The Lost Commodore 16 Games

[sixteenplus]

hiya

if it's ok to ask, i'm doing some research for www.commodore16.com on something i remember way back around late 84 (i'm sure).

i received a C16 for Christmas 84 (don't laugh it wasn't that bad ;D). well i remember reading one of those home shopping catalogues choosing pressies beforehand (as children do) and came across some very interesting titles in them, 4 in all. i've recently reread an old Commodore User article and that 3 of these lost games were mentioned (no pics) and were all going to be released on March 1st 1985. they never showed.

the games are:
Hunchback II
Kong Strikes Back
Daley Thompsons Decathlon.

i know Ocean did release one Daley Thompson game for the C16/+4 around 2 years later which was actually pretty good called Star Events, but it was definitely Decathlon i saw.

also,which wasn't mentioned in the CU article but was in the christmas catalogue.
Roland's Rat Race.

well in the catalogue all those years ago, i still remember seeing the outlay covers with Commodore 16" printed along the (i think) top.

so over 20 years later wondering i'm naturally going to ask some questions to finally try kill this mystery lol. can anyone please tell me why these games were never released on the C16 in the end? was any coding done of them at all? is there still code lurking around? were the covers fake or real? if so, are the original C16 out/inlay covers in an archive somewhere? any info at all would be really apprecieated. although some tangible evidence would be a real bonus ;D

another thing that always baffled me, why Hunchback II and Kong Strikes back instead of the originals? easily convertable.

anyway i did upgrade eventually to the C64 and Ocean still remains for me one of the top memorable companies, erm well except for the C16.

thanks guys

[sixteenplus]

here's the CU article btw, where it's only mentioned on the 2nd page and is the only linkage i can find now, although Roland's Rat Race isn't included here.



there must of been some kind of official announcement for them to also be properly advertised for sale in a chunky home christmas catalogue, although i'm pretty sure it did say it was presently unavailable, or coming soon (words to that effect). the outlay Commodore 16 covers were definitely shown though. my memory is pretty sharp lol.

[Bill Harbison]

Wow, this is a bit before my time and I don't know a lot about the C16. Just thought I'd mention that

[sixteenplus]

well nearly 4 months on and i've had a response from the plus4 emucamp site.

i've found outlay cover scans of 2 of the games mentioned. i'm asking there if there's anymore information they can share about these lost games. there probably isn't any.





i mean, why Hunchback II and not the original?

[Bill Harbison]

sixteenplus said:

well nearly 4 months on and i've had a response from the plus4 emucamp site.

i mean, why Hunchback II and not the original?

Probably because it was being developed at that time. The covers are the same as every other version of the games apart from the platform name in the white box. Ocean probably wanted the game out on as many platforms as possible.

[Mark Jones Junior]

I've found this in my piles of Ocean related gumpf. It's out of an Autumn/Winter 1985 release schedule folder and shows that, by this time, any C16 versions had been forgotten about, with only 'Daley Thompson's Star Events' listed as coming out on the C16.

[sixteenplus]

Shame, but thanks for sharing. Things like these are interesting nevertheless

Well, the mystery goes on. Someone out there definitely knows something.