Talk:Lost media
Unreleased isn't lost
[edit]This is a great topic, thanks for putting it together! To your question, I don't think purely internal preproduction material like Secret of Cybertron, Dark Glass, or the binder count as "lost." --Thylacine 2000 (talk) 08:10, 30 January 2025 (EST)
- Hey, thank you very much! And I guess that the internal / external distinction is a pretty solid idea, it could filter out a lot of stuff that was never really meant to be seen by the public in the first place while still allowing space for media that media that was announced but never released (e.g., Reactivated). I think the latter type is worth preserving on the page still because a lot of lost media circles do discuss cancelled media, but it is true that something like The Secret of Cybertron or the binder aren't on quite the same league: seems counter-intuitive to say that something that was never intended to be released was lost, I guess. (FortressMaxxing (talk) 09:21, 30 January 2025 (EST))
- As an extension of this, I do think the meaning of the term "lost media" has gotten muddled in previous years, and there needs to be more clear delineation between lost media and stuff that was straight up cancelled or never finished, like I said. Like, at least to me, there's a big difference between the MMOs like Universe and Online that were actually playable by the public for an extended period before going offline, and Reactivate, which was never finished enough to reach that state at all. I think there needs to be a level of completion (e.g. fully produced but unreleased, like the Animated shorts, or released but taken down, like the MMOs) to really qualify as lost media. -- Cyberlink420 (talk)
- The argument on the level of completion makes sense - it just seems that, at least in the case of Reactivate, it did get pretty far in development, there are videos that show the game in a very playable state with near-finished environments and even elements like the HUD design (which are usually some of the last things done in game development) appearing to have received a decent amount of attention. My vote would still be on treating whether something was intended to be officially released or not as the core determining factor for lost media, but it is true that the degree of completion also seems like a useful standard to decide whether or not it deserves to be mentioned in this page - perhaps we could take both into account then. (FortressMaxxing (talk) 09:48, 30 January 2025 (EST))
- It got attention, sure, but by the admission of an anonymous dev team member at Splash Damage, "we never settled on a final vision for that game and so spent years going around in circles making cool demos that never extended much beyond one or two missions and three Transformers." The way it's described makes it sound like it was nowhere close to anything resembling a finished state, in which case I'm not sure what sets it apart from any of the other cancelled games. (IMO, Heavy Metal would be better for inclusion since that one did get soft-launched.) -- Cyberlink420 (talk) 09:58, 30 January 2025 (EST)
- Hmmmm, I hadn't heard that particular quote. In that case then I guess you're right! (FortressMaxxing (talk) 10:13, 30 January 2025 (EST))
- It got attention, sure, but by the admission of an anonymous dev team member at Splash Damage, "we never settled on a final vision for that game and so spent years going around in circles making cool demos that never extended much beyond one or two missions and three Transformers." The way it's described makes it sound like it was nowhere close to anything resembling a finished state, in which case I'm not sure what sets it apart from any of the other cancelled games. (IMO, Heavy Metal would be better for inclusion since that one did get soft-launched.) -- Cyberlink420 (talk) 09:58, 30 January 2025 (EST)
- The argument on the level of completion makes sense - it just seems that, at least in the case of Reactivate, it did get pretty far in development, there are videos that show the game in a very playable state with near-finished environments and even elements like the HUD design (which are usually some of the last things done in game development) appearing to have received a decent amount of attention. My vote would still be on treating whether something was intended to be officially released or not as the core determining factor for lost media, but it is true that the degree of completion also seems like a useful standard to decide whether or not it deserves to be mentioned in this page - perhaps we could take both into account then. (FortressMaxxing (talk) 09:48, 30 January 2025 (EST))
- As an extension of this, I do think the meaning of the term "lost media" has gotten muddled in previous years, and there needs to be more clear delineation between lost media and stuff that was straight up cancelled or never finished, like I said. Like, at least to me, there's a big difference between the MMOs like Universe and Online that were actually playable by the public for an extended period before going offline, and Reactivate, which was never finished enough to reach that state at all. I think there needs to be a level of completion (e.g. fully produced but unreleased, like the Animated shorts, or released but taken down, like the MMOs) to really qualify as lost media. -- Cyberlink420 (talk)
Just going to leave this here since I don't plan on editing this page, but the Club bio stuff we do have copies of, or at least I do, not sure if the TFWiki Club archive also has them. Escargon (talk) 10:01, 30 January 2025 (EST)
- The Pete article said it was lost, so I'm relieved to hear that someone has it; thank you! Is it reflected in our character pages here? --Thylacine 2000 (talk) 10:03, 30 January 2025 (EST)
- Yes, as far as I remember the ones specifically that were on the Club Twitter were for Shattered Glass Scourge, BotCon 2010 SG Ravage and the English version of BotCon Rapido, and the BotCon 2015 Waruder repurposes, which should all be up to date on their pages. Escargon (talk) 10:24, 30 January 2025 (EST)
Erector's Hall of Fame video
[edit]Does anyone here know if the Erector video from the Transformers Hall of Fame is still available somewhere? I have the impression that it's unfortunately lost but I don't want to add it to the article without being sure. (FortressMaxxing (talk) 10:20, 30 January 2025 (EST))
- It was never screened outside of the 2011 Hall of Fame ceremony. --Sabrblade (talk) 12:12, 30 January 2025 (EST)
2007 Flash
[edit]There are two very similar sections that seem to be about the same thing - one says the Flash elements were gone forever, the other says they were recovered? If these are two different instances please have the second one make that very clear. --Thylacine 2000 (talk) 16:32, 30 January 2025 (EST)
- Is that better? They are not the same thing. One is a timeline that was published on Takara's main Transformers website (and which is just gone), the other is an entire website unto itself (whose contents were retrieved and archived here for safekeeping). --Sabrblade (talk) 17:10, 30 January 2025 (EST)
Foreign dubs
[edit]Hello, would it be relevant to add some foreign dubs which are currently considered lost media? I'm thinking about the French dub of the Unicron Trilogy or both French dubs of the G1, in which many episodes had a dub but have been lost over time.--SoundSky (talk) 11:33, 3 February 2025 (EST)
- Seems reasonable. If it hasn’t been rereleased and there’s no way to easily find it even unofficially, it probably qualifies. -- Cyberlink420 (talk) 11:47, 3 February 2025 (EST)
My Transformers: Rescue Bots Adventure
[edit]I found out that someone added "My Transformers: Rescue Bots Adventure" to the Flashpoint Archive, an always-growing collection of online games, mainly ones using Flash, Shockwave, and Unity.
According to the notes, the game's branching paths have been rebuilt using the TweeVee engine developed by MolleIndustria and that "choosing to not go to the firehouse in the final choice will cause the Water option to appear for a brief moment instead of the firehouse option. This is because the video for this specific scenario is unavailable, however, it doesn't affect the flow of the game."
So, it seems to be MOSTLY available. If anyone else could kindly check it out, see what it's got, and update the lost media page (and the game's page, if anyone has the time), that would be great. I'd do it myself, but I've got better things to do tonight. --Chugway1138 (talk) 20:33, 5 May 2026 (EDT)