CJ is probably one of the biggest games to come out of Codemasters apart from Dizzy back in the day. Originally created by the hugely talented Genesis team, the game spawned a sequel and then promise of this 3rd (and even 4th!) game in the series.
After travelling Europe, and then the USA, CJ now has to go up to Space and do battle through various levels. At the end of CJ in the USA, we even see CJ and his family go into a space shuttle, giving us a cliff-hanger to the next game.
It is very likely the game would have featured the same kind of gameplay attributed to the past two titles. It is of course possible that there were different elements added, but nothing was revealed about the contents of the title.
What is strange is that the game only got mentioned in the Early Warning Scanner in Commodore Format, and nowhere else with regards to the C64 edition. In Amstrad Action though, there is an upcoming release feature in September 1992 that lists the game as part of a compilation called Cartoon Crackers.
This compilation would later be released as “Super All Stars”, with CJ in Space replaced by CJ in the USA. An editorial error, or was this to be the “exclusive” game for the compilation?
What is even stranger is that the 4th game in the series DID make it in some form. Although never released, CJ’S 4th Adventure (which was also known as CJ’s Island Antics) sneaked out and even got a name change to Jimbo when released in Germany without the CJ branding.
So was the 3rd game ever started? With a 4th game existing, it seems very likely that something was started. What is strange is that it never appeared on any platforms at all, so it seems unlikely to have been problems with the development itself.
Firstly though, who actually developed the game? Genesis at that time were moving on to other things, and had a lot of work at Thalamus to contend with, so possibly we felt it was the guys behind DJ Puff and Stuntman Seymour – Reflective Designs. However, they confirmed they had no involvement.
If you know anything more about the development, then please do get in touch.
Contributions: Nige
CJ in Space was mentioned in Amstrad Action as part of a proposed Cartoon Crackers compilation – see https://archive.org/details/amstrad-action-084/page/n13/mode/2up?q=%22cj+in+space%22
Thanks Nige – i’ll update the entry with a scan. This was released later as “Super All-Stars”, but CJ in Space was replaced with CJ in the USA. So i’m wondering if they had intended to put CJ in Space in the pack (as an exclusive) or if it was an editorial error. We’ll have to see :)