Advertised in various magazines and mentioned at CES in 1989, Curse Buster was a Commodore 64 game which would never see the light of day, with an Amiga version also planned.
The game was to be an action arcade game where a prince and princess are being held under the spell of an evil sorcerer. They must get back to the palace amidst an onslaught of dragons, evil spirits and poisonous snakes. Their only weapon against this onslaught, believe it or not, is saliva. Yes, they must spit their way with unerring accuracy back to the palace.
Nothing more seems to have surfaced of the game, and it completely disappeared. How far did it get, and can anything of the game be found?
Thanks to Anonymous Contributor, it seems that this was just the US version of Puffy’s Saga. I’ll hand over to them to shed more light:
“The backstory is very similar, where Puffy and girlfriend Puffyn (aka Pufyn) are trapped inside a maze and have to get out (See Mobygames page). And yes, they do spit – or so it seems (See YouTube link). Puffy is what appears to be a jumping ball or blob. RUN issue 66 1989 confirms that the prince and princess of Curse Buster exhibit the same behaviour (See RUN magazine snippet in scans):
“In Curse Buster, an evil sorcerer has put a curse on the prince and princess, turning them into [the] most pitiable creatures who are doomed forever to hop through the murky depths of his dungeon. As the prince and princess, the only way players can regain their royal personages is to find their way back to the palace, facing dragons, evil spirits and poisonous snakes on the way.”
So, both games contain two hopping main characters turned into “pitiable creatures”, spitting bullets at opponents and facing snakes and dragons. Sounds like a close match.
Any more direct evidence? Yes, French magazine Tilt, March 1989, reported from CES 1989 – and contains a tantalizing passage:
“EPYX: Any news at Epyx? Yes, there are…for the Americans! Judge for yourself: we saw Skate Wars (Skateball) and Trials of Honor (Iron Lord), two titles in eternal preview mode, Death Sword (Barbarian from Palace Software), Undersea Commando (Bob Morane Ocean), Space Station Oblivion (Driller from Incentive) and Curse Buster (Puffy’s Saga).”
This all but confirms that the games are connected and are American and European editions. Trials of Honor with Iron Lord, Curse Buster with Puffy’s saga and Undersea Commando with Bob Morane Ocean – the French name for the game Operation Neptune. See comments section on this Lemon Amiga page.
All in all, this implies that Epyx went shopping abroad, licensing some promising French games from their European associates instead of developing original titles of their own. The C64 market was still alive and Epyx had a good name to it. After some NTSC fixing, the games would be released under new names. So what happened to the American originals? Ever released under the new names? According to Wikipedia, Epyx went bankrupt in 1989, which could very well mean that all new releases stayed in a warehouse somewhere, if ever manufactured.”
As a result, it’s very clear it is the same game, and a case closed! But can a US edition with the name change be recovered some day?
Contributions: Ross Sillifant, Archive.org, Anonymous Contributor, Stone Oakvalley (scans)
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