Brought to my attention by Jason Kelk, AD Infinitum is a early version of W.A.R which was released by Martech in 1986.
You may wonder what a game like this is doing in the GTW archives, but you will notice that the final game compared to this, is a lot different from this preview.
For instance, in this preview your ship can turn both directions like Uridium, but in the released W.A.R game, you can only travel one direction.
You’ll also notice that the title screen has a font very similiar to Andrew Braybook’s own in Uridium. It seemed that AD Infinitum was dubbed too similiar to Uridium, so they cut the double scrolling and added extra bits to try and cover up the fact that it was a Uridium clone.
Essentially the original W.A.R game was scrapped to make way for a new version to keep legal eagles out of the way. Sadly it ruined the game, and eventually only the Hubbard music was any good.
Just how far the first version got before it made the scrapheap, we don’t quite know. Stoat and Tim are present on the internet, so hopefully we can throw some questions their way about the game. This could be all that exists of W.A.R version 1.
More soon we hope…
Contributions: Jason Kelk
I think that must be the case. As I say, the very first first for Amstrad is like the released C64 version which is still a competent game.
I reckon they panicked and pulled the plug because of the Uridium backlash aimed at the C64 version.
Just to add a little more about the released Amstrad version: The UK versions seems very rare, while the other versions are not (even the BBC).
Probably had a very limited release just to claw some money back.
A comment made on CPCRulez claims the first 2 levels play ok but after that, the graphics glitch up. (every level has the same issue!)
It received a review of ‘0’ on CPC Game Reviews by a reviewer who actually bought the game back in the day and he seems to remember this is how it played.
This is the only version that does not require you to destroy ground targets (there aren’t any!), instead you only need to kill an unknown quantity of aliens (of which there are only one type on each level, and it’s just the saucer enemies for the last 4 levels.
The scenery simply keeps going until you destroy your quota so in that context, you wouldn’t need a level to end or even the background to chance, and since your meant to be flying in a sort of metal and glass tube then I believe the author thought it would be ok to just repeat the same BG tile. (probably all he had time for).
And to think this came out AFTER Light Force !!
Anyway, good to talk to you Frank.
All The Best
Hi Frank,
Very long time mate, I hope you read this.
I have some info not about the C64 version of W.A.R. but an early unreleased Amstrad version.
It’s not a huge amount of info, only a short preview and screenshot in Amstrad Action, but the game is VERY different from the actual version of WAR that was released for Amstrad, which I genuinely believe was built in a day after reading the preview.
Check out the actual released version for just a few minutes to see what I mean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S50mDppzChU&t=581s
Also, I’ve read that the version (or emulator) is bugged, but I don’t believe this since it plays the same all the way through and after reading the game’s Amstrad instructions, they totally corroborate the gameplay of the released version.
This has to be one of the most shocking titles released for the Amstrad.
Let me know if your interested, and I’ll send the link to the issue with the demo version.
It seems to be a story that mimics Street Hawk on the C64…
All The Best btw
Glenn
Great to hear from you Glenn! Wow, that’s a terrible conversion – and i’d agree that must have been a 1 day rescue job for some reason. I wonder what happened? I guess they got badly let down by the original developer or had issues converting the Spectrum game?