A game company that predominately produced games for the Atari, but also tried to get involved on publishing C64 titles too. They released the game Final Flight! (see advert) and also Trivia Trek in 1984. Phoenix Lair was another title which was described as follows:
“An arcade style game comprised of 10 boards and 10 speed levels. It is unlike any game on the market today. Multiple strategies, an interlude jousting challenge between boards, bright and lively colors and music add to the already superb play of this completely unique and different game.
Game Play: The game begins at board one and advances to higher boards after successful completion. Many obstacles are encountered on the various boards as points are accumulated. At the beginning of each board, the Phoenix must leave its lair in search of enemy eggs. The Phoenix flight is controlled in height by the joystick button, and in direction by the joystick itself.
After successfully destroying at least six of these eggs the Phoenix must return to the far right side of its lair. Points are awarded based on the total number of eggs destroyed and the time in which it took to complete the mission. A fast mission will result in additional bonus points. You begin with 5 lives and gain additional lives at boards 7,9 and 10. PHOENIX LAIR is all machine language. Requires 40K RAM, a disk drive and 1 joystick. Disk only available for COMMODORE and ATARI.”
It is unsure if the game ever managed to sneak out at all, but it is currently missing and unpreserved. The Atari version did however make it out, so did the C64 version perhaps hit difficulties during development?More details of the Atari version, including some better scans can be found at http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-phoenix-lair_3944.html
In August 2023, collector John Christian Lønningdal found an eBay listing of the game which proves that the C64 edition was indeed released. It just needs to be found by the right person and fully preserved. The only issue is that the copy listed was sealed, so it is doubtful that a collector would break it open willingly to preserve what is on the disk.
Please keep a look out for copies of this game therefore, and hopefully some day it will be found!
Contributions: Peter Weighill, Zoran, John Christian Lønningdal
Hey there,
My father was one of the owners of MMG Micro Software. (He was the “G”).
I can see if he remembers anything about the Commodore version. We used to have a lot of old stuff in the garage, but unfortunately a lot of it got thrown out in the 90’s. But I will see what I can find out.
Hi James, thanks very much for that and would be great to learn more about if the game was released (and hopefully even recover the game too). If you need to get in touch with me, then feel free to contact me via https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/submit-news/
Additional material mention commodore and a bit better image.
http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-phoenix-lair_3944.html
Thanks Zoran! I’ll get some of that added now :)