An interesting new GTW entry this time from Silverbird, who advertised this game within inlays of other games and also on a magazine advert (where the screenshot comes from). It’s thanks to Richard Hewison from The Bird Sanctuary that this game has been brought to our attention.
The game looked as if it were a Motorbike-based cross between LED Storm, Action Fighter and Spy Hunter – though this was a guess from the single screenshot we had.
Thanks to Torsten, the game has been solved!… The game was sadly never to be as Silverbird went under just before the game could be released. Two years later, the game’s creator, Richard Lowenstein (Who created Twinky Goes Hiking for Firebird) sold the game to Magic Disk under a new name of Topcross.
So luckily you can enjoy the game and not worry about it being lost. One thing though is that the game mentions a loading picture which I expect would have been in the Silverbird version. Does anyone have the loading picture?… But also is there a version of this game with the "Motocross Mania" titles?
Well, Richard Lowenstein got in touch with us recently and helps close the case on the game…
"I was very surprised to see this screenshot, to say the least – since I am the author of the game and never ever knew about any intentions of the Silverbird label to release the game. Nice to learn this now, more than 20 years later!
Fact is: I offered the game to British Telecom under the name of Topcross and sent the a demo of the first level. Never heard from these guys again. A little later I approached some other publishers, namely CP Verlag and Micropartner, both in my homecountry of Germany.
CP Verlag published the game without ever telling me; just a couple of days after I had sold the game to Micropartner. Big mess, I can tell you. Anyway, in the end the game Topcross got published twice… Micropartner later used the game for their compilation Fantastic Four 2. So now you know the whole truth ;-)"
So there you have it!… No Silverbird version existed it seems and there is nothing really to find! Nothing with different titles either. So go download Topcross and enjoy!
Case closed!…
Contributions: Richard Hewison, Torsten, Richard Lowenstein
