I should have added this to the GTW64 archive ages ago, but for some reason did a separate site post.
What we have here is a rather different looking Knuckle Buster game on the C64 by Mat Sneap. Luckily in this case the preview has been around for some time. The thing is that some people have specified that they prefer the preview to the final game. Do you agree?
And how/why did this early preview manage to sneak out?
There are many differences compared to the final game, including some heavy sprite changes. Interestingly, the sprites in this earlier version are much closer to the arcade game Knuckle Joe. So it has been questioned whether Knuckle Buster originally started out as an attempt at a proper arcade conversion.
It seems quite likely, but over the months leading up to the release – the game underwent a lot of changes. Even in the CVG review, the game has no proper score panel area, and a preview in the issue before has a different panel yet again.
Our initial thoughts are that Melbourne House attempted to get the licence, but failed, so they just tweaked it slightly and released as Knuckle Buster.
If you know anything more, please do get in touch – for now check out the early screenshots and check out the early demo for yourself. Hopefully Mat will shed some light on the title sometime soon.
Contributions: Gaz Spence, Glenn Stubberfield
