Games That Weren't^®

A very quick entry for a title which would take over 20 years to finally be completed and appear on the C64, when it was intended originally for release back around the early-mid 1990s.

By the same creators as Crime Time and Brubaker, the game was finally finished and released in 2015 by Out of Order Softworks and Protovision, which you can check out and purchase here.

Pretty much case closed and just to add a marker for the game that was originally intended for back in the commercial heyday of the C64.

A short entry for what seems to be yet another MicroIllusions C64 game that was never to be, with Hanna-Barbera’s Jonny Quest (not to be confused with the Hi-Tec released game) . Advertised in Info magazine issue 30 in the US (1990), it also listed Lazer Squad underneath and described the platforms for both titles as being C64, Commodore Amiga and Atari ST.

The game was the first of a number of episodes planned, with this first episode described as follows:

“Jetting away from their Key Palm island, the Quest team is off on another intriguing mystery in the jungle darkness of Guatemala. Who is stealing the great Mayan artifacts? What secrets wait in the hidden Temple of Tikal? What is the splinter of heaven?

Jonny Quest and the Splinter of Heaven possesses all the Action and suspense of the animated series. Plus you choose the course of adventure with interactive dialogue and hands on fighting sequences. The world is yours to explore, and you will feel like you’re in it as you solve puzzles and combat enemies while attempting to solve the mystery.

Episode One is just the beginning! Stay tuned for further installations in this ongoing series of stand alone adventures!”

Essentially it seems to have been an arcade adventure game which was very much in the same style (possibly engine) as Scooby Doo, which was found in recent years. Well, Peter Ward confirms it wasn’t done by him – but was being done by a different solution. He recalls seeing and playing the PC version, but that no C64 version was ever started in the end.

None of the conversions were sadly ever released, which was likely due to Microillusions losing the licence from Hanna-Barbara due to putting a comic book in their Jetsons game without permission.

VP of product development, Sean B. Barger explained via the comments that the other main detail was that the CEO’s father took over the business and would not pay the quarterly minimum for the Hanna Barbera licences. Although HB were no doubt angry at the comic book release, this was the real reason why all the games were cancelled.

According to Hall of Light, the game was eventually released as Jonny Quest: Curse of the Mayan Warriors by Hollyware for MS-DOS systems in 1993.

So what of the original game, was the C64 edition ever started?

Thanks to a contributor called Mike, he found within the manual of Spitfire Ace, an advert for a game called Wingman for both the Atari and C64.

The game was released on the Atari at least, and was a split screen two player game. The advert described the game as follows:

“Lead Blue Flight of 2, armed with bombs, cannon or air-to-air missiles in dogfighting loops, bombing and strafing to defend your territory and destroy Red Flight territory. Split Screen, scrolling action with options for solo, head-to-head, or cooperative flying for 1-4 simultaneous players. ATARI, Commodore 64 – Disk or Cassette.”

The game was an early development by the great Sid Meier which was similar in some ways to Wings of Fury by the looks of it. Although advertised for the C64, it seems to be missing off other adverts. So was it accidently listed for the platform, or was it decided to scrap it?

More information needed, but a possible early Sid Meier game to find here!

A short entry for a title flagged up in conversation with its developer Joe Alter.

We are unsure what the game was, but found a magazine advert in US-based Creative Computing Magazine in 1985 which seems to be advertising it. The game was described as follows:

Exterminate waves of Nerds, geek birds and nerd babies with explosive spit balls. Jump over molten lava pits. This machine language arcade style game is an audio visual masterpiece. Commodore 64 disk 12.95. Free information or orders: CRUSTYWARE Flint Hall <snipped address>.

That is me sold anyway – but how many others purchased a copy? At the moment, it doesn’t seem to be out in the public domain – so can you help us find it?

A short entry for an earlier edition of Ms. Pac Man that was being written for Atarisoft by Joe Alter. Thanks to Graeme Mason for the heads up. Joe was converting the game for ICOM Simulations, under contract with Atarisoft to do a number of conversions.

He was reverse engineering it, going to the arcades and playing it – photographing mazes and characters, reproducing music and sound effects. Joe’s version was working and he was able to get it surprisingly close, but then his colleague Steve Hayes showed off a Robotron conversion he had done for the Apple II. This was done using a software layer made to emulate the arcade hardware on an Apple II, and it just played the games right off an image of the ROMS. So it ended up being an almost exact version of the game.

With the approach, you could essentially emulate any game that shared the same hardware. He translated this approach to work for Bally machines, and it lowered the labor cost of porting games. They decided to apply the approach for Ms. Pac Man and so Steve Hayes would end up doing the conversion. Joe’s conversion was put to one side.

It is hoped that perhaps something of Joe’s conversion still exists, as it would be an interesting curiosity to see something of it.

As well as Superman – The Game, it seems that First Star Software had big plans to do more comic based titles afterwards.

In an issue of Family Computing Magazine, it was reported that after the release of the Superman game, First Star also had rights to produce both New Gods and Wonder Woman for the Commodore 64. Thanks to Chad Shumaker for highlighting both titles.

However, neither game would see the light of day – so was either actually started? With the rights purchased, we’d be surprised if there wasn’t at least some kind of game design drawn out.

Was it due to poor reception of the Superman game that saw the games cancelled? Details are very sketchy at the moment.

Do you know anything more?

As well as Superman – The Game, it seems that First Star Software had big plans to do more comic based titles afterwards.

In an issue of Family Computing Magazine, it was reported that after the release of the Superman game, First Star also had rights to produce both Wonder Woman and New Gods for the Commodore 64. Thanks to Chad Shumaker for highlighting both titles.

However, neither game would see the light of day – so was either actually started? With the rights purchased, we’d be surprised if there wasn’t at least some kind of game design drawn out.

Was it due to poor reception of the Superman game that saw the games cancelled? Details are very sketchy at the moment.

Do you know anything more?

Elite 2 was released for the Amiga, ST and PC back in 1993 as Frontier: Elite 2 – but what may surprise you is that a C64 and BBC version was also in the works too by David Braben and Ian Bell.

However, this was way back in 1985, and shortly after the release of the first game. There was a snippet in The One magazine where David Braben talks with several other developers about their history (See scans) and explains a lot about the development.

Essentially, the game was got into an almost playable state and even included shaded planets in it, along with spaceships flying about. Unfortunately it was far too slow and they decided that no-one would want to play a game that ran at 5 or 6 frames a second. They also felt too restricted by the memory of both machines too.

David confirmed that the ideas between the final released version and this 1985 development were closely related, but the released version was far more ambitious in comparison.

The game was completely abandoned, and was never shown to any software houses as a result.

So could anything still potentially exist of both the BBC and C64 editions that could be shown? Hopefully we will get hold of David Braben to see if anything may still exist – but we suspect that the early development is now long gone.

A short entry for a title that may or may not have ever been released. This title was flagged up by Mat Allen.

This was an educational title that was to be released by Commodore on cartridge, and supporting the Magic Voice module.

Mat Allen dug out his Magic Voice packaging, and provided the scan that you can see here, which lists the game. So what happened to it?

Do you know anything more about it and can you help preserve it?

A bit of a cheats entry, but whilst going through Zzap Italia scans, we found many titles that the magazine previewed and which are as of yet unpreserved. SEUCK, 3DCK and custom developed titles that are still at large.

Please let us know if there are any that need adding to the list (some may already be in the archive as individual entries). A good chunk of the titles + scans listed here are thanks to ready64.org.

Here is a rough list of what seems to be missing. See the scans below for more details and screenshots. Can you help us find them? Many may sadly be lost for good.

• 1943 – Cristian Tomasi
• A.S.T.R.O (SEUCK) – Christian Bonassi
• AIDS Killer (SEUCK) – Christian Ghezzi
• Andromeda (SEUCK) – Marcello Scala
• Bat Revenge (SEUCK) – Manuel e Francesco Di Forti
• Battaglia Navale (Battleships) – Carlo e Gianfranco Monelli
• Boanerges (SEUCK) – Diego Marchente (Electricvision)
• Bridges ‘N’ Roads (SEUCK)
• Danger Car (SEUCK) – Diego Marchente (Electricvision)
• Danger Zone (SEUCK)
• Fire Street
• Goldon’azz (SEUCK) – Diego Roveri
• Hordes From Hell (SEUCK) – Maurizio Guerra
• Idleness (SEUCK) – Nicola Tomljanovic
• LESP (SEUCK) – Marcello Scala
• Massimo Marchese Show II (3DCK)
• Motorway Runner
• Mutant’s Lair (SEUCK) – Michele Di Lullo
• Pik & Pok – Francesco Stranieri
• Psychofantasy (SEUCK) – Guido Marchente
• Settore Omega (SEUCK) – Fabio De Paolis
• Sky Light (SEUCK) – Luca Contoli
• Star Light – Pietro Trojan
• Suicide Mission (SEUCK) – Adolfo Cirillo
• Supporter (SEUCK) – Pierdomenico Baccalario
• The Last Eretics (SEUCK) – Satana 666
• Top Manager – Giuseppe Fasano
• Wizard Fighting (SEUCK) – Massimiliano De Ruvo
• Zombie’s Day (SEUCK) – Ermete Urbani

We’ll update this page as titles are found over time. Can you help us recover any of them?

UPDATE: Fabrizio Bartoloni informs us that Motorway Runner was not SEUCK, but an early self developed game.

Scans with thanks and courtesy of https://www.zzap.it/ and also ready64.org