Team C.U.T.S., aClock Towerseries and related games preservation group, has confirmed that the elusiveClock Tower Commercial Samplerdemo will be included in developer WayForward’s upcomingClock Tower ReWindrelease.
TheClock Tower Commercial Samplerdemo is one of three for the originalClock Towerthat has received little to no coverage online until now. Team C.U.T.S. managed to acquire a copy of the demo when one finally came up for auction again,paying 92,000 Yen/$584.37. The team has since taken its time to explore everything in this unique build ofClock Towerfor theNintendo Super Famicom, dissecting exactly what it is. The team has worked with Limited Run Games and WayForward to ensure allClock Towerfans can enjoy its contents forever.
Clock Tower ReWindwill include all three demo levels from theCommercial Sampler,thanks to Team C.U.T.S.
Understanding theClock Tower Commercial Samplerrequires some background information. Thankfully, Team C.U.T.S. has published a17-minute videoexplaining how it acquired the cartridge, the rumors about it before it got a copy, and exactly what’s in the files.
Interestingly, theClock Tower Commercial Samplerisn’t an early build of the original game; it’s a custom build designed to give fans a taste of what they can experience in the full game. It features three demo levels with randomized elements that help convey the horror the full version can instill in a player.
Team C.U.T.S. dug quite deep and found that this version can access car endings and other main game files. So, despite it being a stripped-down version of the game and having a few variances in background images and music, it’s effectively three vertical slices of the final product.
Surprise!We can now say we’re part of an official Clock Tower release!The Clock Tower Commercial Sampler, a three-level demo ver. of the game, will be included as a bonus in Clock Tower: Rewind!Thank you@WayForward&@LimitedRunGamesfor letting us be a part of this release!pic.twitter.com/euq664Yzfb
The really great news from this discovery and subsequent delving through game files from the mid-90s is that all three of these demo levels will be included inClock Tower ReWind. Published byLimited Run Gamesand developed by WayForward,this version ofClock Towerhas been completely translated from Japanese to English for the first time.
Clock Toweris widely regarded as one of the progenitors ofhorror in video games, and it’s wonderful to see that these files, no matter how similar to the final release they are, have not only been preserved but are being distributed to fans worldwide. It’ll be interesting to see how these demo levels hold up against the originals once you can play them one after the other within the same ecosystem.
