After what was an abysmal conversion, Electric Dreams were seemingly keen to make up for some reason.
Instead of just forgetting about the conversion, a PCW show (Zzap issue 32) had reports from Electric Dreams about working on a new revamped version of the game.
We weren’t sure originally if this would have been from the same perspective, or from a new diagonal perspective which was adopted by the Master System version. It was likely that they would have had a better programming team, or the same team with new techniques to improve the conversion.
In 2011 we had a very interesting email from Kevin Tilley who (based in Australia) had a copy of the Big Box 30 compilation by Beau Jolly. Previously I had found there to be a rather different version of Wonderboy in the compilation (with an enlarged main sprite), but Kevin’s version had a very different version of Enduro Racer in place too.
A crack of this version seems to have existed for quite some time, but has been tucked away without much fuss and named “Super Enduro Racer”. The game seems unfinished with a number of glitches, but it is fairly close to completion and upon closer inspection, we noticed the words “By Orlando” written at the start.
Now Orlando is better known as Nick Pelling, and we needed to find out more. Nick has had a connection with Enduro Racer from the very start – even being credited to the game conversion that did make it (when actually it was Doug Anderson who was behind the conversion!). Was Nick behind a reworked version of the game, or was this entry actually a V1 rather than a V2?
The game feels much much better than the final version, featuring rolling hills, better graphics and better looking sprites. Speed is a bit slow though, but you can see the promise. There are about 5 stages in total too – though you can drive all over the place, and the collisions aren’t quite sorted.
Nick Pelling got in touch with GTW64 in 2014, and confirmed that he did work on a new enhanced edition of the game and this was likely it. It was an enhanced disk only edition which was intended for the US market (simply as sales of the 1541 were low outside of the US). Nick believes it was cancelled fairly close to completion and was never properly released – with no payment being made for the work.
So how did the unfinished game come to end up on a random copy of Big Box 30, when no-one else had that version? Nick believes that it was likely a simple mistake from someone within Activision who grabbed the wrong master disk – why for the Australian version we do not know. We may never know either!
Then in July 2022, contributor Martin Smith found an advert for an Elite 6-Pak Vol.3, including Enduro Racer – but with a note to say the pack would be containing a new version that had been developed in the US. This must have been the edition that Nick created – but did it ever get to feature on the pack? By the looks of it – it didn’t.
This is very likely all that was ever produced, and we’re very lucky to be able to experience it. If Nick had been able to properly finish the game, we could have had something quite special.
Contributions: Kevin Tilley, Tony Williams, John Buckley, Nick Pelling, Martin Smith, Stephen Stuttard (scans)
Supporting content
Available downloads
Gallery
Creator speaks
Nick Pelling talks about work on Enduro Racer V2:
“Yup, I worked on a version of Enduro Racer for Activision/Mediagenic: as I recall, it was intended as an enhanced disk-only version of the game for the US market (simply because at that time sales of the 1541 disk drive were low outside of the US). I can still remember the game’s version of the arcade music (though was that done by David Whittaker? I can’t remember). :-)
However, I’m reasonably sure that it got canned very close to completion and was never released. I certainly don’t recall getting any royalty statements. :-(
If it ended up on a Beau-Jolly compilation, that was probably a mistake aboard the Activision mothership, someone grabbing the wrong master. Happens!”
Update history
- 27/07/22 – Advert added showing note of the improved version being released on a compilation. Did it ever happen?
- 14/06/22 – Further tidy ups.
- 31/08/14 – Nick Pelling confirms details about his conversion.
Hmmm, the version available here looks more like an early preview of Super Hang-On.
I agree Michael – there is a really strange identity crisis going on with the preview. It’s got elements of both Enduro Racer and Super Hang On. Parts of the score are from Enduro Racer, but other bits from Super Hang On. Bikes definitely from Enduro Racer. I’ll ping Nick a message on Twitter.
Looks like both SEGA games share similarities in their score panels anyway. Definitely is Enduro Racer’s score panel – though has that “Super Hangon” text at the top. Strange.
It is a bit strange too that Electric Dreams decided to do an underwhelming port of Super Hang On when they already had this in the locker which could have been dusted down and tweaked, given the similarities in the games anyway.
The plot thickens – Elite’s 6 Pak Vol 3 (released in mid 1988) was advertised as “Enduro Racer features new CBM64 version developed in the USA” https://archive.org/details/cvg-magazine-079/page/n1/mode/2up?view=theater
Presumably they mean Orlando’s version? Does anyone have this compilation to check which version it does contain? Probably either the released version or the same incomplete conversion as in Big Box, but you never know?
That is amazing, great find Martin! I’ll add the page to the entry in a moment.
It could well include a different version – so its worth checking. I’ll see what can be unearthed – possibly someone on RetroCollector has a copy.
It looks like (if the screenshots are from the actual games on the pack) they just put the UK version in the pack in the end: https://retrocollector.org/index.php?page=1&system=1&media=123456789AYZ&publisher=47&title=&box=-1®ion=-1&type=0123&release=995
Ah! I played a cracking version on the big box.
That must be why. ! Mystery solved.
The whole compilation is a bit strange, with the disks containing weird, frozen versions of most games, multiload games missing files and alternate versions of some other games such as Wonderboy. I don’t think a lot of time and effort was put into it. I’ll archive the disks one of these days.
Wowza!.Fantastic to see the legend that is Nick Pelling on here!!!.Firetrack on C64 was all kinds of superb.Huge thanks for the info Nick.Do you feel the C64 was ever really ‘suited’ to the conversion of Enduro Racer ?
Also, i’d love to do a mini-interview with your goodself in the near future.If your up for it, please drop me a line (Frank has my details).Ta.
Yup, I worked on a version of Enduro Racer for Activision/Mediagenic: as I recall, it was intended as an enhanced disk-only version of the game for the US market (simply because at that time sales of the 1541 disk drive were low outside of the US). I can still remember the game’s version of the arcade music (though was that done by David Whittaker? I can’t remember). :-)
However, I’m reasonably sure that it got canned very close to completion and was never released. I certainly don’t recall getting any royalty statements. :-(
If it ended up on a Beau-Jolly compilation, that was probably a mistake aboard the Activision mothership, someone grabbing the wrong master. Happens!
Cheers, Nick Pelling (AKA “Orlando M Pilchard QC”)
Thanks for confirming Nick!
Just seen this. I apologise Vincey if you felt I was giving you any stick – certainly was not my intention to make you feel like that and nothing I set out to do. I’m just here to read about this whole era and hopefully very occasionally (well, 1 find in 7 years isn’t bad? :/\) help Frank with the excellent work he’s done to date, not to start fights :) Peace
You are assuming it’s not an early master – but it’s not out of the question for superior versions of games to have been scrapped and restarted for whatever reason. Just look at the situation with R-Type for that.
Check this page Frank put up earlier in the year:
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2013/04/wonderboy-c64-a-rather-different-looking-version/
It sounds like your version of Wonderboy may be the one referenced on this page as from the BJ pack. They’re not massively different, outside of the main sprite and the skateboard missing in the BJ version.
If I had to guess, I would say the Wonderboy situation is two versions at different points in the game’s development – one version is just more advanced than the other whereas BJ Enduro is a completely different game to the trash that was released. I haven’t played the BJ version so I can’t possibly comment on if it’s better or not but what leads me to thinking that both are V1s is that crucial missing content in the BJ Wonderboy – the missing skateboard is a big thing.
Whether it’s better or worse is irrelevant to finding out why development on it was stopped, or altered – for both games.
Yeah, from what I have found the Beau Jolly only ever released that odd version of Wonderboy with the single expanded sprite, not the version with two sprites and the skateboard. I’ve never seen a copy of the pack with the corrected version, but there is a chance that there could be copies out there. Hopefully the coder will come forward and shed some light some day… if we can find out who it was (not Jim Smart though!)
Enduro Racer is still a very odd one though… Was Orlando’s version the original? Or was it to ammend the wrong of the eventually released version. Neither developer of either version has ever replied to me (i’ll chase again), but thinking about it now – it is very possible that Orlando fell out with Activision and decided not to finish the game… then Doug Anderson came in and did a conversion quickly (ala R-Type).
Time will tell hopefully! :) Certainly Activision really had some issues back around 1987-1988!!
Comment removed as requested by author – Frank
Vincey – neither myself or Hank have given you any stick. I actually said that it is very possible that you had played a different version of Wonderboy than the rest of us. The only version i’ve seen is the expanded sprite version, but I was saying that there is a chance that there could be different versions… very much like it has been proven for Enduro Racer. You may have had a rare case of a different mastered copy.
The more likely scenario is that Activision sent Beau Jolly the wrong masters in the first place. Although it remains to be explained quite how they would’ve sent an early master of Wonderboy and a V2 of Enduro Racer – unless we’re looking at this all wrong and Orlando’s Enduro Racer is actually a V1. Not impossible I suppose.
Comment removed as requested by author – Frank
Comment removed as requested by author – Frank
Comment removed as requested by author – Frank