Games That Weren't^®

Psyclapse is one of the infamous Mega Game titles which Imagine Software were to release back in 1984. The series was to include around 6 games – with Psyclapse being the second title specifically being done on the C64 (Bandersnatch being the most well known and promoted on the ZX Spectrum platform).

Originally we only had the one entry for the entire Mega Games set, but to be honest – each game is worthy of its own entry. So we have the main Mega Games entry to cover all, and ones for each title that we know of which was due for the C64. The Mega Games entry in particular will talk more about the failed hardware add-on attempt to combat piracy. Here we will focus purely on the games themselves.

Psyclapse apparently got to the stage of a simple demo showing the hero walking while the walls of a castle scrolled behind him. The object of the game was apparently to escape from the castle where an evil villain had transported warriors from the past. Various descriptions in some sources described the main character with big boots and a slight arch – giving a game which was very like one of the Gargoyle adventure games.

The Sprite we managed to salvage from Stu Fotheringham’s disks must be indeed the main character – well, it is, as Eugene Evans confirmed that it was the game’s main character. Maybe Stoo Fotheringham was doing the graphics for this game? Anyway, check out the download and load “Print Nam” to see the sprite in its full glory. It seems odd though as Dawn Jones and Ally Noble were the two designers.

Interesting developments though with Psyclapse and with a particular disk that was found in the Mega Tree set of disks!… it could be very exciting news indeed! The disk is in the SAGE format which the games were being developed on, and recently a working SAGE machine was found – so the disk is now in the process of being read and extracted. It may only just contain graphics, but you just never know what will be found.

In the meantime, we have added some blurry extracts from the Commercial Breaks documentary which we believe show some of the sprites and bits from Psyclapse. The graph paper shots are Ally Nobel’s work, which is believed to still be tucked away safely in an attic.

In 2015, packaging for Bandersnatch was recovered and sold at auction – but both the seller and buyer were very kind to scan in everything and make it available to all. Thanks also to Mark R Jones, we are proud to add the scenario details for Psyclapse which were within the box too.

Could we ever find anything playable for this game?

Piracy was a game being written by a guy called Sean Huxter on the C128 in Commodore BASIC 7, but originally existed as a C64 game which can be found in gamebase.

The game was to be a text adventure, and according to Sean – was actually written. It is yet to have been put out there into the world in any shape or form. The game had an interluding screen which showed a map of the ship you were moving around in the game.

Sean had this to say about that version on his webpage about the C64 game:

“Sometime in 1986 I bought a Commodore 128, which doubled the memory and improved memory usage so I actually had a LOT more available memory to use. I set about re-writing PIRACY with a larger ship, more commands, and the roaming pirates.”

It is not quite known yet if the games were meant for commercial release, or just done for personal fun. We hope to hear more from Sean soon, and hopefully see if the C128 edition can be saved.

For now, check out the map screenshot from the game until we learn more about this entry.

More soon!

Early days it may be as we attempt to find out more about yet another game that never was, we can in fact show a fair chunk of the game via some of its bitmap designs for levels and other bits.

Light Cycles 2004 was only known about thanks to finding a set of images on Darren Melbourne’s disks in 2012. The game of course was to be a modernised version of Tron/Light Cycles, with bitmap backgrounds and full colour drones.

Now we say its early days because we need more info about the game, such as who it was for – and who was doing the code and music. The graphics are some of Ned Langman’s early work before he did the likes of Silkworm and various others. It seems that Ned and Darren had a theme going, with a Combat 2004 game also in production and setting a 2004 year theme.

It is believed though that the game never got beyond the concept images that we can see here – so it could be case closed before we know it. Luckily we have at least salvaged a glimpse of what might have been.

We hope to have more on this game very soon. For now, check out the screens below.