Games That Weren't

Released on various platforms by Alternative Software in the late 1980s and early 1990s, The Munsters was a licence of the famous American TV show and was a typical 2D flick screen adventure affair which many of us kids back in the day may have brought with our pocket money. Continue reading →

Yet another lost Commodore 16/Plus 4 title from Mastertronic, and this time in the shape of Los Angeles S.W.A.T - which sort of splits opinion with the Commodore 64 edition that was released. Some like it, though others loave it - especially the music! Continue reading →

A popular puzzle game on the Commodore 64, Bombuzal was also being arranged for conversion to the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC platforms, with work being arranged through Andromeda Software back in early 1988. A contract was arranged with a developer called Matthew Kydd, who was friends with Nigel Critten - who is known today for creating some wonderful ZX Spectrum games such as BabyMan Vs Terminatots and many more. Nigel would help Matthew by doing all the graphics, and mentions that there was discussion of an Amstrad CPC edition as well. Continue reading →

A lost Palace Software title from 1986 is not something you hear about every day. Stuntman appears to have been an ambitious project for its time, likely targeting emerging 16-bit platforms, but ultimately never seeing the light of day. Gaming historian Kate Willært has done a fantastic job researching and documenting the story behind the game, pulling together a detailed and insightful look at what might have been. Continue reading →

A small entry thanks to Bertrand / AtariMania, where Cedar Island Software very briefly advertised two games on tape for the Atari and VIC-20: Confrontation at Vega Three Triple Play Continue reading →

I was very kindly asked to take part on a new "My Collection Of" website, where they interview people about the things they collect. Of course, most of what we do is a digital archive - but creator Adam Starr was still keen do ask some questions, so here we are. Many thanks to Adam for the invite! Continue reading →

Two significant Atari Lynx prototype recoveries have been made thanks to the AtariAge community, and have been added to our archives as well as a result with prototypes of both Monster Demolition and Vindicators now available to explore. Both titles were part of a large haul of Atari Lynx materials recovered via the AtariAge community yesterday. Monster Demolition provides a look at an early take on Rampage what would later be completely scrapped to make way for a more arcade accurate conversion, while Vindicators is represented by a much more advanced and playable build than previously seen. Continue reading →

Our next entry in the archives is Monster Demolition, which has had some video footage online of the game running for many years. The game was apparently turned into Rampage, though as you can see – this was looking quite different, with much larger main characters. The game was also renamed to Rampage Deluxe at some point too. Continue reading →

There is something especially appealing about smaller cancelled games. Not the giant, headline-friendly projects that get brought up every few years whenever somebody wants to lament what might have been, but the stranger, slightly more modest ideas that never quite made it through. The sort of games that were clearly far enough along to exist properly and yet still ended up slipping quietly sideways into prototype history. Continue reading →

CatGun: Victory Mission G was a manga-style shoot-em'-up game developed around 1995-1996 by the game developer duo PixelHazard (consisting of programmer Arjen Wagenaar and artist Luc S. Verhulst, who both formerly worked for the game company The Vision Factory/SPC Vision specializing in games for the Philips CD-i). The music was composed by the musician duo E * Que/Logic Audio Music Production as they were known at the time (Hans Ouwejan and Felix Faassen). Continue reading →

Some news about some fascinating work around a very early and largely lost Japanese home computer game called Dojin from 1980. Sitting between Manbiki Shounen (1979) and Nostromo (1981), Dojin is something of a missing link between early stealth and horror game design. Although the game was completed and shown at a festival at the time, it was never widely released and no original code is known to have survived. Continue reading →