Platform: Commodore Amiga

Before Simulmondo became famous for sports titles, comic book licences and adventures, the company had grander ambitions for its debut line-up. One of the earliest announced projects was Rimini, Mare Azzurro (also referred to as Rimini, Blue Sea), a graphic adventure that unfortunately never progressed beyond planning stages.

The title appeared in previews during 1988, including MC Microcomputer issue 73, where it was presented alongside several of Simulmondo’s other forthcoming projects. At the time, the game was described as being well underway, featuring digitised graphics in the style of Déjà Vu and taking place in the Italian seaside resort of Rimini during the 1950s. The intention was to create a murder mystery or thriller with a distinctly Italian setting, something quite unusual for the period.

Behind the scenes, the situation was rather different. In a detailed retrospective on Simulmondo’s history, Genesis Temple uncovered through interviews with former staff that the game had little more than a title and a loose premise. Federico Croci, who was handling public relations and contributing to the storyline, recalled that many of Francesco Carlà’s early game ideas existed only as rough concepts discussed over dinner or scribbled onto napkins before being announced to the press.

Rimini, Mare Azzurro was one such project, promoted enthusiastically despite barely having entered development. A later academic study on Simulmondo’s history also revealed that the project formed part of the company’s earliest editorial plans, discussed around the time of the first Simulmondo Party in 1988, where developers were assigned projects from Carlà’s growing list of ideas.

The Genesis Temple interviews also revealed that development duties were intended to fall to brothers Giuseppe and Gianluca Orofino after they responded to one of Simulmondo’s recruitment adverts published in MC Microcomputer. The pair submitted a demonstration of their own fantasy adventure, Mystere, which impressed Francesco Carlà enough that they were asked to adapt its interface for the new project instead.

According to Giuseppe Orofino, there was no completed game design to work from, merely a title and a vague crime or thriller setting. Gianluca Orofino later joked that, in search of inspiration, they even rented the comedy film Rimini Rimini in the hope of finding scenery that could be digitised into the game, despite neither brother having ever visited the Adriatic coast themselves.

Interestingly, the interviews also revealed that the screenshots published in MC Microcomputer did not originate from the Orofino brothers’ work. This suggests that the images shown to readers were either mock-ups or came from an earlier internal concept, further demonstrating how little of the project had actually been created at the time.

Eventually the brothers abandoned the project altogether, with Mystere later resurfacing in 1990 under rival Italian publisher Genias. According to Ivan Venturi, Rimini, Mare Azzurro was one of around fifteen projects proposed during Simulmondo’s early planning, but like many of the company’s more ambitious concepts, it proved too technically ambitious to realise at the time.

In a later interview with Retrogaming Planet, Francesco Carlà reflected on Rimini, Mare Azzurro as one of Simulmondo’s very first planned titles. He explained that he ultimately chose to concentrate the company’s efforts on sports games instead, believing they represented a stronger commercial opportunity than an Amiga-exclusive graphic adventure in the Italian market.

During this early period, work had even begun on a revised Simulmondo logo for the project, based on an original sketch by renowned Italian designer Massimo Iosa Ghini. Carlà also recalled that although Rimini, Mare Azzurro never progressed, elements of its concept later influenced Italian Night, particularly the desire to set an adventure in an Italian city rather than the more familiar locations of New York or Los Angeles. The decision led directly to Simulmondo’s early releases such as Bocce, Simulgolf and Italy ’90 Soccer, while Rimini, Mare Azzurro quietly disappeared.

Sadly, nothing playable is known to survive today. It was not alone either, with other ambitious concepts from the same period such as Mussolini Age and Francy Frigo also failing to progress beyond the planning stage. As several former Simulmondo developers have reflected over the years, many of these ideas were simply ahead of what was technically or commercially practical for the studio. Hopefully something from these intriguing projects may yet surface one day, as strange things can happen.

With thanks to Fabrizio Bartoloni for highlighting the game, and to Damiano Gerli at The Genesis Temple and Robert Grechi at Retrogaming Planet for their extensive research and interviews documenting the early history of Simulmondo.

Sources

• http://fondazione.cinetecadibologna.it/files/archivi/videoludico/tesi/Cirica_Simulmondo.pdf
• https://genesistemple.com/it/la-storia-di-simulmondo-la-prima-software-house-italiana-parte-1
• https://www.retrogamingplanet.it/intervista-a-francesco-carla-una-vita-per-il-simulmondo/

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Trigger Happy advanced preview added

Earlier this month we added a more advanced preview of Trigger Happy, the Delta clone which was recovered by Genesis Project.

Trigger Happy

Eye of Horus pre-release disk added

We also added a pre-release disk version of Eye of Horus, which may have very minor differences compared to the final retail release.

Eye of Horus Pre-release

1 new entry added

Inertia

17 updates added

Ala Software, Arcade Wizzard, Australian Games, Epsilon, Mewilo, Nightflight, Pride & Prejudice, Quantarallax, Reel Fishing, Rhesus, Space Vegetables Corp, Spindizzy V1, Steam Powered Computer Company titles, The Sanctuary, Void, Who Dares Wins, Zambeezi

Allan Pinkerton has been busy once more, preserving World Geography 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993 editions which you can check out with full scans here:

https://archive.org/search?tab=all&query=commodore+bobco&sort=-publicdate

These are the English editions, and there are other language versions out there that need preserving. Allan has also flagged that 1986 and 1989 are missing, so please get in touch if you can help with those!

Platform: Commodore Plus 4

Today we have a new recovery for the Commodore Plus 4, and a long lost Hungarian game called S.O.S, created in 1993 by Zsolt Asztalos and Robert Horvath. The recovery is thanks to GTW’s Csaba Virág, who has been very busy preserving disks of late.

The game is a sort of mixture of classic Snake, with something like Professional Speedboat Simulator by Codemasters (it has that kind of feel about it). You have to drive a boat and rotate whilst moving constantly to pick up drowning people and then drive them back to the gate in the middle bottom of the screen.

It comes with some nice intro screens and what seems to be digi covers of famous C64 tracks. To get past them and to the game itself, you must carry out a soft reset each time.

NOTE: Most of the time, the game will get stuck in a hi-res mode. If you notice the game doesn’t look like the above screen, then try soft-resetting and then it will give you a screen asking you to press ESC to go back to the game.  This usually fixes it.

It is a nice simple and fun game, and another piece of Plus 4 history saved, and we hope that there will be more to come in the future. Check it out for yourselves!

With a huge thank you to Csaba Virág for preserving and providing to Games That Weren’t to add to the archives.

Download

• Game_SOS

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Platforms: PC and Commodore Amiga

One of the most ambitious Polish role playing games of the 1990s. Tower of the World was a huge fantasy RPG that had been quietly evolving for a number of years before eventually being taken under the wing of Metropolis, creators of TeenAgent and Tajemnica Statuetki.

The project originated with programmer Jarosław Chrostowski and acclaimed Polish science fiction author Wiktor Żwikiewicz, who set out to create what they hoped would be a completely new kind of role-playing game. Work reportedly began around 1990, initially targeting the Commodore Amiga before later expanding to the PC. As development continued, the game was repeatedly redesigned to take advantage of higher resolutions, protected mode memory and more powerful processors, whilst the storyline and interface also grew considerably.

The scale of the project quickly became one of its biggest talking points in the Polish gaming press. Preview articles described a vast fantasy world made up of continents, archipelagos, forests, deserts, mountain ranges, frozen wastelands and huge oceans that could be explored by ship rather than simply crossed via static travel screens. Journeys at sea were even planned to feature encounters with sea monsters, adding another layer to exploration.

Players would control a party of up to eight adventurers, taking on quests that gradually unfolded into a much larger overarching story. The opening of the game was intended to serve as both a prologue and tutorial, placing players in control of a group of children before the main adventure began.

Rather than using a traditional first-person RPG view, Tower of the World planned to blend several different styles together. Exploration was presented in a pseudo-3D perspective similar to games such as Might & Magic, whilst combat would switch to a separate tactical battlefield where positioning and strategy would become far more important. According to previews, the developers believed they had been working on these ideas long before similar mechanics became popular elsewhere.

Perhaps the most ambitious aspect was the simulation itself. Articles claimed that the game world would behave almost like a living ecosystem, with weather systems, environments and wildlife all interacting together. One magazine even described it as nothing less than a “world simulator”, suggesting the attention to detail risked becoming a problem for the game due to the sheer scale.

Originally expected to launch during 1995, release dates steadily slipped into 1996 as development continued. The project eventually became planned as a CD-ROM only release, requiring at least a 486 PC with 8MB of RAM, whilst the Amiga version had reportedly become so demanding that only accelerated Amiga 1200 systems or the Amiga 4000 were expected to run it comfortably.

Sadly, Tower of the World never reached completion. Reports suggested development continued for around five years, but according to later accounts disagreements between the development team and publisher Metropolis eventually brought funding to an end during 1996.

Although the game itself remains unreleased, a surprising amount of material has survived. Magazine previews documented its progress over several years, and thanks to Rygar we are now able to add a collection of previously unseen development images recovered from original animation files. These offer a fascinating glimpse at environments, interface elements and battle scenes that had never been shown publicly before.

We hope to learn more over time to update this page, and perhaps even find something of the game itself to be able to play on either PC or Amiga.

With huge thanks to Rygar for the many magazine scans, information and previously unseen development images which have helped document the game’s history.

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The disk was discovered at Level Up Games in Canterbury last year from a collection that was saved from Ashford, Kent. I thought the disk label was particularly curious, as it states a version number on the label and even suggests a built-in cheat mode.

Was the disk potentially a review copy that was sent out to magazines back in the day? We’re not 100% sure. The disk label doesn’t match any of the released versions.

There could well be very minor differences, and in particular bugs that were ironed out before the final release. If you find anything interesting of note, please let us know and we’ll update the page.

Download

• PreRelease_EyeOfHorus(C64)

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Interestingly, the software was written by the same author behind the commercially released Rabló Rulett, though it isn’t currently known if either educational title was ever commercially published themselves. The software can be downloaded from Plus4World, who continue to do fantastic work preserving Commodore Plus/4 software.

With thanks to Csaba Virág for the heads up, Imre Lóránth for providing the software, László Bozsó for preserving it, and Plus/4 World for hosting the releases.

You can find out more and download them here:

• Dino Daddy: https://plus4world.powweb.com/software/Dino_Daddy
• Matek Robi: https://plus4world.powweb.com/software/Matek_Robi

Platform: Amstrad CPC (possibly ZX Spectrum too)

Next into the Games That Weren’t archives is an Amstrad CPC game that never was, called Storm Force. The game was a RNLI simulation which had graphics created by Lee Burns and code by Jeremy Fowler. Unfortunately, it seems that only a few test routines were completed and just some graphic screens were produced which you can see here.

These were recovered thanks to Dean Hickingbottom from a CPC disk. There was some code, but it was just quick routines for displaying the map or panel on the screen. At somepoint we may be able to add the source code for people to have a poke around. Dean did find a game plan for the game on one of the disks, which describes a little about how the game was to play and some of the different sections.

Rather than simply steering a lifeboat around the sea, players would initially take on the role of a coastguard operator. From the main control panel you would monitor incoming weather reports via telex, listen out for radio traffic across multiple VHF channels, answer telephone calls and study a detailed map of the coastline. Distress calls could arrive by radio, telephone, flares or reports from members of the public, requiring you to quickly assess the situation before setting rescue operations into motion.

Once a rescue had been initiated, the game would shift perspective completely. After selecting an appropriate lifeboat or helicopter, you would then assume the role of the coxswain aboard the lifeboat itself, taking direct control as you navigated out to sea in search of casualties. Sea conditions would have a direct effect on handling and speed, whilst weather updates, reports from nearby vessels and further radio messages from the coastguard would continue to arrive throughout the mission.

The design planned a variety of different rescue scenarios, including sinking boats, drifting vessels with mechanical failures, dinghies being carried out to sea, missing people or boats and medical emergencies aboard fishing vessels ranging from heart attacks to serious injuries. Success would depend not only on reaching the casualty safely, but also ensuring that the correct decisions had been made before leaving harbour, as once out at sea you could no longer return to your coastguard duties until the rescue had been completed.

We have included the full plan below, so you can read it for yourself, as well as the graphical assets disk. Hopefully more will surface in the future, and we’ll get to learn more about the plans for the game.

With thanks to Dean Hickingbottom for preserving and passing over to Games That Weren’t.

Download

• Stormforce-game-design
• Assets_Stormforce(CPC)

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Platform: Sony PlayStation 2

Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes 3 was in development at 5000 Feet and Climax for the PlayStation 2, but was ultimately never released. Very little has surfaced from the project over the years, though footage from a prototype build was thankfully saved and re-uploaded before the original source disappeared.

The available footage shows a main menu, a level where the player can explore a military base whilst battling Tan forces, and a very early boat section. It is possible that additional vehicles may also have been planned, though little else is currently known about the game’s development.

Sadly, no dump of the prototype is currently available and only a limited amount of material has surfaced. Whilst the prototype is believed to survive, it has not yet been made available for preservation.

A handful of images from what appears to have been a PDF design document have also survived, though the original document itself is currently missing after being lost due to a hard drive failure. It is possible that another copy may still exist somewhere, but nothing further has surfaced to date.

For now, the surviving footage and design document images provide a small glimpse at a game that never saw release. If anyone has any additional information about the project, surviving development materials, screenshots, videos, design documents or a prototype build, please do get in touch and we will update this page accordingly.

Eventually, Army Men: Sarge’s War was released in 2004, developed by Tactical Development – and was a completely different title.

With thanks to Tlet3 for highlighting the game and providing the surviving materials.

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Compared to the released cartridge, the prototype features a plain title screen with no mention of either K-Byte or CBS Software, a more vivid floor colour and the absence of the flashing level indicator shown when starting a new game.

Thanks to John Hardie on another great recovery, and thanks to Bertrand / Atari Frog for the heads up. You can read more about the prototype and download it from AtariMania here:

https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-mountain-king_45718.html