The Alternate Reality series was a huge set of RPG based titles by Datasoft in around 1986, with two titles released. The City and The Dungeon were both released, but the rest of the series never made an appearance. In total there should have been 7 parts.
Considering the engine was probably there, you could assume that the game series was not a success and was cancelled after the two games. If true, we are possibly looking at only one game maybe being completed, or less to look for. But it seems strange, as the Alternate Reality series is quite highly regarded and according to the PDF article from Zzap, it was selling very well. Maybe 7 titles was too large a commitment?
The other known games for the series were to be (confirmed via Aktueller Software Markt. Issue 05/1986):
- The Arena
- The Palace
- Wilderness
- Revolution
- Destiny
The idea would be that the character you develop in the previous two adventures, could be used in The Arena and The Palace, and the subsequent adventures. You could play the games individually, but it was recommended to carry your characters across.
For The Arena, it has been revealed in the CRPGBook that only a design document for the game was produced, with no coding done at all.
We are hopeful that something was started of the sequels, mainly in code form – but any plans/storyboards would be very cool too to give a glimpse of what might have been.
Can you help us find out more about these sequels?…
Contributions: Andrew Fisher, Jason Compton, Nic, Non sono Mandrake
Supporting content
Available downloads
- alternate-article.pdf (pdf)
Gallery
Update history
- 09/09/24 – Fix to credits and detail about The Arena added.
- 18/05/16 – Fixed up a rather rubbish entry (probably written when I was 16) and properly fleshed out with details of the titles and fixed the main title.
I wonder could the engine and dev tools ever be released? Like the way the Gold Box games became FRUA.
according to https://archive.org/details/CRPGBOOK/page/n73 , only a design document for “The Arena” was developed, and no coding at all.
By the way, that “Jim Katcliff” that’s often cited as the main programmer of “The City” for C64 is a bit suspicious. Jim _R_atcliff is credited for Amiga and Atari ST. Coincidence or typo?
Ah thank you Non sono Mandrake – i’ll update the page.
As for Jim’s name – its *very* likely that I’ve just misspelled in the credits, so I will change that now. It will be Jim Ratcliff i’m sure.
There were two other games that were named as well, “The Wilderness” and “The Revelation” (which you could enter at the end of ‘winning’ The Dungeon.