X

This page details pre-release information and/or media for X.

X was the result of Dylan Cuthbert hacking up a 3D wireframe engine for the Game Boy, and impressing Nintendo enough with it that they got the publishing rights and offered development support. Though ultimately not making it out of Japan, it did pave the way for some more collaboration between Nintendo and Argonaut.¹

To do: Flesh out stuff, also this

Development Timeline#

Pre-1991

• Argonaut head Jez San sees a Game Boy at a Consumer Electronics Show event. He tells Dylan Cuthbert to make a 3D game for it.
• Jez San sends the Eclipse demo to various third-party publishers, with Mindscape initially signing on to handle publishing.²
• A Nintendo employee catches wind of the demo and suggests Argonaut send it to the higher-ups. This leads to the game becoming a first-party Nintendo title.

1991

• May 13 - A Lunar Chase tech demo is built.
• June 1-4³ - Lunar Chase is revealed at the 1991 Summer CES.⁴

1992

• May 28-31⁵ - Lunar Chase is shown at the 1992 Summer CES.⁶
• May 29 - X is released in Japan.⁷

Title#

The Japanese title of X came about after Nintendo got the game. Hiroshi Yamauchi told Yoshio Sakamoto rather bluntly to give the game that title.

"The title was decided by [Nintendo president Hiroshi] Yamauchi," says Cuthbert. "He just suddenly called up [Yoshio] Sakamoto-san, who was the director on the game, a month before we finished it, and said, 'You're calling it X.' Sakamoto said it was like Yamauchi didn't care—it's 7 a.m. and he just called Sakamoto directly and just said, 'You're calling it X.'"

International Release#

Lunar Chase's release outside Japan was advertised quite verbosely, but ended up not happening. Dylan Cuthbert himself has stated this cancellation was due to Nintendo of America deeming the game to be "too complicated".

"We made the English version, and then Nintendo of America felt it was too complicated," says Cuthbert. "At that time, there wasn't a Nintendo Europe to kind of stick up for it, you know? [NOA] said, 'Our audience right now expects something like Tetris.' 'There's too much text.' That kind of thing. There wasn't really that much hungriness for 3D in America at that point. Later on, after Star Fox came out, you know, there was a lot more."

The game made it as far as lotcheck, and was assigned component number 22556. It seems the release was planned out as far as 1993.

References#