Games That Weren't^®

A game which made the news pages of various fanzines, including Commodore Scene magazine here in the UK around 1997.

Bloodrush was to be a promising shooter for C64 fans who desperately awaited any new software to come about. Apart from a few news clippings in the fanzines, nothing ever came of the promising game.

Recently obtained from the internet was a cracked version of the game, in preview form. No doubt in the very early stages with some fair graphics and the building blocks to a good shooter.

If you think of a sideways SEU in the style of Cosine’s Warflame, then you will get a rough picture of the game we are dealing with.

No sound is present, and parts of the game do not work properly, such as a shop which cannot be entered. The game isn’t that playable either.

If whether a later version ever made it, is anyone’s guess at the moment, and is a case of finding the creators themselves to find out more about this game.

Not bad, half hearted shoot-em-up…

A quick entry for a game which has recently been uncovered.

This is a very early and simple sideways SEU which is of particular interest because it contains we think an unheard JT tune and graphics by Arthur Van Jole.

However, it’s not up to Arthur’s usual standards, so we’re not sure if he actually did pixel these or not, or if they were just work graphics.

All we know at present was that CP Verlag was meant to release the game back in around 1991, but we know little else at present. We feel that there may be a story to tell on this game!

More we hope soon of this game!… did it get further?

Bloid Bros is a 2 player split screen scrolling game which was written by Paul Rogers who did Time Soldier and Double Dragon 3 on the C64.

You control two blobs which look rather like the character from Head The Ball and scroll across a basic landscape whilst shooting things. It’s nothing spectacular, but Paul mentions that it never was that great and was just merely being done in his spare time.

Sadly all that you can see here is all that seems to remain. Paul may have some more of the game, but its unlikely. This was not being done for any particular software house in mind, and it seems that Paul just lost interest in it before being drafted onto other projects.

In October 2021, it was established that Mark Tait composed music for the game after a commission from Paul. However, we’re not sure if the music was completed or if it has been released into HVSC already under one of Mark’s demo releases. We hope to find out more soon.

It’s certainly worth a look for curiosity, but don’t expect hours of game play from this one!

Another good looking platform game, in its early stages.

Blockman is very similar to Bleep Boy which is also in the archives, and is built using the same engine, though cosmetically the game is completely different. Actually both games are based on an engine developed originally for Cave Wizard, which was done to prove that the C64 could handle Hi-res graphics without the colour clash like on a Spectrum.

The graphics are very Mayhem’esq, with a lot of colour and cool design. There is some sound, which seems to be distorted, so i’m not sure if this is just the emulator doing this.

The level is a little unfinished in the preview that we have, but this was all that was ever done. Sadly interest was lost, and the game was cancelled.

To find out more about how the game came about and what happened, check out the Creator Speaks page for Cave Wizard.

Sadly it is case closed for this one!

An apparently neat puzzle game which doesn’t offer the most attractive of graphics, but is apparently very great to play.

The game was done as some fun by a guy called Jer, who does not mention any more finishing off, but the guys who cracked this game mention about a finished version hoping to be created.

The preview features a number of levels. The idea of this game is to eliminate- all the blocks that are on screen. To do this, you need to move your flashing white square on to the other flashing square and then, press fire once or twice and hey presto- block gone.

Apart from some nice music by Jereon Tel from Robocop 3, the game offers currently little, apart to those who know how to play it.

If there were to be a later version, or there is a later version, its hoped that it features some nice graphics.. but exactly how much more was ever done on this game?… Over to Jer if we can find him :)

Blockbusting game, well almost…