Games That Weren't

[cpc4eva]

was reading through AA#4 just now and saw 2 adverts of games that i could not find in the cpcgamebase or on TACGR downloads section.....

cosmic bakery and cyber run and battle stars

here are the ads i have attached the files.

[Xyphoe]

If no-ones mentioned it yet, but there was S.A.T.A.R. from Pandora that looks like never got finished and released.

http://cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=3890

There was a 'demo' of the game on the Into The Eagles Nest game. Looked like a Starstrike clone - 1st person space shooter.

[MacDeath]

not Cosmic bakery but Comic bakery... indeed...

[dboddie]

I've mentioned the Frak! game before which wasn't released on the Amstrad, I'm unsure if it qualifies for Vaporware though cause I'm not even sure if anything got started. I remember Kev having an interest in this game, though the author didn't want anyone to rewrite it. 

Hi, I'm looking for more information about the Amstrad port of Frak! having found and scanned an advert for it in a miscellaneous collection of pages from old magazines. Unfortunately, I didn't think of scanning the other side of the page but I don't think there was any text that would help identify the publication.

Are there any other sources of information about the port? When you say you mentioned it before, are you referring to this post or something earlier?

[arnoldemu]

Hi, I'm looking for more information about the Amstrad port of Frak! having found and scanned an advert for it in a miscellaneous collection of pages from old magazines. Unfortunately, I didn't think of scanning the other side of the page but I don't think there was any text that would help identify the publication.

Are there any other sources of information about the port? When you say you mentioned it before, are you referring to this post or something earlier?

Hello.

I did want to a port of Frak. Our family had a BBC B first before I got my Amstrad. I loved Frak!. I was planning to do a port to the Amstrad. I am sure I asked Orlando first but he didn't want me to make a port because he didn't have any interest in the CPC. At least that is my recollection of it. I never started it.

EDIT: The port I am talking about is not the one mentioned in the advert. The port I am talking about is one I wanted to start 5 years ago or so. Never knew a CPC version was actually advertised!!!

[cpc4eva]

just going through Amtix #1 and found these games that werent -

Metabolis

Thunderbirds

Siege of Earth Trilogy

i looked around in TACGR couldnt find them and looked in the cpcgamescd they didnt show up in that.

Maybe they changed the names of Fornax and Gath in The Seige of War Trilogy ?

Firebird advertised Thunderbirds but it never got released but a Thunderbirds game came out in 1989 by Grandsalm

As for Metabolis no idea on that one never heard anything of it ?

[AMSDOS]

Hi, I'm looking for more information about the Amstrad port of Frak! having found and scanned an advert for it in a miscellaneous collection of pages from old magazines. Unfortunately, I didn't think of scanning the other side of the page but I don't think there was any text that would help identify the publication.

Unfortunately I don't know much about this game, I only knew about Frak! from an Old Issue of ACU, I posted a link of it, but I guess people missed it?


It's on this page -> http://cpcwiki.eu/imgs/8/84/ACU8506-006.jpg <-


It mentions the BBC version and was written by Aardvark Software, it would probably be useful to add that bit of information to CPC-Power, but I'm afraid that's all the information I have about the game.

Are there any other sources of information about the port? When you say you mentioned it before, are you referring to this post or something earlier?

It was probably that post, but that post mentions another post which I think it was discussed even earlier on the now defunct CPC-Zone Forum.

[dboddie]

Unfortunately I don't know much about this game, I only knew about Frak! from an Old Issue of ACU, I posted a link of it, but I guess people missed it?


It's on this page -> http://cpcwiki.eu/imgs/8/84/ACU8506-006.jpg <-

Yes, I saw that in another post. It's interesting to read the plans for a competition because it makes it sound like there was something ready to release.

[zeropolis79]

I've just read the 'review' of The Amazing Spiderman in ACU which includes a competition in which the game was part of the prize. I wonder if any of the ten winners actually GOT the game?

Also, how about Duck Tales. It was advertised as a Disney Software / Titus Software production and was advertised for the CPC and GX4000. The C64 version did come out so wonder if any work was done on the CPC version.

[tastefulmrship]

cosmic bakery

That reminds me! I was always going to complete the COMIC BAKERY musix... and here they are!

[Gryzor]

Oh yeah! Tune #3 is one of my all-time favourites... great job man!!!

(oh, and I did read the scroller )

[cpc4eva]

That reminds me! I was always going to complete the COMIC BAKERY musix... and here they are!

yeah i down loaded it and like gryzor said number 3 tune is very good.

[tastefulmrship]

Personally, I quite like TUNE 2; and with Dreamfish's (h0ffman) arrangement, it uses enough hardENV to sound different from TUNE 1, which is a traditional arcade-style theme. I did miss the GAME OVER & HIGHSCORE tunes, but they're pretty naff... so I'll only do them if I get bored (and considering I have 10+ projects on the go for CPC and VCS, I reckon that will never happen!)

[Shaun M. Neary]

just going through Amtix #1 and found these games that werent -

On that page, Wanted Monty Mole is listed as due for the Amstrad, but that also never happened. It's predecessor, Monty On The Run was the first to hit the CPC if i recall correctly.

[cpc4eva]

Trantor 2

just saw on Xyphoes vid of trantor at the end screen they said Trantor 2 would be made but never did get released

[dcdrac]

How about games that could be......take a list of the ones that were not and make new versions?

[tastefulmrship]

Whatever happened to GEM SOFT? I'm still sitting here waiting for ROLAND'S REVENGE (the third in their ROLAND series) as promised at the end of ROLAND IN SPACE.

[Carnivius]

Whatever happened to GEM SOFT? I'm still sitting here waiting for ROLAND'S REVENGE (the third in their ROLAND series) as promised at the end of ROLAND IN SPACE.

Here you go. ..



Ok not really.  This just be a mock up of if I had made 'Roland in Space'.   

[tastefulmrship]

How about games that could be......take a list of the ones that were not and make new versions?

Here you go. ..
Ok not really.  This just be a mock up of if I had made 'Roland in Space'.   

Ok, then... how about a CPC-Wiki "ROLAND'S REVENGE" game; using the same impossible gameplay of ROLTIME & ROLSPACE and modern graphics? "Down At Dollis Brook" we go once more! ^_^


EDIT: And when talking mock-ups... it always help to get a "working" copy as well! ^_^

[Carnivius]

EDIT: And when talking mock-ups... it always help to get a "working" copy as well! ^_^

Heh, that's cute.   


I dunno about 'impossible gameplay' though.  I'd like to play one that wasn't insanely difficult and you could actually get to the end of it with some skill.    In fact the reason there's a green retro looking ray-gun in the status panel was that I thought it would be nice to be able to stun certain enemies to give you a better chance of getting by them.   Of course ammo would be extremely limited so the player would have to decide if it's worth using a shot then or save it for a potentially more tricky bit later.    Also the stun effect would take effect maybe 2 seconds after the shot connects, this would allow to shoot a vertically moving enemy from the side and still give it time to move up or down out of your way before it freezes in place.  The ray-gun could also have a lesser powerful but infinitely stocked smaller shot which is ineffective on enemies but is used to shoot at switches or other puzzle-related objects.   In the mock up you can see green water by the right of the phone box and there's a switch object on the other side of the water with a small metal bridge bit.  The idea there was that when you first come out of the phone box there is no bridge bit at all and you shoot across at the switch which makes the bridge extend but it's faulty and so the bridge keeps extending and retracting again automatically so it's still dangerous to cross but is of course much more possible than no bridge at all.   I just like little extra gameplay bits like that in addition to the basic avoiding enemies & collecting gems.    Of course have the game be completable for lesser skilled players where you don't need alllll the gems but have a special ending for those who perservered and collected 100% of the gems some of which would be in horribly difficult to reach locations. 

Tell you what though, compared to my other CPC-style projects this one would be frickin' easy.   Small sprites, most of which are lucky to have even 2 frames of animation (Roland himself has a 4 frame walk cycle already done... and frame 4 is just frame 2).   If most enemies are simply going back and forth across plain black backgrounds (the green and magenta skull head things are moving vertically while the green faced walking things with the brain capsules walk left and right) then they don't even require masks.  The flick-screen means no scrolling needed.    The tiles are very simple (the rock tile is just three variations of a 4x8 tile... one for top (which works well on it's own as you can see above the phone box), one for wall, and a variation of the wall with grey rocks in it. 


I'm quite happy with how Roland himself turned out being a 8x16 sprite and still have a recognisable face and is still using the general colour scheme of the Roland in Space sprite.   I even doodled a pic of how he might look on the inlay art and he's turned out looking a bit like Marty McFly with a mixture of his Back to the Future Part 1 and Part 2 outfits in a slightly different colour scheme.  And since this incarnation of Roland seems to be a time traveller from the 80's it all makes some sorta weird sense!

[arnoldemu]

Whatever happened to GEM SOFT? I'm still sitting here waiting for ROLAND'S REVENGE (the third in their ROLAND series) as promised at the end of ROLAND IN SPACE.

added to the wiki.

[Carnivius]

I babble too much. 

[Gryzor]

I babble too much. 

Less talking, more screenshots


Just kidding...

[Gryzor]

I'll get a message to Dave who I'm sure will be fine with that and whack it across.

Any news on this, @CrookieMonster ?


By the way, here's the RG article:


[attach=2]


It'd certainly be great to have these...

[kawickboy]

Amstrad Action showed Toki and Judge Dredd






(you can even see how turrican 2 main sprites should have been better on the 2nd one)