Vinnie's Tomb Chapter Three

Vinnie's Tomb Chapter Three is the fabled third and final part of the Vinnie's Tomb trilogy.

After the cliffhanger ending to their successful game Vinnie's Tomb Chapter Two, work presumably swiftly began at Reldni Productions on the new installment of their major hit series. However, the game was trapped in development hell, and never came to fruition.

Features[]

Not much is known about the game, but the following details were gleamed from screenshots from the game while it was in development as well as interviews with Reldni associates:

Story[]

The following cryptic quote by Freddie Finkle foreshadows some of the early plans for the game. It's from an interview conducted by Reldni correspondent John Morgan on May 20, 1997 (shortly after Vinnie's Tomb Chapter One was released), at which point Finkle was still head of software development.

Being a trilogy the game is one third of a puzzle. The significance cannot be realized until the Sinister Zebras make the scene. It's been a collaborative effort and it will continue to be dark after Samuel Stevens leaves the boat.

Locations[]

Outside The Tomb
Underground Passage
Inside The Castle of Dr. Garfunkelstein
Very Scary Island

Characters[]

Vinnie
Patrick
Dr. Garfunkelstein
Head Tomb-Bot Alice
Several other tomb bots
The founding members of the Jackie Gleason Appreciation Society
Mysterious villain, possibly the evil Ernie York
Green skinned witch

Items[]

Returning items:

Magnet
Sword
Metal Box
Modern key

New items:

Hammer
Old key
Blue ball
Computer card

Development[]

Vinnie's Tomb Chapter Three's development was plagued by numerous setbacks.

On December 2 1997, John Morgan interviewed Reldni President Troy Scott in a Toronto underground parking lot. The interview was posted on Reldni's website, and revealed that although development on Vinnie's Tomb Chapter Three had not yet begun, Troy was "going to try and make it better and bigger than the other two". The interview was concluded when Troy was kidnapped by a ski masked figure in a black limousine.

In Troy's absence, acting President Paul Quinton hired a foreign exchange student by the name of Jon Nyholt as the new Reldni programmer, in order to begin work on the third and final Vinnie's Tomb game. In an interview with Nyholt conducted by Reldni's junior correspondent Jim Daniels on April 24, 1998, he revealed that Vinnie would be rendered in 3D, including his internal organs, and he also implied that the game would be a reboot of the series and not maintain continuity with the previous games. The interview culminated when Freddie Finkle fired Jim Daniels. In the beginning of June, Daniels issued a letter stating that Nyholt had not started working on the game yet.

Rumors of Troy Scott's burial in the Nevada desert were proven false when he was saved by Reldni's head correspondent Freddie Finkle in September 1998, who found him trapped in Mike Alfano's wine cellar. Upon his return, Troy begun working on Vinnie's Tomb Chapter Three.

By 1999 Troy was increasingly paranoid and fearful Alfano would return, so he spent much of that year in solitude watching DVDs in his basement. Although Troy occasionally updated the Reldni website and worked on Vinnie's Tomb Chapter Three, he rarely visited the Reldni Productions building. In his stead, acting President Paul Quinton continued to run the company amongst accusations of embezzling the company's toilet paper, money and liquor.

An update on the game's development was posted on Reldni's website in October 1999, along with the first screenshots:

10/03/99 - Work continues on the third and final chapter of Vinnie's Tomb. Like the first two chapters, "Vinnie's Tomb Chapter Three" will be available free on the Internet once completed. There is no longer any release date set for the game. It will most likely be available in the first quarter of 2000. Reldni Productions is pleased to finally release the first three screenshots of the exciting upcoming game for Windows!

After Reldni Productions went through a reorganization in January 2000, Freddie Finkle became the new acting President, and the real President Troy Scott reportedly continued work on various projects from his home, possibly including Vinnie's Tomb 3. A new update was posted on the website in August that same year, along with more screenshots, included in this article:

08/21/00 - Work continues on the third and final chapter of Vinnie's Tomb. Like the first two chapters, "Vinnie's Tomb Chapter Three" will be available free on the Internet once completed. There is no longer any release date set for the game. Here are some screenshots of the exciting upcoming game for Windows. These images were taken at different stages of the game's development.

Only a short while later, in September 2000, the Reldni company website was taken over by Freddie Finkle and his son Franklin Finkle. A new update regarding the upcoming Vinnie's Tomb game was posted:

Finkle & Son Enterprises is pleased to report that Troy Scott is currently under contract and must submit a new game Vinnie's Tomb Chapter Three to Franklin Finkle by the end of the year 2000 or face a severe beating with a wet noodle and legal action.

Reldni Productions and its staff were never heard of again.