1988 Martech
Platform: Amstrad CPC
Earlier in 2026, we added a very early and completely different version of Vixen for the ZX Spectrum, which was being developed by Keith A Goodyer with graphics by The S.A.M. Thanks once again to Dean Hickingbottom, we can now follow that up with an Amstrad CPC edition of the same early development, but in two very different forms!
Like the Spectrum version, this is very different to the eventual Vixen game that was eventually released by Martech in 1988. It provides another great glimpse at how the game was originally taking shape before development changed direction with a different team and the version we know today was produced.
With these particular prototypes, the first version experimented with a lower resolution edition with a very large main sprite and colourful backgrounds. There are three versions, one of which contains some test enemies and the whip weapon, but you’re unable to kill anything. The other two prototypes just have the main character running (one also has a temporary title screen).
At this stage, the game it seems was called “The Valley”, before eventually being renamed to Vixen. Vixen eventually became particularly well known for its advertising campaign featuring model Corrine Russell, which attracted a fair amount of controversy at the time. It’s plausible that before Corrine’s link to the game, it was intended to go in a quite different direction with “The Valley”.
Once the game was renamed to Vixen, it seems the low-res graphics mode was dropped and a hi-res mode was taken on, giving a very distinctive new look and using the mult-colour hi-res mode of the CPC to good effect. The last build has a large enemy walking around and you can use your whip weapon. It seems Martech were not happy with either of the results, and another team was brought in to do the game instead.
Hopefully in time we’ll get to learn more about these developments. Based on the graphics in the background, the code was again by Keith A Goodyer. It’s uncertain who the graphics are by.
To load the files, the BIN files can be loaded by doing RUN”FILENAME . The COM files, you will first need to type |CPM followed by the name of the file (without the .COM extension).
With a huge thank you once again to Dean Hickingbottom for recovering the development and passing it on to Games That Weren’t for preservation.
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