Games That Weren't^®

Manic Miner spawned many a clone back in its day, but eventually it began to dry up, until remakes on the PC began to have their day. Ste Pattullo however felt there was still room for another Manic Miner clone, and began work on the simply titled "Platform Mania".

The game was first heard about by those who paid particular attention to the text on Limbo 2, one of Ste’s previous games on the Commodore Disk User covermount. Platform Mania was to be coming soon, but was never heard of again.

For some time, GTW has been aware of the game and had attempted to contact Ste with no results sadly. However, Ste himself got in touch by pure chance after doing a search on the net, and prompty posted us a load of his work on a few old C64 disks. On there was the long lost Platform Mania and what remained of it.

Already we have described the game as a Manic Miner clone, and that it is, with multi-colour based graphics and interesting little sprites. You essentially control a pink blob that you must get to collect various little objects on a single screen, then proceed to the exit.

The game is in it’s fairly early stages, and is quite bugged at the moment. Platform jumping is not 100% accurate, and there seems to be a few features not working, such as an interesting 2 player mode, which is quite intriguing (We will ask Ste more about this feature soon to find out how this would have worked in the game). Also there seems to be some graphic corruption in places, but otherwise the game is playable and working. You can complete the various levels which are present (We believe there are around 10 in total). When you die, thats it… you will have to reset the game… Lives and restart points had not been coded into the game at this stage.

Separate from the game was the title screen, but unlinked. Thanks to Jazzcat, we also offer a single file fixed version which has the title screen. Press space to go into the game.

It is not quite known yet why the game was never finished or released. We are guessing that the joining with Digital Magic might have helped shelve this project, and by the time Ste came back, the C64 had died out. Confirmation on this soon.

Although you should not expect a full game which will keep you burning the midnight oil, it is great to see this lost work and preserve it for people to see. Check it out and take a look and wonder "What if", just like with many of the other titles we’ve covered so far…

Good early start of a Manic Miner clone… unfortunately never quite made it…

A nice looking sideways shooter, in it’s early stages but showing some promise. A few attack waves, and a repetitive map is all that this preview really consists of, indicating what was going to be, and giving rise to some expectation that we could be seeing a nice little blaster.

Originally the game was leaked to the world in 1995 by Genesis Project, and in 2017 – a new tidied up version, with SFX demo was released. We have added this version here for you to check out. Sound was tidied up and stopped from running in the background (a carry over from the intro). The title tune for the game has also been added to the intro.

The exact plan for the game is unknown at present, and nothing was really mentioned about this game in any magazines. Hopefully the developers will get in touch some day and shed a bit more light about the game.

A lot more information needed on this game, and soon if anything is to be found out on it. This is probably as far as it ever got!

More soon hopefully from the developers.

A very early preview of a sideways shoot-em-up, with no enemies or anything much to look at, apart from some backgrounds which scroll past.

The backgrounds are corrupted, with the wrong colours set up, so not really convincing many that this is the next Armalyte.

Given credit that the programmer has mentioned that this is an early preview, it can be noted that the preview isn’t too bad for a start. The main critism would be the size of the game area, with half the screen taken up by the logo and scores.

It’s not known how much more the programmer did to this game, before it was eventually left to sit on the scrap heap. Hopefully Overhead can be found, and more questions can be asked about this little preview.

Early stages this one so far… any more of it?…

Another early preview, with some nice graphics, but not enough to give an indication what this game plays like.

The actual preview consists of a start screen, which seems to be in a hanger, and 4 end of level bosses (Which are accessible from the start of the game). There are no actual levels to play through, with no enemies or anything.

The game seems to be a space SEU, but then it could be anything. What is strange, is the fact that the end of level baddies are present in this game, and nothing of the actual levels. Very bizzare indeed.

The end bosses are fairly good, and well.. thats about it. Nothing else is actually known about the game, apart from that it features some music by Chris Huelsbeck. (Ripped from somewhere I think)

More information needed on this one…

Many moons ago in the pages of Commodore Scene, their news pages stated about a game being created called Pimple Panic for the C64 by Megastyle. Nothing was ever heard of about the game again, until Ruben Spaans came forward with the following info and confirming the game:

“An action game where the player controls a hand navigating over a face where the purpose is to squeeze pimples. Some coding was done (not sure if it was playable, don’t remember), but I think all the graphics were done (done by Crockett/Space-Roy, I think).

I’ll see if I can find Pimple Panic. However, I’m afraid I have to search through my physical 5,25″ disks, as I haven’t found the game so far in my .d64 files. They are stored at my mother’s place, so I won’t be able to access these disks until Easter or maybe the summer.”

Well, in 2013 – Ruben managed to find the game. Although its unfinished, it’s playable. You can squeeze pimples (though you have to be precisely in the middle), and there is only one level which you cannot complete. Pimples just appear quicker and all over the place until the sprite multiplexer cannot handle it. It’s a good glimpse of what could have been. We are not sure just yet why the game was cancelled.

Additionally, the download we have here also includes the source code in turbo assembler, artwork for additional levels and more tunes.

It’s another title saved from obscurity – just a shame it never quite got completed! Enjoy!