Mystery Possibly Solved

A while back, I posted some images of an apparent lost level of Toonami Lockdown. I've come to the conclusion that they weren't a lost level, but a completely new game bearing the name "Toonami Lockdown".


(Not seen in the U.S.)

The UK received an airing of the Lockdown event, but it apparently got its own custom version of the Lockdown game. Unfortunately, I never played this game, few if any U.S. viewers played it or were even aware of it, and UK Toonami fans didn't visit Toon Zone or any other common U.S. Toonami hangouts.


(Cool equipment not available in the U.S.)

There's no trace of the game files in the Internet Archive, so the likelihood of recovery is non-existent.

The only other possibility is that these screens are only mockups. These were produced as previews for Cartoon Network to see what kind of game they would be buying. If so, the finished product was quite different.

Google lists Playerthree as a United Kingdom website, so the first hypothesis is probably correct. Playerthree most likely adapted Lockdown's art assets into an action game rather than a turn-based, RPG-like game.

The Playerthree website recently went through a redesign and any mention of Lockdown was removed. Unfortunately, the Internet Archive didn't pick it up either, so these images and my previous post are all the evidence that remains of the alternative Lockdown.

Lockdown - Lost Level?

Incidentally, the maker of the game, playerthree, has a page on Lockdown which contains several in-game images. Those images make no sense given the finished game. Was there a special multi-player Level 5?











Their website states:

Tied in with daily TV broadcasts on the Cartoon Network, players were fed a storyline on the TV then directed to the Toonami web site to help out - saving the Absolution spaceship from destruction.

On registering, players were allocated a team to play for, then competed and scored points to boost their team's performance. Daily feedback was given on the teams' overall scores, and new levels unveiled to the masses to continue the saga.

Free movement, parallax scrolling, atmospheric audio and a wide choice of weapons gave this game wide appeal to the Cartoon Network viewers, and generated a great deal of web traffic from the TV audience.

Which doesn't tell us anything. The promos at Toonami Digital Arsenal clearly show the normal Lockdown RPG-game and not playerthree's odd version. If there was a Level 5, it was removed after the Lockdown Total Immersion Event ended.

I played Lockdown when it originally premiered in 2001, but I may have missed one day of play. I can't be sure this level even existed. I assume it was a multiplayer level as that would be the only reason to remove it.

Toonami Lockdown

Toonami Lockdown proved the longest and possibly best out of all the TIE games. Select a DOK weight class and weapon, then play through the game collecting armor and items and talking to NPCs. Fans criticized this Total Immersion Event for the lack of activity by TOM and SARA. They only monitor the situation and give commentary. Albeit, the two of them do this very well.

Initially, I was only able to recover the game files themselves from the Internet Archive and none of the associated instructions/images. However, I searched for CartoonNetwork.com domain misspellings and obtained some of these missing files. The result is the Toonami Lockdown Classic Version. The only [minor] files currently missing are two "Level GIFs" (these display the current level) for Levels 2 and 3. I substituted some modified GIFs for those two files, but the fonts don't match well.

Toonami Lockdown @ Toonami: Lost Data

(Click to open in a new window.)

Protip: I always select a Heavy DOK with a medium gun. This maximizes my protection and ability to collect armor while having a moderately powerful gun with decent charge rate.

Protip #2: Each level has a limited number of enemies, so the game is actual easy to complete once you kill them all.

Protip #3: There's also a handy glitch to jump to the final boss near the beginning of Level 4. (Though, the ending screen changes as a result.)



Plus, maps! Most came from the Archive as well, but some Geocities and Tripod websites had them backed up as well.