Games That Weren't^®

Odin and Thor released a whole range of cool games, and this could have potentially been another. Lustiania had the working title of “Sunken Ship Game” and was being coded by Robbie Tinman, with music by his brother Keith Tinman, and graphics by Paul Salmon. The game was being developed for Firebird software back in 1987, and kind of sank without trace like the boat based in the game.

Details of the game itselfwere very sketchy, but we found out a little more about the game thanks to Paul Salmon who had the following to say:

“Lusitania – was really the first game idea we had at the nascent Odin; as I recall, Robbie Tinman, Keith, and Fred Grey had just finished the Jack series for what was then Thor (The House that Jack built, Jack and the Beanstalk or some thing like that) and Paul McKenna (the boss) wanted a change of direction with the products.

To this end he employed a Speccy programmer called Dave Thorpe. Dave happened to bring with him a fairly good frogman sprite and a ‘shimmering’ routine, so we decided to design a game around these. I think it was Paul who suggested the story of the Lusitania. I spent a few hours in the library, looking at photos of ships from that era, to start on the graphics.

It was started on the Speccy and the C64 version would have been an adaptation of it, making use of the C64s technical advantages (the speccy would have been flip screen and the C64 scrolling, etc. the sprite would have been copied in ‘hi-res’ (lol)). It was a ‘dodge-the-typical-deep-sea -baddies-while-you-find-the -collectibles’ kind of game and looked to be shaping up.

The game was abandoned when Colin Grunes and Stuart Fotheringham joined the company, and, based on a sprite of Colin’s, we designed ‘Nodes of Yesod’. That project seemed like a better bet, so that’s what we put our effort into. I still think the story of the Lusitania would make a good game – obviously it could be done much, much better nowadays!”

So there is the game, but where can the remains of it be found? Sadly Paul no longer has anything of the game, so our attention turns towards Keith and Robbie Tinman to see if they by chance have anything left of the game.

It will be great to find something, but it could be a very slim chance as time shifts on.

Interestingly thanks to a recent Retro Gamer article on unreleased Amstrad CPC games, Lusitania came up, and it was interestingly briefly featured on Amstrad Action’s cover tape on issue 16. Just a screenshot, but something none the less to show the game was roughly looking like.

The magazine gave a little more information which disclosed that the aim of the game was to rescue millions of dollars worth of gold bullion from a liner that had sank from World War One. You’d have to avoid underwater hazards such as mines and sea monsters. You would travel underwater in a diving bell to try and get all of it without your oxygen not running out.

From the screenshots, it looks similar to Mermaid Madness in some ways, but it would be great to find this particular version. Can Robbie Tinman help us?

It seems the deal with Odin by Firebird had soured (which was to produce 10 games in total). Cited to be due to creative differences between publisher and developer, payment problems and all manner of other issues. By the end of the contract, the company Odin had closed and the various management, coders, musicians, artists all went their own separate ways.

Hopefully this game can be saved from the wreckage which was Odin…

Lupin III was to be a licenced game based on the Japanese Manga series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupin_III) and written by the Magnetica Team which consisted of:

Giuseppe Tresoldi – graphics and game designer
Omid Ehsani – C64 developer
Gerardo Iula – Amiga developer and graphic artist
Emiliano Gusmini – ST developer, graphic artist and musician

The following was mentioned in an interview with the developers about the projected licence (Italian edition of C+VG,
issue 6, June 1991
):

[INTERVIEWER] OK. What kind of projects do you have for the future?

[DEVS] F1 GP was originally meant to be titled ‘Fastest Engine’: we would happy to make a comical edition titled ‘Farmer’s Engine’, with and cows instead of cars. Then we want to gather enough many routines to create a powerful and reliable development system. We even got in touch with some English [software] houses and there is risk that we could finally make real an old project of ours: the game of Lupin III!

[INTERVIEWER] I want it!

[DEVS] Well, planning is at a good stage, it’s all about whether somebody will buy the rights to the character.

Unfortunately it seems that the licence didn’t quite happen – but did anything of the game get started?

More information needed!

A quick one again we’re afraid!…. very limited knowledge on this one, but mentioned in an interview with Antony Crowther, who mentioned that one of his first dips into commercial game programming was for a company called Superior Systems and programming a C64 title called "Lunar Rescue".

We don’t think that this was the same game as released by Mr Chip which is also missing, or the other one which is sitting in Gamebase. But we could be wrong!… Only Tony Crowther I guess could confirm!

It sounds from things that the game was actually completed… but just why it never got released we don’t know. But this could be a great finding if we can locate it!

More soon we hope!

Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 is a great 2 player split screen driving game, and seeing the sequel is enough to make any user excited. The other versions were breathtaking, and the C64 version was apparently shaping well according to rumours.

Featuring levels with fog, snow, rain and in the night etc.. it was going to be big on the 64 too, or we hoped it would be.

The game took so long to code on the 64, that it didn’t make it. Gremlin pulled out of the 64 scene soon after Space Crusade was released, and sadly got caught up with their other game ‘Nigel Mansel’.

An interview from the old magazine ‘Games X’ had an interview with the guys behind the Amiga version and the following was asked and answered:

Question: WILL THERE BE ANY 8-BIT VERSIONS OF LOTUS TURBO CHALLENGE 2?

Answer: “No. The reason why is that we don’t believe we can make Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 sufficiently different to the original game – we’re not going to rip people off. If we were going to produce one, it’d have to be in line with the 16-bit version. However, it was hard converting Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge for the 8-bit machine and in our opinion we created the best racing game ever.”

So did Gremlin change their mind?… did they ever start it?…. what happened?

Confirmation needed on this game, can you help?…

“Pursued by a band of cut-throat nomads, you stumble across an ancient map, showing the position of the mythical diamond mines, the lost caves. For almost a thousand years explorers and archaeologists alike have dreamed of the legendary lost caves and gained the riches they are said to hold. Dare you enter this subterranean nightmare?”

This is what describes the story to Lost Caves, a boulderdash/repton clone with a hint of Indiana Jones thrown into the theme. The game got a release on both the Spectrum and Amstrad (http://www.worldofspectrum. org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0002936) but sadly the C64 version seems to have slipped away somewhere.

The Amstrad version was programmed by Adam Waring, who would later become Technical Editor of Amstrad Action. It was later bundled on a AA covertape with level select option.

The game got mixed reviews, but still it would be nice to find something of the game. Did it get completed?… was it even started?… We need to find develops to find out more, but maybe you can help us?

It was wondered if an actual C64 version ever existed, but Robin Gravel confirmed that a C64 version was planned – as the actual game inlay contains loading instructions and also C64 credits. So now we have credits, we hope to find out a little more about what happened and if anything has survived- though who exactly are B.C.P?? Does it stand for “Bizzare Computer Productions”, who did these games? So far, HVSC has no music for the game – unless it is one of the unlabelled tunes under Sonic Graffiti.

Do you know any more?…