Games That Weren't^®

Freddy Fish is an arcade game from 1983 that was released for PC in the US by Mirror Images Software.

The game it seems was due to have a Commodore 64 conversion, but was cancelled before it could be complete. We are not sure why at this stage, but the demo disk was within the collection of former developed Chris Oberth, who sadly passed away back in 2012.

The game was up for auction and finished at $203.50 overall – sadly too much for us to try and make a bid to preserve it. It is hoped that the demo will be won by someone who will digitally preserve the disk contents and make available for posterity, otherwise we will need to research more into Mirror Images software and try and trace the demo via other means.

So far we have learnt thanks to Linda Richter that Mirror Images Software was part of a start up from something called the RPI Incubator program in New York. There was also Mirror Images Business Systems that specialised in business software. The only current known C64 work that was done was this game called Boppie’s Great Word Chase. Interestingly this was done in 1985, suggesting that maybe Freddy Fish (done in 1984) may have been cancelled for other reasons than the company closing its doors.

Linda didn’t know about the C64 conversion of Freddy Fish, but passed on some very useful information which will hopefully lead us to more details about the conversion. It seems that Mirror Images Software didn’t last long, and focus was moved to the business operation that was a more profitable overall. This therefore is the likely reason that Freddy Fish wasn’t completed and converted across.

A short entry for a Grolier Electronic Publishing game spotted by Peter Weighill in an issue of Family Computing magazine October 1984.

Secrets of Science was described in the advert as follows:

“Secrets of Science Island guides you on a race against time to build a shelter before a hurricane strikes. This also includes a book called Science Facts You Won’t Believe to help you with the game.”‹”‹”

Along with Treasure Hunter, both games were published on the Apple II, though the advert says they are coming soon for the Commodore 64. Unfortunately both seem to still be missing, so we are uncertain if they ever got released or were just released in limited numbers.

Do you know anything more about it?

A short entry for a Grolier Electronic Publishing game spotted by Peter Weighill in an issue of Family Computing magazine October 1984.

Treasure Hunter was described in the advert as follows:

“Treasure Hunter which takes the whole family on an educational treasure-finding adventure with help from the Explorers and Discovery book.”‹”

Along with Secrets of Science, both games were published on the Apple II, though the advert says they are coming soon for the Commodore 64. Unfortunately both seem to still be missing, so we are uncertain if they ever got released or were just released in limited numbers.

Do you know anything more about it?

Catch’em was a pretty good Amiga/DOS platformer which came out in 1992 and had you having to return escaped animals to a zoo. He does this by tempting them with bananas and then hitting them with a baseball bat for example. More details can be found here on the Amiga version.

Thanks to contributor Riemann80, we learn that a C64 version was on the cards as well, as the manual states C64 loading instructions, but crucially the credits!

The game was apparently being done by none other than Hannes Sommer, who later went on to do the Fred’s Back series and Lions of the Universe. We hope to get hold of Hannes again soon to find out more about the conversion and what happened.

Do you know anything more about the game?

Thanks to Peter Weighill for highlighting yet another C64 title that seems to have got away.

Lordlings of Yore was a strategy game that was released on the Apple II and seems to be available, but the Commodore 64 version was listed as coming soon and never surfaced.

It’s early days yet, but was the game ever finished and did it see any kind of release at all? Or did Softlore Corporation collapse before it could make it out?

A lot more research needed, but if you know anything more – please get in touch!

A short entry for now on what was likely to have been a C64/C128 release back in the day by Infocom.

This was to be a sequel to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and was in development and design for a number of years. A sequel was mentioned in the ending of the game, and certainly light shed by Andy Baio confirmed this in 2008.

The game was plagued by delays, with no solid design or anyone to program it at one stage. Eventually it was moved over to British developers Magnetic Scrolls, with Infocom fighting to try and get it back to work on themselves internally.

In 2008, an Infocom archive was found with many details about the game, which Andy Baio wrote a detailed article about, including sharing remains of the game itself. More details about the findings can be found at https://waxy.org/2008/04/milliways_infocoms_unreleased_sequel_to_hitchhikers_guide_to_the_galax/

On the website are a number of design notes and details as well. Two builds can be played from May 1988 and April 1989, but there is no C64/C128 version available. Just the Z-machine code, which should be possible to get working on the C128 at least. Maybe someone will do this some day.

I’ve left the developer credits here blank, as no actual C64/C128 build was seemingly done at any stage. I’ll update the page if anything changes.

This was a competition entry in the Swedish Adventure Game Championship, held by a gaming magazine. Completely finished and coming third place, the game was never actually released anywhere it seems, as apparently it was written just for the competition and never intended for release.

Still – seems like a complete waste of a game not to be enjoyed by many? Hopefully we can find out a bit more about this title soon and see something of it digitally preserved. Maybe the author themselves would be keen to play it again after all these years?

Thanks to Anonymous Contributor, it seems there might be a mix up and this looks to have been a ZX Spectrum game only, which also won first place and not third. See more details at https://www.lysator.liu.se/tolkien-games/entry/sagan-sv.html

The creator therefore would be Peter Tjernström and the game remains unreleased. The article with the winners can be found in the scans section, and was in Swedish magazine Allt om hemdatorer (All about home computers) issue 2/3 1985, page 35.

According to the article, the contest was announced in late 1984 with the following details:

The results of our Swedish Adventure Game Championships contest

First prize

Peter Tjernström in Boden [a city in the north of Sweden] has, on his Spectrum, created an amazing text adventure based on Tolkien’s ”Lord of the rings”. There is a lot to recognize from the book, among other things he has really managed to capture some of the atmosphere, e.g. at the start you see a rider approaching from the distance. If you’ve hidden he’ll ride past you, if not it’s over.

The game is the winner due to being exciting as well as entertaining. Another advantage is that the programmer has really succeeded with the feat of getting all the major events of the book in there.

Looks like this a case closed, and you can now find a separate ZX Spectrum entry now here.