Games That Weren't 64^®

A slightly different and combined entry for a number of titles now, which was thanks to a suggestion by contributor Ken Knight.

Ken submitted two SEUCK titles which appeared to be magazine rejects – crediting Zzap and Commodore Force, but never appearing on the magazines. We thought it would be a good idea to slowly pull together various titles that were intended for a magazine covertape/disk (clearly outlined by the title screens for instance), but never quite made it.

Of course, we already have a number of titles in the archive which have separate entries, which we will just link below for now. Here is a list that we have so far:

• A Chance in Hell – 3DCK game that was intended for release on Commodore Format / Commodore Force.
• Vietnam (SEUCK) – Intended for Commodore Format in 1993
• SEGA Blaster (SEUCK) – Intended for Commodore Force magazine in 1993
• Dying High – Intended for Zzap!64 in 1992, but rejected due to a supposed bug, found and preserved by GTW
• House Case (SEUCK) – Intended for Commodore Format in 1995, but ran out of tape!
• The Absolute Beginning (SEUCK) – Intended for Zzap!64 in 1992, but rejected
• Alien Realms (SEUCK) – Another from the author of The Absolute Beginning that was submitted later on in 1994. This was sent along with Blue Encounter, a poorer game in comparison and sadly never used. Fully paid for but never used.
• Psyclaps (SEUCK) – Early entry by Richard Bayliss, credited Commodore Format 1994.
• Smasher 2 – A hack of Breakout Construction Kit, seemingly submitted to Commodore Format in 1994
• Speed Runner – A Tron game seemingly written for Commodore Format for 1994 publication.
• Galactic Chaos – The dev team had already done Relax and Battle Bars for Commodore Force, but oddly CF didn’t publish this neat little shooter done for them in 1993.
• Retro Torque – Paul Black jazzed up his old Turbo Kart Racer game with motorbikes and tried to sell it to Commodore Force in 1993. Oddly it wasn’t picked up.
• Dive Bomber – BASIC Blitz clone intended for the fanzine Commodore Cracker
• Moon Gods – vertical scrolling shooter that was being produced for the fanzine Commodore Scene. Never finished.
• Savage Platforms – single screen platformer by Mike Berry that was intended for release on the fanzine Commodore Scene. Lost in a burglary.
• Warspite – Neat Delta clone by Phil Ruston submitted to various publishers and never taken up. Was sent to Commodore Disk User, paid for but never published. It was later leaked via the Fusion cracking crew.
• Cyber Squidgies (SEUCK) – Very cool looking Creatures style game submitted to Zzap!64 in 1992 and rejected for being too similar to Creatures in the graphics.
• Zanaton (SEUCK) – Submitted to Zzap!64 in 1992 and rejected.
• Toys (SEUCK) – Submitted to Zzap!64 in 1992 and rejected, later released to Binary Zone PD.
• Klaboom (SEUCK) – Submitted to Zzap!64 in 1992 and rejected, later released to Binary Zone PD.
• Fly Pig (SEUCK) – Submitted to Zzap!64 in 1992 and rejected, later released to Binary Zone PD.
• S.A.S – Saunders & Simpson in Operation Kuran – Submitted to Commodore Force in 1993 and rejected. Preserved and saved by Andrew Fisher for the SEUCK Vault from the submitted tape.
• Twin Tigers – Alf Yngve’s game was submitted to Zzap!64 in 1992 by Kenz and rejected, later released on Commodore Format though!
• Tau Omega -Alf Yngve’s game was submitted to Zzap!64 in 1992 by Kenz and rejected, later released in the Binary Zone PD library.
• Tau Zero – Alf Yngve’s game was submitted to Zzap!64 in 1992 by Kenz and rejected, later released in the Binary Zone PD library.
• Tots TV – SEUCK Game (clone of Smash TV) that was seemingly submitted to Commodore Format, but never picked up.
• Alienator ’93 – Alf Yngve’s game was submitted to Zzap!64 in 1992 by Kenz and rejected, later released in the Binary Zone PD library.
• Attack of the Mutant Ninja Turtles (SEUCK) – Alf Yngve’s game was submitted to Zzap!64 in 1992 by Kenz and rejected due to licence concerns, later released in the Binary Zone PD library with a slight tweak as Attack of the Mutant Ninja Blueberries.
• Rockus – Lost a competition, but usually would have been put on 64’er magazine’s covermount.

If you know of more, let us know – there will be a lot of obvious ones that we have missed – but the aim is to grow this list over time. Hopefully some day we’ll hear some stories about the submissions and rejections.

Contributions: Ken Knight, Richard Bayliss