1991 Activision
Platforms: ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC
Atomic Robo-Kid was a horizontal scrolling game developed and released in Japanese arcades by UPL and in the USA by Nikom. Activision got the rights to port it to the UK home systems and it was released on the Commodore Amiga, Commodore 64 and Atari ST and adverts reflect this fact.
However, a Spectrum release WAS planned and Your Sinclair included a demo of it on their cover tape (Issue 64) in April 1991, although I’d seen adverts and reviews in late 1990. In theory, an Amstrad CPC version MIGHT have been in the works but I’ve not been able to find any mentions of it in Amstrad Action. There is no mention of it in Amstrad Computer User besides from a ‘preview’ booklet given with one of their pre Christmas 1990 issues (I cannot find a copy of it but I’m 99% certain I saw it in one).
Despite the demo, the Spectrum version never came out. It is reported that Activision pulled out of the Spectrum and Amstrad scene before the game could came out.
Crash previewed the Speccy version twice – once in their December 1990 issue, and the second in March 1991. Sinclair User never mentioned it at all.
Could a more complete build of the Spectrum game be out there at all? And could anything of a Amstrad CPC version be out there waiting to be discovered? Sadly we don’t know who the developers of the Speccy version at this stage, but hope to find out soon.
FRANK: “The released manual (see below) has instructions for both ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC, confirming that an Amstrad CPC version was in development. It also gives away that Spidersoft was the development team behind the game on both platforms – which narrows down the developer as possibly Carl Wade, Steve Marsden or David Cooke. It is plausible that code was shared between both platforms with Mark Jones as the artist on both (Mark is credited in the manual). If you have any more information – please do get in touch and we’ll update this page.”
With thanks to Stephen Stuttard for the hi-res scans, CPCRulez.fr for the manual and Michael J Archer for information.
Download
Video
Gallery
