Our next entry needs a bit of clarification, but seems to be an interesting sequel to Infiltrator that was being done by a company called Moltech Software. Apparently by the same team, but with very different details. Here is a translation of the advert thanks to Martin/Stadium64:
“New game from the team that made Infiltrator a smash hit! You are freelance journalist Michael “Trav” Travis on your way to Moscow. In the airplane you will find a torn photograph depicting a very beautiful young lady. On the back there is a telephone number. An exciting adventure that contains action, love, excitement, realism and of course the KGB
Coming soon to Commodore 64/128, SEK 199 cassette and SEK 249 diskette
Commodore Amiga SEK 395 diskette and Atari ST SEK 395 diskette.”
As Martin has pointed out when he contacted us about the game, if its meant to be a sequel – why has the journalist been renamed? (known as Johnny “Jimbo-Baby” McGibbits originally).
What is interesting is that the game description also matches Nexus, where you are controlling a Journalist (but no name of the main character isn’t revealed as far as I know) and action takes place in Colombia, your friend have been kidnapped by the drug mafia and your mission is to help out and report back to the newspaper.
It gets more interesting, Martin found that American Action had started up something they called ProgramKanalen (ProgramChannel in English) sometime during 1986. This was where you could call an answering machine and listen to messages that contained news, top lists, competitions, etc.
According to information that Martin could find, there was a new message every week, and each message lasted around 3 minutes. By pure coincidence he recently found an old cassette tape with 2 of these messages recorded
One of these deals with Nexus, where parts of what is said matches the description found on the advert with Moltech Software. They used the same words Action & Excitement and similar word as Romance (=Love) and Drama (=Realism). Could all of this just be a coincidence? Or did they just borrowed/steal the description from another game?
Martin then wondered if the game could have been linked at all to Journalist, which was developed by Andromeda, but linked to American Action/Greve Graphics (as it was found on a bundle of Greve disks). Were they meant to take it over and turn it into “Back in the USSR”?
Then an interview with Greve Graphics in DatorMagazin (DMZ) No.1/1987) starting talking about bad reviews of their 4 released games, but it also mentioned:
“For example, we are thinking of making a new version of Blood’n Guts where we correct some beauty spots. We have a new project underway, Infiltrator-style, where you should be able to control an entire team in real time. That’s where we invest hard on cool graphics. The title of this new game is yet to be decided. But it should be out sometime this spring.”
Then finally, Svenska Hemdator Nytt No.4/1987 had a news snippet that mentioned the game again as coming soon:
OUT OF THE ASHES
American Action AB now rises from the ashes of Swedish Microdealer. After the bankruptcy, this part of SMD was offered for sale and quickly bought up by Effecta AB who are previously known as manufacturers of battery backups for computers. The same company also bought the rights from Greve Graphics to publish their games.You can also find Computer Novels and the RGB team at American Action AB. The latter was, among other things, behind the successful Boulder Dash III. On March 13, American Action AB was started as a wholly owned subsidiary of Effecta AB. As before, American Action AB will manufacture games for the international market. They are currently in negotiations with distributors in both Europe and the USA. From on May 1, Philp Diab acts as sales manager.
In Sweden, the programs are sold by both Pylator and HK-electronics. In the publishing plan you will find The Three Musketeers from Computer Novels and on the first of July 4-Action hits will be released.
The Computer Novels series will also release “Around the World in 80 Days”, “The Red Carnation” and “The Count of Monte Cristo”. From Action comes “Blood’n Guts II” and “Warp one-/- Supercan”. They are also working on an unnamed “Shoot’em up” type game and the sequel to Infiltrator which has been named “Back in the USSR”.
So what was this game? Was it any relation to Journalist of Nexus, or were American Action really working on a completely new game based on the original Infiltrator?
Contributions: Martin/Stadium64
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