Mentioned in TGM March 1989 Complex was to be a new Palace Software game on the C64 in 1989, and was mentioned in the March issue of The Games Machine. They described the game as follows: “And for future-shock fans, there’s Complex – a police-training course of a distant century, with 2000AD-style comic book graphics actually created by a comic artist.”
Very interesting. So was this a futuristic Combat School of sorts that never was? Well, we can’t really tell from this very basic description but there seems to be no evidence of the game on any format anywhere. Did this get caught up when Palace went under? Titus certainly never picked it up when they took over Palace, so this may be lost in the midst’s of time.
Maybe you know something about this game, or have even seen an advert somewhere? Just who was behind this game, and how far did it get?
In the articles linked in the gallery below, Jo Walker is mentioned as having done animation for C64 Barbarian. So, it seems reasonable that he was also involved in C64 Complex too, if there ever was such a version. The article implies that he was doing Complex for 16-bit. The game is also mentioned as late as 1991 in Swedish magazine Datormagazin, issue 5 1991, page 54:
“In the year 2061, Earth is still a wonderful planet – for criminals. Maintaining law and order has become a job for experts, and becoming an expert is only for those who pass Complex, the police training camp. Here, the prospective police officer must throw him- or herself between platforms and bull’s-eye the bad guys, while sparing innocent lives.
The game animations are in a league of their own and the character controlled by the player consists of 120 different frames. I’ve personally played an early version of the game, so I can confirm that the animations are of a very high standard. The game is also very fast, despite the version I saw containing more on-screen objects than the final version.
The player is awarded points by how he or she behaves in cornered situations, how many innocent lives have been lost and so on. Jo Walker, e.g. Barbarian II and Demoniak, is designing the game and 23-year-old Sean Pearce, e.g. World Games, Hardball and Platoon, is doing the programming.”
Looks like we need an ST/Amiga page for the game too! The question is, was a C64 version ever considered at all – Ross doesn’t think so (see comments), and we agree at the moment. It’s looking like this was vapourware!
Contributions: Hoagie / Abandonware France, Archive.org, Anonymous Contributor, Ross Sillifant, Stone OakValley for scans
It’s also mentioned in The One 30 (3/1991) page 32, with two screenshots.
It’s actually mentioned as ST and Amiga (nothing said of a C64 version) in TGM Issue 17/April 1989, described as Joe walkers Complex, a comic-inspired flick screen arcade adventure, featuring an enforcer policeman of the future.Set to appear on ST and Amiga….still in it’s early stages-but release expected late in the summer.
So, there’s the coder and at this stage looks like vapourware as far as any C64 version goes.16 Bit only…..