Games That Weren't 64^®

Gremlin Graphics were very popular on the C64 in the 80’s, and another title on the way was a intrigingly named “Pentacle”.

This game was in the style of Knight Lore, and was being developed by Richard Underhill (ex-Arc Developments) and Bob Armour (Creator of Gauntlet on the C64).

According to Richard, the game was shaping up well and certainly looked full of quality with its great graphics.

Sadly, due to differences between the two programmers, the game never got completly finished, although it was very nearly there. A huge shame really.

Zzap had the following to say…

“an arcade adventure with 3D perspective graphics and some unusual but neat touches”. Gary Penn saw a preview at Gremlin HQ in Sheffield . According to issue 18, it won’t be released until after Christmas (1986) due to technical problems.

Richard went to Elite, and Bob went to Gremlin and went on to produce Basil The Great Mouse Detective.

The game got completely canned, and the development was wasted. Unfortunately, Richard does not have anything of the game any longer, so it is down to Bob Armour, whom GTW will attempt to contact about the title.

I think there is more to learn about this title… Lets hope that we can find it…

Knight Lore with even more bells on… well, almost! :)

Contributions: Richard Underhill

Supporting content

• Gallery
• Creator speaks
• History

Gallery

Creator speaks

Richard Underhill speaks about work on Quanta…

“Pentacle is what I co-wrote with the programmer of C64 Gauntlet. It was a Knight-Lore style game on the C64 and was a real looker ! Personal differences (mostly my fault), meant it never saw the light of day. The other programmer went off to Gremlin – I went off to Elite.

We made it up a few years later when Arc had a strong relationship with US Gold. The game was the real casualty there though!”

Richard Underhill.

Update history

26/04/14 – News item scan added from Zzap 64.