknown - The game finishes development and is presented to the licensor, who rejects the game and revokes Sunsoft's Terminator license on the grounds of not following the licensor's requirements. Soon after, the Terminator-related aspects are scrapped and the game is retitled "Operation S.S.S."

1990

• January - A Sunsoft dealer price list for NES games, seemingly distributed at that year's WCES, includes a listing for Operation S.S.S., with an availability date of TBA.
• Unknown - Operation S.S.S. is renamed.
• Circa May - A Japanese preview is published of Rough World, the game's new Japanese title.
• August 10 - Rough World is released in Japan.
• September - Journey to Silius is released in North America.

1991

• May - Journey to Silius is released in Europe.

The Terminator Era#

WCES Promo Video (January 1989)#

Watch on YouTube

For the WCES in Las Vegas, Sunsoft produced a promo video for The Terminator. Starting from 0:47 in the video, the game is shown.

The cutscenes include Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese fleeing the T-800 driving the fuel tank, which crashes and explodes; the time-traveling Reese landing in 1984; Reese attempting to find Sarah Connor (possibly in the police station); and a shot of the T-800 pointing a gun at the player, seemingly based off the Tech Noir scene (with the caption "You're hit bad!"). Indicating its early nature, the pseudo-3D graphics used in some of these scenes are simplistic, with only two shades of color, and one scene shown is a cartoony skull with stars around it that would likely have been replaced with something else later in development.

Perhaps most notably, the gameplay footage begins with a screen displaying copyright info which perfectly matches a set of graphics that remain unused in the final game. Aside from that, nothing seen in this video is present in the final game.

Famitsu #0069 (March 3, 1989)#

'...But what does it mean?' This game has text or audio that needs to be translated. If you are fluent with this language, please read our translation guidelines and then submit a translation!

The magazine's coverage of WCES included a bit on the game, showing off its title screen (clearly based on the famous poster for the film) and what seems to be a version of the front of the promotional flyer distributed at the event.

Nintendo Power Preview (July/August 1989)#

To do: Get a higher-resolution scan of this.

A brief preview on the upper-left of Page 86, showing the title screen and two in-game screenshots.

Both in-game shots portray a post-apocalyptic landscape colored to match the film's blue lighting, the hero fighting robots patterned on the Hunter-Killers from the film, and a vertical lifebar compared to the final's horizontal bar. None of these graphics remain in the final game, which uses more traditional color schemes as well as robots which do not resemble any Skynet design.