RETRO
OOCCTTOOBBEERR 2202200 |COMPUTERSHOPPER|IISSSUUEE 39922
companies.Weareratherreliantonthem
comingforward,”Gaskingsays.
ThecurrentholygrailfortheCommodore
64,however,isMurder!byUSGold.
ConvertedfromtheAmiga/AtariSTversion,
itisknowntohavebeenmadeandfinished
–infact, it was reviewed in 1990 inZzap!64
magazine in September 1990 and received a
whopping 93% rating.
“Murder! has proven tobeuntraceable
so far,”Gasking says.
“Wehave contacted anyone and everyone
about the title,but we’re currently at adead
end. No-one seems tohave it any more,
and I’m not overly optimistic that we’ll
ever findit. But the one thing I’ve never been
good at is giving up.”
LOOKINGLONGAND HARD
Such determination extends tounreleased
hardware too,with Gasking interested in
findingout more about this as well. His book
includes the Konix Multi-System, which didn’t
see the light ofdayinthe late1980s because
funding ran out and the company collapsed.
“Other instances such as the Commodore
65 were often stuckin adevelopment hell for
so long that the company would just dump
the project when it was no longer financially
feasible forthemtocontinue,”Gasking says.
CONVERTNES
GAMESTO 3D
Take alook at the original Super
Mario Bros game on the
Nintendo Entertainment System
and you’ll quickly see that it
sports some rather spiffy 2D
graphics. That was the case for
all NES games but, thanks to
the 3dSen emulator that has
been released on
Steam,it’s now
play
ww.
o.
the
five
9 ,the
software is rapidly
Early Access andh
towards afull rele
Each game require
custom-built profil
foreachtitle in
order to add depth
and shadows, but
there’s support for
some of the system
biggest titles, includ
Bubble Bobble,Donk
Ghosts ‘N Goblins andPac-Man.
Some modern homebrew games
are catered for, too.
Since it’s an emulator rather
than abundle of games, you’ll
have to provide the game ROMs
yourself.But versions of the
software are available for
Windows, macOS and Linux,
and getting set up is rather
straightforward. Whether
Nintendo will support it, given its
firm stance against emulation, is
aquestion foranother day.
MUSEUM
We’re not sure if acontestant
would be shot down formaking a
similar suggestion on BBC One’s
TheApprentice,but
Amstrad founder
Lord Sugar is
looking to launch
amuseum filled to
the brim with his
old electronics.
He took to Twitter
requesting photograph
of any Amstrad products
people mayhaveintheir lofts.
henthis Covid stuff is
er,”hewrote, “I’m going
ooffer to buy some of
he old stuff from my
ndconsumers and
ablish amuseum.”
ut is Lord Sugar really
ing to snap up CPCs,
PCs, dual-deck hi-fis
beanunused E-mailer
ortwo?Itappears so.
“I was inspired by boredom
and an interest in what Iwas
seeing,”hetoldComputer
Shopperwhen we approached
him “So Ijust decided it
ould be useful because
I’d completely
forgotten I’d made
some of these items
and Isaid Ithink
we’ll create a
museum of all the
oducts I’d produced
over the years.”
Fingers crossed it comes off.
rthemt
ymovingout of
heading
ease.
esa
le
’s
ding
key Kong,
d
LORD SUGAR
TOLAUNCHAMSTRAD
MUSEUM
“W
ove
to
t
en
est
Bu
intendi
PCWs,P
and mayb
ortwo?It
commerciallifehavealsoproventobe
annoyinglyoutofreach.
“Thecompanyhadseveraltitlescanned
whenthecompanycollapsed,andtheonly
cluetothelikelydeveloperofmostof
them was someone called The Ghost,”
Gasking reveals.
He’s spoken toBeyond Belief’sfounder,
Jim Scott, whocannot recall any names.
Anyone he has found who once worked
there had said it wasn’t them.
“There were no clues within the code
when we trawled through. Jim thinks the
alias was acover for several developers
so theycouldn’t be poached byother
1111111000000066666666
Steam,
possible toplay
in 3D,too.
Created
by Geod
Studio (ww
geodstudio
net)overt
course of
years and
costing £7.1 9
106
hs
him. S
co
pro
⬅⬆Grainy images such as this one of theKonix
Multi-System are often as good as it gets forthose
seeking out games and machines that never were
