An entry into the archives that makes us a little sad, as this was a promising Theme Park inspired game that was due for the C64 from Arlasoft and Nick Sherman around 2020.
Nick had made very good progress getting a playable game up and running with Funfair Inc., but hit a brick wall and sadly lost motivation to fix any bugs or add new features. Overall there were around 32 rides and animal attractions, 20 shops and gaming stalls, 16 features and toilet facilities.
You could design your own theme park, research new attractions, improve facilities, hire staff and more. Much of what you would have been able to do in Theme Park, but on a Commodore 64.
In July 2023, Nick decided to release remains of the game in preview form, and has offered to share the source code with anyone who may wish to complete it. We certainly hope that someone does decide to pick up the title, as we’d much rather that than an entry in GTW64.
Check out the preview from Nick to see what could have been.
Contributions: Jazzcat
Supporting content
Available downloads
- Preview_Funfair (zip)
Gallery
Creator speaks
Nick talks about his game, taken from: https://arlagames.itch.io/funfair-inc
“All the fun of the fair (well, some of it…)
This downloadable version is where development stopped a couple of years ago, I just hit a brick wall and the motivation to tackle even the smallest feature or bug isappeared.
Unfortunately unless I get into a position where I can do my own thing all day every day I don’t see me having the time or energy to finish it, but I will make the code available to anyone who wants to have a go. Most of the planned features are implemented, it would just be a question of bug fixing, adding mouse support and making sure all the finances and RNGs are balanced to make the game fun. At present it’s just a bit of a sandbox to muck around in and try and break :)
Tips
Click on the park gates to open to the public
Place rides etc. before paths as they have a less flexible grid system than paths
The save button is disabled and the settings button takes you to the wage negotiation screen
Other than that see what you can build and what you can break….
Featuring
32 rides and animal attractions
20 shops and gaming stalls
16 features and toilet facilities
What’s In The Game
Design and run your dream theme park
Research new attractions, facility improvements etc.
Hire staff to help the park run smoothly
Manage stock levels
Negotiate pay rises with staff union
Acquire loans to pay for improvements
Set ticket, shop and stall prices
Beat the competition with a profitable and happy park
Choose from a number of difficulty levels”
