The Lost Pyramid is a working title for a video game created by Ted Phillips that has been in development for decades, beginning in late 1998, and has been delayed multiple times due to data loss events. The game is the successor to his earlier Tomb Raider IV project.
History
Early Years
In late 1998, Teddy Phillips created images of a custom Egyptian pyramid and accompanying hieroglyphics, which were burned in an ancient fire, for a sixth-grade social studies project. Teddy realized that this pyramid and all its booby traps was a perfect stage for the BASIC game he had been working on since before July 10, 1998, called Tomb Raider IV.
By this time, the Tomb Raider IV sidescroller had evolved into a first-person 3D adventure game by incorporating logic from Bill Como's GREND. Teddy created part of one level where the player walks along a path to a crossroads with a golden pyramid directly ahead. The game was renamed The Lost Pyramid. This version of the game was likely lost in the Hard Drive Crash of 1999.
Shortly thereafter, Teddy became disenchanted with using BASIC for 3D, and began experimenting with building the game using either VRML or the Doom engine. The most productive work continued by creating strategy guide maps for the next few years.
By this time, the Tomb Raider IV sidescroller had evolved into a first-person 3D adventure game by incorporating logic from Bill Como's GREND. Teddy created part of one level where the player walks along a path to a crossroads with a golden pyramid directly ahead. The game was renamed The Lost Pyramid. This version of the game was likely lost in the Hard Drive Crash of 1999.
Shortly thereafter, Teddy became disenchanted with using BASIC for 3D, and began experimenting with building the game using either VRML or the Doom engine. The most productive work continued by creating strategy guide maps for the next few years.
RPG Demo
Beginning around March 2001, Ted began employing RPG Maker 2000 to build The Lost Pyramid. He completely built several levels in the game, including the mountains, the forest, the port, the ship, the beach, and the submarine. However, his work was soon cut short by the Hard Drive Crash of 2001, which erased all his build progress to that point.
Over the next few months, Ted rebuilt the game from scratch. There is conflicting evidence which suggests another intervening hard drive crash in early May, although it appears some of the lost data was able to be recovered. According to surviving progress notes, by August 21, he had completely rebuilt several levels in the game, including the mountains, the forest, the port, and the ship. However, there are some questions to the accuracy of this date, because surviving files from before this time until January 2002 suggest a much less complete version of the game. It is noteworthy also that these progress notes omit the submarine level, even though it is mentioned in surviving files.
Another theory speculates that the August 21 note referred to year 2002, but due to the intervening Hard Drive Crash of 2002 that is known to have occurred several days prior, that it might be an intended release date for a demo. However, the blog posts mentioning that crash state that a web site update had not been scheduled until Labor Day.
According to surviving files from the original Pokémon Trainers Club web site, by early 2002, the Thingamabob.com2 web site had already posted an article online discussing The Lost Pyramid, its progress, and possibly included a demo for players worldwide to try, in its dedicated RPG Maker section. However, that web site mysteriously disappeared by the end of summer that year.
The Hard Drive Crash of 2002 caused the loss of all build progress since a backup March 9, 2002, which only included nearly completed mountain and forest levels. But unfortunately, this backup was not readable until 2022, so the data was considered lost at the time.
Over the next few months, Ted rebuilt the game from scratch. There is conflicting evidence which suggests another intervening hard drive crash in early May, although it appears some of the lost data was able to be recovered. According to surviving progress notes, by August 21, he had completely rebuilt several levels in the game, including the mountains, the forest, the port, and the ship. However, there are some questions to the accuracy of this date, because surviving files from before this time until January 2002 suggest a much less complete version of the game. It is noteworthy also that these progress notes omit the submarine level, even though it is mentioned in surviving files.
Another theory speculates that the August 21 note referred to year 2002, but due to the intervening Hard Drive Crash of 2002 that is known to have occurred several days prior, that it might be an intended release date for a demo. However, the blog posts mentioning that crash state that a web site update had not been scheduled until Labor Day.
According to surviving files from the original Pokémon Trainers Club web site, by early 2002, the Thingamabob.com2 web site had already posted an article online discussing The Lost Pyramid, its progress, and possibly included a demo for players worldwide to try, in its dedicated RPG Maker section. However, that web site mysteriously disappeared by the end of summer that year.
The Hard Drive Crash of 2002 caused the loss of all build progress since a backup March 9, 2002, which only included nearly completed mountain and forest levels. But unfortunately, this backup was not readable until 2022, so the data was considered lost at the time.
More Attempts
Ted began rebuilding the game from scratch in December 2002. In this attempt, he mainly rebuilt the mountain level. Several notable improvements to this level was made, including the addition of extensive dungeons, cut scenes, and a set piece where the player is being pursued by a pack of hungry wolves. Many local fans of Cracked Egg Studios were allowed to play a demo of this level when visiting on-site. Despite the progress, in January 2003, the System Migration of 2003, as well as deadlines for new episodes of Ni-Ki-Oh!, forced him to take a hiatus from the effort.
After reacquainting himself with the game's early history in both BASIC and 3D, Ted found a language called DarkBASIC Pro, which would allow him to write the game in BASIC, and in 3D, with greater ease than the early attempts. It would also allow him to avoid many other limitations of the RPG Maker software, such as only supporting 4 party members.
Ted acquired DarkBASIC Pro in July or August 2003 and worked on a full 3D build of the game for several weeks, creating the landscape for the mountains and several interactions for signs, enemy spawns, and environmental effects. However, he quickly discovered that the language had no builtin physics concepts. In order to proceed with designing the game, he needed to take physics classes. He put The Lost Pyramid on hold once more, ending the DarkBASIC Period, while he took trigonometry, calculus, and physics classes between fall 2003 and spring 2005. By the time Ted did return to development, he no longer wished to use DarkBASIC.
After reacquainting himself with the game's early history in both BASIC and 3D, Ted found a language called DarkBASIC Pro, which would allow him to write the game in BASIC, and in 3D, with greater ease than the early attempts. It would also allow him to avoid many other limitations of the RPG Maker software, such as only supporting 4 party members.
Ted acquired DarkBASIC Pro in July or August 2003 and worked on a full 3D build of the game for several weeks, creating the landscape for the mountains and several interactions for signs, enemy spawns, and environmental effects. However, he quickly discovered that the language had no builtin physics concepts. In order to proceed with designing the game, he needed to take physics classes. He put The Lost Pyramid on hold once more, ending the DarkBASIC Period, while he took trigonometry, calculus, and physics classes between fall 2003 and spring 2005. By the time Ted did return to development, he no longer wished to use DarkBASIC.
Cracked Egg Studios Involvment
On June 28, 2005, just a month after the launch of the Cracked Egg Studios web site, Ted posted that a site area for The Lost Pyramid would eventually be created. On January 3, 2006, the Cracked Egg Studios web site announced that a project called The Lost Pyramid was slated for an August 2006 release.
On January 31, 2006, in a discussion about collaboration with Noey Productions, Cracked Egg Studios implied that The Lost Pyramid had been a game project that it had developed, but it wasn't until February 3, 2006, that Cracked Egg Studios made its official announcement that it was taking over development of the game from Ted Phillips. Under Cracked Egg Studios, the recent progress was scrapped, as a new game engine called 3D RPG Builder had been licensed for use with the project.
By March 21, 2006, a news article mentioned that the game and its events were being scripted. Network Partners were invited to provide feedback in a dedicated forum called "In Development - The Lost Pyramid." Very few posts were made in this forum, but on May 17, 2006, one forum post revealed that the demo was just a small portion of the game and that the titular pyramid was probably only about halfway through.
On May 9, 2007, a news article announced that The Lost Pyramid's game development was being delayed until season 4 of Ni-Ki-Oh! and Isles of Fortune season 1. The early suggestion was that the game was just giving up sparse development resources to those projects, but a leaked version of Ni-Ki-Oh! S03E07 - Losing a Mind revealed that it was actually because Ni-Ki-Oh!, Isles of Fortune, and The Lost Pyramid shared a common cinematic universe. For this to occur, it seems that by 2007, story and level designs made prior to 2001 must have been dropped or forgotten.
Nevertheless, as Ni-Ki-Oh! season 4 never completed principle photography, the Isles of Fortune season 1 was never even scripted, and most development time since 2008 was allotted to VaultWiki until 2020, The Lost Pyramid has been left in limbo since that time.
On January 31, 2006, in a discussion about collaboration with Noey Productions, Cracked Egg Studios implied that The Lost Pyramid had been a game project that it had developed, but it wasn't until February 3, 2006, that Cracked Egg Studios made its official announcement that it was taking over development of the game from Ted Phillips. Under Cracked Egg Studios, the recent progress was scrapped, as a new game engine called 3D RPG Builder had been licensed for use with the project.
By March 21, 2006, a news article mentioned that the game and its events were being scripted. Network Partners were invited to provide feedback in a dedicated forum called "In Development - The Lost Pyramid." Very few posts were made in this forum, but on May 17, 2006, one forum post revealed that the demo was just a small portion of the game and that the titular pyramid was probably only about halfway through.
On May 9, 2007, a news article announced that The Lost Pyramid's game development was being delayed until season 4 of Ni-Ki-Oh! and Isles of Fortune season 1. The early suggestion was that the game was just giving up sparse development resources to those projects, but a leaked version of Ni-Ki-Oh! S03E07 - Losing a Mind revealed that it was actually because Ni-Ki-Oh!, Isles of Fortune, and The Lost Pyramid shared a common cinematic universe. For this to occur, it seems that by 2007, story and level designs made prior to 2001 must have been dropped or forgotten.
Nevertheless, as Ni-Ki-Oh! season 4 never completed principle photography, the Isles of Fortune season 1 was never even scripted, and most development time since 2008 was allotted to VaultWiki until 2020, The Lost Pyramid has been left in limbo since that time.
Recovery
Over the years, many artifacts related to The Lost Pyramid have been rediscovered, and refiled correctly in the archives. This includes the initial pyramid drawings, various backups of the game files at different stages in development, handwritten development progress notes, and the strategy guide level designs.
Future Development
Since this project was never actually cancelled, numerous other projects have been revived or reprioritized since the beginning of the Restoration Era, and the ongoing Unreal Era includes potential game projects, fans and developers alike maintain hope that The Lost Pyramid will finally be completed in coming years.
Categories:
Lost Projects
1998