Games That Weren't^®

Text adventure from Kayde who went into administration at the 26th August 1983. Did Spectrum releases, tried to do C64 and Vic 20 ones, which never seemed to surface.

The game in the advert (Two adverts were submitted by Peter Weighill) was described as follows:

“The day seemed to be absolutely perfect. The two of us floating happily along in our balloon. Not a single cloud in sight. I suppose it lulled us into a false sense of security. The storm blew up from nowhere and before we knew it, we were fighting for our lives. There was nowhere to land, just the sea below us. What is the object you can see on the rock in the middle of the lagoon?”

Thanks to contributor JDP, we have learnt that the game was actually released on the Spectrum – though it seems the version here was found via a re-release, and it isn’t quite known if the Kayde version actually got a release. The guys at CASA actually fixed the Spectrum version as there was a fatal error in the code. The fixed version can be found here.

It suggests that the C64 version may never have sneaked out at all, and so we could be looking for an unfinished conversion.

Can you help?

The third and final part of the Horace trilogy was sadly never to be on the C64. Indeed the game was planned, but it kind of fell by the wayside, and as far as we know… nothing was ever actually started, even though a C64 conversion was mentioned once a in a C64 magazine (We are guessing pure speculation, and no fact).

Even though Spectrum versions did manage to make it out, by the time any C64 version was contemplated, the game was seen as quite dated, as Gregg Barnett explains:

"I don’t think this was seriously considered as a C64 port. Things had moved on by then – we’d done Fist and ported the Hobbit, both mega sellers compared to the Horace games. It was clear that bigger things could be done on the 64. Hence Horace was fondly retired, a game series that belonged in the early days of home computer games."

So was maybe a sprite ported, or anything of the game started?… Gregg does not know, but its widely believed that a conversion never got anywhere apart from a possible planned conversion.

Maybe someone will port the Spectrum game in modern times, but this is one official game we are likely never to see…

Case closed…

Apparently not to be confused with the release by Golden Games back in the same year, or is it? … We’re not too sure, but it seems a co-incidence that there would be two Hollywood Poker games released around the same time. Later on in 1989 it seems that Reline also released a Hollywood Poker game called Hollywood Poker Pro.

We believe that this game could be the Hollywood Poker Pro game, as ReLine also released a game called "K.A.O.S", which was a Diamond Software game too. It could be that the game was heavily beefed up and released sometime later (Maybe the original game didn’t feature digitized pictures?)

We have no clue what has happened here exactly, but we are guessing that maybe ReLine took over Diamond at somepoint, or were the same company. The only game in Gamebase listed under Diamond Software, is Diablo which you will see on the scan.

Seems like we need someone from Diamond/Reline to find out more… are we looking for an early version of the poker game (from its Diamond Software days) or is it exactly the same game, and therefore another case to close?…

Do you know more about this one?…

A very quick entry, and which was ever so briefly mentioned by Darren Melbourne when discussing Carl Coffey’s programming past.

Carl as you may recall is the programmer of the first version of Soldier of Light, and also of the enhanced SEUCK game called Wheelies.

His talent was apparently very good, and even in 1984 the talent was evident in a game about a winged Gyphon type creature called Hobey Joe.

For reasons unknown the game never surfaced, and has gathered dust for many years.

However in recent times we have been in touch with Carl and as well as hoping to recover more of the first version of Soldier of Light, we are hoping to recover this promising game too!

For now we wait and hope that something is recovered.

What happened to this game?

Never to be released, Hijack was a side-on strategy game to be released by Electric Dreams (A division of Activision). This was an interesting game which did fairly well, and was recieved on the Amstrad and Spectrum platforms.

However, the planned C64 conversion was never to surface for reasons unknown today.

A review in Powerplay magazine in Germany confirms that a C64 version was done – with the magazine mentioning C64 under the list of platforms. So just what did happen to the C64 conversion, was it finished?

This entry is particularly interesting as the gamewas mentioned in “Illegal” pirate fanzine as something seen at PC 1988 show (or so it seems) by SSD of Cosmos.

We are lacking a lot of information so far on this game and could do with some new findings – Do you know any more about this game?

What happened to this conversion?…

Highway Blaster was to be a new title from Italian label Genias for 1992.

The game was mentioned in “C+VG Annuario 1992”, an addon to “C+VG” issue 11, December 1991…
http://ready64.org/articoli /leggi/idart/30/-rivista -panorama-del-software-ludico -nazionale

Stefan Roda, software manager in Genias, taked about two WIP titles which included "Highway Blaster". The game was heavily inspired by the coin-op “Road Blaster” – hence the name I guess!

Not much more is known about the game apart from this, but we assume that Genias went under or left the C64 market and as a result this game never managed to see the light of day. Who were the programmers?, were they behind previous Genias titles?

Well, we got hold of Stefan Roda, who sadly confirmed that nothing of the game was started. He left Genias shortly after the interview and the company went under, and so did the game. It seems that this really was it… vapourware.

Case closed…

This is what sounds like your bog standard platformer from a company which didn’t quite make the impact it may have wanted on various formats, with one of its biggest titles being the average "Jaws" licence.

Screen 7 promoted this simple platformer with a builder in a few magazines, including CVG for various formats. However, the following issue had the C64 version removed from the advert, and so that was it.

The game itself was hyped by its own company, with the following description featuring in the advert…

"This is no time to feel dizzy. As you balance precariously on a narrow steel girder, hundreds of feet above the hard concrete below, a head for heights is a must. There’s a skyscraper to be built, and the Splitters, Crawlers and metal munching Gremlins are in hot pursuit. You step over the slippery remains of your workmates’ lunch, hurl your spanner at a menacing shadow, and curse the day you become a high steel worker.

The sixth floor is complete. The huge crane delivers the next girder, just as a brick smashes into your hard hat. Things might not be so bad if you could just find your sandwiches.

Can you overcome all obstacles and dangers confronting you to tower above the city streets below, or will you end up splatting the pavement like raspberry jam?

Almost unheard of! A completely original arcade game that will keep you hooked to your computer for hour upon hour of frantic high altitude addictive fun.

Terrific graphics, sampled sound and a great sense of humour make HIGH STEEL one of the best new games in ages.

NEW FROM SCREEN 7"

Well, we may never know… the Spectrum and Amstrad versions made it, but why not the C64 version?

Screen 7 could well have had problems with its developers, so the C64 version may have been scrapped/delayed.

We don’t know much else about the game apart from the above. A lot more information is needed, including details of the developers of this game. Can we find anything more out?…

What happened to this conversion?…