Games That Weren't 64^®

An awesome looking sequel to the great Lion’s Of The Universe series, almost taking Armalyte’s crown. If you have not seen or heard of Lions Of The Universe, then go and grab it and play it in a closed and dark room for a few hours – it’s great!

The strange thing is that this game seems to be next in line to Return Of The Lions, which was not complete either. The preview present is unplayable, but rolls through the game and shows what was being promised. Some stunning backdrops, sprites and gameplay from the looks of things, taking a step further from the predecessors with up and down scrolling while scrolling towards the right.

Music as usual is great from Karl Sommer, and overall the preview had the making of a fantastic shoot-em-up. The game was originally believed to have never been completed due to Cosmos leaving the C64 scene and finding that selling games on the C64 was not too profitable anymore.

However, thanks to Andreas Millinger, we are shocked to discover that the game was reviewed in an issue of 64’er and scored an impressive 9/10. It seems a lot more of the game does actually exist and (hoping that 64’er didn’t review a preview or something) maybe even a full game!

Even more evidence was when Hannes Sommer confirmed himself that the game was completed and actually sold to someone (unfortunately he cannot remember who that is!) So the game is out there quite remarkably! We just need to find that someone who brought it! Hannes is also desperate to see the game again, as he no longer has it either!

Check out the gallery area to see a whole new range of previously unseen screenshots which show some very colourful worlds and baddies. Also check the Magazine Review item for a translation by Andreas of the original review (With link to the scan). The final game apparently had 4 levels with 2 stages each.

Thanks to Karl Kuras, we have also added a series of diary entries from 64’er, which Hannes created over a period of time. There is a lot of juicy development detail there about the game and its creation, as well as some screenshots we hadn’t seen before.

In July 2024, developer Martin Piper took a look at the preview and managed to make it playable. Via his excellent video, its discovered that the control routines were there, and had pre-defined directions fed into the demo to make it run:

We’ve added the debug notes that Martin made, and hope to be able to add a download here sometime to a playable version. At least this will be something until hopefully some day the full game surfaces.

Contributions: Andreas Millinger, Jazzcat, Karl Kuras, Martin Piper

Supporting content

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Available downloads

• Born in space (plain)
• Preview_Borninspace.zip (zip)

Gallery

Related articles

A BIG thanks to Andreas Millinger for the very kind translation from the German review from 64’er magazine. For the original review click here for the scan(Which is thanks to the guys at Kultboy)

REVIEW

Recently it happened once again that an especially evil alien race wanted to disturb peace in the universe.

But to thwart their plans, a courageous fighter gets put in a glider and flies through four levels to restore order in the universe. The player assumes the pilot’s role in “Born in Space” by Cosmos Designs. In the four horizontally scrolling stages, a large number of mean alien species were placed by programmer Hannes Sommer which make this game a rather hard challenge.

Nevertheless, with a bit of practice you quickly find the right strategy and cause heavy losses among the monster formations. The same can be said about the mid bosses and the screen-sized end bosses. Regarding the number of enemies and the space glider’s weapons, the programmer wasn’t stingy and causes a lot of ruckus on the screen.

Extras which are activated by a few shots are placed in the levels. They expand the weapons system and create protection with satellites and shields. Unfortunately, the player loses his complete equipment after successfully solving a level and you have to fight for the extras again.

Regarding the graphics, many special effects create atmospheric action surroundings. The levels are designed with a lot of variety and the sprites are animated very nicely. Sound creator Karl Sommer creates interesting acoustics with many ideas. To sweeten the loading time between the parts, an IRQ loader was integrated. “Born in Space” offers technical excellence and a high level of shoot-em-up fun.

Title: Born in Space
Price: Approx. 30 Marks
Source of supply: Talentebank, Theaterplatz 1, A-9020 Klagenfurt

Rating: 9/10
Idea / Graphics / Sound
Difficulty: High

Update history

• 21/08/24 – Details about the demo being made playable, thanks to Martin Piper.
• 11/07/24 – Quick tidy up of the page and addition of diary scans.