The Cursed Sparky Lost Game

Do you remember the Sparky canceled game by Mitch-Collins back in 1996? "Sparky Rush: Purrils in Pawsville!" was announced during the Happening-95 official exposition event, but with no trailers, gameplay, available demos, not even screenshots. Just the name of the project.

That was going to be the first project of the recently founded Mitch-Collins Interactive, but it was mysteriously canceled by the publisher in 1996. 4 years later, "Sparky Rush: Operation Nightpaws" was finally developed by DominoWorks and released by MCI in November 13, 2000. The game generated approximately $400,000 in revenue.

But what about Purrils in Pawsville? Why did MCI even changed the original name of the project? It was even the same project?

What really happened to the project was a complete mystery to the public... until now.

Recently due to a data breach in Polybius database by the Inner Circle in April 17, 2013, we got a hold of a working build of the original Sparky's game! It was hidden in one of the older Polybius archived ROMs of the original Polybius Series X. The file "Sparky Rush - Purrils in Pawsville.bin" was part of the 3.1TB of data exposed by Inner Circle on the internet, including entire project source codes, canceled prototypes, player accounts and private corporate data.

It was found in some particularly obscure folders within the hacked files. It was lost for a really long time, but the internet now got a working build of one of the most obscure pieces of media ever. Until now, it was rumored to never even have existed.

The developers of the original project is the Team Stardom, the small developers team behind the cult classic "Phantom Stardom". In summary, MCI was really pressuring them, long work hours and extreme crunch. Unfortunately, Team Stardom had to cancel the ongoing project of "Phantom Stardom 2" that they were working on, the long awaited sequel to Phantom Stardom to focus only on the game they're currently making.

After a lot of pressure from the higher ups, 3 of 4 developers left the project. Only Mike (the project director) stays, and some months later a horrible tragedy happened in Team Stardom. You may know that things get really disturbing from now on so viewer discretion is advised.

After all of this, it is assumed that Mike ends up killing himself, but not before shipping a playable but really unfinished build of the game to Mitch-Collins. Recently, a investigation was opened by Sparky fans to find what really happened to Michael D. Waters, but until now we don't have any concrete evidence.

What contained in that unfinished project was so disturbing that made the other remaining former members never talk about this game forever, even to this day. All sorts of crazy stories spawned from this, the most popular creepypasta-like one says that "the game is haunted and anyone that plays it ends up killing themselves".

One thing is certain: until this day, Mitch-Collins and Polybius never officially spoken out about the Team Stardom Incident. By the look of it, they still pretend to remain silent.

You can download right now the original .bin file and play it in any Polybius Series X emulator. We recommend the Vapor Snake PSX Emulator.

Are you brave enough to play it?

CONTENT WARNING

Game only for ADULTS, it should not be played by minors.
Themes: anxiety, peer pressure, depression, disturbing imagery, suicide.

LEGAL WARNING

This game is copyrighted by Polybius / Polybius Series X / Mitch-Collins and was leaked illegally.
Polybius can issue Copyright takedowns if you share any content online about the game. (Even ourselves!)
PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

DOWNLOAD NOW
Sparky Rush: Purrils in Pawsville! Original Lost ROM (1996)
[Romsarchive Website]

Interview With A Original "Team Stardom" Developer

Additionally, today we have one of Sparky's game developers with us for an interview! They would like to remain anonymous, only using M to refer to them. They worked in the game for a couple of months before leaving it because of the abusive and exploitative working conditions.

"So M, how did you get into the project?"

-We had just launched our previous game Phantom Stardom, and it was a success, so much in fact that we already started working on a sequel. During this time, Mitch-Collins Interactive contacted us to make a game for the first Polybius console. That was, like, a big deal making a game for a big company, a famous recognizable IP.

-At that moment, none of us had experience with 3D games. It was trending at that time, but our team only knew how to work with 2D art and environments. We were already seeking a big opportunity to grow out Team Stardom, at that was the first big deal - the most famous cartoon of the history.

-For this reason, we had lots of problems and endured a genuine development hell. Really dark times, still today I don’t like to remember the feeling and all my inner crazy thoughts.

"What was your position in the company?"

-Well, a lot of things actually, but mostly I worked as a sound designer, 2D Art and level design. I did the main menu theme, the tutorial song, some concept arts and the Petsfarm level.

-It's kinda hard to remember all these things, in that situation everyone had to create things that we even didn't had any experience. The beginning part of the game development journey separates boys from men.

"How was your and the others' relations with Mike?"

-Mike was a pretty workaholic guy who always strived for perfection, and also a great leader. But this project broke him completely... like, he wasn't the same Mike from before.

-At first we were so happy we got the deal and stuff, but as the days were passing in the speed of light and time was getting short, he started to scream at us. One time he almost hit me. Before this project, Mike probably wouldn't do that... I think.

-Phantom Stardom also was a hard project, don't get me wrong. We spent months working almost non-stop, but we still endured the challenge and the team remained together.

-In my last days on the team, he didn't look like himself anymore. The slightly overweight guy we knew was really skinny and looked like he hadn't slept in ages.

-Mike was a very responsible man, and sometimes in the past I could feel some feelings of anxiety in him. Well, nothing new for a normal adult, I suppose... but the pressure of Purrils in Pawsville was something very out of the ordinary and very above any humanly bearable levels.

"Have you seen the leaked build that surfaced online?"

-Yeah... Really disturbing stuff, he took all of his anger, frustrations and madness in the game. I really couldn't play it all the way, sorry.

"Why did you leave the project?"

-Being an indie team is hard, it's like a marriage. Things were really good for us after Phantom Stardom, our game was performing well and got the deal for the Sparky's game, we thought we could do anything together. But looking at the situation now, it looks like Mitch-Collins just wanted a low budget project with high profit metrics.

-I mean, it was like the project was doomed from the start, how could only 4 people complete a work of at least 10 developers? And I'm being very reasonable here. I don't know if this situation was by purpose or by lack of profissionalism.

-But then the hardship came, and Mike got... weird. And we knew the game wasn't going anywhere. We all went from really close friends to hating each other in a couple of months. It was a depressing work environment, every time I worked there I just wanted to die. Looking at it now makes me wanna cry, like Mike was only a victim like all of us.

"Did Mike really killed himself? No one helped him at that moment?"

-Sorry, I don't want to talk much about this part. The only thing I can say that yes, I tried to help him after I quit the team. I called him multiple times, multiple days... but he never answered me.

-One thing he has always been is being stubborn, but the choice I made in that fateful day cannot be undone anymore.

"How do you feel about Mike now?"

-I feel really sorry for him. From time to time I still think about what would've happened if I hadn't left the project. We could still be friends. He wouldn't disappear like he did. We could begin anew our works at Team Stardom after the failure of Purrils in Pawsville if we figured it all out together. "There is always a way out", I said this to him multiple times!

-The industry may not forget these kind of failures so easy, but we could still continue this mutual dream of creating our own games. The consequences of my lack of responsability at our darkest hour should be my deserved curse.

"You said that did not know what exactly happened during the final stages of the project. But we have a simple question: what could be the meaning of Mike's cryptic messages inside the game?"

-About this, I think that there is only one thing that I can say for sure. I have this picture in my head: Mike sitting alone in his dim office, looking at that strange and distorted picture of Sparky smiling at him, staring at his misery. In the beginning, it was just a inside joke from our team.

-"The Bizarre Sparky is gonna catch you at the park", we sometimes joked.

-Well, now this memory haunts me sometimes.

"How are you today?"

-Thanks to God and my friends, I overcame my PTSD and started to work again in other game companies. I started my career again from scratch, working in another job that I really didn't like, but today I have a good family and a good job in the horror games industry again.

-I wish Mike could do the same. I'm sure he could do it, he was one of the best. The project aftermath would sure be very painful, we would still owe a lot of money, but still would it be possible to deal with this.

-Sacrificing our dream for a while was the first step. I did this. I think the others also did this. We told him that this was the only way to escape our fate.

-But as I said, Mike was completely stubborn. He didn't accept the cravings in the wall.

-Maybe all he needed was some helping hand, friends or family to talk with. Sometimes we just need these things to continue fighting every day.

That's it people

Thanks M for taking their very short time to answer these questions for us.

This story is a very sensitive topic for M, so I'm double grateful for this interview.

See you soon.

-Night Killer, 15/06/2013 at 00:14.