Games That Weren't

Not quite unreleased news, but an improved A06 version of The Quill and Illustrator for the Commodore 64 has recently been preserved, after it being realised that it hadn’t yet been done. Version A05 has been around for a long time, but it had only just been noticed that the last version with an improved word parser wasn’t available.

More details can be read here:
http://8-bit.info/2017/04/15/tapes-from-the-crypt/

With the files and downloads from here:
http://8-bit.info/the-gilsoft-adventure-systems/

Thanks to Crispin for the news!

First update of 2017, and a few new goodies for you to check out already.  More to come soon we hope.

Two unreleased games found

Two more final findings on Ashley Routledge’s C64 disks, this time on the Compunet download disks.  Firstly a preview of an unknown side scroller game, and then a full Quill adventure game.

Unknown game , Search for Sex

Another GTW64 update which includes:

10 new entries added

Atlantian, Club JR’s, Downfall, Dungeons of Doom, Ironclad Bastards, Jack O’ Roses games, Mission Survival, Priceless Scrolls, Space Max, The Creator Series

14 updates added

Beavers, C64GS cartridge titles, Captain Planet, Chuck Rock, Dandy The Comic, Exodus, Heavy On The Magick, Paperboy 2, Paranoid Pete, Stargate, The Brainies, Who Dares Wins, Wolf, Yogi’s Big Clean Up

Our 2000th GTW64 entry added!

Many thanks to you all for your support and contributions over the years.  Thanks to you, we have reached a milestone today with our 2000th GTW64 entry into the archive.  To celebrate we are proud to present the full game – Yogi Bear – The Big Clean Up by Hi-Tec Software.

This has been carefully reconstructed from source, with a lot of code developed from scratch to be able to bring you a complete and playable game, thanks to Martin Pugh.  The special development also features new loading screen and end screen artwork by Steven Day, and a specially composed ending tune by Joachim Wijnhoven.  Full story and download can be found below:

Yogi Bear – The Big Clean Up

Early version of Alloyrun recovered

From Ashley Routledge’s work disks, we have recovered an early version of Alloyrun, when it was originally named Antaeus and was intended for Firebird.

A fixed up version of Alloyrun has also been added to the entry:

Antaeus + Alloyrun

Tronscii preview + sources added

Thanks to Damian Caynes, we are pleased to add a new preview called Tronscii, which is a cool ASCII themed Tron clone for two players.

Incomplete, Damian is hopeful that someone may wish to pick up the project, and the full source code has been kindly included.  Read more below.

Tronscii

Various early Ash and Dave variants added

As a bonus, we have added three additional early editions of released Ash and Dave games, with mostly just title/logo differences.  Some interesting curiosities to check out:

FX (Full game), Kinetix (Full game), Poseidon – Planet Eleven (Early preview)

Alternative Software games – postponed!

In case you didn’t see the preview news post, we were hoping to bring you two exclusive and complete unreleased Alternative Software games to download and play, as an extra bonus.

Unfortunately, there are some remaining issues that need ironing out before we can make them available.  We will continue to discuss releasing them onto the site, and will hopefully see them made available in 2017.

Also – 11 new entries added

As well as the above, we have added the following new entries, which led up to the 2000th entry.

Bigfoot V1, Bubbles, Buggy Ranger, Championship Golf at Pebbles Beach, Diskovery titles, Katia, Little People Software games, Number Jotto, Space Wars, Tunes n Trivia, The Brainies

And finally – 35 updates added

And we also carried out 35 entry updates.  Check each entry for full details of the update made.   Most will be minor, with new scans added in places.

Apprentice, Bible Baseball, Bounch!, Brides Of Dracula, C64GS cartridge titles, Caveman Ninja, Champions, Dandy The Comic, Davka Software, Dungeons, Alchemists And Everything, Edward Randy, Forbidden Planet, Gauntlet 3, Giana 2 – Arthur And Martha In Future World, Jimmy’s Grandprix, Jupple Dust, Maelstrom, Orbyte Software titles, Orel Hershiser’s Strike Zone, Play and Learn series, Player Manager, Salvage 1 and 2, Scooby Doo V1, Silver Surfer, Sleepwalker, Sonic The Hedgehog, Sturmtruppen, Sungem Educational Adventures, Suzuka GP, The Last Stuntman, Tour De Force, Transmuter, Trazers, Wizards Dominion, Wizerior 2

And so another year closes.  I am hoping to announce a new project sometime next year, so watch this space.  For now, thank you all for your support and all the best for 2017!

Games That Weren’t has been running for almost 20 years now, with its first on-line presence appearing way back in early 1999. After years of research and preservation work done in our spare time, we are now about to mark to our 2000th archive entry. To celebrate the milestone, we have a special full game for you which will launch for our Christmas update coming soon. No, it is not ‘Murder’ before you ask!

UPDATE FOR BELOW (20-12-16) – The Alternative games will not be included as part of the Christmas update, and will hopefully be added to the archive in the new year.  There are one or two final details that need ironing out before we can proceed with permission.  Apologies for this, but we will have some new games for you to check out still.  Update looking good still for before Christmas! 🙂

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That is not all, but recently we have preserved a number of disks which contained two full Alternative Software games that didn’t quite make it, due to the dwindling 8-bit market. The disks were heavily decayed (a familiar story these days), and the data was only just recovered. No doubt, if it had been any longer – both games could have been lost forever.

Alternative Software are still going very strong today, and have recently celebrated 31 years in the industry – a remarkable achievement. It only feels like yesterday when I used to regularly purchase their C64 games from my local sweet shop and Boots. Their most recent release is Rugby Union Team Manager 2017, and you can also check out their other titles via the link above.

We contacted Roger Hulley at Alternative Software, and he has very kindly given permission for us to add both games to the digital archive. So we will be pleased to be adding both mystery games as part of our Christmas update and as part of our milestone celebration. Both games are (c) 2016 Alternative Software.

Barring any hiccups, we should hopefully launch our update just before Christmas. So watch this space!