A very quick entry for a title which had a very quick mention in a PC Show 88 document given away with The Games Machine issue 10.
The game was to be released by Big Apple Entertainment in 1988, and was promised to be an epic shoot’em up for the Spectrum, C64, Amiga and ST.
Sadly the game never quite made it on any platform. The only Big Apple game to surface was Oops! Did the company go under before it could release anything else?
Well, Nick Fitzsimons who was working on the PC and ST ports of Oops said that his conversions never made it due to Big Appel getting taken over by a larger conglomerate, and getting closed down swiftly afterwards due to not making any profit.
Thanks to contributor Bugjam, we learn that Sarah Jane Avory was the developer and seems to still have the game in some form. It seems that it got quite far, and there is a possibility that it could even be finished for release in the future.
You can read more at https://sarahjaneavory.wordpress.com/2017/09/02/old-games-good-times-sad-times/
Fabrizio Bartoloni also highlighted that Sarah gave this update recently:
I’ve been thinking about Delphian, an old finished but unreleased #C64 game of mine, and how to make it work on a 512k cartridge. Can make it run much faster than the original by using lots of ROM tables: https://twitter.com/SarahJaneAvory/status/1248910376395247616
Original #C64 Delphian was a 3D space trader using large resizing sprites. You could land on planets and walk around, even entering shops to buy items. It’s on my #C64 to-do list.
https://twitter.com/SarahJaneAvory/status/1248910377930444806
Exciting times!
Contributions: Iain Black, Nick Fitzsimons, Bugjam, Fabrizio Bartoloni
Supporting content
Update history
- 17/10/20 – Update from the author.
- 29/11/17 – Contribution to confirm coder + link about the development
There is couple tweets from her:
“I’ve been thinking about Delphian, an old finished but unreleased #C64 game of mine, and how to make it work on a 512k cartridge. Can make it run much faster than the original by using lots of ROM tables…”: https://twitter.com/SarahJaneAvory/status/1248910376395247616
Original #C64 Delphian was a 3D space trader using large resizing sprites. You could land on planets and walk around, even entering shops to buy items. It’s on my #C64 to-do list…
https://twitter.com/SarahJaneAvory/status/1248910377930444806
Thanks Fabrizio, have added to the main content!
Check this blog by the author of the C64 version great news there:
https://sarahjaneavory.wordpress.com/2017/09/02/old-games-good-times-sad-times/
That’s superb news – hope it gets seen some day!
I can confirm that Big Apple closed before releasing anything other than “Oops!”, and not even all versions of that. I worked for a company that did cross-platform conversions under contract to a number of publishers including Big Apple, and I coded the PC and ST ports of “Oops!” while a colleague did the Amiga port. I don’t think any of those three ports ever made it to market.
Big Apple was a sideline of a large holding company with fingers in many pies. As I recollect, the parent company was itself taken over by a larger conglomerate, and Big Apple was closed immediately as it hadn’t yet generated any profits.
Thanks Nick, just added that to the review now. Really appreciated!