Melt: The Lost Iron Maiden Game | The Intrigueatorium - Episode 5

[@haukevb]

Hi, I worked for Virtual Studios and indirectly also on MELT... until it closed. As a quick note, all you said in the video is correct. The game of cause was never finished. The PC port was almost there but Iron Maiden was mainly interested in the PS port. However, that part was understaffed. For the game-play, you aim was to encounter ED in the various levels. You could freely wonder the levels and basically just shoot things. Eddie was basically the baddy and as such, did not really match Iron Maidens idea of ED. There was some cut scenes with Eddie, but no Music. At the end Iron Maiden cancelled the game and as the main stream of income the company folded. Ed Hunter was only started after MELT was cancelled. There was a MELT demo for the E3 expo... Not sure, if I can find it... Thanks for the video, as it reminded me of my first job ever...

[@Tamaracade]

That's awesome and thank you so much for this information. It would be amazing if you could find that E3 demo! Would it be ok for me to ask a few questions about this game?

[@haukevb]

Sure@@Tamaracade. I did find the demo yesterday and just managed to get it to run on an emulator... Unfortunately not with hardware 3D, so it looks very close to the gifs from the original site. Man, it is kind a difficult to play and I am dying constantly ;-) But, all levels are there, but no soundtrack from Iron Maiden, if that is what you were hoping for ;-)

[@Nebucanezzer]

@@haukevb Hi. Amazing to see someone who actually worked on this at the time as it is shrouded in some mystery. I have been researching the band and I am hoping to chat further in depth with you about the game and the design studio. How can I get in touch with you as I have information that you may find of interest. :)

[@haukevb]

@@Nebucanezzer Happy to help. To be clear, I worked at the company as a developer, but not directly on Melt. But, as all developers worked more or less in one room (later two ;-) I was involved. I only met Iron Maiden once, when they basically walked past my desk to test the game in a second room (they seemed happy at the time). I am happy to answer all your questions. I am also still in the process of preparing footage, but I am not sure what the legal implications are of sharing it. I would like to share it :-)

[@haukevb]

I did send an email to your gmail account 🙂

[@Ben_Krimson]

Happy someone finally properly covered Melt. When i was a kid, I made a text style YT video of what i found on the website... which was a bit meh 😂

[@Tamaracade]

Thank you :) It's pretty cool that you made a video on this

[@XimGama]

Just finished watching the video, oh my, the nostalgia kicked so hard here, I remember reading about the news of the band and about the game back then. Thank you, Tam!

[@Tamaracade]

I'm really glad I helped bring some nostalgia here 😊

[@blakegriplingph]

Imagine an Iron Maiden game with the production value of _Brütal Legend._

[@Tamaracade]

That would be awesome!!!

[@MoreFunMakingIt]

Really enjoyed that! Great video. Really nicely put together and written.

[@Tamaracade]

Thank you so much 😊 I'm really glad you enjoyed it!!

[@RetroGamePlayers]

WHAT Goldschläger in VR?? On my 21st bday that was "one" of the shots that put me over the edge lol

[@Tamaracade]

I had a similar experience with it once too lol

[@UpIrons777]

There is an obscure Iron Maiden easter egg reference in GTA - Vice City. Fear of The Dark single Eddie playing bass guitar is in the music store window at the mall in the game.

[@Tamaracade]

That's super cool, I'll have to keep an eye out for it when I next play Vice City

[@rozzbozzgames]

Another really interesting, brilliantly written and delivered Video. Thanks Tamaracde, your up there with the very best :)

[@Tamaracade]

Thank you so much!!! I'm really glad that you enjoyed watching this video! :D

[@TheChadTI]

The detective work here is amazing. 🤙

[@Tamaracade]

Thank you very much!

[@annapocalypsezero4719]

I somehow missed this vid, my super smart brain clearly thought it was the same video as the other maiden one! Great vid !

[@Tamaracade]

Thank you very much, I'm really glad you enjoyed it!

[@Magathery1975]

Awesome work as always 👍

[@Tamaracade]

Thank you very much!!!

[@RetroBytesUK]

A really interesting video, It has me wondering how many games get that far into development only to have the plug pulled before getting completed. It would be interesting to find out why they pulled the plug, but I doubt we will ever find out for certain.

[@Tamaracade]

Thank you :) I really wish I could find out the exact reasons why it was cancelled.

[@nicholsliwilson]

Fascinating, thanks @Tamaracade It’s a shame Iron Maiden never quite got a hit game, mobile offerings aside.

[@Tamaracade]

Yeah it is a shame, but it's still pretty cool that they got some games.

[@Xyphoe]

Awesome video! First thing I watched today after seeing the notification yesterday! To this day it drives me nuts - because I swear I saw a short clip of running footage of this game somewhere in '96 or '97 and I cannot for the life of me remember where and what. I seem to recall it was rushing over a green planet surface, there was a reticule and it was laser blasting stuff - not too dissimilar to what you've dug up here which got me even more excited. Was it on a TV show? Doubt it was GamesMaster. I'm of course beginning to doubt my memories though. Maybe it was just a screenshot in a magazine and my memory has been filling in the blanks? Who knows. I was buying PC mags around the time so it may well have just been that. Anyway, great video! About damn time someone did a definitive vid on this! I wonder if we can track down some of the coders to talk about it?

[@Tamaracade]

Thank you so much for watching! It would be awesome to see that clip you mentioned, I really hope it surfaces at some point! It might have been Games Master, there was an episode with Janick Gers so maybe it was on with that? I tried contacting one of the people who worked on the game but I didn't get a response, maybe I should try again and try and contact the others and maybe do a follow-up video if I can get more information.

[@Xyphoe]

@@Tamaracade haha this one? kzbin.info/www/bejne/oojaaZiBn6iHo7M Sadly it wasn't on that :)

[@Tamaracade]

@@Xyphoe That's the one! I really want to play that game. It's like a very primitive Guitar Hero but with 90s FMV cheesiness!

[@Nebucanezzer]

This was well researched. There is a little more to this and I hope to get something put together on it as soon as I can find the materials I need. There is more stuff out there I know exists which I need to gather..

[@Tamaracade]

Thank you very much :) I can't wait to see what you put together

[@Nebucanezzer]

@@Tamaracade I will try remember to come back here and let you know, Working on something else which is going to be mind blowing for Maiden fans.

[@johnabbitt690]

Thanks for another great and interesting video. From those deve comments, it sounds like they had really over ambitious plans which they couldn't make come true.

[@Tamaracade]

Thank you so much! It did sound a bit ambitious, it would have been awesome to have actually played this game.

[@DubiousEngineering]

Coolio!

[@Tamaracade]

Thank you :)

[@alexandreturcotte6411]

Came because of Dan Halen, and you all? [subs]

[@Tamaracade]

Thank you so much for the sub :)

[@LupusInfernum]

I've seen footage of Melt in action...it looked terrible. It was kinda cool at first, almost like mass effect where you scanned planets to search for missons. You were in a moth shaped space ship and you would be chasing Eddie. It looks terrible...

[@Tamaracade]

It would be really cool to see it in action (even if it was terrible lol).