A sequel you could never have imagined existed, let alone started, with the unexpected sequel to RISK. An excellent and underrated C64 game by Chris and Tony West. Shocked?… Well, we were when Chris West got in touch and stunned us with the preview to test out.
Chris you may know also did the flawless conversion of Super Space Invaders for Domark back in 1991. Bomb was started just before this time, and way after R.I.S.K from 1988.
Chris and Tony started this game long after Edge had closed its doors and originally started this game for fun, and in the hope they could quickly sell it to a company. Unfortunately the game just never got completed, and Chris and Tony went onto other projects. Since then it has gathered dust on Chris’ work disks.
What was completed?
Only one level was ever completed, and already the game looks awesome. It can only be described as a kind of sooped up version of Scramble, with its missiles that fly upwards towards your excellently animated ship (Animating to the standard of RISK and similar to Tran and Defensive) that fires Defender style lasers and drops its Scramble-like bombs.
Impressive still is the stunning landscapes in the first level, and the explosions of the enemies and your main ship. If you’ve seen Chris and Tony’s previous work, you will come acquainted to this high standard of work.
The preview has music and SFX from R.I.S.K, and a simple title screen and hi-score to tie it all together. It’s sad that it never quite got finished, but the first level alone is worth checking out. Additionally we have just put in the rare version which has proper lasers that isn’t in the released demo.
Chris tells GTW:
“It was meant to feel like Scramble as we liked that game, but we wanted to bring a little more variety to it. So, big bosses like in Super Space Invaders, rescuing little Boffins again like Risk, and a lot more weapons, of which only coded 3 so far.”
There were originally plans to finish the game around the early 2000’s, but Chris and Tony disappeared completely and numerous contact attempts failed. It seemed very unlikely that the game would ever get completed. However, things were about to change in 2023!
After GTW posted up a retrospective video of the game in action in July 2023, it gathered some interest – especially from Thalamus, who tagged Chris to see if he was interested in passing the game over to them to finish off. Chris and Tony have agreed, and it could be that Bomb will finally see release on the Thalamus label after over 34 years. It was also revealed that the game was pitched to Domark for release, but they were not interested.
Chris and Tony have also been digging out some design docs, which we have added to the page and will continue to do so over time. We’ll keep you updated, but this is no longer a case closed!
Contributions: Chris West, Tony West
Supporting content
Available downloads
- Preview_Bomb.zip (zip)
Gallery
Update history
- 15/01/24 – Fix to publisher.
- 04/01/24 – Sprite designs added.
- 02/10/23 – Added another design doc scan.
- 16/08/23 – Added another design doc scan.
- 09/08/23 – News about Thalamus taking on the game and added design docs!
- 01/08/23 – Addition of designs scan from Chris West.
- 14/09/20 – Tidy up of text.
Sorry with the second post I overlooked the fact that there was a second file in the V1 preview section. Delete that one. sorry about that.
No worries Asphodel – always worth flagging things just in case. Much appreciated! :)
There is also a demo of ‘R.I.S.K 2’ out there, in similar style, but it is NOT the V1 preview that’s featured on GTW: https://csdb.dk/release/?id=224348.
Wow. Good news. I loved R.I.S.K. really a ‘true’ C64 game. I hope the basic gameplay of clearing maps and the strategic elements will still be in there, and hopefully extended upon.
Domark’s Rejection of this Game could be the biggest blunder since Disney turned down “Back To The Future” !