Games That Weren't^®

Nuclear Sub Command was being sold as a “Realistic Nuclear Attack Sub Simulation” in a 1992 issue of RUN magazine from the US. The game was sold on disk, but it seems that this is one that either didn’t sell that well or never got fully released.

The game was not a standalone title, but required users to have GEOS 1.3 or 2.0 to run the game.

At present nothing of the game seems to have been preserved, so we are not sure if this is game that never got fully released or if it is just not backed up yet.

Lost Media Wiki added an entry to the game based on our entry here, and a contributor called Misca had the following to say:

“I was super intrigued by this and did some digging. I started by looking into VMC Software, which eventually led me to a phone number and a name: Mike Hense. From there, I found multiple posts by Mr. Hense on several 3d game design and submarine sim forums, where he was extremely active from the late nineties up until his passing in 2015. In his posts, he chronicled the ongoing development of his dream submarine simulator; a post from 2002 mentioned that he’d been working on this project for more than a decade, which brings us to 1992, when the ads for Nuclear Sub Command were running.

All in all, I’m assuming that Nuclear Sub Command was indeed real, but it’s unclear if any copies were ever sold. However, since it was an ongoing project, you can find videos and screenshots from various stages of the sim’s development on the aforementioned forums, where Mr. Hense posted under his real name and the handle “Red October”.

Members of the forums where he contributed were very upset about Mr. Hense’s passing; he appears to have been a long-standing and beloved member of the 3D game design community, always ready to share his knowledge to help others. RIP.”

Sadly it means we won’t get to learn about the game from the creator, but there is still hope that someone purchased and was sent a copy of the game. If you are that person, please do get in touch!

Yet another Titus title which was mentioned in a schedule list from 1990 for the C64 on Tape and Disk.

Strangely the game never surfaced on any platform and doesn’t seem to have got past the schedule list. Just what kind of game was this?

A clever name which could have held a clever game too. Would this have been some super platforming game? This could be well something for one of the Titus guys to answer.

Do you know anything more about this title?

A rather interestingly named game, Ninja Grannies was first heard about thanks to an entry on the World Of Spectrum and its own particular entry.

The game was to be a multi-loader, multi-level pensioner fighting game. According to the developer, it was developed in parallel on the CPC and ZX Spectrum and a C64 version was also being done.

The game was primarily intended for release by Alternative Software, though the game was rejected and also by other publishers too. Thankfully the CPC and Spectrum versions have since surfaced and are available to play in their final form.

But what of the C64 edition? Well, Dean Hickingbottom confirmed that it never really got started, and an artist (whose name cannot be recalled) drew up some sprites and backgrounds which were not quite up to scratch.

When a publisher couldn’t be found, the C64 game was scrapped. Had it been started, David Bradley would likely have been the developer. As for the artwork – nothing has been found as of yet, and its likely that it could be lost for good.

J.Morrison Micros was a very early development company that produced games for the Commodore 64 such as Bonka, Cybermen and Vultures … unfortunately they disappeared rather quickly too.

In issue 86 of Home Computer Weekly, another game called Nightflight was mentioned as a new title coming soon from the company. Unfortunately it never did and today the game is still at large.

We know very little apart from the mention in HCW, so do you know any more about the game?

What happened to the game?

Yes, we are aware that Nightbreed was indeed released by Ocean back in 1990… but that was the arcade and an interactive movie game. Ocean had the licence to do three games, Arcade, Arcade Adventure (which never had a C64 consideration) and an RPG title. The arcade and adventure games got a release in some shape or form, but the RPG disappeared after initial mentions in the press.

The RPG game was being developed by Imagitec and was being overseen by David Wightman who was the project manager. The only programmer name we have is the Amiga programmer Adrian Waterhouse. Music was being done by Barry Leitch, but this is not in HVSC unfortunately at the moment.

Thanks to an interview with Kristi Louise Herd at C64.com , we learn that the game was being developed under the name of Cabal. She described the game as being a medieval themed title with full screen backgrounds. Unfortunately it never got off the ground as the game was being written and designed as they went along. Kristi sadly no longer had any of her disks, which were stolen some years ago.

We got in touch with Dave Wightman who mentioned that he had the music (Amiga and C64) on an Amiga floppy that he has been threatening to move to PC for some time. It is possible that the source code is on a 5mb Atari ST hard drive that has not been turned on since he left Imagitec. It’s unsure if it still works. We are hopeful that Dave will have a sift through at some point and see what is left over.

The game was itself was pretty solid as a playable game with all the sub-systems and a few levels in place. It is not quite remembered why the game was scrapped, but most of the actual code was re-used to become Daemons Gate. The C64 code was actually ported over to the Lynx for the game, though it is unknown how much of the code survived from Nightbreed.

It seems that overall it would be the flop of the movie which would result in the final 3rd game being cancelled. Hopefully some day we’ll find something of it.

Keeping with all the hype of the ex-world champion, Gremlin bought the rights to produce the game based on the famous British driver.

Similar to other F1 games on the C64, Gremlin still decided to do a C64 version because of their long absence from the scene and so to do a final hurrah before moving on to pastures new. The other versions came out well, and luckily Nigel won the 1992 championship to make Gremlin look good.

Gremlin decided to print a small form for readers of Commodore Format to fill in Issue 20, saying that they will buy the game when its released. The response was overwhelming for Gremlin, and so the game was decided to be their final hurrah. Even the FreeWheel Logic 3 had adverts for the game on the Commodore 64, with the steering wheel supported on the platform (see scans).

Not much was ever known about the game’s development, until Darren Melbourne got in touch with GTW and shed some important light on the game. It was found that the game was indeed in development, and was being coded by Andrew Bowen, with graphics by Paul McKee. The game was shaping up well and featured some of the most impressive road routines ever seen on a C64. Smooth corners and undulating hills were working extremely well on the C64, and pushed it to the limit.

Sadly, too much development time was spent on doing this road engine, that the title was running late. Gremlin decided sadly that time was running out for the C64, and that they should ditch the game, rather than give it the extra 6 weeks it needed to be completed. 6 weeks away from a potentially fantastic send off for the C64… a huge loss.

Spectrum and Amstrad versions made it, and sold well… and also performed very well too. Although very impressive, they chugged along quite badly and were crippled by Multiload. Otherwise it was a fantastic conversion.

It now asks the question of whether we can save anything of the C64 conversion now we know the names of the developers. It is very possible, and we hope that we can salvage the remains of what sounds like the the beginnings of a fantastic conversion. It will be hard, but we must try and now find these developers. Can you help?

World champion, but not on our screens…