Our next entry is a bit of a strange mystery overall, flagged up by Martin/Stadium64. Although Skateball appears widely available online, no known original physical copy with this version on tape or disk has ever been found.
GB64 and Lemon64 list Skateball as the US version of Skate Wars – though evidence suggests the game was just released under the title Skate Wars in both regions rather than Skateball. While Skateball was advertised and reviewed (notably in Zzap64 in October 1989) as a C64 title, it seemingly never launched under that name at that time. Instead, it appeared roughly a year later as Skate Wars, which was re-issued on various platforms.
Skateball oddly was released on other systems in the UK like Amstrad, Spectrum, and Atari ST, but likely never officially on the C64 from what we can see. The existing C64 cracks of Skateball that exist (some traced back to the scene group Radwar, who implemented the copy protection) suggest unofficial circulation.
Further digging, thanks to Gaz Spence, suggests the release history of Skateball is far messier than first thought. Magazine adverts and news items from late 1988 list the game as part of Ubi Soft’s Christmas line-up for multiple formats – including C64, Amiga, ST, PC and Amstrad, and C64 reviews did appear in 1989, implying review copies were circulated.
However, there is still no solid evidence of a commercial C64 release under the Skateball name (in the UK at least), with the game seemingly resurfacing around 1990 as Skate Wars, which was released across the C64, Spectrum, Amstrad and Atari ST. Planned Amiga and PC versions appear not to have materialised at all, despite contemporary advertising and even PC screenshots.
Aside from a likely French-only Amstrad release in 1989, Skateball remains a title that appears to have existed largely in previews, reviews and unofficial circulation — reinforcing its status as a game that, in its original form, may never truly have been. Gaz suggests that perhaps the game was initially cancelled due to poor sales, and then resurrected as Skatewars to jump on the futuristic sports bandwagon being set by Speedball. Seems like a good possible shout?
Thanks to Mauricio Muñoz Lucero, additional evidence from Spanish and French sources suggests that Skateball was advertised, reviewed and offered for sale on the Commodore 64 in early 1989. Spanish magazines such as MicroHobby and Micromanía mention C64 availability, and Spanish mail-order adverts list the game for C64 alongside the Spectrum and Amstrad CPC.
However, no confirmed physical C64 copy has yet surfaced. If a commercial release under the Skateball name did take place, it now appears most likely to have been limited to France and/or Spain, possibly in small numbers or via mail order.
Abandonware France‘s Hoagie got in touch via the comments to add that Skateball was definitely revieewed and released in France on ST and CPC (and likely ZX Spectrum). The C64 market was too small in France and usually ignored by French publishers, except for exportation. The C64 edition was reviewed in ASM, 64’er – but was that based on an unofficial pirate copy? Could it being pirated be why it was initially not released?
Hoagie signals that Ubi Soft had signed a deal with Electronic Arts to distribute their games in the US, which included Iron Lord, Puffy’s Saga – but also Skateball. When this happened, the game was then renamed and given a new cover as Skate Wars (Hoagie wonders if this was capitalizing on Star Wars or something odd like that).
It may have been the US deal and reskinning that then led to a decision to release the C64 edition and re-release the other versions in Europe. This time, the C64 edition was reviewed in French magazines. Hoagie finally mentions that the original idea of the game came from Alain Filliou, founder of “Les Éditions de Minuit”, a small development house with nothing but unreleased games to its credit.
As a side note, a PC port was advertised – but never game out (as did a Puffy Saga port). Puffy Saga PC was lost as the developer lost the prototype in a hard disk crash (we’re not sure about the Skate Wars conversion).
Given the lack of a physical boxed release and missing originals despite UBIsoft’s prominence, the Skateball version of Skate Wars on the C64 may well be a game that wasn’t – in that form at least! If you have a physical C64 copy of Skateball (and not Skate Wars), please do get in touch!
Contributions: Martin/Stadium64, Gamebase64, Gaz Spence, Mauricio Muñoz Lucero, Marc
Supporting content
Available downloads
- Game_Skateball (zip)
Gallery
Update history
- 02/02/26 – Further details added thanks to Hoagie / Abandonware France
- 31/01/26 – Added 64’er review thanks to Marc over at Mastodon
- 05/01/26 – More details from Mauricio Muñoz Lucero
- 13/12/25 – Additional details about the timeline thanks to Gaz Spence.
Here is what I could find about this game :
– In 1989, Skateball was definitely reviewed and released in France on ST and CPC (the two most popular formats). On ZX Spectrum too probably, and it was reviewed in the UK and Spain. C64 was a market too small in France, it was usually ignored by French publishers, except for exportation. The C64 version was reviewed in Germany (ASM, 64’er), but was it released or cancelled? Or was the review based on an unofficial pirate copy (not uncommon at that time)? I can’t tell.
– Ubi Soft had signed a deal with Electronic Arts to distribute in the USA a batch of games still in development (yet with the label Ubi Soft). It seemed that these games (Iron Lord, Skateball, Puffy’s Saga) came out around the Spring of 1990, after the notoriously delayed Iron Lord was finally completed. They were advertised in CGW 70 (4/1990), and we can see that Skateball had a new slick cover, the new Ubi Soft logo and the new title “Skate Wars” – capitalizing on “Star Wars”? Many European games had their title changed in the USA, after all. It was promoted for C64 and PC, but the latter never came out. Maybe it was not good enough. Ubi Soft did the same with Puffy’s Saga : the PC port was ready but never released, and it is now lost as the developer lost the prototype in a hard disk crash.
My guess is that Ubi Soft used this late US release as an opportunity to re-release it in Europe, and this time the C64 version of Skate Wars was reviewed in France. Maybe the hype with Speedball 2 helped too. The absence of the Amiga version suggest that it may not have sold a lot.
Another point : the original idea of the game came from Alain Filliou, founder of “Les Éditions de Minuit”, a small development house with nothing but unreleased games to its credit.
Thanks Hoagie – that is amazing! I’ve added to the page with credit to yourself, and the US release seems likely what triggered the eventual release. The bit about the game being cracked – that does seem like a possible reason why the C64 edition wasn’t released. Perhaps Ubi-Soft saw it and felt it wasn’t worth going ahead at the time. I recall Ocean’s Plotting was never released on the C64 because of something similar.
Regarding the hard disk crash, the text suggests it erased the PC version of Skateball, but it was the port of Puffy’s Saga. I don’t know what happened to the PC port of Skateball/Skate Wars.
Apologies Hoagie – just fixed :)
Apologies Frank, but it seems that a French-only version of Skateball was released for the Amstrad in 1989, but it did not appear to have a ‘wider’ European / UK release at that time.
Thanks Gaz and sorry for the delay! Just updated the page with a summary of the details you’ve dug up – but I agree, it does seem a mess! Thanks so much for the investigational work!
The release history of this game is bonkers.
The first magazine reference I can see that relates to Skateball is from Page 15 of the November 1988 issue of C&VG, where a news feature mentions that the game is one of Ubi Soft’s Christmas line up and will be available on “all popular formats”. In the same issue on Page 24, there is an advert for the game which states it is available on C64, Amiga, ST, PC and Amstrad (no mention of Spectrum for some reason). It was then reviewed in a number of Spectrum and Atari magazines in the first part of 1989.
C64 reviews then appeared in the August 1989 issue of 64’er and the October 1989 issue of Zzap!
I cannot find any reviews relating to Skateball for the PC, Amiga or Amstrad.
Roll on to late 1990 and we find that the game re-emerges as Skatewars and it was released, it appears, as a full-price game (!) for the Spectrum, Commodore C64, Amstrad and Atari ST, being reviewed in Amstrad Action, ST Format, Your Sinclair and Sinclair user. It does not appear to have been released on the Amiga or PC.
The game would be rinsed out once again on Hit Squad in 1992 for the Spectrum, Amstrad and C64 but not sure about the Atari ST.
In summary:
1) It appears that the game was planned for the Amiga and PC but did not appear to materialise on those platforms as either Skateball or Skatewars. Note that the original C&VG advert actually includes a PC screenshot, so we know that at least work was started on that version.
2) There is no evidence that C64 or Amstrad versions of Skateball were released despite it looking like the C64 version was sent to magazines for review.
3) The game would eventually appear as Skatewars for Atari ST, Spectrum, Amstrad and C64.
My personal musings are that perhaps Ubi Soft decided to cancel the other platform releases of Skateball due to disappointing sales for the Atari ST and Spectrum, but then decided to release the game as ‘Skatewars’, trying to ride the futuristic sports wave created by the hype around Speedball 2, which was being heavily previewed from mid 1990.