Spectrum Computing

djnzx48 wrote: ↑Sun Dec 08, 2019 8:56 pm Is this meant for games that were actually developed and/or released, or ones that 'could have been'? I thought that Potty Professor sounded interesting after reading the Sinclair User review. It's a shame the game has been lost to time.

Pretty much anything that's listed as MIA, as long as it's not absolute fantasy stuff, like simply conjuring up an idea of 'Renegade 4: Now He's In Space', which is something I've just made up a minute ago.

djnzx48 wrote: ↑Sun Dec 08, 2019 8:56 pm Is this meant for games that were actually developed and/or released, or ones that 'could have been'? I thought that Potty Professor sounded interesting after reading the Sinclair User review. It's a shame the game has been lost to time.

Good call. If Mire Mare and Giana Sister count, then surely this does as well. The article suggests it was at least a nearly finalised demo for review.

Whatever happened to it, that's a massive shame because it would have been pretty groundbreaking wouldn't it? AFAIK the Speccy hasn't had a Heath Robinson type game before, and similar computer games didn't appear until the 90s (?).

According to the author:

There are only a few copies of ‘Potty Professor’ out there. I don’t even have one myself, so if anyone does they have a real collector’s item!

I was also intrigued by the idea behind the 'original' Scooby Doo, though I suppose as it materialised (just in a changed shape) some might say it's not really MIA.

Although I wasn't the biggest fan of Marsport, I would have liked to see how the sequel(s) - Fornax and Gath - turned out.

Everything big that was announced but not released/completed like:

-Toki
-Mega Twins
-Thunderjaws

I would also like to see some games released only as demos from Russian scene. For example remakes of big games from early 90s: Mortal Combat, Warcraft, Civilisation, Worms, Legend of Kyrandia...

Personally I'm somehow less excited about Great Giana Sisters and Mire Mare.

Check Giana Sisters on CPC. It's terrribly slow and practically unplayable. I believe this version shares a lot of code with lost Spectrum version so
Speccy version would be sluggish as well.

And Mire Mare? It would either another Sabrewulf or another Knight Lore. At the end of their days Ulimate lost their "freshness". Again it's for me big, inflated expectations that wouldn't stand the reality check.

I wrote a few BASIC games back in the day, and finished at least one in assembly. Sadly, only the BASIC prototype of Yankee (miraculously) has survived. It’s not so much the code that I’m missing; it’s the ideas. (I don’t think I’d have had the effrontery to rewrite Yankee in assembly, if I hadn’t dug up the bits and pieces of the original BASIC prototype.) Wish I could recover those.

Overall, I’d say if we’re using “MIA” in the strict sense of the term—games that were actually released but somehow haven’t been archived—then it seems that what’s worth preserving has been preserved already.

I was interested in a few unreleased IF 2 cartridge titles years ago, but I think they’ve all been recovered, so I’m good. Some (Gyruss) are surprisingly good, actually.

-The Batman text adventure made by the same team that brought us Hunchback and The Neverending Story. This is reported to have been finished, but never released.

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/b ... adventure/

-2011 (aka Wondergirl) The "Girls" of St Bride's getting into the soper-heroic genre. This could have been, eer... weird, but probably never happened.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=12234

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rockersuke wrote: ↑Tue Dec 10, 2019 1:10 am -2011 (aka Wondergirl) The "Girls" of St Bride's getting into the soper-heroic genre. This could have been, eer... weird, but probably never happened.

The last "true" St. Bride's game as well, perhaps? Certainly sounded like it was being made by the minds behind the original games, rather than some of the later ones that felt more like an imprint of CRL.

Of the games that I know were reviewed, Roly Poly Goes To Hospital from David Todd Software, which looked like a JSW type game, is one which I would like to have. There are also a number of adventure games, such as Sheerluck Holmes and Dr Witsend and a few by Topologika that remain MIA.

Of the games that were announced and/or previewed, Toki, Super Thief, James Pond 2: Robocod and the Heavy On The Magick follow-ups are ones that I would also liked to have seen.

Wreckers by Denton Designs. Crashed Smashed and everything!

Horace to the Rescue and Willy Meets the Taxman.

Morkin wrote: ↑Sun Dec 08, 2019 9:55 pm I was also intrigued by the idea behind the 'original' Scooby Doo, though I suppose as it materialised (just in a changed shape) some might say it's not really MIA.

Although I wasn't the biggest fan of Marsport, I would have liked to see how the sequel(s) - Fornax and Gath - turned out.

I remember seeing those original pics in Crash and thinking that the game would be amazing. When I look at the pics now you can see that they're just flat images in a graphics package like Artist or something similar. Does anybody know how much of that original concept was actually completed? From what I've heard it was going to be a similar game idea to Dragons Lair.

Juan F. Ramirez wrote: ↑Sun Dec 08, 2019 7:42 pm

Knowing Ocean back in the day the top should read :

"Advertise it now... worry about hiring some poor schmuck to write it in a week, later!".

On topic - the really obvious one to me is Mire Mare as Pete correctly expects, I just suspect that like any other late-stage Ultimate game you would have to expect some disappointment. Maybe best left as legend. Really can't think of any other Speccy 'vapourware' (that I would like to see anyway), what did we call the equivalent at the time?

Surprised nobody has said Mega Tree by Matthew Smith. I remember the dev disks being auctioned on eBay back in 2004, but I don't think anything was ever released from them:

https://www.avforums.com/threads/matthe ... ay.127827/

Mega tree was a separate game to Willy meets the tax man and was about 40% complete:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/megatree-jsw3/

Another one that I would like to at least see in action is the original version of Outrun Europa.



I event went as far as starting a mock-up myself.

stupidget wrote: ↑Tue Dec 10, 2019 9:31 pm Mega tree was a separate game to Willy meets the tax man and was about 40% complete:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/megatree-jsw3/

If I'm reading that page right, 'Willy Meets the Taxman' was an alternate title used to refer to Megatree, and the game hadn't got anywhere near 40% finished.

Ralf wrote: ↑Mon Dec 09, 2019 9:55 am I would also like to see some games released only as demos from Russian scene. For example remakes of big games from early 90s: Mortal Combat, Warcraft, Civilisation, Worms, Legend of Kyrandia...

MK is already done years ago, Warcraft is nearly done (Black raven), while Worms and Kyrandia are playable demos AFAIK.

djnzx48 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 11, 2019 3:14 am

stupidget wrote: ↑Tue Dec 10, 2019 9:31 pm Mega tree was a separate game to Willy meets the tax man and was about 40% complete:

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/megatree-jsw3/

If I'm reading that page right, 'Willy Meets the Taxman' was an alternate title used to refer to Megatree, and the game hadn't got anywhere near 40% finished.

This is what I read:

But after recent conversation with Matthew Smith, it seems the “coin collecting” and “Taxman” references were mixed up with his other title “Miner Willy and The Taxman”… a completely separate game.

I've downloaded the ZIP file and theres a Powerpoint with some screenshots and a C64 file but that's it.

MK is already done years ago, Warcraft is nearly done (Black raven), while Worms and Kyrandia are playable demos AFAIK.

Well, I should be more precise, I guess.

Morta Kombat has a full version but it has tiny sprites and for me doesn't have the feeling of the original much:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=12965


I'd like to see this version completed:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=12966


--------------------
As for Black Raven, I agree. It's great. But we still have:

- unfinished Black Raven 2 set in space, that would be a great game too:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=12760


- unfinished Warcraft

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=13121


A lot of great projects were started in Russia, unfortunately much less were finished.

well, "never finished" isn't technically "mia"

I would loved to have seen Chuckie Apple, Nigel Alderton’s true sequel to Chuckie Egg that was heavily inspired by Mr Do. There’s the original design drawings for it here:

http://www.bagshot-row.org/chuckie-egg/ ... apple.html

The interesting thing is that his next game, Kong Strikes Back, is heavily inspired by Mr Do’s Wild Ride. The main character in Kong Strikes Back looks incredibly close to Hen House Harry (well the hat is a giveaway!) which always made me think that Kong Strikes Back maybe started off as Chuckie Egg 2 but had the Kong name (and Kong itself) added in later.The sound FX for collecting the hearts is exactly the same as collecting the eggs in Chuckie Egg and you could see how those hearts could easily be replaced by eggs.

https://youtu.be/3r-NUNZmrHM

Anyone want to hack Kong Strikes Back and make it Chuckie Egg 2: The Bird Strikes Back ???

redballoon wrote: ↑Tue Dec 10, 2019 7:42 am Wreckers by Denton Designs. Crashed Smashed and everything!

Yes! Brilliant call! This was the sort of next game in the Great Escape and Where Time Stood Still “series” of games, wasn’t it? I would love to see that being finally released!