Games That Weren't^®

Along with Sword of Samurai, Devils of the Deep was to be yet another Fighting Fantasy game on the C64 from US Gold according to http://pdd.if-legends.org/ldp/bdp.html.

This game in particular was to be set in Atlantis and we presume would have been by the same developers using a version of The Quill.

However, like the others this never quite surfaced. Compared to the other games planned or released, this never really got a mention and its only the above website which seems to know of the games.

As a result its still very early days, but an entry none the less!

More information needed…

"Denizen is the ultimate combat experience!!!

Denizen features hoards of rampaging, hostile alien life forms and mutations, amazingly detailed backdrops and fantastic gameplay."

That was the description detailed inside a C64 game inlay when advertising other titles in the Players range. Denizen is a Alien Syndrome clone of sorts, and it is believed that the game was due for a release on the C64. The Spectrum version did manage to surface, but the C64 never did.

You can find the Spectrum conversion over at http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0001347

It is believed that Paul Griffiths coded the Spectrum version, and Mike Brown handled the C64 conversion. The same Mike Brown we think did The Search For Sharla.

We need confirmation that a conversion was underway, but early evidence suggests that something was brewing with this game. Was it a Spectrum port that went wrong?… We hope to find out soon enough…

More soon we hope on this title….

Yet another licensed game which never made it, but a more low key company had this title. The game was previewed in an issue of Commodore User magazine in 1986.

All that is known about this game is that in the game you have a limited time to locate and rescue your partner who has been captured and is being held somewhere in the area of London.

There were planned Driving and shooting sequences combined with some 3D exploration sections in the search for clues required to complete your mission.

You could get a high rating by not only rescuing your partner, but also by doing things in quick time and while solving other crimes on the way.

Overall the game sounds quite promising, though nothing was ever seen apart from the advert. And Britannia software didn’t seem to sound like a major software developer name. So maybe they went under before the title could be released?

Who knows, but currently GTW knows nothing much else about this title, apart from the fact that the Amstrad version did manage to sneak out!… http://frgcb.blogspot.fi/2015/11/unique-games-part-9.html

Time will hopefully tell…

Another interesting GTW entry this time which has information collaborated from Fabrizio and also Bonaventura Di Bello, famous co-founder of Brainstorm Enterprise.

Death Workshop (Also known in Italian as La bottega della morte) was to be a text adventure game which first was being written as a storyline with hand-sketched illustrations. Death Workshop was to be written in The Quill, and may have even had some of the story scripted out at somepoint.

It is believed that the story was actually completed and a good section of the game sketched out, but it is unknown why the game never quite made it out. We hope to find out more on that front soon.

There has been recent discussions about taking the stories and completing the games in a package such as "Inform". But its early days. It is not known if at any point soon we may see some of the C64’s remains. We are hopeful, but the programmer must be located (and whom the name has escaped everyone sadly).

More soon on this one…

In issue 24 of Commodore User, it was mentioned briefly that Tony Crowther was working on Death Star Interceptor II for Domark. A bit of a false alarm that, as Tony Crowther confirms in 2009 that it wasn’t him – plus wasn’t it System 3 behind the original game?

Indeed it was, and it seems Commodore User got a little mixed up. But we learn of a sequel to one of System 3’s first ever games, but this was the only real mention the game ever got before disappearing for good. Was it ever started?

At present the developers for the first game are unknown, but its believed that John Twiddy may have had some involvement. We are now checking out this possibility and hope to get some further leads on the game and the potential sequel. It’s still very early days though!

More soon we hope!

Death Pit was advertised in various magazines for various machines including the Commodore 64. The game involved battling through a labyrinth of mines and corridors, containing Bats, mutant life forms, flooded corridors and rocky paths to dig through.

The advert was all that ever existed really of the C64 conversion. Noel Passmore was been linked with the game via instruction sheets for Shades (Thanks to Michael Plate from www.gamebase64.com).

Thanks to Retro Gamer and their recent feature on Durell, it has been found out that Death Pit was completed (at least on the Speccy), but decided that the game was not that great. It was reported that the code was reworked and used for the famous Saboteur game. Clive Townsend however later revealed to Graeme Mason in December 2021 that this wasn’t fully correct, and it was more the concepts and techniques that were just re-used and not all of the code (see comment).

The Spectrum version did eventually surface, so there was hope that a C64 conversion could surface too one day.

The C64 developer, Noel Passmore, was tracked down and he revealed that the game was around 95% complete before Durell decided to shelve the game. What is surprising to learn though was that Death Pit was not a straight port from the Spectrum version, but a completely different game.

Death Pit C64 only used some of the concepts from the original game, utilized the full 64k of memory by switching the BASIC and Kernal RAM off. It completely scrolled too, keeping the player in the centre of the screen and all NPC’s were constantly being updated even when not displayed. It sounded pretty impressive.

Noel was also assigned to doing the artwork for the game as well – and may well have been tasked for later composing SFX/Tunes for the game.

When asked about the possibility of saving the game, Noel offered hope that a disk still survives in England (as Noel now lives abroad) and will be contacting his family about the game. Noel is planning however to do a Deathpit 3D game on the PC in his spare time – so at some point we may well see something of the game.

For more details, read Noel’s Creator Speaks text. We hope to be bringing you more news soon!