Games That Weren't^®

Thanks to Martin/Stadium64 for the heads up – but on the back of MicroLeague Football’s manual, there were two more titles listed as being planned for release in 1991.

MicroLeague Basketball and MicroLeague Baseball – The Coach’s Challenge

Neither game would see release, though MicroLeague Baseball would surface with a slightly different name as “MicroLeague Baseball – The Manager’s Challenge” in 1991 for DOS.

It is plausible that code was started for both games on the C64, and probable that work was stopped when it was found the C64 market was drying up.

Could anything of the games be found? Were they also being developed by the same people who did MicroLeague WWF Wrestling?

Thanks to Max Mirini and a post on Reddit, we learn that final wwf expansion disks were advertised with matches were to include The Ultimate Warrior VS. Ravishing Rick Rude, and “The Hit Man” Bret Hart VS. Mr. Perfect, but only a broken version showed up of the first game when a fan sent off for the expansion disk.

According to the poster:

“The Warrior VS. Rude match ran much MUCH more slowly than the volumes before it, and the colors were all washed out. Weird browns, yellows, and reds. It was hard to look at it and difficult to play. It really needed a lot of fine-tuning, which I’m sure that the developers simply just ran out of money and time before they could do so.”

More research needed! But if you know anything more about the game or how some of these disks could be preserved, please get in touch!

A quick entry for a title which may have been released, but doesn’t seem to have been preserved just yet.

The Maths Tutor game in the series by Screenplay was released in 1984, along with a number of other titles.

There is a Word Factory game in Gamebase64, but it isn’t the same game compared to the screenshots we have here in the attached catalogue.

Do you know if this game was released and can you help preserve it?

A short entry until we can confirm that there was indeed a C64 conversion.

Alien Garden was a computer generated art game, where you control an embryonic life-form that you must try and help survive and reproduce across 20 generations through trial and error.

A very early game that was released by Epyx on the Atari 400/800 in 1982, some sites suggest that a C64 edition was available or planned – but there is very little detail at present.

Has it therefore just been incorrectly attributed as a platform?

A very quick entry thanks to Peter Weighill for a game that was advertised by American Eagle in 1984 on the disk cover for Kukulcan on the Apple. Sherwood Forest was released on the Apple 2, but the Commodore 64 edition of the game seems to be completely at large.

The game was likely a graphic adventure game which was likely being converted from the Apple version. American Eagle were employing external Commodore 64 developers to convert a number of their games.

Thanks to Anonymous Contributor, we learn from Computer Games Vol 3 (see scans) that Zooom were behind the development and had the following to say about the game:

“As Robin Hood, you win the heart and hand of Maid Marion. But she won’t give you a second look until you’ve solved the eminently fair and logical puzzles that make this cartoony graphic adventure as much fun to figure out as it is to view. Spot animation and fast, fast disk access enhance the fun. (The C-64 version loads the next picture in three seconds!)

Zooom Software, for Apple and C-64”

Did anything ever manage to see the light of day? Much more info needed!

A very quick entry thanks to Peter Weighill for a game that was advertised by American Eagle in 1984.

The Elysian Fields was released on the Apple 2, but the Commodore 64 edition of the game seems to be completely at large.

The game was an educational graphic adventure game which was likely being converted from the Apple version. American Eagle were employing external Commodore 64 developers to convert a number of their games.

A page at http://gue.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?pub=3&item=44&id=2&key=0 from the Apple author says that the C64 version never existed, though we have been told by Michael Giltzow that American Eagle was paying for C64 conversions.

Did anything ever manage to see the light of day? Much more info needed!

Thanks to contributor Asphodel for flagging up that a C64 version of Apple classic Kukulcan was seemingly produced, thanks to this entry on a museum website:

http://gue.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?pub=3&item=12&id=2&key=0

Unsure if this was a mistake, we contacted the original author Michael Giltzow to ask if he ever started a version or might know more. He didn’t develop a version himself, but very kindly checked his archives and found that American Eagle’s advertising indicated that a Commodore 64 version did exist.

Michael didn’t know who wrote it and has never seen a copy unfortunately. He tells us that Mr Savatini who owned the company, did have programmers contracted to convert the code that Michael had written. However, we are not sure if this was ever done or not.

Thanks to Peter Weighill, a number of scans have been added.

Could anything exist out there? Is it even complete? Early days overall for this conversion, but confirmation that it was indeed started!

Another title highlighted by Peter Weighill which seems to be long lost on the C64, with Pop Quiz 85. A title created by Independent Software and sold via mail order between late 1984 and early 1985.

The game was advertised in Your Computer Dec 1984 on page 216 and Jan 1985 on page 132. The Spectrum version is known to have been released and has been preserved on the World of Spectrum.

Was the C64 edition ever sold at all? Do you maybe have a copy of it?

In the Gallery are the adverts and a scan of the inlay from the Spectrum, which will be the same for the C64 edition.