Games That Weren't^®

1985 Bantam Software

Platforms: Apple II, PCjr and potentially Commodore 64 (TBC)

Planned as a sequel to Sherlock Holmes: Another Bow, which was released by Bantam Software in 1984 on a variety of 8-bit platforms. Sadly it was never to be.

In an interview with Scott Stilphen, artist Michael Becker revealed that the sequel was using the same engine as the original game, and featured Al Capone, Babe Ruth, and the mob as Sherlock visited Atlantic City in the 1930s and solved some crimes whilst in his 70s.

Mark Hardisty spoke with Peter Golden in issue 11 of Classic Adventurer, where Peter recalled having completed his work on the title, though Bantam would leave the market before it could be fully released to the world.

Peter didn’t reveal if he still had anything of the game after all this time, though Michael Becker did still have slides of his artwork, which were passed over to Scott to show on the website (these can be found below within the gallery). Hopefully we can find out if Peter still has anything of the game which can be digitally preserved.

As the first Sherlock game saw a release on the C64, we suspect a C64 edition was at least planned – but at this stage need confirmation if it was ever started. Most sources suggest that just a Apple II and PCjr release were scheduled.

If you know anything more about this development, please do get in touch!

With thanks to Mark Hardisty for the heads up with his superb Classic Adventurer issue 11 release and to Scott Stilphen and his Atari Compendium website for the images.

Gallery