1993 Scangames (Scandinavian Games)
Platform: Commodore Amiga
Also known as: Seven gates of hell
After a less than perfect experience with the development/release of Fuzzball on the Amiga, artist Tomas Dahlgren returned to Sweden, determined to create the perfect arcade game on the Amiga platform. As a result, he started working on a title called Axe ‘n Crossbow, with the plan (in Tomas’ own words) to create “a giant medieval maze game similar to Elevator Action.”. The name of the game referred to the two protagonists, a male warrior and a female elf.
In the 2016 book “Svensk videospelsutveckling. Från 50-tal till 90-tal” (Swedish video game development. ’50s to ’90s) by Sunhede and Lindell, a bit more information is given about the game:
“But despite the setbacks [with Fuzzball], Dahlgren doesn’t give in, [instead] he does the graphics for a game he calls Seven gates of hell, later renamed into Axe ‘n Crossbow. He’s inspired by [the arcade game] Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Atari, 1985) and the graphics are impressive even today, but [the game] is soon canned. He is offered to sell his graphics, but Tomas, now wizened, refuses.”
Sadly the game was never to surface, and the book mentioned no programmer either. Tomas suggests on a page about music for the game that there never was one:
“Using samples collected from various sound discs, also sampling my own voice modifying it in Audiomaster, I made a series of short tunes for my own game concept Axe’n Crossbow, then called simply ‘Walkaround’ because it was about the only thing you would do in the game at that stage. I later completed the game on paper only, but I had almost all graphics and sound effects ready, and a full story and concept for it. The game was never programmed and I still have the material waiting for nothing.”
It sounds like at best there was a very early concept demo, but no assigned programmer. However commenting on a YouTube video about Fuzzball, Tomas replies to a question about Axe that contradicts:
“That one has still not been made. I have the graphics and gameplay ready, but it still needs to be assembled on some kind of running platform, and it will be needing new sound effects. I still got the graphics and stuff somewhere. The game was never made due to lack of vision from programmers side. Thing is it is a great game in concept and play. As I’d like to see a real ‘barbarian game’.”
Nothing of the game has yet surfaced, though Tomas produced a video many years ago with various screens from the game. He also revealed a lot more about the plans for the title:
“Here’s a long gone dream of a game that plays a lot like Elevator Action, but has several elements no other game has ever had. Inspired by similar games at the time of concept creation, like Atari’s Temple of Doom, Kung-Fu Master, Rolling Thunder, .. this medieval adventure takes place in a large monastery, or a castle if you like, guarded by monks, armoured soldiers, overweight gate keepers, bats, hell-hounds, wizards and dragons, and other supernatural beings who make life very hard for you.
To your advantage you carry around a crossbow, or a large axe, depending on which character you want to play. And your mission .. well, slaughter as many of these creatures you possibly can. And to piss off the gods granting you this euphoric massacre you also free captives down in the dungeons. And if you are clever enough you just may find the hidden crypts filled with gold and treasure, scattered around this evil place.
Power-ups? There are none. Disappointed? – You succeed or die, your skills are already complete. As you enter, in your bare skin with your weapon, you are at your maximum already; A warrior on a mission to challenge evil and take what you can while at it. No extra powers, no smart bombs, no limited invisibility or magic potions – no wimpy power-ups! You won’t need them. This is the way of Axe’n Crossbow.”
A page also still exists today on the game, which hasn’t been updated since the 1990s. Here Tomas reveals a lot more about the game, as well as screenshots which we have saved here. A detailed introduction can be found on the site or via the PDF’s we have saved of the pages.
Hopefully in time we’ll get to learn more about the game, and possibly even see something playable of it resurrected to make available. If you know anything more about the game, please do get in touch.
With thanks to Anonymous Contributor for the suggested entry and also helping to source all the resources for this page.
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