Fox (Preview)
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
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Fox
1996 Isthmus

Status: Preview, Findability: 4/5
Coding: Lucas Pope and Pete Gonzalez
Graphics: Lucas Pope
Sound: N/A

Fox was a game being produced by Lucas Pope and Pete Gonzalez back in 1995-1996, and was to be a sort of cross between (obviously!) Fox Fights Back and Turrican (In terms of game style) and also includes a very early (but impressive) Doom-styled level. I’m not sure if the developers were influenced in any way by Fox Fights Back, but maybe they were enough to go ahead and create a spiritual sequel of sorts?

The game preview indicates a number of 2D multi-scrolling levels, with some 3D Doom-styled sub sections for certain parts of the game (Maybe when you enter a tunnel/fox hole?).

It’s all quite early stages without much interaction/gameplay – but it is a vast preview with a series of sections to explore with your (rather glitchy at this stage) fox. The 3D section puts you in the view of the fox, and you can see the top of the fox’s head, with ears that turn as you turn – a cool little effect. It’s a neat little package which is well worth checking out and gives a glimpse of a game which could have been a lot of fun had it been completed.

The developers have very kindly passed over all the source code and have allowed it to be released along with their game itself. So feel free to grab and take a look. Maybe someone could finish it all off?

A big thanks to Jazzcat for finding remains of the game, tidying up, packing and docs for the preview!

We don’t fully know why the game halted production, but we think it was due to the lack of a market at that time, as its likely this would have been a title sold when the market was completely drying up. Hopefully we may learn more about the game’s fate from the developers soon!

But for now, check out this promising preview and have a think about what could have been!

The spiritual sequel to Fox Fights Back that never was…

Contributions: Peter Weighill, Jazzcat, Bartek



http://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/fox/
