Cargo was a game which was being developed by Simon Nicol and Stavros Fasoulas under the Ducksoft Development label, and was meant for Firebird Software.
We were first informed about the title (though without a title) by Simon’s friend Said Hassan, who tells GTW64 that Cargo was a title produced in a single night as he watched them code it.
It apparently was to prove a point according to Said, that a budget title could be written overnight. It had Simon’s star field in the background, and an Amidar style maze on the top. There was to be a Vorpal loader and a cast off Hubbard track, but nothing seems to exist of this. They may not have quite managed to get the tune included – unless a budding hacker can find it tucked away?
Richard Hewison of The Bird Sanctuary (a tribute site to Firebird) couldn’t recall the title, but suggested that at the time it would have likely gone on the Silverbird label. There was no adverts for the game it seems though! Did Simon and Stavros ever even intend to release it?
You can see elements of Quedex and Delta within the game, but also Simon’s distinctive star field. It’s a neat puzzler where you colour in the maps in Painter style, even at this early stage.
We believe that the game is actually complete, just lacking sound effects. If it was intended for Firebird, then we can only assume that TelecomSoft’s buy out signalled the end. We hope to find out more from both Simon and Stavros in the future!
For now, check it out!
Contributions: Andrew Fisher, Simon Nicol, Said Hassan
Supporting content
Available downloads
- Preview_Cargo (zip)
Gallery
Update history
- 14/09/20 – Tidy up of text.
- 18/09/14 – Merged in old Unknown Game entry, as it was this title! Deleted old link!
