A game created by the author of Ultimate’s “Imhotep” in a very short career on the C64. The developer also worked on another title which was to be a conversion of a classic Atari game, Batty Builders which he earlier did in around 1983.
This was a kind of puzzle game which would have done ok on the C64 had it been updated slightly, but I’m not sure exactly what the developer had got when they developed this game.
An interview told that the game had in fact been fully completed, but just left unreleased. We are currently not sure why the game was never released, but we are guessing it is because a publisher could not be found.
It could be possible that the game still exists in a disk box somewhere , but sadly it isn’t in the developers hands any longer.
How good was this game?… Will we ever know?
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Supporting content
Creator speaks
Developer speaks to GTW about ‘Batty Builders’…
“Hi, I came across your mention of the game Batty Builders on your site and noted a request for information on the Commodore 64 port of this game. I am the programmer of this game, Firefleet for the Atari 8 bit (also by English Software) and Imhotep (C64) from Ultimate.
Your guess on the fate of Batty Builders 64 is a little out.
I didn’t release it because it was old hat by the time I completed it and I was particular about the games I released – I made no attempt to release it. The port was pretty straightforward (the original BB only used about 3k of code). I did consider enhancing it but I went to college that year (must be about 1985, BB was originally released in 83) and time was tight. It’s likely Ultimate wouldn’t have used it as it wasn’t an Ultimate genre, but English Software would likely have done as BB on the Atari 8 bit was a successful title.
Alas, it’s unlikely the media will be still around. The game was absolutely complete down to the last pixel, but I simply felt it was too dated to try and sell and didn’t have the time to revamp it. It was designed to run in the oldest 8-bit Atari’s with only 8k of RAM (I started the original development in 1982) – it was a very simple game, certainly by the standards of 1985.
Surprisingly, it was by far my most successful game (more so than Imhotep). This was due to the marketing of the game which was that of constructiveness rather than death and destruction – this fact ensured concerned parents bought it en masse.”
