Games That Weren't^®

1988 EAS

Platforms: Commodore Amiga and Atari ST

A short entry for an Amiga/ST game that never was from 1988, and which was previewed in a Generation 4 and ASM Magazine. In the latter magazine, the game’s name was listed as having a working title of Jungle Olympics.

The game was to be a simple Epyx “Games” style title, where you have a series of events that you must compete in, whilst controlling a particular animal. One screenshot seems to depict a split screen waggling event with penguins (not quite a Jungle scenario!), with another showing a crocodile swimming event. Not quite sure what the Elephant section is – probably some kind of discus-style event.

When EAS visited ASM magazine, there wasn’t much to see at the time – just some graphics and animation sequences. Nothing was yet playable. EAS informed ASM that there were to be around 6 events at least in the final version, with an additional event being an ostrich hurdle run.

The only other details was that the game was being developed by Olaf Schneider for EAS, and was due for release in December 1988. It was never to be though, and disappeared without a trace. The ST mention is purely a guess at this stage, as other EAS titles had an ST version underway.

Swedish magazine Datormagazin, issue 12 1989, page 8, briefly mentions this game too with the following:

“It’s been a while since we last saw a sports game, but E.A.S is about to release the animal-only world championships. The game is made up of four separate events: steeplechase for penguins, 500-meter frog swimming, coconut throwing with elephants and 200-meter bird flapping. You may either play against the computer or an opponent. The game will be released this autumn for Amiga.”

At present, it is unknown what happened exactly, but with the developer name now known – we hope to find out more in the near future. EAS closed its doors around 1989, so its possible delays to the game and the closure was the cause of cancellation.

Thanks to Grzegorz Antosiewicz for the heads up about the title and the scans, Anonymous Contributor for the Datormagazin details, Archive.org for scans and contributor Jürgen for confirming that Jungle Olympics was the working title.

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