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Xenon 2

Last updated: by fgasking

1991 Mirrorsoft

Platform: ZX Spectrum

Back in 1991, C64 developer and musician Dave Spicer decided to put together a technical demo for a potential conversion of Xenon 2 for the ZX Spectrum.

What was produced was pretty stunning – with a 25 fps scrolling demo that was full-screen and featured some very nice graphics by Jason Brashill.  Even though they were quite minimal to give a feel of the game, they still looked amazing at that early stage.

Unfortunately, Mirrorsoft were not keen on doing any 8-bit conversions, so turned down the submission.   At a slightly later date, Dave added parallax scrolling to match the 16-bit conversions, which slowed the game down slightly.

The plan was to send both this new version and the faster version without parallax scrolling to Your Sinclair magazine to try and publicise the conversion and hopefully drum up interest to get Mirrorsoft to reconsider.  Sadly it didn’t happen, and as a result the game was cancelled.

Some 30 years or so since, the demos have finally been digitally preserved and Dave has made video available of the game in action. At this stage, there are no snapshots for download – but this may change soon, so watch this space!

You can also read about various rumours and details of a C64 conversion that seemingly never was.

With thanks to Dave Spicer for the details and notice about his video release.

Posted in Reviews, ZX Spectrum | 2 Comments

Cyber Fight

Last updated: by fgasking

1991 Electronic Arts

Platforms: PC and Commodore Amiga

You could say that our next entry was quite ahead of its time when due for release back in 1991. Cyber Fight was to build on the recent success of Street Fighter 2 and produce a fighting game within a 3D environment and first person view, heavily inspired it seems by the 1989 film Robot Jox.

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The game’s author (Michael Powell) was no stranger to 3D titles, having previously developed the impressive Powerdrome a few years earlier for Electronic Arts. This time you were the pilot of a large robot within a hi-tech arena, who has to smash your opponent’s droid to pieces. Continue reading →

Posted in Amiga, PC, Reviews | Leave a comment

Galleon

Last updated: by fgasking

1997-2004 Confounding Factor

Platforms: PC, Sony PlayStation, Sony PlayStation 2, Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo GameCube

A short entry on a title that was being created by Confounding Factor, a company founded in 1997 by former Core Design’s Toby Gard and Paul Douglas.

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Galleon hit a number of development issues overall, including seeing Interplay cancel the title at one stage, and was being developed for a number of different platforms over the years. However, only the Xbox edition of the game would ever see release in 2004. Continue reading →

Posted in Dreamcast, GameCube, PC, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Reviews | Leave a comment

The Big End

Last updated: by fgasking

1994 The Hidden

Platforms: Commodore Amiga 1200 and CD32 (later A500)

I’ve always been a fan of racing games on 8-bit and 16-bit platforms, especially Slicks on the C64 and Micro Machines on the NES. So when Darren Gurney highlighted this long lost Amiga title, I was quite excited when I saw the screenshots.

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The Big End (or The Big Engine, as it was known before that) was due for release on the Commodore Amiga around late 1994, mid 1995. Developed by The Hidden (who had created Donk! The Samurai Duck amongst others) and to be published by Supervision. Continue reading →

Posted in Amiga, Amiga CD32, Reviews | 3 Comments

Wrecked: A Psychedelic Adventure

Last updated: by fgasking

1994 Healthwise

Platforms: PC and Commodore Amiga

Wrecked: A Psychedelic Adventure was an Amiga and PC platformer, developed by KKOS and was apparently published by Healthwise. However, at present – only a shareware demo of the PC version currently exists.

Richard Cobbett covered the game within his Crapshoot column, where he talked about the strange edutainment game that had once appeared on PC Zone’s January 1995 covermount as a demo. It isn’t a particularly great game by any stretch of the imagination, but it is the content and story behind the game that inspires trying to find it in its final form.

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The full game was described in the demo readme (re-quoted from Richard’s article) as consisting of “5 levels, 12 drugs and hours of Stoned action!!!!!!!“. The aim ultimately was to get as “high” as you can to be able to win and progress in the game. Continue reading →

Posted in Amiga, PC, Reviews | Leave a comment

GTW64 July 2021 update

Last updated: by fgasking

Slightly slower month as the days get hotter, but here is another GTW64 update for the month. This month we take a look at an Alternative Software game that never was, but has been out there for some time. Details of a strange planned reworking of S.T.U.N Runner with a Duck protagonist that was found lurking around in the code of Dreamraider. An obscure early German adventure game that is missing from GB64 and much more. Enjoy!

4 new entries added

Domain, Jungle Adventure, Unicorn Software titles, Zanga-duck and the gribblies

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17 updates added

Accilatem, Adam Caveman, Ah Type, Alvin and The Chipmunks, Aquablast, Astrodome, Astromine, Aurum, Buffalo Roundup V1, Dune 2, Murder!, Pang V1, Plotting, Questerious, Quo Vadis, Rigor, Spy vs Spy 4

Posted in GTW64 news | Leave a comment

Tomahawk (incorrect title)

Last updated: by fgasking

1991 Tomahawk (Coktel)

Platform: Amiga 500 (Actually released), Amstrad GX4000 (Unreleased)

UPDATE: Case solved – this was released as Cougar Force. See below!

Our next entry is not to be confused with the Digital Integration game of the same name, but was a completely different 3D shoot-em-up that was split into eight different stages and style of gameplay.

tomahawk 2

The basic storyline suggested that as a chief secret agent, you have infiltrated a series of small islands which are acting as the base for an infamous group of international felons. Lurking somewhere on these islands are the leaders of the organisation, and it is these that you must locate and assassinate. The levels would consist of a number of different styles, such as beat-em-ups, driving scenes and 3D piloting. Continue reading →

Posted in Amiga, Reviews | 4 Comments