Rimini, Mare Azzurro

1988 Simulmondo

Platform: Commodore Amiga

Before Simulmondo became famous for sports titles, comic book licences and adventures, the company had grander ambitions for its debut line-up. One of the earliest announced projects was Rimini, Mare Azzurro (also referred to as Rimini, Blue Sea), a graphic adventure that unfortunately never progressed beyond planning stages.

The title appeared in previews during 1988, including MC Microcomputer issue 73, where it was presented alongside several of Simulmondo’s other forthcoming projects. At the time, the game was described as being well underway, featuring digitised graphics in the style of Déjà Vu and taking place in the Italian seaside resort of Rimini during the 1950s. The intention was to create a murder mystery or thriller with a distinctly Italian setting, something quite unusual for the period.

Behind the scenes, the situation was rather different. In a detailed retrospective on Simulmondo’s history, Genesis Temple uncovered through interviews with former staff that the game had little more than a title and a loose premise. Federico Croci, who was handling public relations and contributing to the storyline, recalled that many of Francesco Carlà’s early game ideas existed only as rough concepts discussed over dinner or scribbled onto napkins before being announced to the press.

Rimini, Mare Azzurro was one such project, promoted enthusiastically despite barely having entered development. A later academic study on Simulmondo’s history also revealed that the project formed part of the company’s earliest editorial plans, discussed around the time of the first Simulmondo Party in 1988, where developers were assigned projects from Carlà’s growing list of ideas.

The Genesis Temple interviews also revealed that development duties were intended to fall to brothers Giuseppe and Gianluca Orofino after they responded to one of Simulmondo’s recruitment adverts published in MC Microcomputer. The pair submitted a demonstration of their own fantasy adventure, Mystere, which impressed Francesco Carlà enough that they were asked to adapt its interface for the new project instead.

According to Giuseppe Orofino, there was no completed game design to work from, merely a title and a vague crime or thriller setting. Gianluca Orofino later joked that, in search of inspiration, they even rented the comedy film Rimini Rimini in the hope of finding scenery that could be digitised into the game, despite neither brother having ever visited the Adriatic coast themselves.

Interestingly, the interviews also revealed that the screenshots published in MC Microcomputer did not originate from the Orofino brothers’ work. This suggests that the images shown to readers were either mock-ups or came from an earlier internal concept, further demonstrating how little of the project had actually been created at the time.

Eventually the brothers abandoned the project altogether, with Mystere later resurfacing in 1990 under rival Italian publisher Genias. According to Ivan Venturi, Rimini, Mare Azzurro was one of around fifteen projects proposed during Simulmondo’s early planning, but like many of the company’s more ambitious concepts, it proved too technically ambitious to realise at the time.

In a later interview with Retrogaming Planet, Francesco Carlà reflected on Rimini, Mare Azzurro as one of Simulmondo’s very first planned titles. He explained that he ultimately chose to concentrate the company’s efforts on sports games instead, believing they represented a stronger commercial opportunity than an Amiga-exclusive graphic adventure in the Italian market.

During this early period, work had even begun on a revised Simulmondo logo for the project, based on an original sketch by renowned Italian designer Massimo Iosa Ghini. Carlà also recalled that although Rimini, Mare Azzurro never progressed, elements of its concept later influenced Italian Night, particularly the desire to set an adventure in an Italian city rather than the more familiar locations of New York or Los Angeles. The decision led directly to Simulmondo’s early releases such as Bocce, Simulgolf and Italy ’90 Soccer, while Rimini, Mare Azzurro quietly disappeared.

Sadly, nothing playable is known to survive today. It was not alone either, with other ambitious concepts from the same period such as Mussolini Age and Francy Frigo also failing to progress beyond the planning stage. As several former Simulmondo developers have reflected over the years, many of these ideas were simply ahead of what was technically or commercially practical for the studio. Hopefully something from these intriguing projects may yet surface one day, as strange things can happen.

With thanks to Fabrizio Bartoloni for highlighting the game, and to Damiano Gerli at The Genesis Temple and Robert Grechi at Retrogaming Planet for their extensive research and interviews documenting the early history of Simulmondo.

Sources

• http://fondazione.cinetecadibologna.it/files/archivi/videoludico/tesi/Cirica_Simulmondo.pdf
• https://genesistemple.com/it/la-storia-di-simulmondo-la-prima-software-house-italiana-parte-1
• https://www.retrogamingplanet.it/intervista-a-francesco-carla-una-vita-per-il-simulmondo/

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