Games That Weren't^®

We found this game on one of Cory Kin’s disks by itself as a single executable. No clue to what it was or any name. Tucked away in the code was 1988 AKO, which confirmed that it was the work of Cory.

This is a very early sideways scrolling shooter with some very neat sprites and attack waves. There was no backdrops in the first preview we found, and the score panel was just test graphics – but it looked very slick at this early stage and is a shame never to have been completed properly.

In 2014, we converted another batch of disks from Cory and found a later preview which had some background graphics and more sophisticated attack waves. The title on the disk was “Almost a game”, so there was still no title thought of at this stage. We’ve added the files for you to check out.

Also found on one of the disks was a set of graphics intended for the game, showing some large enemies that never got integrated.

Enjoy and we hope to find out more from Cory soon about the game!

Well, ok – we aren’t 100% certain that this title was to be a platformer, but the setup seems to suggest it would have been. With a 2 character high sprite, looking like something out of Wonderboy and some colourful forest graphics – was this to be a modernized Pitfall style game?

The demo that we found and compiled from sources (found on Cory Kin’s work disks) just demonstrates a scroll routine with the graphics in place. There is no game play – just press space and let the game scroll.

Was there ever more to it? What were the intentions for this game? We hope to find out from Cory very soon and fill in the gaps. For now, check it out!

Found as a default set of graphics within Cory Kin’s own level map designer tool.

We are not sure if this was to be a maze game, a shoot-em-up or something else. It could be that this is nothing but test graphics to test out the designer tool.

Hopefully Cory will confirm very soon and more details will be added as they arrive.

Well, we believe this is a game which Cory was working on – but no idea exactly what it was.

On many of Cory’s disks he was doing a lot of “Cute” research, compiling together a number of cute games for inspiration. On another disk was some sprite sets which seemed to be the formation for a new cute game.

What was it exactly? Was any code started?

No code has been found yet relating to the game – but maybe this was actually graphics for Pet Rescue? Hopefully Cory will confirm for us very soon!

Another early game development from Cory Kin. This was a rescue job in itself, as the disks which Pet Rescue was stored on were heavily deterioating. We only just managed to salvage the source code from this abandoned game – which Cory has no recollection about.

Compiling up the sources have revealed just a title screen at this stage, not really giving anything away about the game.

Cory had spent some time modifying one of his block editors to create the Pet Rescue Designer tool, of which there were some sample graphics. This gives a little more clues about the game, showing what looks like a sort of scrolling platformer game… maybe like Super Mario Bros. No sprites unfortunately though. The score panel includes the name “Eric”, so was this the main character in the game?

Although we have compiled the title screen – if you look at the corrupted screenshot – you can see that the sample graphics should be slotted in and scrolling as well. However, we don’t think Cory got to that stage of integrating the graphics. Maybe someone would be up for doing this for us sometime?

Ignore the Ocean credit, as this was likely just a filler for the eventual company that Cory hoped to sell the game to. However, how come the game was cancelled so early on? What was it going to be like as well?

We hope that the compiled title screen and graphics will jog Cory’s memories a little and therefore will find out more soon about this title. Is there another disk waiting to be discovered with a playable game? We shall see…

Our next title is the beginnings of what seems to be a sideway scrolling shooter produced by Cory Kin. The title on the disk for the source file was called Navadon.

There isn’t a huge amount to see just yet, but the game seems to consist of two sprites bolted together top and bottom. The background graphics are just letters, painted to form Cory’s name. There are sprites in the bottom area which could have been intended for the score, powerup panel or maybe just to get all the sprites on screen. Interaction is non existance, the game just scrolls and you can shoot.

So what was this game going to turn into? And why was it cancelled so early on?

We will be speaking with Cory soon to find out more about this early title and what the plans were for it. Was it to be a Transbot clone maybe?
Watch this space!

Whilst sifting through Cory Kin’s disks, one of the (many) surprises was the finding of several demos which were produced by Carl Coffey, who many of you will recognize as the developer of the original Soldier of Light game for ACE and also Wheelies.

Master Blast was one of the findings, which is actually a full game produced by Carl – and feels very much like it could have actually been written by Jeff Minter. It is very clear that the replication of Jeff’s style is intentional. The game itself is fairly simple, but is a fun 5 minute blaster with lots of colour and effects throughout.

It is surprising that a game in this state never managed to surface until now (no trace has currently been found of the game online). Did Carl just write this for fun, or was it ever passed onto anyone?

We are currently speaking to Carl at the moment to try and find out more about the game and what the intentions were for it. For now, check out this cool Jeff Minter inspired blaster!

A pretty cool game which is based on the Jet Fighter game on the VCS Combat compilation. It even has a AI player that you can play against!

This was found whilst sorting through Cory Kin’s personal disks, and we believe was written by Spidey – who did some demos with Cory back in the Compunet days.

It’s uncertain what this game was intended for and if it was just done for fun. But its great to see it preserved and allow others to play it. I suspect Spidey may have well forgotten all about this game! :)

Anyway, if you know more about this title – please let us know!

One of the big surprises of working through Cory Kin’s disks, was the sheer amount of bits and bobs found that were written by Carl Coffey – who was the man behind Wheelies and the aborted Soldier of Fortune.

Flok is one of those surprise findings, and is a early game of Carl’s which seems to have been written around 1985-1986 time. It is a fairly simple space shooter where you fly a large ship over a simple city scape below.

It’s possible that the game was an advert for Carl’s skills, which sadly we never got to see much of on the C64. The game is not too bad, so was it actually intended for a software label? How come this one hasn’t sneaked out until now?

We hope to speak to Carl some day about his work, but for now check out this new game!

UPDATE – Michael from Gamebase64 has confirmed that the game seemingly got a release in limited form by Your Computer. The Spanish edition at least having a copy … http://ver1.commodoremania.com/yc.htm