Before the hits of “Cybernoid”, “Stormlord”, “Smash TV”.. Nick Jones also took part in a C64 conversion of a Speccy title, “SAS Strike Force” for Mikrogen software (http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0004951) back in around 1987. The game was essentially a sideways scrolling run and shoot game, nothing too complex.
It was a relatively faithful conversion that Nick did, though Nick himself thought the game was really rubbish. Most likely down to a poor game being converted in the first place (Certainly the reviews aren’t too great for the Speccy version)
For currently unknown reasons, the game never made it out. 1987 was the last year of Mikrogen releases before Microvalue got hold of most of their old stock. Basically the company folded, and we believe this is what happened to the game (Which we also believe was completed).
All of Nick’s C64 bits are probably at his parents house back in the UK (Where as Nick now lives in the states). Maybe one day Nick may dig out some of his past work to share with the retro world, including this game. See what Nick has to say about the game in Creator Speaks.
It isn’t known who else was involved on the conversion, so it will be very hard trying to find anything of this title…
Contributions: Nick Jones, Peter Weighill
Supporting content
Gallery
Creator speaks
Nick Jones recalls about SAS Strike Force:
“Wow. I’d totally forgot about this game. I was working on the original to start with, then Stuart hibbert took it over. I didn’t rate the game much at all. I almost certainly did the music / sndfx for it but can’t remember what it sounded like. It really was a game I’d rather forget. I believe I worked on a C64 version but can’t really be sure; it was a long time ago and it was at about that time that I left mikrogen. Definitely a game people won’t miss… :-)
Btw, I definitely remember meeting some SAS guys in the Mikrogen offices while we were developing this game.”
Update history
30/07/21 – Fix to company title
