Licenses that could have been

[PeteProdge]

Broadly speaking, the 1980s is the decade most associated with the Spectrum. And there's a lot of pop culture that converted over to our rubber-keyed platform. Rambo; Miami Vice; Ghostbusters and even Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

Yet there were some highly viable contenders that, for some reason, never made it to the Speccy.

Television
I'm astonished Domark never cashed in on the huge popularity of Only Fools And Horses.
One name that would have sold vast quantities would have been the sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf - absolute target demographic really. Likewise, Quantum Leap.

Movies
The Nightmare On Elm Street series. Tremendously popular with my generation.
Why can't I play Ferris Bueller's Day Off? I can just picture that with an Ocean logo splashed over it.
There apparently was a Mad Max game in Italy, although it's MIA and I suspect it wasn't official.

Comics
Watchmen - there's an open goal, although creator Alan Moore obviously was never keen on the story being recreated in any other medium than a comic book (I see his point).
Dennis The Menace, Bash Street Kids, etc... I'm very surprised DC Thomson's never got any official representation on computers, although it does seem like the Dandy and Beano always were rooted in the 1950s.

Music
Heavy rock was fairly visible in the 1980s, and with the cover art of bands like Guns N Roses; Kiss and Iron Maiden, there could have been official licensed games based on their imagery. Gene Simmonds is certainly keen on shamelessly monetising absolutely anything to do with Kiss. In some parallel universe, I'd like to be playing Iron Maiden's Eddie mascot in some daft platformer. Of course, the Achille's heel in all of this is that 8-bit computers aren't particularly good soundwise at recreating multi-layered guitars...
Towards the arse-end of the Speccy's life, there might have been some recognition of those global cheese merchants New Kids On The Block or Bros.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Towards the arse-end of the Speccy's life, there might have been some recognition of those global cheese merchants New Kids On The Block or Bros.

Add Spice Girls to the lot and you'll have a true horror compilation!

[PeteProdge]

Towards the arse-end of the Speccy's life, there might have been some recognition of those global cheese merchants New Kids On The Block or Bros.

Add Spice Girls to the lot and you'll have a true horror compilation!

While they're certainly not in my play queue, I like the image they have, like a Bash Street Kids thing where their personalities come be summed up in a single word - Baby, Posh, Ginger, Scary and Sporty. There's a huge scope for a crazy game, where each girl has their special skill to overcome a challenge.

[R-Tape]

Comics
Watchmen - there's an open goal, although creator Alan Moore obviously was never keen on the story being recreated in any other medium than a comic book (I see his point).

Ooh there's a good call. It might have been too close to a cult following to warrant a big release, and it would have been toward the end of the commercial era, but I'd love to see some 'what ifs'.

Some kind of action/adventure where you play the different characters, though everyone knows the twist from the start.

If Alan Moore was ever into computers I reckon he would have been a Specchum.

[PeteProdge]

Comics
Watchmen - there's an open goal, although creator Alan Moore obviously was never keen on the story being recreated in any other medium than a comic book (I see his point).

Ooh there's a good call. It might have been too close to a cult following to warrant a big release, and it would have been toward the end of the commercial era, but I'd love to see some 'what ifs'.

There was definitely a Watchmen game on the PlayStation 3, I have that as a demo, and, unsurprisingly, it's in a 3D polygon world where you beat lots of people up (like a 3D version of the arcade's The Simpsons/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and appears to be based on the movie version.

Some kind of action/adventure where you play the different characters, though everyone knows the twist from the start.

Based on the Kwah game engine maybe?

If Alan Moore was ever into computers I reckon he would have been a Specchum.

I'd like to think so.

[Ralf]

Speaking of movies from early 90s, I could imagine a Spectrum game based on Ghost with Patrick Swayze:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099653/?ref_=nv_sr_6

So you are a beginner ghost and you have to learn being a ghost, moving things, travelling through walls... You have to take your revenge on your killers but maybe the plot could be expanded so you had more fights with normal humans and another ghosts. So I can see it as some kind of arcade adventure

And speaking of Patrick Swayze, believe it or not but there was a actually a game made based on... Dirty Dancing

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/dirty-dancing

But I'm not so sure I'd like to see it on Spectrum

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Unless it was callled 'Dirty Dancing: The revenge of the ninja', it wouldn't sound cool for the Spectrum...

[Wall_Axe]

Quantum leap and Red Dwarf sound good but there would have to be a great idea behind each game.

For Red Dwarf maybe something a bit like Great Escape but instead of other prisoners you have Rimmer Cat and Kryten.
Seeing them go about their day in iso would be hilarious.

Then a few choice episodes are chosen, like polymorph for example.

In Great Escape you have a scripted timetable for the prisoners, sleep,exercise,eat

So for each episode you would have a similar script

discover polymorph
have meeting - where Rimmer can talk about handing out leaflets, and Lister can talk about nutting it into oblivion
then after all those funny lines have been said the characters can go into 'vigilance mode'
where they try to shoot the polymorph

it would be more a silly game like 'how to be a complete Bas**rd'
not a game with serious gameplay like Green Beret

[blucey]

Die Hard. How the hell did this not happen?

Enter the Dragon also. Basically Bruce Lee but with way more emphasis on fighting and less on climbing up water.

[Ralf]

Die Hard. How the hell did this not happen?

Looks like there was some abandoned project:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseek ... id=0025130

and there is a version for Commodore so you can have some idea what kind of game it would be on Spectrum
http://www.lemon64.com/?game_id=722

There is also some Die Hard unofficial Russian fan game:


https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=23112

[MatGubbins]

Spectrum games for Muppets, Fraggles, ALF, The Last Starfighter,

[PeteProdge]

Spectrum games for Muppets, Fraggles, ALF, The Last Starfighter,

Sorry, I'm just obliged to do this whenever ALF is mentioned.