Gaz Spence confirmed in 2015 that the game was released and can be found here:
http://www.gamebase64.com/game.php?id=3583&d=18&h=0
Case closed!
Welcome to Games That Weren't!
We are a Cancelled & Unreleased Video games archive with prototypes, developer history and assets for many computers and consoles of all ages. A non-profit large archive dedicated to preserving lost games that were never released to the public. Sharing history and stories from the developers, assets and more before it is too late. GTW has been preserving lost video game history online since 1999, and long before that offline.
Please Browse our archive and discover the many entries that we host for many different platforms.
Latest News and Posts
Hollywood Poker
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?…
Well, it seems it is, as Martin/Stadium64 has confirmed that its the same game as the Golden Games title. So – a case closed!
Hobey Joe
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?
Hijack
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
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…
High Steel
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?…
High Memory
High Memory is another puzzler which was being developed in the height of the puzzle game flood of the early 90’s
(Or at least it seemed like just that to me at the time! :) )
The game is basically a memory game which according to the
creator… “makes you crazy because of exchanging the cards
after a false try.. a typical YON game idea…”
I’m personally not too sure exactly what the game is, and after some playing couldn’t quite figure it out. Ok, it was only a few minutes of play, but sadly my games playing time is not much as it used to be!… Maybe you can enlighten me? :)
The game looks and sounds very good however, and it seems strange that the game wasn’t completed. Puzzlers generally
take less time than your average platformer, and this one looks
almost complete.Recollecting about the game, the developers said.. “I had no clue about this, I guess we finished it together in some hours and then forgot about it…”.
The game seems to have been completed and released, but not by any particular publisher? Do you know more about this?
The full game can be found here: http://www.gamebase64.com/game.php?id=3534&d=18&h=0
Hangman’s Hazard
Hangman’s Hazard was being sold as a word game with a twist in a 1992 issue of RUN magazine from the US. The game was sold on disk, but it seems that this is one that didn’t sell that well.
It was being pushed in particular as being a title suitable for parties and get togethers due to the oversized graphics in the game.
For years there was nothing of the game preserved, and initially Craig Colab (creator of the game) got in touch with the following to say:
“I was super-impressed that you made an effort to puzzle out what the game might be like, with it’s claim of “oversize graphics”. I would like to tell you more about it, since it is – as a Canadian reviewer stated – “The one that tops all the others!” In the realm of hangman-based games, of course.
Anyway, I will probably have the time tomorrow to put together an informative email and some screen shots. Since I only sold about two dozen copies thru mail order, Hangman’s Hazard probably does qualify as a GTW.”
We sadly didn’t hear any more from Craig, but luckily in June 2015, the game was recovered by Moloch and released by Triad from a very rare copy. The inlay was also preserved, and we have added the scan here.
Many thanks to Moloch for the heads up and for recovering and preserving another piece of C64 history. Go check it out!
Heroquest Expansion Pack 2
Briefly mentioned in Commodore Format, this expansion pack never quite made it like their other released expansion pack.
We are guessing that it got too late into the C64’s life, or not enough of the first expansion pack sold to make it a worthwhile release. As far as we know, the expansion pack never made it out onto any other platforms.
This may have got quite far, as there was no real code to produce, but just new stats and maps probably. I’m not really an expert at RPG based games to know.
Developers are very likely to be those who made the actual game. Chris Walsh might be a guess, though Barry Leitch will probably know. Otherwise not much was ever mentioned about this game, so we can’t say too much more at present.
More on this soon we hope…
Henry
A wonderful little preview, involving a well-drawn character called ‘Henry’.
It is a little frustrating to play this ‘Fred’s back’ style game, with some hard jumps and obstacles to avoid, but it looks quite polished with some neat graphics and sound. The preview I think only features 1 level, and quite a big one at that, though I can’t progress too far without dying.
Just why this was never completed is anyone’s guess. It doesn’t really lack too much apart from a bit of originality, and is better than the hordes of puzzlers which swamped the C64 scene at the time of this game being worked on.
It’s likely that this game was planned as a game to be sold by a mail-order C64 company, typical of many games after shops stopped stocking C64 games. Quite possibly early failures of other C64 games selling this way, convinced the programmers to hault all work on this game.
Recently contributor ‘Compounded’ found that the preview we have is incomplete. The text before the game starts indicates that there are two levels in the preview (1.2 and 1.4) , but after entering the door at the end of the first level, the screen goes blank while the drive attempts to read from the disk to get level 1.4. However, upon searching for a complete working version (Which sadly he could not find) he did find another version with a different level (1.1) which can now be found within the download link above. Thanks Compounded!
It is not known exactly what WAS planned for this game, though we now have some credits to look up. The team was the same as that behind Fly Harder, so was the game planned for release by Starlight?
A nice game, unfortunatly shown the door for some reason…
