You may or may not know, that there were many games that never made it to production, for whatever reasons existed at the time, problems with copyright, modifications needed, or software companies going bankrupt.

On this page I hope to set the record straight as to some of these rumours, and to provide information on some of the games themselves, why they weren't produced, what stage they got to etc. Hopefully I should be eventually able to provide pictures and even downloadable code for them.

The list is provided in alphabetical order, sorted by the title of the game.

3D Wars - Orlando M Pilchard (Nick Pelling) - 198?

Download 3D Wars

Orlando's great unreleased game, it is far from finished, in the version you can download there is no way to kill enemies or die. It is a 3D Shoot 'Em Up with a great effect of flying through a tunnel. Orlando by the way mentions in his interview that he wrote over 30 pieces of software which were unreleased.

And all because.... - Gary Partis - 198?

Another almost finished game which Partis wrote for Superior Software, it was based on the man in black from the Cadburys milk tray adverts, and was a sideways scrolling game. Limitations with the copyright license stopped this ever being released though.

Bolo - Delos D Harriman and James Everard - 1988/89

Econet playable tank game, remarkable for its sheer technical complexity. Has since become a big game on the Macintosh computers.

Cyboto - Godax - 1988

A ravenskull clone - pretty close to being finished it was announced in the Impact Games catalogues and orders were taken - probably shelved at the last moment.

Haunted House - Author Unknown - 198?

This was also in the back of a book, mentioned as being a future release for Superior, apart from that though, no other information.

Jeremy Goes Jumping - Author Unknown - 198?

Download Jeremy Goes Jumping

Another game which according to Richard Hanson was not quite good enough for release, but was a very interesting game with a central character who could jump over skyscrapers with a Pogo stick. As this was completed, I suppose there is a larger chance of someone having it on an old disk somewhere - maybe YOU wrote it?

Update: Richard Hanson has now done a small review on the game:

Superior Software received many games for evaluation. Of all the complete games that Superior Software considered Jeremy Goes Jumping is probably the best BBC Micro game that didn't quite make it to publication.

The game is unusual, featuring a character called Jeremy who is equipped with a jet pack enabling him to fly - provided of course he manages to keep it topped up with fuel. The game is set on a strange cosmic landscape with asteroids whizzing overhead. Jeremy has to avoid the asteroids while he flies over bushes, trees, rivers and many other obstacles which he encounters as the game progresses. Eventually he also has to dodge gunfire and bombs, and wind his way through narrow tunnels.

It's an atmospheric game, with a soundtrack of "Scarborough Fair", the traditional piece of music popularised by Simon and Garfunkel. It has a kind of surreal feel to it at times, as you fly high above the landscape. A reasonably good game overall; there are a few rough edges here and there, but it's fun to play - and has some novel touches.

Joust - Delos D Harriman - 1987/1988

Yes, I know what you're thinking, this was actually released! Well no, not exactly, this is the version Delos wrote for Aardvark software, but Nick Pelling got into trouble with Atari over it, and it was never released. Delos then went on to change the name to Skirmish, modify the graphics and release it under Godax Software, further making a welcome appearance on PAS12.

Legend Of Sinbad - Jason Benham - 1986/1987

Not really unreleased, so far as it was never actually written for the Beeb, one of the only games which Superior never released on the Beeb, this one only got an outing on the C64. However, Richard Hanson informs me that if it had been converted he would have probably published it for the beeb.

Mega-Apocalypse - Author Unknown (thought to be working for Martech though) - Abandoned in 1988

Half-finished copies, according to Jeremy Grayson, did leak out, and is supposedly a bit like the Superior Software game Deathstar. The source of the leak was probably the Home Computer Club which WH Smiths ran as it was featured in one of their magazines.

Nautilus - Author Unknown - 198?

Mentioned only in the back of a book written by Richard Hanson, I have no other info on this game, what stage it reached, or why it was never produced.

Pluribus - Mat Newman - 198?

Supposedly a clone of Marble Madness, this was offered to Superior Software, but turned down as R. Hanson thought it needed some gameplay modifications before it was good enough to release. The result was it never got released at all by Superior, and as far as I know, no-one else snapped it up.

Space Super Hi-Way - Mat Newman - 198?

Follow-up to Space Hi-Way, a moderately good shoot-em-up by Pace/Amcom. Jeremy Grayson thinks it was finished, but never released, Mat preferring to concentrate on Pluribus instead.

VTOL - Peter Johnson - 198?

Download VTOL

Richard Hanson mentions this in his interview with me, apparently, it only exists in demonstration form, and was abandoned before completion. I have recently gotten hold of a copy of the 'demo' and it is really quite a bit more than a demo, you can actually fly a harrier jump jet, it is done in a sort of 3D way, I think it is about 60-70% complete as you can be killed by other planes, but you do not have a way to fire your own missiles. Could have been very good.