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2023-02-26
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u Interview with
Games that Weren't
Frank Gasking
http://www.gtw64.co.uk
PART 1 of 2
Q-Please introduce yourself to our
reader
Hi there - I'm Frank Gasking 25yrs old
& from England. During the day, a web
developer & support officer, & outside
of work a big retro gaming freak with a
particular interest in the Vic 20, C64
& games that never saw the light of day
Q-Please tell our reader how you were
introduced to computing & C=
Basically it all started when I was
staying over my sisters house back in
early 1988 - I was playing up a bit &
didn't want to go asleep, so my sister
promised that if I went to bed she
would dig out a surprise the next
morning. Sure enough - I awoke to see
a C64 set up in the corner of the room
on a little telly. It was the 1st time
I had seen anything like it - the very
first thing I saw loaded up was Buck
Rogers (Followed by Army Moves, Moon
Buggy, Vahalla, Tapper etc), & I was
instantly hooked & wanted my own games
machine/computer & begged & begged for
one.
Sure enough - my parents (not having
much money) bought me a 2d-hand Atari
2600 for Xmas that year with a bundle
of great games (One of my most
memorable xmas'). The following year on
my birthday they bought a 2nd hand Vic
20 which has ever since had a soft spot
in my heart. In 1990 I finally got a
C64 (Light Fantastic Pack) & my already
buzzing computing interest went up
another level. The C64 was really the
machine which blew me away - & I began
to purchase Zzap & Commodore Format on
a regular basis. I've been part of the
community ever since.
Q-Explain the idea of the "Games That
Weren't" website
Games That Weren't is a project
dedicated to documenting & finding
lost/unreleased games which have been
subject to mystery for many years
across many platforms.
Primarily we try to get in touch with
various developers past/present & see
if they are willing to show the world
their unreleased games on various
platforms. We are trying to encourage
others to set up mirror GTW sister
sites for other platforms to join the
C64, PC & Amiga sister sites under the
main GTW site umbrella.
Q-What gave you the idea or need to
start the website and have you always
collected information about "games
that Weren't?
GTW was originally inspired by an
article in C= Force magazine on un-
released games ("That was the game that
wasn't") back in around 1993. I was
very intrigued about if these games
could be found to be played, & it went
from there really. I started with a
regular article in C= Zone doing
research into various games & managed
to actually find some of them. I then
found that because a fair few of these
unreleased games were out there - it
would be an idea to produce an archive
which would try to collaborate as many
unreleased games as possible in one
place. The website grew from there &
now we're regularly digging out some
big titles.
Basically my information collecting
started when I started the regular
articles.
Q-Do you just run the site For C64
Missing games or are there other
"subsites" for different machines?
I mainly concentrate on the C64 side
of things for archiving & hunting, as
thats more than enough for me (There
are thousands of unreleased games on
the C64) - but we have sister sites for
the PC & Amiga run by Timo Weirich &
Adrian Simpson respectively. We all
collaborate on a main GTW website which
covers various unreleased games news
from around the world for various
systems. We all help each other out
with any cross over of information etc.
Q-You must have uncovered some real
gems what is your greatest find for
Games That Weren't?
A tough one really - but it has to be
"Solar Jetman" - mainly because it was
salvaged from its last remaining disk
copy from a briefcase stuffed behind a
radiator. It worked perfectly fine, &
it was a fantastic conversion too. That
finding kind of put GTW in the lime-
light & has helped since uncover other
titles. 2nd has to be a joint fight
between Tyger Tyger & Deadlock (2 other
huge titles which had been missing for
over a decade)
Q-There must have been some surprises
from big companies working on lets say
"rubbish" can you comment & give an
example?
Hmmm ... If you mean possibly games we
were urgently trying to find but we
found poor when we found them. Not me
personally but most people were dis-
sapointed with Tyger Tyger. Everyone
was expecting this awesome Black Tiger
beating game, but found that the game
was infact only half finished & was
really a interactive demonstration more
than a game. I still loved it though :)
Q-Have you ever found a game that is
virtually finished but the company
pulled the game from production for
some reason, maybe the company went
bust before mass production & advert-
ising thinking her about "Daffy Duck"
that was given rave reviews by Zzap64
but never emerged as a game?
From the same company as Daffy Duck -
I nominate "Bugs Bunny Private
Detective" as one we found. This was
pretty much complete (Though without
music) & was pulled purely because Hi-
Tec went into liquidation before launch
Another (Which we didn't find as such)
is "Shellshock" which Beyond Belief
were to launch (They went bust & later
sold the game to C= Format). Basically
there are quite a few on the site which
were in this situation as it was a very
common scenario for most of the games
sadly (& for ones still out there)
Q-How much time do you spend working on
the website who is involved in its
maintanance?
It used to be about 30 min. a day doing
review writing which expanded when an
update was being worked on. Currently
I'm bogged down in work, so I do a few
hours here & there when I can answering
emails, researching, writing reviews &
doing quick site updates. I update the
C64 site, entries, HTML etc. The guys
on the Amiga & PC sites, & I update the
main GTW website. Helping me on the C64
site with research and reviews are
Andrew Fisher (Research/Reviews), David
Simmonds (Research/Fixing organizing),
Peter Weighill (Research) & Alex Ross
(Research & Reviews)
Q-Please list the 5 most wanted games
you would like to find
Starting with most wanted..
1) Daffy Duck (Hi-Tec)
2) Murder! (US-Gold)
3) The Search for Sharla (Thalamus)
4) Streethawk (Ocean)
5) Putty (System 3)
Of course a fair few are fighting for
those spots... there's loads more I'm
keen to find :)
Q-So how do you know what games were
being worked on that never made it to
mass production?
Mostly through magazine research.
Magazines used to regularly preview
games which never appeared, or which
looked very different to the final
released version. Additionally when we
chat developers about one game, they'll
shed light on another they worked on in
the same situation. Finally we get
contacted by various people with new
info & occasionally a game they worked
on which never saw the light of day.
Q-Isn't this now becoming an obsession?
It could do... but I try not to let it.
If it became an obsession, I think GTW
wouldn't be fun any more. GTW to me is
a lot of fun, and trying to locate
these games is a good challenge. I
would admit though that the search for
Daffy Duck & Murder has become obses-
sive over the past 6 years mainly
because of the eagerness of others on
the C64 scene who are also desperate to
find them (I'd love to uncover them for
others to enjoy).
CONTINUES in PART 2