Games That Weren't^®

Advertised in the December 1985 issue of Commodore Computing International, Trigger Happy was a game to be released by Atlantis Software. Not the same Atlantis Software we all know, as they changed company name the next month to Satellite Software – probably as they realized there was a company already with the same name!

It is also not the same game as which is in Gamebase, or which is within the GTW64 archives already.

The game was described as going to have 20 levels of enthralling space action, with 3D effects and spectacular graphics. You were to test your reflexes against the might of the Zog Empire, featuring Snorgol, the evil ghost who haunts the deepest recesses of space.

It was a mail-order game by the looks of things, so we are not sure if the game ever did get sent out to anyone, or if for some reason the game was canned.

Do you know anything more about it?

A game which was advertised by The Learning Company in the manual for Bumble Plot, which was released.

Described as “A brand new type of colouring book for young artists – children learn about colours, hues and matching. Ages 3-6”

This educational game seems to be missing – but was it ever actually released, or did The Learning Company go under before it could make it?

It’s early days, but perhaps you could help?

A game which was advertised by The Learning Company in the manual for Bumble Plot, which was released.

Described as “In the electronic version of a classic 14th century game of chance, children learn to add and subtract and also develop abstract reasoning and strategic thinking skills. Ages 6-10.”

This educational game seems to be missing – but was it ever actually released, or did The Learning Company go under before it could make it?

It’s early days, but perhaps you could help?

A very short entry for a title which was being designed by Stephen Bedser in 1993 for the C64.

The game had a working title of Squat Bot, and was based around a small robot that could change its faceplate with different weapons.

Sadly it never got much further than the concept sketches, as Stephen was lured into a world of Virtual Reality work at IBM’s UK laboratories.

As a result, this interesting sounding C64 game was never to get started fully, let alone see the light of day.

Stephen very kindly passed on a concept sketch showing the main character. We’ll just now be left wondering what this game could have been like.

A quick entry for a title which was to be an Electronic Novel for Broderbund and Synapse.  Where most of the planned titles were released and coded by Joe Viera (http://www.gamebase64.com/search.php?a=5&f=1&id=1963&d=18&h=0), the rest of them for some reason never quite made it.

This was one of those titles which never surfaced.  According to MobyGames, it is suggested that the previous games were released to mixed success – which is probably why this title was cancelled. MobyGames also had the following mentioned (thanks to Fabrizio for flagging!):

“Synapse Software’s William Mataga and Steve Hales spent much of 1984-1985 designing a new “predictive” text adventure parser to incorporate Eliza’s intuition into a competitor for Infocom’s text parser. (BTZ expanded to “Better Than Zork”.)

These resultant works of interactive fiction were marketed by Synapse’s friendly acquirer Broderbund as “electronic novel”s to mixed success, leaving the line with four works published and three complete but unreleased (Ronin, House of Changes, and Deadly Summer)”

But its been confirmed that the game was completed and should be out there some where.  Does Joe Viera have a copy of the game still?

Time will tell!

A quick entry for a title which was to be an Electronic Novel for Broderbund and Synapse.  Where most of the planned titles were released and coded by Joe Viera (http://www.gamebase64.com/search.php?a=5&f=1&id=1963&d=18&h=0), the rest of them for some reason never quite made it.

This was one of those titles which never surfaced.  According to MobyGames, it is suggested that the previous games were released to mixed success – which is probably why this title was cancelled.

Thanks to Fabrizio Bartoloni for his research, Computer Entertainer says the game was a murder mystery (page 13) and slated for release on the fourth quarter of 1985 (page 14, second column) (see scans)

But its been confirmed that the game was completed and should be out there some where.  Does Joe Viera have a copy of the game still?

Time will tell!

A quick entry for a title which was to be an Electronic Novel for Broderbund and Synapse.  Where most of the planned titles were released and coded by Joe Viera (http://www.gamebase64.com/search.php?a=5&f=1&id=1963&d=18&h=0), the rest of them for some reason never quite made it.

This was one of those titles which never surfaced.  According to MobyGames, it is suggested that the previous games were released to mixed success – which is probably why this title was cancelled.

But its been confirmed that the game was completed and should be out there some where.  Does Joe Viera have a copy of the game still?

Thanks to Michael Huth, more credits and some artwork has been found in a manual for Brimstone. This reveals an extra credit of William Mataga as programmer, and the following story:

“The Diamyo’s daughter is kidnapped! You, the Ronin, masterless samurai, must return her or purge your dishonour with ritual suicide. Navigate the feudal castle, befriend the Zen master, penetrate the ninja stronghold. When your task seems done, you are far from done. What is and what only seems to be?

The eastern sky pales. The hour of the Horse approaches. Wake now, Ronin; you must strap on your sword and make an offering to the gods . .. You continue to float upward, surrounded by cavernous black clouds that stretch for immeasurable distances on all sides. You feel like a sail cut loose from its ship and carried aloft by a whirlwind …”

Well, in 2023 – the Atari version was recovered – so this gives a glimpse of what the game would have been like. There is also a great video about the finding too.  Can the C64 edition now be found?

A short entry for a title which has been revealed as in production by Craig Wight in the early 90’s.

The game was penned for Hi-Tec software, and it is very likely that it got caught up in the company going under, as the title later surfaced on the Amiga platform under the Alternative Software label.

Craig confirmed that the game only got as far as the main character wandering around and the scroller part, but that was it.

Craig recalled that he was working on it whilst the Freddie Mercury tribute concert was on TV, which dates production around April 1992. Hi-Tec were still going well at this point, and it wasn’t until August/September of that year when they hit troubles.

It is possible therefore that Craig was pulled onto other productions or he lost interest. Unfortunately he cannot recall why the game was canned.

Unfortunately Craig has confirmed that he no longer has any of his old work disks, so the chances of finding anything of this short but sweet conversion is very unlikely.

Do you know anything more about it?

A short entry for a game which we hope to find out more about soon.

The game was complete and written in BASM, but was never released due to the crash of 1984.

More soon we hope!