Games That Weren't^®

Back in 1996, an enthusiastic Wayne Wormersley got working with Jon Wells on a title called Crash Course.

The game was to be a sort of update to the classic Spectrum/Ultimate title ‘Trans Am’, or at least based on the game due to its 8 way scrolling. Wayne worked very hard on a graphics set for the game – Wayne recalls about the project:

"Crash Course was meant to be a collaboration project between me and Jon back in 1996. I did the graphics for a full level and a bitmap screen to advertise the game which isnt quite complete. Jon originally suggested doing the game as an 8 way scroller like an old Spectrum game whose name escapes me but then decided that he was going to use his 10TH DAN scrolling routine for the game. This game didnt get done due to me being so slow, I was incredibly neurotic ( I still am ! ) about getting the graphics absolutely perfect.

The graphics are in Saracen Art files I think there are about 16 files in total with bits and bats here and there. Jon has a utility that will grab the graphics form the screen and dump them in to a character set. Perhaps someone could approach him and suggest he completes this game, the graphics are rather nice even after all this time….."

At this stage we are unsure about how far the game got code wise, but we believe not much was ever started. And we believe that after all this time the game is likely to have been cancelled unfortunately. The idea of a C64 version of Trans Am would have been very welcome (And i’m sure Jon would have done a great job, considering he was a fan of the game).

We hope to find out some more soon about the game, its plans and how far any code got. We are now to chase a few leads to see if we can get hold of the graphics to show and preserve on the website.

More soon we hope!

A first version of Crackdown was indeed in production, with code being done by Mark Kelly before he later went on to working on Golden Axe.

We are not sure quite what happened here, but we know that Bob Stephenson was apparently providing graphics for the game. It seems that there were problems in this first production, and US Gold later called in Arc Developments to get the job done from scratch (who produced a rather good effort).

So the question remains to what happened with the first version, and what was it really like?

Mark got in touch via the comments in November 2025, and confirmed that the game was in production for several months, with all development done on their own Arcanum dev systems (C64->C64). Sadly he hasn’t seen any assets from the game since his days at Probe and as a result could well be completely lost.

It isn’t clear yet why Mark’s edition of the game was cancelled, and we hope to learn more soon to update this page.

Cow Pat Frisbee V1 is another creation from Richard Bayliss and another game not to be completed or released.

However this game did eventually get a release which was much different from this earlier version that Richard had planned.

Richard had the following to say about the game:

"It was originally a kind of horizontal scrolling game where you had to control someone, throwing cow pats at enemy cows that kept going across the screen. It was purely simple, but wasn’t working 100%. I had done a bad job when I was working on this prevvy. Sadly the game does not exist no more, so I am unable to show it to you. "

So sadly it seems that the game was a little over ambitious at the time for Richard, and the game was then simplified and finished off as a result. Out there in silicon heaven is a rather different looking game, and sadly one which may never be found again.

Case closed before it begins…

Covert Action was a new Sid Meier game from back in the early days and following the success of Microprose’s earlier Pirates game. The game was announced as a title coming soon for the Commodore 64 back in 1988 in Power Play magazine.

Wikipedia describes the game as follows based on its Amiga and PC releases which did make it:

“In the game the player takes the role of Maximillian Remington (or his female counterpart, Maxine), a skilled and deadly free agent hired by CIA , investigating on-going criminal and terrorist activities.

The gameplay is similar to the 1987 release Pirates! , by the same developer, Sid Meier , in that the gameplay is made up of several self-directed, distinct, and unique modes of play. The controls are relatively simple and uniform, and the sound and graphics, for the period, are widely considered at or above par.

During the course of a game, the player will be tasked with installing wiretaps, infiltrating enemy safehouses, intercepting and decoding secret messages and interrogating prisoners. The plots are uniformly without distinction, as is to be expected with randomly generated text-based plot elements. This allows for a less structured story to unfold, and enhances the game’s replayability. ”

From a web interview with Sid, it was found that Sid started the game, but stopped to work on Railroad Tycoon – started the game again but then stopped to do Civilization. It seems that maybe the C64 version was certainly being done or was to be done, but after being sidetracked on another project, when Sid came back Microprose may have already sidelined the C64 as a publishing platform. The game eventually got a release in 1991, by then I don’t think Microprose had any interest left in the C64.

However, it has been found that Sid took over programming duties from Roy Gibson, as Roy confirmed that he started a conversion – but found it way too ambitious for the machine and couldn’t get it to work. Sid then had a go, but it seems Railroad Tycoon got in the way, and that was that.

Sadly it seems that nothing will ever be found – as Roy confirms he has nothing of the game, and it is unlikely that Sid kept anything. We hope to hear from Sid soon though and get more details.

Do you know anything about this game?…

Our next game sounds rather familiar to a popular puzzler that we all love…. Check out the advert blurb…

"A game of strategy. Choose your colour, choose your rules. Blocks are coming down and across… But there is a twist in it! Calm control and cunning skill is required!"

Tetris anyone?…. Maybe, maybe not… but the description certainly describes something that could well have been an early tetris clone.

Apart from the advert, we haven’t seen anything of this game since the advert, and nothing certainly has surfaced. Could it be that this game is another case of "Company collapse" ?

Well, contributor Dumbflag has come forward and said tha he used to own the game many years ago, which sadly was dumped many years ago. The date may well have been 1984. So its suggested that the full game could well have been released and is out there. Can we find it though and close the case?

We know little else about the title, so a lot more research is needed… but promising news that this one is out there somewhere!

More soon we hope on this one!…

Now next is a Jet Set Willy clone of sorts with Costa Capers. Infact, it is a quiet sequel to Technician Ted which was released strangely by Hewson. The first game never saw the light of day on the C64 (It is unknown if a conversion of that was planned – there is no evidence as of yet).

The kind of confirmation we have that a C64 conversion of Costa Capers was being done or at least thought about, was the advert from Firebird advertising their "Hot Range" of titles. They stated that all titles were coming soon on Spectrum, Amstrad and C64. Both Spectrum and Amstrad versions surfaced, but surprise surprise the C64 version didn’t. The Amstrad version was basically a Spectrum port, the C64 version could well have been a development from scratch.

Or did Firebird accidently state the C64 for Costa Capers?… We hope to find out more soon. At the moment we have no details of programmers or artists who worked on the conversion, and no evidence other than the adverts that a conversion was underway.

This one is going to be a tough nut to crack…