1990 Virgin Games
Platform: Amstrad CPC
In 1990, it was announced that Virgin Games had obtained the licence to produce a game based on the popular 2000AD comic character Judge Dredd on all the major home formats and adverts showed screenshots from all six formats.
In the September 1990 issue of Amstrad Computer User, the game was featured as the cover feature – it wasn’t reviewed in the issue, but it was an extended preview. but it did feature what looked like CPC screenshots, but they were small images.
The game was also mentioned in Amstrad Action issue 67, with a brief news item and a detailed screenshot showing more of the game. The magazine stated they had only seen a static screenshot, and nothing of the game running. Looking at the ACU screens, they seem unfinished and are likely mock ups.
However, the game came out on the Amiga, Atari ST and Commodore 64. Apparently the Spectrum version was delayed until 1991, but that version was considered a GTW until a Spectrum Plus 3 disc showed up at a car boot sale between 1999 and 2020 (I can’t remember when). The Amstrad version is the only version unaccounted for.
Even in 1991, Virgin was still releasing material for the CPC with Viz (why?) and games on the Mastertronic Plus / Tronix budget labels.
The Atari ST version states that the CPC version was coded by Andy Taylor with music by Tony (Tiny) Williams. Andy Taylor also coded the Speccy version so it’s possible both formats shared code. Can the CPC version be found? Will it be worth it?
With thanks to Archive.org and Stephen (Mort) Stuttard for the hi-res scans.
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