Games That Weren't^®

Flight Deck 2 was a cool flight sim game which was released by Aackosoft back in 1986 on the MSX. However, a C64 version was clearly planned, maybe even completed, as the C64 is clearly labelled on the MSX’s packaging.

Aackosoft was a dutch company which actually released a few titles on the C64, though stopped from about 1985 onwards. The first Flight Deck game was actually released on the C64 and was developed by Bytebusters – who did Dawn Patrol as well.

So was Bytebusters also behind the C64 conversion of Flight Deck 2? It would have made perfect sense had they done. They seem to have done Dawn Patrol a year afterwards for Aackosoft.

The hunt begins – we have taken the Bytebuster guys as temporary credits and as a starting point. Can the game itself be found? Was it ever completed?

There is a suggestion that Flight Deck 1 on the C64 was actually the conversion of Flight Deck 2 (which was just an enhanced version of the first game really). Contributor Jeroen confirms that the game was just an enhanced version of the game, so we know what it should be like… but can this improved version be found?

Well, here it is on Retrocollector.org, so we hope to see this preserved very soon!

Case closed!

A very small entry for a title which we are not entirely sure as of yet if a C64 version was ever on the cards.

The Light Corridor was a first person puzzle game released by Infogrames on the Spectrum, Amiga, Amstrad, ST and MSX. However there was never a mention of it for the C64 it seems.

Moby games and Wikipedia though list the game as C64 based – so until we find out more confirmation, we’re including an entry. It would seem odd that Infogrames never covered the C64 as a potential platform, especially after seeing North and South released.

Was it ever started and do you know more?

Gravity was strangely to be a game about Graffiti – but you wouldn’t have guessed it from the title! It was a title written by John Vanderaart – but are not sure who for!

The game was described by Dutch Magazine “Dossier Commodore” in early 1987 to be a graphic text-adventure which played in the future – where all walls are covered by Grafitti. You were a wandering spray which was hunting for the last piece of clean wall.

However, Ralph Egas confirmed to GTW64 that the game was not a text-adventure, but an arcade game – more akin to games like “Endless” and “Dr J” which John had written. Ralph however had never seen the game, but just heard about it from John.

Sadly John no longer has any of his C64 disks – so trying to find anything of the game could be very tricky. Ralph suggests that this game was never actually completed by John. We believe the title was never finished due to John deciding to leave the C64 market.

We hope to find out more soon, but this could be a tricky one to find! Can you help us?

Smakeloos (translating as “Tasteless”) was to be a new game by John Vanderaart – following the theme of Endless, Hopeless and Radeloos.

It was to be another graphic text adventure game where you were a lost backpacker in Texas – according to Dutch Magazine “Dossier Commodore” from early 1987. You basically want to go for a drink at a small farm, but then all hell breaks loose. A Farm-girl with a butcher knife, a crazy ranger with a chainsaw etc comes after you. You flee to a gas-station to call your mother – where you are covered in gasoline and torched.

The aim of the game was to try and stay alive basically – a horror adventure.

The title would feature graphics by Ralph Egas, who got the job after contacting John by finding his telephone number tucked away in one of his games.

Ralph confirmed that sadly John never finished the game (for reasons currently unknown), and had created many pictures for the title. The game had different locations which came with 3 images each. Ralph gives more detail about what he did in the Creator Speaks section.

Sadly Ralph no longer has any of his work, so this could well be a title which has been lost forever. But you never know what might show up some day!

An interesting tale to tell with our next entry, which is thanks to the excellent interview with Jason Finch from Commodore Format.

This was to be an adventure game that was to be sneaked onto the very last issue of Commodore Disk User, which Jason at the time was working for. In its dying days, Jason was working with John Simpson (Aka Bones) on something to fill the void which was going to be left by CDU (It seems Jason knew that it’s time was to be up soon). This was Club Light, which did eventually surface around 1992 time and was sadly short lived, but a brilliant disk magazine.

What does this have to do with an adventure game on the last issue of CDU you ask? Well, the adventure was to tell the story of the demise of CDU and the rise of a new mysterious magazine on a disk called LIGHT. The idea was that if you completed the adventure, you would get all the details required to sign up to the LIGHT magazine. However, CDU collapsed a bit too early, and it never got released as planned.

The game had a load of graphics done by a guy called Doug Sneddon however, though we are not actually sure if Jason had started anything of the game code itself and is to be confirmed.

Chances though of anything being found is very slim, with Jason sadly having most of his gear stolen whilst at University. The only possible person who may have something is Doug, if we can find him!

Watch this space!

A very quick entry to confirm a title which was on the rumour list for sometime for the C64GS.

Thanks to coder Neil Harding, we can confirm that there was to be an improved cartridge edition of The Spy Who Loved Me by Domark.

The game would feature all the sections, including the submarine section where you could hold your gun at a fixed point and keep firing at enemies (who would somersault over the position you were shooting at). The gun would sweep left and right.

We are not sure why the game never actually surfaced, but its believed that Domark saw that the C64GS wasn’t doing well and decided to scrap it. Another theory is that they couldn’t get multi-load titles converted over sensibly.

We hope to hear more from Neil himself, so watch this space!

A very quick entry thanks to Kevin Oxland, who informs us that he was working on a version of Anarchy on the Commodore 64 for Psygnosis. This was being done by the development team, WJS.

However, after pretty much completing the conversion – Psygnosis decided to only release the game on the Amiga and ST, and the game was shelved.

We are hoping to hear more soon from Kevin about the conversion, but sadly already we know that nothing has survived of Kevin’s own disks. It could be a very tough one to find!

Do you know anything more about this conversion?