History Trivia / BaldursGate

** There was going to be a UsefulNotes/PlayStation port of the first ''Baldur's Gate''.

* AscendedFanon: Almost. Beamdog tried to contact the authors of the ''[=BG1=] NPC Mod'' (a mod which greatly expanded the characterizations of the companions from the first game) for permission to include it in the Enhanced Edition, but were unable to. Many fans accept it as canon anyway.

*** Imoen's role in ''Shadows of Amn'' shifted throughout development. She was originally going to stay as a companion throughout the game. When that changed to her being captured by Irenicus, she had been planned to die at Spellhold until fairly late in development.

* UserOperationProhibitFlag: In the original release of the first game, an unskipable ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' trailer will play when you launch the game for the first time.

*** The first one, subtitled ''The Black Hound'', was being developed under Creator/BlackIsleStudios alongside ''VideoGame/FalloutVanBuren'', with both games sharing the "Jefferson" GameEngine. The story would not haved featured any of the characters or plotlines from the prior games. Both games were nearly finished, but Interplay suddenly cancelled ''The Black Hound'' and ''Van Buren'' in 2003 and shifted resources toward ''[[VideoGame/BaldursGateDarkAlliance Dark Alliance II]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/FalloutBrotherhoodOfSteel Brotherhood Of Steel 2]]'', of which only the former was released before Interplay declared bankruptcy.

** Atari originally wanted Obsidian to follow up ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' with a Baldur's Gate III. Unlike ''The Black Hound'' this would have been a legitimate sequel to the first two games. Josh Sawyer would only agree to it if Atari gave them a reasonable development schedule and enough money to legitimately finance the product (which was a sticking point since Obsidian had gotten screwed in those areas with both ''Neverwinter Nights 2'' and ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords''). Atari grumbled over the demands, but eventually agreed since Baldur's Gate was such a well-known property that they would easily make their money back. Even without a contract Obsidian began to modify the Electron engine to make it truly turn-based. Unfortunately Atari ran into severe economic difficulties and ended up losing the D&D license, and nothing became of the game.

* LetsPlay: [[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/BG2/index.html Shugojin]] made a particularly hilarious LetsPlay. Of course, hilarity is expected when the protagonist is a cross between a {{CloudcuckooLander}} and SociopathicHero and the party consists of Minsc, Jan Jansen, and Haer'Dalis as regular members. More hilarity comes from the endless mocking, {{Squick}} and sanity erosion of a trainwreck of a romance mod.

* Atari originally wanted Obsidian to follow up ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' with a Baldur's Gate III. Unlike ''The Black Hound'' this would have been a legitimate sequel to the first two games. Josh Sawyer would only agree to it if Atari gave them a reasonable development schedule and enough money to legitimately finance the product (which was a sticking point since Obsidian had gotten screwed in those areas with both ''Neverwinter Nights 2'' and ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords''). Atari grumbled over the demands, but eventually agreed since Baldur's Gate was such a well-known property that they would easily make their money back. Even without a contract Obsidian began to modify the Electron engine to make it truly turn-based. Unfortunately Atari ran into severe economic difficulties and ended up losing the D&D license, and nothing became of the game.

* ''The Black Hound'' was to be the third game in the series. And with the game allegedly being about 80% done according to a developer on the project before being canceled, one has to wonder what the final product would have been like.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The ''[[UpdatedReRelease Enhanced Edition]]'' was supposed to be an HD version, but the original art, background areas, 3D sprites were lost, hence the ''Enhanced Edition''. WordOfGod from Beamdog explained [[EpicFail that their sole tape backup was stored at one the of the developers' garages and got flooded.]]

* ExecutiveMeddling: Alorgoth, the ArcVillain of Rasaad's personal quests and Rasaad's ArchEnemy, is technically native to the tabletop version of ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms''; as such, ''Enhanced Edition'' creators [=BeamDog=] needed their permission to use him. They were given it on the condition that [[PlotArmor at no point was he allowed to die]]. The [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge nature of Rasaad's personal storyline]] meshed poorly with this, and not only was Alorgoth [[KarmaHoudini allowed to get off scot-free with no repurcussions for his actions]] and [[NeverFoundTheBody get away from situations]] [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat which should be impossible to escape from]], but actually [[TheBadGuyWins press the advantage and have Rasaad killed]]. What makes this situation even worse is that Alorgoth is an AscendedExtra and a scrub by lore standards, while other ''Forgotten Realms'' personalities who were much more important and heroic than him were allowed to be killed, including [[IdealHero Drizzt do'Urden]]! You could well say that Rasaad's storyline was ScrewedByTheLawyers.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The ''[[UpdatedReRelease Enhanced Edition]]'' was supposed to be an HD version, but the original art, background areas, 3D sprites were lost, hence the ''Enhanced Edition''. WordOfGod from Beamdog explained [[FacePalm that their sole tape backup was stored at one the developer's garage and got flooded.]]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The ''[[UpdatedReRelease Enhanced Edition]]'' was supposed to be an HD version, but the original art, background areas, 3D sprites were lost, hence the ''Enhanced Edition''. WordOfGod from Beamdog explained [[FacePalm that their sole tape backup was stored at one the developer's garage and was flooded.]]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The ''[[UpdatedReRelease Enhanced Edition]]'' was supposed to be an HD version, but the original art, background areas, 3D sprites were lost, hence the ''Enhanced Edition''. WordOfGod explained [[FacePalm that their sole tape backup was stored at one the developer's garage and was flooded.]]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The ''[[UpdatedReRelease Enhanced Edition]]'' was supposed to be an HD version, but the original art for the areas were lost, hence the ''Enhanced Edition''.

* UserOperationProhibitFlag: In the original release of the first game, an unskipable ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' trailer will play. This only happened on the first launch of the game.

* LetsPlay: [[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/BG2/index.html Shugojin]] made a particularly hilarious LetsPlay. Of course, hilarity is expected when the protagonist is a cross between a {{CloudcuckooLander}} and SociopathicHero and the party consists of Minsc, Jan Jansen, and Haer'Dalis as regular members. More hilarity comes from the endless mocking , {{Squick}} and sanity erosion of a trainwreck of a romance mod.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The ''[[UpdatedReRelease Enhanced Edition]]'' was supposed to he an HD version, but the original art for the areas were lost, hence the ''Enhanced Edition''.
** In addition to recruitable [=NPC=] romances that didn't get implemented, in [=BG2=] Solaufein was meant to be a recruitable [=NPC=] that was dropped at the last minute. Some indications are that Garren Windspear's child (a male, Tarr, if your PC was female; a daughter, Iltha, if your PC was male) was possibly [[http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/19051/bg2-malchor-harpell meant to be another romance option]] and also recruitable. The [=NPC=] Durlyle (if PC is female) or Delainy (if PC is male) was meant to have a bigger romance role than the brief flirtation that was actually implemented in ''Tales of the Sword Coast''.

** There are also plot threads that were suddenly dropped with no resolution, such as the mysterious vial the kobolds carried in the Nashkel mines.