Crossfire Canyon

Utopia Software

Status: No Download, Findability: 2/5

UPDATE! – Case closed! Game confirmed as released and preserved by Marco (Exile) Das and Genesis Project. See downloads.

Early days, hence a very short entry. Contributor Jari Karjalainen has reported that in a DigitPress interview with Robert Jaeger (creator of Montezuma’s Revenge), he mentioned a game called Crossfire Canyon.

Originally this was made by his friend Dave Sullivan and he was to convert it to the C64.

Unfortunately neither version has been found, so does it exist? Can anyone help otherwise preserve it? It seems that the game could be preserved at the “Stephen M. Cabrinety Collection in the History of Microcomputing at the Online Archive of California”. We’ll see how this goes.

The game itself was a port of a title from the Vic-20, written by Dave Sullivan. It was simple and fun, where you would control a guy trapped on a platform on the bottom of a canyon. There were two volcanoes that showered a stream of rocks on the left and right sides. You could only run left and right and pick up rocks and debris that lands on the floor. Enemy creatures would emerge from caves on the left and right side – these would arrange in stacks and push rocks at the player.

At the time, Robert suggests it was criticized for being too simplistic and as a result was never released. It is possible that Robert has it still somewhere, but may not wish to release the game.

But recently in 2017, contributor Mark Sawtelle came forward with a sealed copy of the game, which was released by BCI software. We are not 100% certain if it is the exact same game, but hope to find out soon. It’s likely the game may be sold at auction in the future, so chances of seeing it preserved may still be slim. But it seems the game could well be out there!

Case closed!

Contributions: Jari Karjalainen, Mark Sawtelle, Asphodel, Genesis Project, Flotsam, Marco (Exile) Das

Supporting content

Creator speaks

Interview excerpt from Digit Press …. Full interview can be found here.

DP: The article also mentions that at the time it was written you were putting the finishing touches on your latest work. What was that?

Robert Jaeger: It was probably the game Crossfire Canyon which never saw the light of day. Soon after Montezuma was released, the game business suffered probably the worst of its cyclical downturns. It was difficult to get any deals done. Huge companies like Parker Brothers left the business altogether. Even Electronic Games Magazine closed its operations. I moved on to Wall Street as a programmer.

DP: Can you tell us about Crossfire Canyon? What did it play like? Was it finished? And do you still have a copy?

Robert Jaeger: Crossfire Canyon was a game originally created by my friend Dave Sullivan on the VIC-20. I ported it to the Commodore 64. It was very psychedelic, simple and fun. You were a guy trapped on a platform on the bottom of a canyon. There were two volcanoes that showered a stream of rocks on the left and right sides. All you could do is run left and right and pick up and throw rocks and debris that landed on the canyon floor. Enemy creatures emerged from caves on the left and right side. They arranged themselves in stacks and pushed rocks at the player and they would land on the canyon floor.

It was criticized by everyone for being too simplistic for its time. I still love very simple games. I don’t know where it is, but will probably come across it some time. Since it wasn’t my original game, I would not want to release it.

 

Update history

06/04/17 – Added photos thanks to Mark Sawtelle

Posted in: GTW64 archive | Tagged: | 6 Comments

6 Responses to Crossfire Canyon

  1. I bought the game from Mark Sawtelle and i can confirme that the games is indeed Crossfire Canyon from Utopia Software released by BCI software in 1984.

    Will send more info’s soon.

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