It's always interesting to see stories of '90s game development get revealed on social media, and today, we've got our second helping of Pickford Brothers-related trivia.
Following the news that Plok was almost on the Mega Drive, here's a new titbit relating to Equinox, a 1993 SNES title that was a sequel to the 1990 NES outing Solstice.
Like the 8-bit game, Equinox employed an isometric perspective to give the impression of 3D depth. Acclaimed upon release, it is considered to be one of the better action adventures for the system and has become something of a cult classic over time.
Siblings Ste and John Pickford were responsible for the bulk of the work on the game, including the programming, design, and visuals. Despite the high regard in which Equinox is held today, John Pickford has revealed on Twitter that he was "pissed" about the large volume of content removed from the final release – even going as far as to slip 'Directed by Alan Smithee' in the end credits.
In case you're not aware, Alan Smithee is a pseudonym used by movie directors who wish to distance themselves from one of their projects, usually because the end result does not reflect their initial aims.
In a conversation on Twitter, former Software Creations staffer Kevin Edwards raised this choice with Pickford before adding that he was aware that Equinox took a long time to reach store shelves.
"That was down to Nintendo being daft," replies Pickford, and then clarifies that the cut content was the fault of Sony Imagesoft, the game's publisher. "There was a whole RPG story element with NPC conversations, villages, etc. Sony chopped it to get the game done quicker."