A very quick entry for a title which we thought may well be vapourware, but was briefly mentioned in the news pages of Zzap Italia back in 1988.
7 Minutes To Midnight we believe was described by Zzap Italia as having a “Plot about a secret agent miniaturized to disable an atomic bomb from the inside”. But around 1988 was a time that Activision (or Mediagenic at that time) were going through a strange phase of cancelling everything and this well could have been scrapped early on.
Fabrizio Bartoloni oddly found an advert in Crash magazine from the same year which had the game on sale for the ZX Spectrum. Was this related (see scans)?
Then Anonymous Contributor found a reference in Your Sinclair magazine, complete with a screenshot too. The game was due for release from Destiny though. From the text, we learn:
“You have been miniaturised and placed inside an atomic bomb. The idea is to shoot all the electrons before they hit the sides and spark off a chain reaction. Aaargh! Fortunately there’s eight-way scrolling and some top hole graphics to help you out. This one’s out in May [1988].”
As the magazine issue was May 1988, that implies that the game was close to release. John Bigelow was listed as the writer and Destiny as the developer.
More details then appeared in Commodore Computing International:
“7 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT is about three countries AMERICA AMERICA and CHINA who are held to ransom over a nuclear bomb planted by terrorists. Each country blames the other and only you [o]perating as one of the [e]lite Enigma Force can infiltrate the base and defuse the bomb.”
The article is actually a report from the 1988 PC SHOW (see page 98), and the passage (page 100) mentioning ‘7 minutes’ again lists Destiny as the developer:
“Destiny have t[w]o new adventures ready, [listing KING and 7 MINUTES].
Anonymous Contributor also mentions that there’s a 1985 Spectrum game called “4 minutes to midnight“. They say: “If this game for some reason was discovered late in development of “7 minutes…” a name change would perhaps be inevitable. Having all of 7 minutes instead of just 4 would imply a slower-moving game, duly noted in any future reviews. Changing the name late in the process would require some costly changes, perhaps contributing to the downfall of the game. But this is just a wild theory.”
Do you know anything more about this game?
Contributions: Luca Bertoldi, Fabrizio Bartoloni, Anonymous Contributor
Don’t know if it is related but this ad from page 34 of Crash issue 56, September 1988, says a game with the same title was available on Spectrum: https://issuu.com/astarothduke/docs/crash56_sep_1988
Could well be! Same year too, so i’ve added quickly. Thanks Fabrizio!
Hmm, the plot in your entry is still about an RPG….
That’s bloody strange – I remember saving it and refreshing the cache. Should be sorted now! :)
Plot is about a secret agent miniaturized to disable an atomic bomb from the inside, or so the article says.
Thanks Fabrizio – entry updated!