If you haven’t played Breakdown before, then you should check it out. It’s a fun and simple shooter/platformer/puzzler mix, which was generously given away on Zzap!64 issue 90’s covermount.
When flicking through the magazine the other day, I realized that the magazine shows a screenshot of a loading screen that I can’t recall seeing in the game at all:
Sure enough, checking the original tape image – there is no loader screen, but just a Novaload screen. I suspect that this was supplied as a separate thing to load in, but because it was on tape – it was just jettisoned. The screen seems to have been done by Jonas Holmsten (listed as “Jon”).
Well, in March 2024 – Icon / The Preservers got in touch, as he has been preserving Jonas’ disks. Found was a work stage version of the loading screen, but also a disk version of the game – complete with level editor, and the loading screen. So here is the screen that hasn’t been seen properly until now:
This is likely what was sent to Zzap-64 back in the day, but the loading screen was separate and not added to the tape loader.
Here is the download, so you can check it out for yourself and see the complete version of the game as originally intended.
Download
With thanks to Icon / The Preservers for saving!
Gallery
Nice to see what J. Jonah Jameson does in his spare time…