Bandersnatch
Release Date  never
Original Publisher  Imagine Software Ltd (UK)
Min. Hardware  ZX-Spectrum 48K
Language  English
Genre  Arcade Game: Adventure
Max. Players  1
Requires  device Bandersnatch Interface

Remarks
     Perhaps the most (in)famous of all the Spectrum unreleased games.
Probably the best article on the story behind the game can be found in issue 12 of Crash in "The Biggest Commercial Break of Them All", which tells the story about the television program which charted Imagine's downfall.
Briefly, Imagine were one of the most publicity-hungry companies of their day. From early 1984 they began publicising their so-called Megagames, Bandersnatch for the Spectrum and Psyclapse for the Commodore 64, and a number of different adverts appeared during the year for the games in the computer press.
Imagine had said that they had reached the limit of the capabilities of the Spectrum and planned to release the game with a hardware add-on which would increase the Spectrum's memory. Various reports suggested that the game would costs anywhere between £20 to £40.
The game though was never finished and Imagine collapsed during about the Autumn of 1984.
On Games That Weren't, Marc Dawson comments that the Megagames had reached "quite an advanced stage and looked incredible"?
The game never appeared despite the fact that Ian Heatherington and Dave Lawson formed a company called Fireiron (nb - I have also seen reports saying this company was called Finchspeed) and planned to release the game for Sinclair Research for the QL either on ROM cartridge or Microdrive.
Some of the programmers who worked on Bandersnatch went on to form Denton Designs and their first game Gift from the Gods was described as a "direct descendant" of the ill-fated Megagame. The central character in Gift was said to be very similar to the one in Bandersnatch.
The game also made an appearance for the Atari ST in the guise of Brataccas, released by Psygnosis, a company also formed by messrs Heatherington and Lawson. Marc Dawson comments on GTW that Brataccas was a mixture of Bandersnatch and Psyclapse.

Additional File Downloads
     FilenameSizeReleaseTypeLanguageComments
     Bandersnatch_Front.jpg522,277OriginalInlay - Front
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat01.jpg321,047OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat02.pdf3,024,700OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat03.png174,183OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat04.jpg427,117OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat05.png373,250OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat06.jpg489,559OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat07.png377,885OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat08.jpg367,246OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat09.png447,507OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat10.jpg357,801OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat11.png408,159OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat12.png263,163OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat13.png439,902OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat14.png509,142OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat15.png468,804OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat16.jpg96,935OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat17.pdf1,851,652OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat18.png173,886OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat19.jpg175,112OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat20.png136,175OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat21.jpg360,239OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat22.pdf1,419,080OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat23.png401,859OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat24.jpg133,810OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat25.pdf622,679OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat26.png431,546OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat27.jpg454,803OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat28.pdf542,343OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat29.png388,422OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat30.jpg1,431,732OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat31.pdf847,402OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat32.png482,926OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat33.jpg1,067,330OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat34.pdf6,409,089OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat35.png466,280OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat36.jpg526,641OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Bandersnatch_Gameaddmat37.png401,049OriginalGame additional materialEnglish
     Psyclapse+Bandersnatch.jpg312,800OriginalAdvertisement
     Psyclapse+Bandersnatch_2.jpg320,808OriginalAdvertisement
     Psyclapse+Bandersnatch_3.jpg313,418OriginalAdvertisement
     Psyclapse+Bandersnatch_4.jpg93,943OriginalAdvertisement
     Psyclapse+Bandersnatch_5.jpg107,229OriginalAdvertisement
     Psyclapse+Bandersnatch_6.jpg88,747OriginalAdvertisement

Magazine References
     Big Kissue #9-1984/Decpage 26- Feature
     Big Kissue #10-1985/Janpage 11- News/Note
     Big Kissue #12-1985/Marpage 5- News/Note
     C&VG (Computer & Video Games)issue #34-1984/Augpage 24- News/Note
     C&VG (Computer & Video Games)issue #58-1986/Augpage 89- News/Note - Barataccas
     Crashissue v.1 #3-1984/Aprpage 43- News/Note
     Crashissue v.1 #11-1984/Decpage 41- News/Note
     Crashissue v.1 #12-1985/Jan special "Christmas Special 1984/85"page 60- Feature
     Home Computing Weeklyissue #84-1984/Oct/16 special "week#3"page 1- News/Note - Bandersnatch rights bought by Sinclair Research
     Personal Computer Gamesissue #10-1984/Seppage 12- News/Note
     Personal Computer Gamesissue #10-1984/Seppage 14- News/Note
     Personal Computer Gamesissue #12-1984/Novpage 27- Letters
     Personal Computer Gamesissue #13-1984/Decpage 23- News/Note
     Popular Computing Weeklyissue v.3 #33-1984/Aug/16 special "week#3"page 5- News/Note - Future of the Megagames
     Popular Computing Weeklyissue v.4 #38-1985/Sep/19 special "week#3"page 5- News/Note
     Popular Computing Weeklyissue v.4 #38-1985/Sep/19 special "week#3"page 28- News/Note
     Sinclair Programsissue #26-1984/Decpage 10- News/Note
     Sinclair Userissue #33-1984/Decpage 15- News/Note
     Sinclair Userissue #40-1985/Julpage 58- Feature - Spirit of Imagine
     Your Computerissue v.4 #3-1984/Marpage 49- News/Note
     Your Computerissue v.5 #1-1985/Janpage 45- News/Note
     Your Spectrumissue #5-1984/Julpage 56- News/Note
     Your Spectrumissue #6-1984/Augpage 34- News/Note
     ZX Computingissue #17-1985/Febpage 10- News/Note

Magazine Advertisements
     Big Kissue #4-1984/Julpage 2- Full-page ad
     C&VG (Computer & Video Games)issue #28-1984/Febpage 170- Full-page ad
     C&VG (Computer & Video Games)issue #29-1984/Marpage 155- Advert
     C&VG (Computer & Video Games)issue #30-1984/Aprpage 97- Full-page ad
     C&VG (Computer & Video Games)issue #31-1984/Maypage 78- Full-page ad
     C&VG (Computer & Video Games)issue #32-1984/Junpage 163- Full-page ad
     C&VG (Computer & Video Games)issue #33-1984/Julpage 17- Full-page ad
     Crashissue v.1 #3-1984/Aprpage 15- Full-page ad
     Crashissue v.1 #4-1984/Maypage 33- Full-page ad
     Crashissue v.1 #5-1984/Junpage 17- Full-page ad
     Personal Computer Gamesissue #3-1984/Febpage 78- Full-page ad
     Sinclair Userissue #23-1984/Febpage 24- Full-page ad
     Sinclair Userissue #24-1984/Marpage 84- Full-page ad
     Sinclair Userissue #25-1984/Aprpage 141- Full-page ad
     Your Computerissue v.4 #2-1984/Febpage 6- Full-page ad
     Your Computerissue v.4 #3-1984/Marpage 82- Full-page ad
     Your Computerissue v.4 #4-1984/Aprpage 108- Full-page ad

Links
     TV/Web Advert (YouTube)(Information - in English)
     Wikipedia(Information - in English)
     Spectrum 2.0(User Reviews)
     The TZX Vault(Software Preservation)
     ZX-Art(Spectrum Graphics)
     ZXInfo(ZXDB Front End)
     Every Game Going(Multi-Platform Archive)
     The Tipshop(Tips, Maps, Solutions, Cheats, Pokes)
     New World Of Spectrum(Spectrum Archive)
     Original World Of Spectrum(Spectrum Archive)
     World Of Spectrum Classic(Spectrum Archive)
     Spectrum Computing(MAIN VIEW)