A oriental game this time by Ariolasoft, we think mainly for their budget label Reaktor. This game name has been ringing around for a while now, though not to be confused with the Graftgold game called Bushido.
Things were a little cloudy for this game, but the coder was none other than Patricia Curtis (who was known as Delvin Sorrell at the time) who also did Super Robin Hood for Codemasters around the same time.
Power Play categorized Bushido Warrior in their 1987 PCW Show report as “Gauntlet Variant”. Gary Yorke confirmed this in 2006 and that himself and James Poole managed the development of the game for Ariolasoft. However, Patricia confirms that both didn’t manage the c64 version. The game was written in her and Steve’s own bedrooms with little interaction (if any) from Gary and James.
The game was actually completed and it was sold to Ariolasoft for an advance and expected royalties – but sadly never came out due to Ariolasoft going under. Patricia (looking back now) cannot understand why she didn’t sell the game onto another company.
Music was believed to have been by Tonal Teapot, but Patricia isn’t 100% certain. It may have even been Tony Crowther.
Developer David Semmens got in touch to confirm also that Source the Software House were behind the Spectrum and Amstrad versions (which also never saw release). We are hoping to learn more from David and to see if something could be at least saved of those versions.
Sadly, when we asked about the chances of getting hold of the game to release, Patricia gave the bad news that nothing was kept of the game. Steve was the same as well sadly, so it could almost be a case closed :(
Contributions: Andrew Fisher, Richard Hewison, Cybergoth, Gary Yorke, Patricia Curtis, David Semmens
Supporting content
Update history
- 06/04/24 – Details about Spectrum and Amstrad versions.
- 25/01/15 – Patricia confirms details about her game.
- 24/07/14 – Added details about the game thanks to Gary Yorke from 2006 … better late than never! ;-)
we conveted the game to Spectrum and Amstrad at Source the software house in Leeds. Seems duch a long time ago now :)
Thanks for confirming David, i’ll ping you a message quickly!
Right I wrote Bushido Warrior for the c64 back in the day, no-one managed the project as it was just me and Steve on our own in our then bedrooms. Gary Yorke and James Poole did not manage it, we made it and then sold it to Ariolasoft. Unfortunately due to bad management Ariolasoft went bust and the game never came out.
Thanks Delvin for confirming, I’ll get the page updated.