Another combination entry for what might possibly be just a hunt for titles that are yet to be preserved. Thanks to Allan Pinkerton, its been highlighted that a number of Unicorn Software educational titles are still at large.
Check out the PDF of the catalogue below, but there are titles such as the following which still need to be found:
- 10 Little Robots (Found)
- Funbunch – College Board Preparatory
- Funbunch – Elementary
- Funbunch – Intermediate
- Race Car ‘Rithmetic (Found)
- Ships Ahoy (Found)
- Jumble Jet
- Animal Kingdom (Found)
We feel that the games were all released, and got to completion (hence the screenshots in the catalogue), but they were sold in such limited numbers that they are hard to find currently.
Race Car ‘Rithmetic we know exists, as it is on the retrocollector.org website. Hopefully this will mean that we’ll see the game preserved at some point soon.
10 Little Robots was also confirmed as released in August 2021 by Marco Das, and we have added scans and a image of the game thanks to him.
Ships Ahoy is currently owned by Håvar Bruvold Hojem and can be found in the downloads!
Animal Kingdom has been found by Håvar Bruvold Hojem and was made available recently thanks to Onslaught. See downloads!
Can you help recover and preserve the other games?
Contributions: Allan Pinkerton, Marco Das, Hedning, Håvar Bruvold Hojem, Joseph Hewitt, Jazzcat, Hedning/GP
Supporting content
Available downloads
- Game_ShipsAhoy (zip)
- Game_AnimalKingdom (zip)
- G64-Animal-kingdom (zip)
- G64-Ships-ahoy (zip)
- Game_10LittleRobots (zip)
- Educational-Catalog_Unicorn-Software-Company (pdf)
Gallery
Creator speaks
Joseph Hewitt shares details about his work on Animal Kingdom and at Unicorn Games:
I did the artwork for Animal Kingdom C64 (later renamed Wonders of the Animal Kingdom due to threat of legal again from a magazine called Animal Kingdom.) for the C64 version. It was the first professional game that I worked on. I was paid with a Koala Pad. I eventually did the graphics for a good number of other Unicorn Games, before quitting / got fired (ultimatum about being paid as an employee vs. independent contractor) and going to work for Westwood Studios (then Westwood Assc.)
I have a couple of games in storage, just a few though as I didn’t take much with me when I left. I packed up a lot of stuff to be ready to walk when I made my ultimatum, but the owner accepted at first and I put everything back in my office. He came in a few minutes later and said he had talked to his accountant (I always thought he was his accountant since he often talked about working in a big accountant firm in New York) who had advised against it, “So if I was going to quit, then I should go ahead and leave.” One of the founders of Westwood had also worked for Unicorn, so he was very sympathetic to me when we met and hired me without me being able to show any previous work.
I was a student at the Computer Learning Center, their after school teaching program in 84-85 which is when I did the artwork for Animal Kingdom on the 64, and was there full time as an artist and teacher after I graduated high school in 1986 till sometime in 1988. My initials are on a lot of the title pages “JBHIV.
Update history
- 19/11/24 – Added tidied up version of Ship’s Ahoy.
- 29/10/24 – Animal Kingdom download updated with new version
- 16/10/24 – Ships Ahoy added.
- 15/10/24 – Animal Kingdom added.
- 16/09/24 – Added credit and details from artist Joseph Hewitt.
- 23/10/23 – Added details from Håvar Bruvold Hojem about a new finding.
- 19/10/23 – Added further various cover photos from Ebay thanks to Hedning
- 18/08/21 – 10 Little Robots confirmed as released and preserved copy added to site thanks to Marco Das.
I did the artwork for Animal Kingdom C64 (later renamed Wonders of the Animal Kingdom due to threat of legal again from a magazine called Animal Kingdom.) for the C64 version. It was the first professional game that I worked on. I was paid with a Koala Pad. I eventually did the graphics for a good number of other Unicorn Games, before quitting / got fired (ultimatum about being paid as an employee vs. independent contractor) and going to work for Westwood Studios (then Westwood Assc.) I have a couple of games in storage, just a few though as I didn’t take much with me when I left. I packed up a lot of stuff to be ready to walk when I made my ultimatum, but the owner accepted at first and I put everything back in my office. He came in a few minutes later and said he had talked to his accountant (I always thought he was his accountant since he often talked about working in a big accountant firm in New York) who had advised against it, “So if I was going to quit, then I should go ahead and leave.” One of the founders of Westwood had also worked for Unicorn, so he was very sympathetic to me when we met and hired me without me being able to show any previous work.
I was a student at the Computer Learning Center, their after school teaching program in 84-85 which is when I did the artwork for Animal Kingdom on the 64, and was there full time as an artist and teacher after I graduated high school in 1986 till sometime in 1988. My initials are on a lot of the title pages “JBHIV.”
Hi Joseph, thank you so much for sharing your memories about working on Animal Kingdom, and i’m sorry to hear about how you were treated!
Hopefully some day soon we’ll get to see some more of the Unicorn titles preserved and will add them to this page. We’re aware that a few collectors have copies, but haven’t yet preserved them – hopefully that will happen in time.
I’ll also ensure that you are credited within the likes of Gamebase64.com once they have been added there too.
Animal Kingdom also found.
GB64 has wrongly listed some titles as MIA for the C64, but no info from Unicorn confirms they were ever released for C64, only Apple II (and possibly PC), so do not use GB64 for reference about Unicorn Software titles.
There are 4 titles still MIA: Funbunch (x3) + Jumble Jet.
I am quite sure Jumble Jet will eventually surface. On someone’s disks or for sale.
Thanks Håvar and have updated the page! We’ve not listed any of the GB64 titles you mention, so only the four on the site so far. Is there a chance that there was a catalogue offering the titles under the C64 format category? (may have been in error, but perhaps how they ended up being listed). Will the titles be released somewhere in particular?
Game is in the mail, but as soon as it arrives we’ll check if it still loads & run. If everything is OK a release will appear on CSDB as soon as possible. Fingers crossed. It’s the last one that appeared for C64, before Unicorn went full 16-bit. Animal Kingdom was released in 1988, so will check the included product catalogue if that reveals anything new about titles converted to C64 – or any other titles that they may have released.
i have the 10 little robots version from ozisoft (australia).
Ships ahoy is owned by Havar, check retrocollecter site for these.