Games That Weren't^®

Advertised in Home Computer Weekly issue 85, Yacht Race was a simulation based game released by Hill MacGibbon on the ZX Spectrum, but also advertised for the Commodore 64.

As you can expect by reading this review, the C64 version never surfaced in the end, and so another entry in GTW for Hill MacGibbon for another game.

The game was a pretty good educational game on the spectrum, teaching you how to sail and using all the common sailing terms. The game came with a large map also. Reviews for the Spectrum were generally quite good.

So its a shame this one seems to have disappeared like so many of the Hill MacGibbon games. Only a few ever quite made it, but why?… Was there a huge problem with picking up the C64 platform?

Still early days, but maybe you can help us with this one?

Xtron was due to be released by Diamond Software, along with various other releases, Diablo, Hollywood Poker and Kaos. However, it seems only Diablo received a release, judging by entries on Lemon64 and the preservation site, GB64. That means that Xtron, Hollywood Poker and Kaos are all ‘Games That Weren’t.

The games were due for release on disc and tape, with Hollywood Poker and Kaos due for release on the Atari ST and Amiga, but again I can find no evidence they ever made it into the shops. There was a version of Hollywood Poker on the Atari ST, but by a different company.

Xtron was described by Diamond Software as a ‘Roll playing game’ in an advert featured in Zzap! magazine. Presumably they meant ‘Role-Playing Game’, unless the game was based upon dice rolls made within the game.

Such an obvious mistake may provide a clue as to why the game was never released. The general terminology employed by the advert is quite colloquial, with the description of Diablo starting off ‘It’s quite simple really’.

While this approach would make a certain amount of sense in that you’re appealing to young readers and you will want to engage their attention easily and quickly, perhaps it also points to a small company, perhaps run by only a few people without much capital, and as such they quickly went under after releasing only one game from their release slate.

We don’t really know anything else about Xtron; the rest of its description merely states that it was ‘tremendously addictive’. We do have a cover shot though, and presumably all the Diamond Software games did reach at the very least a playable level, if they weren’t actually finished.

It seems like the story of Xtron and Diamond Software is typical of a number of games companies in the 1980s, where various problems meant that an initial slate of games releases was never fulfilled.

EDIT (Frank): Thanks to Glenn Stubberfield via the comments, it seems that this was a Galaga shooter that was originally released in 1986 by a different company (but with the same name). Diamond Software then picked up and released the game at least on Amiga + ST as Swooper. Co-incidence? It seems likely that this was a plan for a C64 conversion of a Galaga game.

An unknown title for a pretty much unknown game which was brought up by Marc Walters.

This game as you wouldn’t have already guessed was to be a Xevious clone that was written way back in 1984. It featured very smooth scrolling and bas-relief graphics to make it quite an advanced title for its time.

Had the game been released, it would have made a significant impact on the market, but sadly there were to be legal troubles with the game company. In the end the game was indefinately shelved as a result.

Possibly now we could be seeing this game released in the near future, as it has been tracked down and now we await to see what happens and if this game will see the light of day any time soon.

It certainly sounds like a title to get excited about! – Hopefully soon we will have more details about company and coder names etc.

More soon!…

Xeon is another lost game from Richard Bayliss, which was a bit of a programming experiment in Richard’s journey in C64 programming.

This was to be a basic dodge ’em asteroids game, but little else. Richard described the game as “crappy”, and something which he “lost interest in”. Hence the game was scrapped very early on.

We’re guessing that the game would have been little more than just an asteroids dodging game, with some title enhancements and music composed by Richard.

Still, it would be good to preserve all C64 software, so if someday Richard can find any remains of this game, it will be added to GTW.

Still at large, but a possible find one day…

The Bitmap Brothers were one of the first companies to explore the potential of 16-bit systems such as the Amiga, and many regard Xenon II: Megablast is the peak of this.

This vertically-scrolling shoot ’em up featured advanced graphics and a soundtrack by dance act Bomb the Bass. The Game Boy and Master System did get conversions, but the 8-bit computers did not.

However, issue 50 of Zzap! (June 1989) mentions the game as forthcoming, although it states that the Amiga version was due before a C64 one.

By the time they reviewed the Amiga version, a C64 edition was merely possible, but not definitely decided yet’. What we need to find out is whether any work was done on this, and who was involved.

Was Mark Wilson’s tune an official conversion tune? – It certainly was submitted!

Well, Richard Hewison confirms that there were no plans for an official C64 conversion, though Imageworks were submitted a C64 demo of a conversion which was pitched and rejected. It tried to be Xenon 2, but was only a demo and wasn’t too good. It was possibly sent to Bitmap Bros for evaluation, but ties had been severed by that point.

However, Robert Whitaker got in touch with GTW and had the following to say:

“I have a short story to tell you regarding Xenon II: Megablast.

Around that time I had been sending disks of my work to various game companies. One day I recieved a call from Mike Montgomery of The Bitmap Brothers.

He knew that I worked with Ian & Mic and was looking for a team to convert Megablast to the C64. There was a computer show about to happen in Basildon, where we lived, and he suggested a meeting there. These guys were the rock stars of the industry back then so we were very excited about all this. When the day came we met with Mike and his ‘brothers’ Eric Matthews and Steve Kelly. We talked for a while and then went our separate ways, never to hear from them again regarding this.

That’s all I have for you. Just the fact that the game was planned at one point even though it eventually never happened with us nor anybody else. It would have been a tough conversion which is why it probably never happened. Xenon hadn’t gone too well on the 64.”

This all but confirms that a c64 version was being planned, but the idea could have been scrapped before code was officially written. And Ian and Mic the likely developers had it been signed up.

But it still leaves us with something to find – although not an Ian and Mic coded effort, there is a submitted effort which Imageworks received and is lost. Who did this effort, and can it be found? There is a rumour that it could have been David Spicer behind this game, but David has confirmed that he actually worked on a ZX Spectrum edition of the game, and not the C64.

It was unknown whether Mark Wilson was a part of this conversion with his music – as tunes existed, but Mark confirmed that these tunes were done just to test a new music player and were not submitted for use in a conversion.

Can you help us?…

Initially released on the Spectrum by Activision, before being re-released by Mastertronic, Xcel is described by Sinclair User as Star Trek, Space Invaders and Centipede rolled into one. Sadly the game is denied so not available for download on World of Spectrum, so I have no idea how it plays but it did garner average to good reviews upon its release and seems to have fallen into the ‘worth a look on the budget release’ category.

The story goes that thirty planets were created to protect mankind, known as Sentinels. However, as is wont to happen with computers in the not-too distant future, they develop their own conscious’ and become a danger, and surprise, surprise its your mission to destroy them. According to the reviews I read, the game is essentially a blast-em’ up with a few elements of other genres tacked on.

The game did make its way to the Amstrad CPC, so what stopped it from being released on the C64? Both Activision and Mastertronic released hordes of games on the C64, and if it appeared on both the Spectrum and the CPC, you’d have to guess that the C64 version was at least partially made before being scrapped.

Unless we track down someone related to the game, companies involved or the programmers, known as ‘Programming Techniques’, then I can’t see how we’ll ever find out what happened to Xcel on the C64.

Do you know any more about this game?…