Our next brief entry is for a game being worked on by Screen 7, a company who also did Jaws and a few others on the C64.
The game was to be based on the TV series, Crossbow and was mentioned in Zzap issue 56.
Thanks to Martin Smith, we can confirm that the game was a side on viewed game and was actually released on the Amiga, PC and Spectrum platforms, where as the C64 version sank without trace.
The game seems quite naff, and I don’t think it did particularly well. Screen 7 seemed to disappear without trace around 1989, which could be the reason the C64 version died out without a release. Maybe the C64 version was taking longer to develop, and just missed the boat before Screen 7 sank.
Well, thanks to Andrew Fisher for sparking a connection – but this was a game written by Kevin Oxland for a company called Intelligent Designs which sadly went bust before it could be released. Kevin recalls writing code for the navigation around the forest amongst other things.
Sadly Kevin no longer has any of his old work, so it could be that this one is lost for good. Maybe you know more about it?
Contributions: Andrew Fisher, Martin Smith, Kevin Oxland
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There’s also an arcade light-gun game called Crossbow that was ported to the C64 by Absolute entertainment. It was released and copies exist out there on auction sites. You won’t find it listed on Lemon64 or C64.com though.
Fairly similar style to this particular game too, which i’m guessing is just co-incidental.
Hi Brian
Thanks for pointing out that Lemon64 had missed Exidy’s Crossbow out, I passed on the suggestion and it has now been added
https://www.lemon64.com/game/crossbow
Along with F-18 Hornet, also by Absolute Entertainment
I guess this entry for the Screen 7 game could be changed to the full title