The Terminator (lost build of NES platformer based on film of same name; 1989)

Flyer distributed at Winter CES.

Status: Lost

The Terminator is a well-known 1984 science fiction film directed by James Cameron. Sunsoft developed a video game based on this movie for the NES, but it was never released.
The game's development team includes Masahito Nomura and Hiroaki Higashiya as programmers, Naoki Odaka as composer, and Hiroyasu Eguchi and Kiharu Yoshida as producers.

Background

In 1988, Richard Robbins, then vice president of Sunsoft of America, the US division of Sunsoft, licensed The Terminator from Creative Licensing Corporation (CLC) and its founder, Rand Marlis.
In late 1988, the development of the game was entrusted to the development team at Sunsoft in Japan, where it is based. In developing the game, they were subjected to strict restrictions by the licensee, CLC. The game had to closely follow the original film, the T-800 could only die at the end of the game, and no enemies other than the T-800 could appear.
Programmer Nomura set out to make the game in the Dragon's Lair style of laserdisc arcade games. This was because he believed that a game in that style would focus more on the story than on an action game that required a large number of enemies. Development of the game began, and the Dragon's Lair style Terminator's game was first promoted at the Sunsoft booth at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 1989.
However, the problem with that style of game was that it required a lot of animation, which in turn required a lot of graphics. It took up a lot of memory and quickly ran out. Memory is expensive, and not wanting to spend any more money, manager Yoshida scrapped the plan, forcing the team to reset development. The team changed the game's genre to an action game. The setting is set on an Earth ruled by Skynet, where players can logically fight other enemies before encountering the Terminator. However, the changed genre and setting did not follow the restrictions received from CLC, and in late 1989 the game build was submitted to CLC for review by Rand Marlis, who revoked the license on the grounds that the game did not follow the plot of the original film.
Nomura was well aware that the game did not meet the constraints. To be fair, one in which enemies did not die until the end of the game and not including other enemies was very difficult. Nomura said he was a little disappointed that the Terminator game could not be completed, but happy that it later became a game that is considered an NES classic.

Aftermath

After the license was revoked, the team decided to replace all cutscenes with different ones instead of destroying the game, and the title became Operation SSS for the US market. The title was retained until Winter CES 1990.
The title was then changed to Rough World for the Japanese market and Journey to Silius for the US market, released in August and September 1990, respectively.

Availability

On December 13, 2009, on the Lost Levels forum, user Skrybe shared 19 development disk ROMs that video game collector DreamTR obtained from Sunsoft several years ago. Among them were the title screen assets for Operation SSS.

On July 7, 2019, Richard Robbins sent Gaming Alexandria a promotional video for Terminator that was shown at Winter CES. Shown in the video was a scene of Kyle Reese and Sarah Conner being chased by a truck by a T-800 recreated on the NES, a scene of a police station, and a scene of Kyle Reese from the future.

As of 2023, there are no confirmed ROM for the early Terminator.

Gallery

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  Pak Watch from Nintendo Power #7 Jul-Aug 1989.

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  Terminator at Winter CES Sunsoft booth.

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  Terminator copyright hidden within the Journey to Silius ROM.