Games That Weren't^®

A very short placeholder entry for yet another missing 1987 American Action title – Blood’n Guts 2

Mentioned in Svenska Hemdator Nytt No.4/1987, it is suggested that the game would be released soon by the company on the Commodore 64 platforms.

Was anything ever started, and can anything be found?

A very short placeholder entry for yet another missing 1987 Computer Novels title – The Count of Monte Cristo.

Mentioned in Svenska Hemdator Nytt No.4/1987, it is suggested that the game would be released soon by the company on the Commodore 64 and 16-bit platforms. It was never to see release on any platform, and only The Three Musketeers would see release.

Was anything ever started, and can anything be found?

A very short placeholder entry for yet another missing 1987 Computer Novels title – Around the World in 80 Days.

Mentioned in Svenska Hemdator Nytt No.4/1987, it is suggested that the game would be released soon by the company on the Commodore 64 and 16-bit platforms. It was never to see release on any platform, and only The Three Musketeers would see release.

A feature appeared in Swedish magazine Datormagazin, issue 7 1987, page 4, with P Diab at publisher American Action which adds a few snippets, where they say:

“We are planning to release the Computer Novels series for all computers I just mentioned [previous passage: Atari 520 ST, Amiga, C64, C128, PC]. This also includes all other games. The Computer Novels series will also be published in special editions for the C128. It won’t be a direct conversion from the C64, more like a Deluxe version of the C64 game.”

Followed by:

“Maybe it’s time for you to say a few words about Computer Novels…

Computer Novels is just a name for a series of games we publish. Another name we use is Action and there’s no doubt about what type of games will be included in that series, right? The Computer Novels series is based on old well-known novels. Within the next months “Ivanhoe” and “Around the World in 80 Days” will be published, all three of which are, as you know, two [sic] very well-known novels. Additionally, we have already published “The Three Musketeers”.

For the game, a little more detail was then mentioned about the style:

“Will “Ivanhoe” and “Around the world…” be in the same style as “The Three Musketeers”?

Well, more or less, they won’t be action games and no text adventures either. “Ivanhoe” will contain 6 different action parts in the vein of “Defender of the Crown”. “Around the world in 80 days” will also contain action parts, plus there will be a time limit hovering over the players, those 80 days you know…”

Was anything ever started, and can anything be found?

Our next entry needs a bit of clarification, but seems to be an interesting sequel to Infiltrator that was being done by a company called Moltech Software. Apparently by the same team, but with very different details. Here is a translation of the advert thanks to Martin/Stadium64:

“New game from the team that made Infiltrator a smash hit! You are freelance journalist Michael “Trav” Travis on your way to Moscow. In the airplane you will find a torn photograph depicting a very beautiful young lady. On the back there is a telephone number. An exciting adventure that contains action, love, excitement, realism and of course the KGB

Coming soon to Commodore 64/128, SEK 199 cassette and SEK 249 diskette
Commodore Amiga SEK 395 diskette and Atari ST SEK 395 diskette.”

As Martin has pointed out when he contacted us about the game, if its meant to be a sequel – why has the journalist been renamed? (known as Johnny “Jimbo-Baby” McGibbits originally).

What is interesting is that the game description also matches Nexus, where you are controlling a Journalist (but no name of the main character isn’t revealed as far as I know) and action takes place in Colombia, your friend have been kidnapped by the drug mafia and your mission is to help out and report back to the newspaper.

It gets more interesting, Martin found that American Action had started up something they called ProgramKanalen (ProgramChannel in English) sometime during 1986. This was where you could call an answering machine and listen to messages that contained news, top lists, competitions, etc.

According to information that Martin could find, there was a new message every week, and each message lasted around 3 minutes. By pure coincidence he recently found an old cassette tape with 2 of these messages recorded

One of these deals with Nexus, where parts of what is said matches the description found on the advert with Moltech Software. They used the same words Action & Excitement and similar word as Romance (=Love) and Drama (=Realism). Could all of this just be a coincidence? Or did they just borrowed/steal the description from another game?

Martin then wondered if the game could have been linked at all to Journalist, which was developed by Andromeda, but linked to American Action/Greve Graphics (as it was found on a bundle of Greve disks). Were they meant to take it over and turn it into “Back in the USSR”?

Then an interview with Greve Graphics in DatorMagazin (DMZ) No.1/1987) starting talking about bad reviews of their 4 released games, but it also mentioned:

“For example, we are thinking of making a new version of Blood’n Guts where we correct some beauty spots. We have a new project underway, Infiltrator-style, where you should be able to control an entire team in real time. That’s where we invest hard on cool graphics. The title of this new game is yet to be decided. But it should be out sometime this spring.”

Then finally, Svenska Hemdator Nytt No.4/1987 had a news snippet that mentioned the game again as coming soon:

OUT OF THE ASHES
American Action AB now rises from the ashes of Swedish Microdealer. After the bankruptcy, this part of SMD was offered for sale and quickly bought up by Effecta AB who are previously known as manufacturers of battery backups for computers. The same company also bought the rights from Greve Graphics to publish their games.

You can also find Computer Novels and the RGB team at American Action AB. The latter was, among other things, behind the successful Boulder Dash III. On March 13, American Action AB was started as a wholly owned subsidiary of Effecta AB. As before, American Action AB will manufacture games for the international market. They are currently in negotiations with distributors in both Europe and the USA. From on May 1, Philp Diab acts as sales manager.

In Sweden, the programs are sold by both Pylator and HK-electronics. In the publishing plan you will find The Three Musketeers from Computer Novels and on the first of July 4-Action hits will be released.
The Computer Novels series will also release “Around the World in 80 Days”, “The Red Carnation” and “The Count of Monte Cristo”. From Action comes “Blood’n Guts II” and “Warp one-/- Supercan”. They are also working on an unnamed “Shoot’em up” type game and the sequel to Infiltrator which has been named “Back in the USSR”.

So what was this game? Was it any relation to Journalist of Nexus, or were American Action really working on a completely new game based on the original Infiltrator?

Anonymous Contributor helped do a bit more digging, and found a few more twists and turns (of which we paste here directly from them). Firstly, who were Moltech Software?

It was found that they were a mail order distributor and not a developer. They advertised heavily in Swedish magazine Datormagazin for a while, e.g. the ad in the entry, from issue 1 1987, page 16 (see scans). Most of the games are from former publisher American Action games, and likely surplus stock from the bankruptcy in January 1987. Back in the USSR is listed as “Coming soon” – i.e. not yet complete.

What about the link to Nexus? Well, American Action licensed Nexus for publication in Sweden. See review in Datormagazin issue 2 1986, page 14.  The Nexus review and Moltech ad are almost a year apart, so the games are likely not otherwise connected.

What then has Infiltrator got to do with the game? AA licensed Infiltrator, first to sell in Sweden, and later seemingly to produce a cassette-based version for the Scandinavian market. Swedish magazine Joystick issue 9 1986, page 11, has a short interview with Chris Gray, who visited Sweden to work on the game.

The interview mentioned that Chris visited Sweden to work with American Action and managed to get the game working on cassette. However, its mentioned that in early autumn – American Action would release the first add-on disks and cassettes with new and tougher missions for the hero Johnny McGibbits in Infiltrator. The intention is for you to be able to use the original game together with these disks and cassettes and experience new adventures with the hero.

Swedish Magazine Datormagazin also mentions the visit in issue 2 1986, page 4. So, the link is definitely there, but it seems the “add-ons” are also missing and worthy of its own GTW64 entry.

Could Back in the USSR have been an Infiltrator add-on? Unlikely, due to: 1) Chris Gray would probably be behind the add-ons himself, since he knows the game by heart 2) BITU ads appear in 1987, long after the purported September 1986 add-on release date 3) The Moltech ad does not mention needing the original Infiltrator game to play it – plus the agent has a different name.

The Moltech Software ad says: “A new game from the team who made Infiltrator a smash hit!”. The team is likely American Action, who made Infiltrator a smash hit in Sweden by selling a lot of copies. Moltech simply borrows that fact, not mentioning the (now bankrupt) AA. But, the game is ”coming soon”, i.e. still in progress in early 1987, if the ad was to be believed. So who was working on it?

Well, Greve Graphics (GG), perhaps. They were the go-to programmers for AA and could have been involved from the start. And they were still around, even after AA was gone. Also, they would have been heavily exposed to Infiltrator after seeing it at AA, their publisher. Perhaps they even met Chris Gray.

GG were hard at work in 1987, yet nothing was officially released. ”1943 – one year after”, released around New Year 1986/87 would be their last official game. So what were they working on? Let’s compare GG interviews with snippets about BITU from that year.

Danish magazine Oberoende Computer, Jan-Feb issue 1987, p 26-28, features an interview with GG. It’s here they calk about their next game as translated by Anonymous Contributor:

“Our next game will be a bit like Infiltrator, i.e. with several different game types on one and the same disk. We just want to be better than Chris Gray and fill both sides of the disk entirely, to make people feel that they are getting value for money.

We are going to spend five months on this programme and five people will work full-time on it. But we have promised ourselves to have it done in three months, because we work best when under strict deadlines and this also leaves time for polishing it to completeness.”

The game has no name, and the story is not yet set – but in the game, your character will be able to steer other characters by talking to them. Something like, if you e.g. type “Soldier, drop a bomb at the cottage”, one of the other characters will run off to the cottage and plant a bomb. Apart from interactive players, which the technique for controlling the other characters is called, Greve Graphics also uses border-sprites in the new game.

“Yes, the entire screen will be fully used. You will get lots of value for money”, says Bengt. Lars says that Greve Graphics is also going for a very original game idea. Not just an Infiltrator replica. “We will get rid of the stamp as being a copying central and bring out new games.”

However, a few months later – details about the Infiltrator clone would disappear and there was then talk about Goremium. There are a few conspicuous similarities that occur:

BORDER-SPRITES

• Infiltrator clone (1): ”also uses border-sprites in the new game”
• Goremium (2): ”The game area will be bigger, since they will use the border fully for the game graphics.”

AI

• Infiltrator clone (3): ”We have a new project underway, Infiltrator-style, where you should be able to control an entire team in real time.” [Jan 1987 quote]
• Goremium (4): ”the main idea was to use advanced AI to enable automated team handling”

DEADLINE

• Infiltrator clone (1): ”[Said in Jan 1987] We are going to spend five months on this programme [giving a release date of June]”
• Goremium (2): ”The game will probably be released in September here in Scandinavia. But a probable USA release may happen already in June.”

So, two games sharing the exact same engine, with the same original release date, worked on during the first half of 1987. If GG were working on two separate games at the same time, why didn’t they say so in the interviews? Is Goremium in fact a later incarnation of the intended Infiltrator clone?

Further confusion is added by additional Moltech ads. In Datormagazin August 1987 page 15, Moltech again mentions the game, but now claims it to be from developer “Red Star”. This is the final mention of the actual game. In a December 1987 issue supplement, page 5, Moltech lists the company as “* Red Star Software” but names no game.

So what happened overall according to Anonymous Contributor?

Summing this all up is not easy, and granted the theory has a few holes. Still, this may be what happened, based on current sources:

In late 1986 or early Jan 1987, GG was given the task of creating an Infiltrator clone, perhaps by American Action. AA had sold loads of Infiltrator games and wanted to cash in. Perhaps the awaited Chris Gray mission disk failed to arrive, causing AA to miss out on sales. AA named the new game BITU, slightly changing the story from the original Infiltrator to ride on the success of that game – in typical American Action fashion.

AA went bankrupt in Jan 1987 and Moltech Software took over the stock, including the option to sell any prevailing projects, like BITU – a name never mentioned by GG. They kept the game nameless when asked. GG kept working on the game during the spring of 1987.

A resuscitated AA (March) was interested and perhaps held an option, but GG was hoping to find another publisher. Sometime around March-April, they reused the engine for a shoot’em-up instead: Goremium, hoping to finish it within the same timeframe. This may be due to 1) Getting out of the AA contract 2) Scope issues 3) Time constraints 4) Potential-publisher demands 5) Infiltrator copyright issues.

But no publisher arrived and the game was never finished. Moltech and GG may have been in touch, with Moltech continuing to place ads for the game, but now without the implicit reference to AA. Instead, a bogus name was invented: ”Red Star Software”, just to rhyme with the title and lend the game a bit of credibility.

GG may have preferred the name Goremium, but as long as no game was forthcoming, Moltech kept BITU for continuity reasons. Perhaps they kept getting lots of advance order queries. But no game ever appeared. The final BITU ad is in August 1987, about the time when GG left the industry.

Certainly plenty still to unpick, but some great detective work from both Martin originally and then Anonymous Contributor afterwards. Lets hope we can get to the bottom of this one some day! If you know anything more about it, please do get in touch.

Very short entry for a currently unpreserved and missing Stack Light Rifle game which was written by Frank Barchard.

An auction came up for the light gun in recent years and was spotted by Martin/Stadium 64. Most of the games are preserved, though this particular one is missing.

Frank is likely the programmer who went on to do The Cycles, Grand Prix Circuit and Thud Ridge – so hopefully we can find out more. But it looks like the games were released – just not yet preserved. If you have this in your collection, do let us know – it would be great to see it fully preserved!

Very short entry for a currently unpreserved and missing Stack Light Rifle game which was written by Frank Barchard.

An auction came up for the light gun in recent years and was spotted by Martin/Stadium 64. Most of the games are preserved, though this particular one is missing.

Frank is likely the programmer who went on to do The Cycles, Grand Prix Circuit and Thud Ridge – so hopefully we can find out more. But it looks like the games were released – just not yet preserved. If you have this in your collection, do let us know – it would be great to see it fully preserved!

A short entry for another missing title from Cult Games, flagged up thanks to Martin/Stadium 64. This was listed as an available title within the inlay of Boxing Manager 2 and was marked as being available for C64, Spectrum and Amstrad (the other formats seem to be missing too).

According to Martin, the listed titles may be in a somewhat chronological order, with Football Boss listed right above of Scottish League Football that was released. Football Boss is also listed on the Scottish League Football inlay.

Did the game get released, or was it canned? More info required for this one!

A game which was mentioned in Zzap issue 49 on page 3, coming soon on the Amiga, Atari ST and C64. A few mentions were done of the game across a few issues, but sadly nothing was to ever surface.

Thanks to Brendan Phoenix, here is a scan from Commodore User which shows the Amiga version at least (see gallery).

As you might guess, the game has you flying around the Mars terrain, but with a Afterburner’esq viewpoint with your ship travelling along the surface and in space. Perhaps it may even be closer to SEGA’s Galaxy Force, which was released around the same time – was that a major inspiration perhaps?

Magazines revealed that Mars Cops was to be a 3-phase space shoot-em-up which involved you chasing down UFOs in space and trenches, before a lunar landing style sequence to round things off. However, mentions of a C64 version would tail off very quickly and we don’t believe that there was a serious conversion underway.

More details of the game on other formats and its troubled development can be read on our main page. Essentially, there were multiple delays, resulting in the developer leaving at the end and Arcana collapsing in 1990.

Do you know anything more about a potential C64 conversion?

Artist Ian Harling got in touch and mentioned that there was no work carried out on any 8-bit versions as far as he was aware. It seems therefore that it was a mistake in Zzap, and was only intended for 16-bit platforms.

With a huge thank you to Jason Lethert for all his gathering of materials from magazines to help with research and also Stephen Stuttard for creating the scans.