Posted By
Andy Oakley
on 2005-10-18
10:35:23
|  Unreleased games
Does anyone know of any Commodore 16/Plus4 games that never got released?
I work in the game industry and there are a fair few games that never see the light of day so I'm sure this was also the case back in the 8 bit days (which, unfortunately I just missed out on).
I'm thinking of writing an article about unreleased c16 games so any info anyone has would be extremely helpful.
thanks in advance!
Andy Oakley
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Posted By
Luca
on 2005-10-18
11:33:12
 | Re: Unreleased games
Well Andy, the best site about 8bit unreleased games is GTW64, that had solved so many misterious stories about unreleased c64 stuff. And some months ago, a CPC464 twin has popped out, here.
Actually, there are some unsolved and weird stories about C16/+4's shadoware stuff, e.g. 1942, Space Harrier, Thing on a Spring, Avenger. We only had seen adverts about them...
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Posted By
Chris
on 2005-10-19
09:05:49
| Re: Unreleased games
I tried contacting some ex employee's of Ocean to see if they could shed any light on this subject, but havent heard a peep about any of their unreleased games 
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Posted By
Andy Oakley
on 2005-10-19
11:56:22
| Re: Unreleased games
Ah, the boss at the last company I worked at wrote the original Thing On A Spring. I'll drop him an email and confirm whether this was ever written and released.
Watch this space
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Posted By
Luca
on 2005-10-19
12:27:59
| Re: Unreleased games
Andy, we also tried to contact Elite's ppl, but no useful answers at all.
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Posted By
Andy Oakley
on 2005-10-20
07:30:53
| Re: Unreleased games
I posted a thread on GTW64 asking if anyone knew of any unreleased C16/Plus4 games and Frank (who I think runs the website) recommended sifting through old magazines. This way you can pick out previews for games that never got released.
This is a really cool idea so if anyone reads any old commodore magazines and comes across any previews of unreleased games then I'd be very happy to hear about it in this thread.
Maybe a section could be created on this website? (hint hint Chris!)
thanks again for all your help. Watch this space.
Andy.
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Posted By
C16 Chris
on 2005-10-20
19:20:03
 | Re: Unreleased games
Rüdiger says to me he hat seen the previews from Triple Decker 8 + 9 by Alternative Software can everybody look if there was released or unreleased ?
I work on a Katalog with all games for CBM 264er Computer and have found more then 1.000 releases , rereleases , tapes , disks , cartiges and alternative covers. Also I want any info that i can become about tihist.
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Posted By
Andy Oakley
on 2005-10-21
11:36:27
| Re: Unreleased games
I can confirm, straight from the horses mouth, that 'Thing On A Spring' was never developed for the C16/Plus4
At least it can be laid to rest.
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Posted By
Luca
on 2005-10-21
17:05:28
| Re: Unreleased games
Elite Systems has a brand new website, so I changed the 1942 link, with this.
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Posted By
Luca
on 2005-10-27
13:53:25
| Re: Unreleased games
I also remember some announced c16 games that probably had never seen the light: Codemasters'"Grand Prix Simulator" and "L.A. SWAT" from Mastertronic.
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Posted By
retroscener
on 2012-06-22
21:21:21
 | Re: Unreleased games
There were a string of Ocean games that must of been scheduled for release, as i saw them advertised in an 84 (or was it 85?) home shopping christmas catalogue. they only had 'Commodore 16' printed on the game sleeves so i guess it was 84, and it's a shame they never saw the light of day.
well the games were Hunchback II (oddly no Hunchback), Kong Strikes Back, Daley Thompsons Decathlon and Roland Rats Race.
at least Ocean made up for Decathlon with 'Star Events' which i was quite impressed with...although it was to be their only release, not including the four arcade game compilation on the imagine label.
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Posted By
C16 Chris
on 2005-11-10
07:02:12
| Re: Unreleased games
I think Roland Rats Race must be for the Schneider CPC 464 and realeased by Armsoft. They have more Roland Games: Roland Ahoy! , Roland in the Caves , Roland on the Ropes.
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Posted By
LeeT
on 2005-11-10
07:18:28
| Re: Unreleased games
Rolands Rat race had NOTHING to do with the Amsoft Roland Games. RRR was a game based on the TVam character and was also released for the Spectrum and C64.
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Posted By
C16 Chris
on 2005-11-10
08:45:23
| Re: Unreleased games
LeeT thanks for info
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Posted By
MIK
on 2012-06-23
05:16:59
 | Re: Unreleased games
Very nice!!
Biggest let down of them all was Hunchback II, indeed it was printed as coming and having loved that game on a friends C64 there was no question in my mind it could of run on C16.
You only need to play Fingers Malone to hear a bell sound as you use the lift which is in that sort of style that Hunchback II uses on c64 lol. Doug Turner could of done it. 
The level starting music is one jingle I will never forget.
Worth a download on a 64 emu if you don't have it! Fun game in that classic old skool style what would of found a perfect home on C16/plus4.
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Posted By
retroscener
on 2012-06-23
08:35:50
| Re: Unreleased games
The original Hunchback would have been a better game to release first, makes more sense. At least we do have Punchy.
Kong Strikes Back wasn't a particularly great game on the C64. Roland's Rat Race though is one I still want to prove as a GTW.
But we never thought at the time about keeping pages from old home shopping catalogues. I still remember the tape cover scan of RRR, and DD Decathlon (at least we kinda know what happened with that one).
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Posted By
MIK
on 2012-06-24
03:28:06
| Re: Unreleased games
For me Thai Boxing (Plus4) was the most memorable release that never came as Anco were pumping games out left right and center. Makes you wonder if they had hoped Jörg Dierks would of done Thai Boxing for Plus/4. Amazing how much this guy did for C16 & Plus/4 and he still continued pumping games out for Kingsoft long after Anco had given up on us going into 1988. I mean wow we had just had Summer Events and they could do nothing wrong, times were GREAT and then nothing... Very sad.
Jörg Dierks a legend in his own right for working his butt off for Kingsoft and still made time to do a one off for Elite lol.
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Posted By
retroscener
on 2012-06-24
03:46:16
| Re: Unreleased games
The C16 version still haunts my memory. I wish that was a GTW instead
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Posted By
MIK
on 2012-06-24
12:41:51
| Re: Unreleased games
Agreed.
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Posted By
Luca
on 2013-03-17
13:55:20
| Re: Unreleased games
Mh, I really got few passages in that thread: who's the man? What's that code, which looks like a C64 one? Anyway, if a conversion jumps out, I'll be very happy
Apropos, I have something to put in the archive as preview games, first of all Myth/MX...
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Posted By
retroscener
on 2013-03-17
14:06:03
| Re: Unreleased games
Yeah he was a bit cryptic. I'm not sure who he is. The code is indeed C64 but he believes that he is able to reverse engineer it to work on the C16/Plus4.
If a conversion does come about, I would prefer it to be C16 compatible like an original release would have been. I'd like to see both games actually, also maybe preferably with the Ocean logo just so we can put the Hunchback II cover to it
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Posted By
MIK
on 2013-03-17
15:26:43
| Re: Unreleased games
Love HB2 on C64.
With Asteroids, Last Ninja and anything else good that comes our way then anything is possible.
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Posted By
retroscener
on 2013-03-19
00:48:54
| Re: Unreleased games
Well, I've been in contact with him, and another interested guy who might be willing to do the graphics for maybe both Hunchback games. The potential grapiician has said that he is now willing to play with the graphics and that he has now contacted the guy, but he is really busy with other projects too, but he is interested.
Prime_Suspect also says : "The goal will be to have both games run on stock c16's so yes request granted"
I am still skeptical until something is totally agreed upon but the interest is there. I'm totally playing the middle man here, I made it quite clear it needs to be C16 compatible like the falsely promised original release of HB2 back in the day, and it would be even better to have both games. These guys are totally honest, but also extremely busy so I won't push them :)
So if any proper Hunchback games are finally released, remember me lol (I won't be totally happy unless they're C16 compatible though)
Extra Edit: They seem pretty sure now it'll happen for both games. Fingers extra crossed and yes famous last words from me if it ever happens at all :)
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Posted By
MIK
on 2013-03-19
05:45:38
| Re: Unreleased games
I'm sure Hunchback 2 will run on a C16 any way. About the closet thing we have to it in a technical way is Fingers Malone, as in platforms, lift's, things to collect and bad guys. Fingers Malone also look fantastic. Hunchback 2 is not 1990 quality either, old school C64 and very suited to the 264. Only thing that may stop it is if HB2 was a lazy coded game as in with so much memory it did not matter repeating stuff instead of reusing which 12k means you have to do all the time. Nice game tho, fond memories of playing HB2 with a school friend back in the day and the jingle music rulez which I will never forget and can hear in my head right now!!
Fingers crossed it happens!
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Posted By
Prime_Suspect
on 2013-03-19
13:27:57
| Re: Unreleased games
I thought i'd post since you guys seems excited about the hunchback ports
One thing that will have to be done is a reverse engineer of an exiting game close to hunchback
For hunchback 1 i decided to look at punchy
The jumping code for punchy works like so (look below)
This will work with modifications for hunchback 1 but it definitely will not work for hunchback 2
I will most likely have to reverse engineer two games punchy and fingers malone
punchyjump_cont2:
dec _jump_index
bmi adjustjump_state
rts
adjustjump_state:
dec _jumpstate
rts
init_punchyjump:
ldy #1
sty _punchy_jumpstate
ldy #21
sty _jump_index
rts
punchy_jumping:
ldy _jump_index
clc
lda jump_tbl,y
adc _punchy.y
sta punchy.y
inc $1a ;not sure yet
jmp punchyjump_cont
punchyjump_cont:
jsr update_softsprites
jsr jump_fx
jmp punchyjump_cont2
jump_tbl
//gravity_tbl
$1858
.byte $02
.byte $02
.byte $02
.byte $02
.byte $02
.byte $02
.byte $01
.byte $01
.byte $01
.byte $01
.byte $00
.byte $00
//jump_forcetbl
.byte $ff
.byte $ff
.byte $ff
.byte $ff
.byte $fe
.byte $fe
.byte $fe
.byte $fe
.byte $fe
.byte $fe
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Posted By
Gaia
on 2013-03-19
17:19:41
| Re: Unreleased games
A conversion would be a real feat but let's not forget that the true deal will be the sprites. The game is truck loaded with them... so a decent, fast software sprite routine is essential and even if we're done with that we have to take color clash into account as outlined here by master Luca himself
http://www.javalemmings.com/xeo3/limi1024.htm
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Posted By
Prime_Suspect
on 2013-03-19
17:42:03
| Re: Unreleased games
Very usefull information there thanks for sharing Gaia
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Posted By
retroscener
on 2013-03-22
05:08:02
| Re: Unreleased games
Sprites are the obvious problem to work around for sure as the 264 series simply doesn't have any hardware sprites.
But the C64 only has 16 colours so surely that would have been a bigger problem regarding colour clashing, rather than the C16 which has 120 colours plus 8 shades of black at it's disposal, surely? (what do I know though, lol).
If this can happen, it would be fantastic to see the games work within 12K of memory, as HB2 was originally intended.
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Posted By
MIK
on 2013-03-22
07:04:13
| Re: Unreleased games
Would be nice if people used Monochrome style graphics more as the machine was intended, ZX Spectrum rival. You would not waste so much memory then and to think... SwitchBlade could really run on a Plus4!
Video Meanies did well to implement a Monochrome style back in the day and we got a lot more of a game in comparison to many others using the same amount of memory, almost C64 quality when that too does Monochrome style GFX such as Vampire or Dizzy ect..
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Posted By
MMS
on 2013-03-22
17:59:31
 | Re: Unreleased games
Dizzy is a good example. There is a strong color clash, and noone cares, as it is a good game.
Recent Spectrum releases use very stylish, still easily convertable soft -spites.
A good link http://tarjan.uw.hu/zx_gamez_after_93_en.htm
My fav screenshots on hires gameplay:
Dizzy TMD,
Towdie (check it on youtube),
Pussy,
splATTR,
Hop'n'Chop,
FAIB (Bomberman clone :-) ),
buzzsaw
Twilight: Krajina Tienov (worth to check pictures via Google)
Retro invaders
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Posted By
retroscener
on 2013-05-03
00:03:42
| Re: Unreleased games
I've just received a reply from Prime_Suspect on the Lemon64 forum.
Hi c16 just to let you know Wayne will be doing art assets after balloonatic
I've also completely reverse engineered punchy (helped me understand how sw objects work)
Anyway just wanted to give you a little info
So looking good for it, and it might tempt someone to finally give us the promised sequel which Ocean failed to deliver
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Posted By
MIK
on 2013-05-03
05:06:51
| Re: Unreleased games
cool.
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