1992 Ocean Software
Platforms: Amstrad GX4000, 464 Plus, 6128 Plus
Like the first two films before it, Ocean Software got the licence to produce a game based on the underrated third Robocop film and it would famously come out two years before the film would (due to the studio Orion Pictures going bankrupt).
The 16 bit formats got a beautiful 3D game (which despite what people say still stands out today) while the C64 and Spectrum got 2D platform affairs. It never came out on the Amstrad.
But, in their October 1990 (Issue 73) issue, Amstrad Action announced that Ocean were to release the game on the Amstrad for the ill fated cartridge format for GX4000 and Plus machines (not again! I already missed out on Robocop 2 because I had a normal 464 at the time).
In the meantime, all the other formats came out (including a cartridge for the Commodore 64) and nothing showed up of the Amstrad version.
It would be mentioned again in Amstrad Action Issue 79 (April 1992) where a brief news article stated from Ocean press bloke Ken Lockley : “Well, Space Gun and Robocop 3 are virtually finished. They’ll be out in March, and we’ll get review copies to AA in time for nest month’s issue.” The same comment also mentioned Hook and The Addams Family (the former didn’t come out on the CPC but that’s another story while the latter did)
Issue 80 came but no review. It would be mentioned in AA 81 where in a chat with Ocean, Ken Lockley stated that “That’s not going to be on cartridge anymore, due to some problems encountered, but it will be on disc for the 6128+”. When asked if it was an issue due to the 128k cartridge limit, Ken stated he didn’t know. This would be a very strange decision as it strongly limited the customer base – with a cartridge release, Ocean could sell to owners of the GX4000 and 464 Plus in addition to 6128 Plus owners but the majority of the CPC owners then still used the normal machines.
The game would not be mentioned again until a mention in a later Amstrad Action (in an issue I can’t find right now) mentioned that the stupid idea had been scrapped, although Space Gun would also see it’s cartridge release scrapped in favour of disc for the 6128 Plus, which actually DID come out.
We know Probe Software were behind the C64 and Spectrum versions so was it possible they were behind the Amstrad version. Spectrum Computing lists Dominic Wood), Hugh Binns, Tony Williams, Jeroen Tel as the team behind the Spectrum version so could they have worked on this one?
The decision to bring it on disc only for the 6128 Plus was also a weird one. The Addams Family (reviewed in AA 81 with demo) was also a 128k only game but it did come out on tape and disc for the regular CPC range, although that was not a popular decision, especially when AA featured a demo of it a lot of people (myself) couldn’t play). It also put paid to the lie that Amstrad spread that the Plus features could only be accessed on cartridge games although the developers of Codemasters’ Stryker proved otherwise.
Ken Lockley mentioned many times times that seemed certain that the game was complete, so does anything exist? I’ve tried to locate the people mentioned above but currently to no avail.
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