Ghost Master

Ghost Master
Developers: Sick Puppies, Zonic (Mac) Publishers: Empire Interactive, Feral Interactive (Mac), Sega (JP) Platforms: Windows, Mac OS Classic, Mac OS X Released in JP: January 29, 2004 Released in US: August 26, 2003 Released in EU: May 23, 2003 This game has unused animations. This game has unused areas. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused cinematics. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has a prerelease article

As the titular Ghost Master, strategically use your expanding team of ghosts to scare away or manipulate mortals to further the goals of the spirit world. A lot of stuff intended for the game got axed or cut down at some point mid-production. It's mostly well-hidden though, so long as you don't take too hard a look around the back of the Ghoul Room. Or look in the resource folders.

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article?

To do: There is more cut content to be uploaded and the game hasn't been fully documented. The Ghost Master Complete Wiki is still investigating it.

Sub-Pages

Cut Missions and Levels Space whales and explosions.

Unused Text There's a lot of text left, internal names and for string display, from a lot of stuff that was cut or re-used elsewhere.

Unused Ghosts

The game has textures, models, animation files and text for four ghosts that were scrapped. A fan mod restores them into the game, called Rejected Ghost Mod. A few more ghosts were cut in the early developing stages and a few pictures and infos are here and there, but nothing is left in the game's files.

Azrael

Azrael was a headless horseman type. It was supposed to be a Restless spirit in the cut Ghost in The Military Machine mission.

Concept art for Azrael.

Azrael has the two .tga files that every ghost has for their icon (one for the picture itself and one for the green shadow outline), called azrael and azraelb - but they are duplicates that proclaim Azrael's departure from the game. The same image is also present as defaultchar.tga and as a filler for whirlweird_b, as Whirlweird does not need the green outline.

Azrael still has a unique audio folder with all the templates set up for unique sound effects, but there's nothing in it.

"Standing down."

"My mission has been terminated by hostile forces."

Concept art for Azrael's bike.

Smokin Joe

Concept art for Smokin' Joe.

Smokin Joe was a phantom type. It was supposed to be a Restless spirit in the cut Field of Nightmares mission.

Smokin Joe still has the two .tga files for his icon.

Smokin Joe still has a unique audio folder with all the templates set up for unique sound effects, but there's nothing in it.

The subtitle.map file still mentions Smokin\' Joe, and his demise.

#smokinjoe   
#possibly removed

Soulscreech

Soulscreech was a banshee type. Judging by her remaining epitaph, she was supposed to be a spirit brainwashed by the government and hostile to the player.

Soulscreech has icons, as well as a model and an animation file.

Soulscreech still has a unique audio folder with all the templates set up for unique sound effects, but there's nothing in it. Two voice lines for the ghost's dispelling and banishment are present, though:

"I cannot remain here any longer."

"Avenge my departing soul!"

Both lines are also translated to Italian:

"Non posso restare ancora qui."

"Vendica la mia anima che se ne va!"

#soulscreech  no enemy haunters   ?

The subtitle.map file still mentions Soulscreech and possibly her would-have-been role.

The English.ut8, Italian.ut8 and Spanish.ut8 files all contain Soulscreech Epitaph description in their respective languages:

TEXT_SOULSCREECH_EPITAPH	"Soulscreech was a quiet, timid spirit, before government scientists began experimenting upon her ectoplasm. Now she's the sort of ghost that mothers warn
their sons about."

TEXT_SOULSCREECH_EPITAPH	"Soulscreech era uno spirito tranquillo e timido, finché gli scienziati del governo non iniziarono a fare esperimenti sul suo ectoplasma. Ora è il tipo di
fantasma da cui le madri mettono in guardia i figli."

TEXT_SOULSCREECH_EPITAPH	"Soulsearch era un espíritu tranquilo y tímido antes de que los científicos del gobierno empezaran a experimentar con su ectoplasma. Ahora es el tipo de
fantasma con el que las madres amenazan a sus hijos."

Thorne

Concept art for Thorne.

Thorne was a wraith type. It was supposed to be a Restless spirit in the cut The Abysmal mission.

Thorne still has the two .tga files for his icon, as well as a model and a dummy animation file.

Thorne still has a unique audio folder with all the templates set up for unique sound effects, but there's nothing in it.

Crazy Bill

Crazy Bill is represented as an old postman who wields a letterbox with a pointy end as a weapon. His concept art can be found in the Bonus Content DVD of the video game.

Ghost With No Name

Ghost With No Name is a gunslinger, probably aspired to Clint Eastwood. He was supposed to appear in the cut mission Field of Nightmares. His concept art can be found in the Bonus Content DVD of the video game.

(Source: Chris Bateman, Ghost Master game designer.)

Hunchhork

Hunchhork was probably a movie director in his part, as he is depicted handling a camera. He also wears a scarf and a beret and he sits on a director chair in his render. His concept art, along with a render, can be found in the Bonus Content DVD of the video game.

Moribund

Moribund is represented as what appears to be a drill sergeant. His concept art can be found in the Bonus Content DVD of the video game.

• 

  Concept art for Crazy Bill.

• 

  Concept art for Ghost With No Name.

• 

  Concept art for Hunchhork.

• 

  Render for Hunchhork.

• 

  Concept art for Moribund.

Unused Graphics

Characters

An icon for a female and a male scuba diver. Both were from The Abysmal cut mission. Their models, textures and portraits are still in the game and can be modded back.

Restless Spirit Portraits

The game uses green silhouettes for restless spirits in missions that have not been found and talked to, at which point their normal portrait is used instead. A considerable number of ghosts have this sort of portrait, despite not appearing as restless spirits.

• 

  Aether

• 

  Boo

• 

  Clatterclaws

• 

  Cogjammer

• 

  Ghastly

• 

  Shivers

• 

  Stonewall

These are all portraits for haunters you start the game with, and who therefore need never be recruited. Whirlweird is absent in this list, because its second portrait is a copy of the placeholder used for Azrael's portrait above.

• 

  Buck

• 

  Carter

• 

  Hypnos

• 

  Lady Rose

• 

  The Painter

• 

  Quiver

These six haunters are given to you at the start of acts 2 and 3 and as such these are never seen, but they were all originally intended to be recruited during missions.

• 

  The Dragoon

• 

  Stormtalon

The Dragoon and Stormtalon are relatively special cases: While the dragoon shows up in Spooky Hollow and can be talked to there, its portrait doesn't appear until you recruit it. You cannot beat that mission without recruiting it, so this green portrait can't show up during the score tally either. Stormtalon, on the other hand, has no indication they're in the mission at all, and their portrait doesn't appear until you recruit them either.

Other Graphics

Two crudely drawn placeholder splash screens in magenta on white.

While the game was indeed published in Japan by Sega a year later, a splash screen with a wrong 1px vertical line (and a video, see below) is present in all versions of the game.

An early version of the game's logo. Note the spirit faces in the mist, which feature on a couple earlier logo designs.

This large 1024*1024 map can be found split up in four pieces, empty space at the bottom imcluded. The ship for The Abysmal and the train for Trainspooking are present on this map, as well as earlier designs/layouts of the police station, the ghost mansion, and the military base. It's unknown what the big glowing hole is.

A few images with map highlights to be displayed on top of the map.

Although it's unlikely that every highlight would have appeared at once in-game, this is what the map looks like with highlights overlaid on top.

The same split-up map, but at half the resolution and with a different, simpler border.

A matching set of highlights.

This is what this map looks like with the highlights overlaid.

Another smaller image of the same scene, taken from a slightly different position and untextured. The levels look more like board game pieces in this version.

Again, highlights to go with it. Here the levels get a yellow glowing halo, instead of glowing bright green entirely.

Again, a mockup of the map with all highlights applied.

A 256X256 scaled version of the painting Nightmare by Artie Romero.

The game has always been critically compared to The Sims, so it's ironic to see Plumbob present in the graphic.

A 90° counter-clockwise picture of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, who passed away during the game's production in 2002.

Clip art of a sheep.

Keeping with the sheep theme, this modeled one is in the files. While it doesn't appear in-game, it is rendered in the images displayed when looking through the POV of a mortal dreaming or having a nightmare.

Another version of the two legal splash screens featuring the same art on the American cover of the game.

Unused Sounds

Although the power Shriek has this sound associated with it, the power is programmed to play a random female NPC fear sound.

The sound for Labyrinth, a scrapped portal spell (of which only Hidden Room made it in the final game).

The sound for another scrapped portal spell, No Way Out.

"Broom broom skid lololo ice cream ice cream."

The Ghostbreaker ice cream van driving onto the map for Class Of Spook'em High is silent in-game, even though there is a file titled map_gb_van_skid. It's not the most serious choice of audio in the game though.

"Act 4 is the final act"

An unused audio for a seemingly cut "Act 4", in the final game Act 4 was replaced with the Epilogue.

Unused Videos

The game contains two unused videos; one is simply the Sega intro video (which goes of course unused in all versions of the game but the Japanese one) and the other one is a short, sped-up video of some guys on ice.

Footage from the latter is actually present in a short YouTube video made by the developers themselves where they goof around with the game's engine.