Latest news and posts

Champions

Last updated: by fgasking

1992 Konami / Hero Software

Platform: PC (DOS), Amiga and Apple Mac

Champions was a RPG table-top title created by Hero Games originally back in 1981. Setting you within a superhero/comic book themed world, it won a legion of fans, who continue to enjoy the game to this day.

Back in the early 90’s, its popularity resulted in the planned creation of a computerized PC edition of the game, and was set to be published by Konami. According to one magazine article, there were plans for Amiga and Mac versions too.

champions2

Kicking things off, you would set up your character with an initial allocation of “points” given to you to spend. Along with some basic characteristics, you would pick a mask, colour of outfit, power effects and even dialogue for interactions before jumping into the comic book world. Continue reading →

Posted in Amiga, Macintosh, PC, Reviews | 2 Comments

Making of the not making of Heart of Yesod

Last updated: by fgasking

Steve Wetherill has just created a post with details of Heart of Yesod, including the raw original Q&A that was used to aid producing the write up the GTW book. The design document from 1989 has also been typed up and tidied up, which you can check out at:

https://blog.stevewetherill.com/2022/01/heart-of-yesod-game-that-wasnt.html

Steve’s blog also contains a number of articles about his past work and projects that should definitely be checked out!

Posted in News | Leave a comment

Myth: History in the Making V1

Last updated: by fgasking

Following on from the recent console cancellation of Myth covered on the site, team member Grzegorz Antosiewicz got in touch to highlight a series of changes to the Amiga/ST editions of Myth. What follows is based mostly on the text which Grzegorz submitted and after briefly speaking in the past to Robin Levy and Paul Docherty.

Firstly, it is believed there were roughly distinctive three phases of development for Myth on the Amiga/ST platforms:

1. A simple port of the Commodore 64 game for both Amiga and Atari with similar art style.
2. A first phase of change for art style and gameplay.
3. A second (and likely final) change of art style and gameplay.

Phase 1

During the first phase, System 3 had Bob Stevenson on board as the main graphic artist. At this stage, the game was going to be released for both Atari and Amiga. The game would have more colours compared to the C64 version of course, but with the same main hero just like in the C64 version.

myth large4

There were early press previews in “Zero” and “The One” magazine showing this version, where there was going to be picture of girl in the intro, and she would welcome the player with a digitalized voice sample like in the C64 edition. Continue reading →

Posted in Amiga, Atari ST, Prototype, Unused materials | 4 Comments

Rygar Lynx prototype

Last updated: by fgasking

Next up is a short entry for a potential prototype to try and find, thanks to Ross Sillifant for highlighting. When you take a look at the original Tecmo arcade, and various home conversions – you will notice that pretty much all (we haven’t checked every single format) have 5 power-up slots in total. All that is except for the Atari Lynx version:

rygar emushot

Above you can see there are only 4 power up slots, which is fair enough – the Lynx has a smaller screen compared to other formats, so a reasonable thing. Continue reading →

Posted in Atari Lynx, Prototype, Unused materials | Leave a comment

Anirog brochures

Last updated: by fgasking

Several years ago, whilst preserving The Soul Gem Or Martek for the Commodore 64, we also scanned in some brochures and a club magazine from Anirog software. These don’t seem to be online anywhere, so we have added a page here to share this history with you.

wide banner

They give a fascinating insight to what the company was releasing at the time and behind the scenes a little with its club magazine. We hope you enjoy them via the galleries below.

Continue reading →

Posted in Features | 1 Comment

Dark Chamber

Last updated: by fgasking

1989 Rainbow Games

Platform: Arcade

Already we have seen a few entries into Games That Weren’t which are arcade releases that were being done by console/home computer software companies, such as Zool, Fire and Forget 2 and The Living Daylights. However, Germany’s Rainbow Arts was also to get in on the act back in 1989.

darkchamber6

The publisher had produced its very own arcade motherboard called Pluto, which offered 128 colours per scan line and per playfield and with a resolution up to 640×480 pixels. Up to 50 million pixels could be moved per second, and there would be hardware zoom and turning features available.

All of this was coupled with a 32-bit processor at 15mhz, 16-channel stero sound and an I/O expansion area for hardware additions in the future. Continue reading →

Posted in Arcade, Reviews | 3 Comments

Myth: History in the Making

Last updated: by fgasking

1998 System 3

Platform: Sony PlayStation, PC, Nintendo 64 and SEGA Saturn

A fantastic game which I have very fond memories playing on my Commodore 64, Myth: History in the Making was due to be revived by System 3 for the Sony PlayStation and various other platforms back in 1998.

myth2

Sporting what seems to be a similar engine to The Last Ninja (also in production around the same time), the game got hit with delays due to a dispute with Eidos regarding the name ‘Myth’ (of which Eidos had released a game of a similar name on the PC by Bungie Software). In one news snippet in Extreme PlayStation Magazine, it is suggested that the Eidos game would tarnish the name of ‘Myth’ for System 3. Continue reading →

Posted in Nintendo 64, PC, PlayStation, Reviews, Saturn | 1 Comment