Games That Weren't^®

1985 Aardvark Software

Platform: Amstrad CPC

A short entry which is thanks to @nivrig and @ChinnyVision for posting on Twitter a few days ago.

Amstrad Computer User in June 1985 had posted a short news item regarding an Amstrad CPC conversion of the classic Nick Pelling game.

The game had only just recently been converted to the C64 and released by State Soft, which the article refers to and how it suffered from the lower res graphics utilized.

The magazine snippet suggested that the game was due out shortly with up to 256 levels. There would also be a new competition – the “Grand master Frak challenge”, with a first prize of an original Frak illustration, second prize of a cuddly Trogg and third being £25 of software.

ChinnyVision tagged in Nick Pelling to the post, who responded:

“Oddly, I have no recollection whatsoever of an Amstrad version, nor of 256 levels of anything, or a cuddly toy.. :-(

BTW, I nearly added a Spectrum attribute-clash render mode to my Steam Frak reboot: but in the end decided that people might think I was taking the p&ss. :-(“

It suggests that if there really was an Amstrad conversion underway (and ACU didn’t just make it up), then possibly it was being developed by another outsourced team and published by another publisher (like State Soft). Details are unfortunately lacking at this stage, so more digging is needed.

However, in May 2023, contributor Dan (see comments) found an advert which lists the Amstrad version as coming soon.  So its clear that the game was indeed planned for – though was it ever started?

If you know anything more about a possible CPC conversion – then please do get in touch. In the meantime, check out Nick Pelling’s reboot of Frak on Steam.

With thanks to @nivrig, @ChinnyVision, Dan and Archive.org (for the advert scan)

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