Yet another game from the Italian gaming team of Idea. This was briefly mentioned in the UK in Commodore Format, and was simply described as a comic licence in the style of ‘Lupo Alberto’ (But it seems it was more than that… see below).
No screenshots were seen by people in the UK, but people in Italy were slightly luckier and saw some early progress shots of the game. The game eventually did surface though on the Amiga.
Something kind of strange is that the coder was actually the chief writer at Zzap (The Italian version). Giancarlo Calzetta actually allowed Zzap to publish some work in progress screenshots of the game probably as a result of his link.
The game was originally scheduled for release at Christmas 1992 by Idea, but was sadly cancelled. Why?… Well, Giancarlo was called up for national service, and sadly it mean’t that work was halted on Cattivik.
The game was about half way through when cancelled, with most graphics done by Paolo Galimberti (who was assigned the graphics job by Idea very very late into its production). It was a kind of Spy Vs Spy type of game, mixed with various other elements over a vertical scrolling (and 2 screens tall) set of maps. The idea was to steal goods from a number of levels, while not being caught by the guards on patrol. Cattivik was the main character, and had an array of weapons such as bombs, banana’s (to make the enemies slip up) and springs to fling enemies away. The enemies would chase Cattivik by jumping from platform to platform.
According to Giancarlo, the game was shaping up well… but it lacked some “fun” elements he felt. Graphics were also good, but overall gameplay was too similar from level to level. But still, it would be incredible to find the game and salvage what we can.
By the time Giancarlo came back in 1993 from National Service, there was no requirement for the game as the C64 had pretty much died in Italy. So the game remained unfinished. Contact was made with Giancarlo back in 1994 by Ricchesuccio who kindly submitted some of this information we are talking about.
After a short legal spat, Giancarlo and Idea came to an agreement to cancel Cattivik’s C64 version. Later on, Giancarlo Calzetta worked as a PR manager for Leader, the owner company of Idea. He now works as an editor and publisher of IT (and other) magazines for an italian publishing group (Sprea Editori).
So what now for finding the game?… Well, it is likely that everything is lost, but there is hope that something could still turn up after a sort out. Giancarlo has told GTW that he will inform us right away if anything turns up, so a once dead game could still come alive.
Contributions: Ricchesuccio, Andrew Fisher, Giancarlo Calzetta
Supporting content
Creator speaks
Giancarlo Calzetta speaks to GTW about work on Cattivik:
“The game was somewhere after the mid-point when it was cancelled. The code for the gameplay was almost all there and working (a few bugs still) but only the first level was working since the developing of graphics and levels was quite delayed. BTW, the graphics and the music were developed by Paolo Galimberti (a well known name in C64 scene here in Italy) and he wasn’t late. Idea simply was late in giving him the task.
The gameplay was interesting: some combination of Spy vs Spy and usual platforms. Cattivik was intended to steal some goods from the levels but a number of “guardians” would patrol the area. Cattivik could use some weird weapons like bombs (to blow the guardians up), bananas (to make ’em slip and tumble on the ground) or springs (to fling ’em away) and so on to make his way into the level.
Each level was tought in vertical scrolling and up to 2 screens tall. Enemies could use some IA to avoid the traps set by Cattivik and chase him jumping from platform to platform.
How was it going? Well, the idea after the gameplay was good but not too functional.Spy vs Spy was fun because it was meant to be played against another human. Cattivik was not. The graphics looked good but i fear that the gameplay were too similar from level to level. I never had the way to test it anyway.
Too bad I think that everything is lost. Maybe I do have some “middle production” master in C64 format but i don’t have anything to read it and I don’t really know were it is (but i have a suspect).
Should I ever dig the garage up, I’ll let you know if it comes to the light. =)”
