Whatever happened to Abandoned by Radical Software ???

[Badstarr]

Hi guys!

I haven't checked the exact wording in my copies of Amstrad Action, but there was always an advert in the later issues (possibly AA100 onwards) by Radical Software advertising various games from the software house.


Now in some of these ads there was some blurb that went along the lines of... ABANDONED-They said it couldn't be done but now the CPC has its own answer to Doom, a superfast 3D adventure set on an abandoned moon...


I'm mostly paraphrasing but thats essentially what it said. What happened to this game?? Does anyone know? I did a forum search but couldn't find any reference to it.


Was it an April Fools? Does any of the code exist for it? Maybe if it does then some clever coders could help complete it? If the Speccy has a Doom port I'm sure a much higher quality 3D em up could be achieved on the CPC!


Its always bugged me that nothing has really ever been said about Abandoned, surely someone else saw the advert?

[MacDeath]

Well, the project was obviously ABANDONED...

[Cholo]

Aint got a clue about Abandoned im afraid.

But if you was wondering if its possible to make a fast 3D shooter for the Amstrad then its definately possible. Especially as games like Doom and Wolfenstein 3D arnt real 3D but "fake" 3D. Fake 3D games are easy to spot as you cant look up or down in those. Wolfenstein 3D is kinda obvious one of these, and Doom is just the same even tho it looks genuine 3D at times (but its a clever combination of different areas with different "hight" so you think you are going up stair/elevator etc.). Of cause the amstrad already have 3D games like Total Eclipse and Castle Master and there is even that 3D constuction kit. That engine is actually pretty fast as you can see in the games when in "running" stance and if the graphics are low detailed. So it should be quite possible without going all Quake "real 3D" like.

Also i recall there was a Wolfenstein 3D thread in here where someone showed a video of some maze design and such. Might be worth reading

[Badstarr]

Thanks for the reply Cholo. I remember seeing a Wolfenstein 3D demo on the CPC a couple of years ago, it was impressive all it needed was some guards etc and some extra coding to make it playable as far as I remember! The hard work was done really.


I have always loved to see the CPC do the impossible, and it's never failed to amaze me with add ons like the symbiface and symbos giving the trusty old machine some comparatively cutting edge facilities!


At the time that ABANDONED was announced I think the Zenith of 3D on 32 bits was Quake which introduced the "free look" option to 3D games and as far as I'm concerned after watching my 14 year old cousin play his PS3 things haven't really moved on since.


It would be really cool though if we could code a 3D engine  for the CPC that could be used to produce some DOOM style games, sort of like the CPC equivalent of a QuakeIV/Doom3 engine (obviously not to the level of those engines as that's not possible!).


As far as ABANDONED goes I'm just really curious as to why such an amazing achievement for the time (1995) disappeared and no one seems to have asked why or has tried to get a look at what had actually been created or achieved. This just seems strange when Retro Gamer magazine has unearthed some of the games for various platforms that never saw the light of day!


I suppose what I'm saying is that its always going to bug me that I have never found out what the game was like! I have often wondered about this game over the past 15-16 years! Someone must have some info on this game! Someone from Radical Software perhaps?!


EDIT


For those who want to see the advert... look at the second from last page here- 


http://cpcoxygen.fxwebdevelopment.com/amstrad_action/aa_pdf/AmstradAction117.pdf

[Xyphoe]

Rob of Radical Software is actually a poster on this forum as "Trebmint" ... have a look at the Fluff topic here - http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?topic=1664.0

But note this posting by Rob - http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?topic=1664.msg16621#msg16621

This along with all of my development disks went long ago unfortunately. The only record of it I think would be a few images in an advert in a Radical Amstrad Action advert.
I know it might sound like sacriledge but I had a 3" disc burning ceremony some years ago in an attempt to stop me wasting time on writing z80. I now much regret my stupidity

Sadly gone I bet

[Badstarr]

Thanks for the info Xyphoe! So the great Rob Buckley frequents these forums! That's quite amazing! I may PM him and ask about Abandoned. I will probably wait until I have some thing more intelligent to say than "Wow! you're Rob Buckley" as I suspect he already knows that.


It is a shame to hear that he had a "burning ceremony" I had hoped he meant a CD burning ceremony in which he archived everything to optical media but I guess not. Anyways CD-R burning amounts to pretty much the same thing if my old CD-R back ups are anything to go by.


Its a shame that I will never see Abandoned by the sounds of it, I was 14 when I first saw the advert in Amstrad Action having just played Wolf3D and Doom on my mates' PC and I thought FANTASTIC! I can have pretty much the same on my CPC! I just couldn't wait until I could buy it and fire it up and watch all my mates' mouths drop!


Well maybe he has some info on how he coded it which may be useful to the guys working on wolf3D engines for the CPC.


Im planning on doing some work coding something 3D related myself so you never know maybe he might have some advice. Maybe if he likes z80 coding again he might think about resurrecting the project? You never know we might all be playing games based on the Abandoned Engine within a few years! I can dream can't I?!