With thanks to Ross Sillifant, it has been highlighted from a MEGA Power interview with Steve Turner that a PC Engine edition of Paradroid was once in production, as well as a unknown console edition of Total Recall.
Paradroid 90 was being produced right up until Hewson sadly collapsed, and then Total Recall would get the same issues when Mirrorsoft/ImageWorks went under in a bad sequence of events for Graftgold. Eventually, it was their conversion of Bitmap Bros’ Gods to the Sega Mega Drive which would result in their breakthrough onto console platforms in the early 1990s.
Andrew Hewson couldn’t recall anything about the PC Engine edition of the game when questioned, though developer Gary J Foreman reported that it was almost finished. He suggests that it was actually cancelled due to complications with Japanese publishers. So the Hewson collapse may have just been co-incidental.
Steve Turner commented in July 2022 that when Hewson had gone bust, Hudsonsoft had no idea that it was Graftgold doing the development work. Graftgold offered to finish the game, but Hudsonsoft would only consider if they could prove that Hewson had claim to the title and would need a document signed. After a few months of nothing being signed, it was too late and the game cancelled.
It seems that Paradroid 90 was pretty close to completion at the time.
With Total Recall, Steve Turner confirmed about the game being cancelled when Mirrorsoft went into administration. He confirmed that Gary J Foreman was the developer, and started work on the Megadrive – having some background scrolling and a main sprite animated – just to experiment with the machine.
Graftgold only had a very outline design which identified bits of the film they would base the levels around. It was probably the design document that had firmed the basis of costings and contracting with Mirrorsoft according to Steve. It was apparently to be a sort of Street Fighter style game with platforms and 4-way scrolling.
Steve couldn’t remember if they got any payments, as they never got to the first milestone. It is very likely that any development that was started is now long gone. Gary couldn’t recall much about the project apart from seeing a big stack of 8″x10% photos (perhaps a few hundred in total) with various cast members.
With thanks to Ross Sillifant for heads up + scans, Gary J Foreman and Steve Turner for the information on what happened on both games.
NOTE: We will eventually split this into two proper and separate entries in the future.
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I can’t recall if I mention this before to you, but several years ago, someone posted on one of the PC Engine/TurboGrafx forums that they were the coder for the PCE Paradroid 90 and that it was finished and they just needed to tie a few things up and we’re going to release it. however several years have gone by and there’s been no sign of it that I’m aware of.. I want to say it was on the old pcenginefx boards where that was posted.
Also, I remember as a kid in the ’90s seeing the game on a list in EGM ‘coming soon’ for the TurboGrafx. I haven’t been able to find the issues that I saw that in though yet. but I know I saw it so it must have been planned for a western release as well.
As far as total recall, I don’t think I mentioned this either. I remember an egm in the rumor section that it was mentioned that there’s a bunch of movie licensed games coming to the TurboGrafx. I recall Alien, Predator(or maybe Alien vs Predator?), and several others mentioned but my memory is a bit foggy on that. apparently there was a Total Recall game, and there was definitely a Die Hard game. Maybe Batman also was included with that rumor? I also recall Lethal Weapon being mentioned which my memory is a little more foggy on. if someone can find that egm they’d be able to get the Straight Dope. however, I’ve been cautioned by one industry Insider recently that the guy who did that rumor section, I think he was called quarterman? he was often wrong about these things. still, there was at least a couple movie licensed games that came out so maybe it was true to some degree or another?
every once in awhile I try to do some Googling to find more evidence of paradroid 90 for a western release, the alleged coder offering to release it online for free, and the quote about various movie license games coming to the turbo but I haven’t stumbled upon it yet.
The comication with Hudsonsoft was that they had contracted Hewsons for the Paradroid 90 PC Engine version and did not know anything about Graftgold developing it. When Hewson went bust we contacted Hudsonsoft who were surprised and immediately asked for there dev kit back. We offered to finish the game and they said they would only consider that if we could prove the Hewson had claim to the title and would need a doc signed by Hewsons successors to that effect. Hewson would not sign the doc for months. Eventually the new md of 21st signed, by then it was too late.
Thanks for confirming more details about the game Steve and what happened. I’ll get the page updated shortly. Do you recall much about working on a Total Recall licenced game for the PC Engine as well?