Cargo

Cargo

Developer	Duck Software
Publisher	Firebird (never published)
Designer	Simon Nicol Stavros Fasoulas
Composer
Released	1988 (never published)
Platform	Commodore 64
Genre	Puzzle
Gamemode	Single-player
Download	GTW64 website
Information

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Cargo is one of the most interesting out of all the unpublished Commodore 64 games. Simon Nicol and Stavros Fasoulas made the game in 1988 under the name Ducksoft, and they planned on having Firebird publish it. The game is about steering a rotating object in an octagon grid, and the goal is to paint all areas as you go through the formation, just like in the game Amidar.

Gameplay

Cargo has eight levels and there are also bonus levels in between the official levels so that the player has a chance to gain more points. It’s easy to avoid the square-shaped opponents in the beginning, but as you go along, they become faster and the player has to be really careful to not bump into them or the balls that start flying around on the screen. On top of all this, in the more advanced levels the opponents start removing the paint from the octagons that the player hasn’t been able to fully paint.

The first level is easy to pass.

On occasion, boxes that help the player with his goals will appear on the screen. Depending on the type of the box, they will help the player move faster or help him destroy the opponents with a moving wall. Extra help is especially vital on the final levels.

Once all levels have been played through, the game restarts from the beginning, but this time steering is done as a mirror image of the original.

Development

Cargo was found with the help of Simon’s friend Said Hassan. He told GTW64 website about how he had watched the guys code the game in only one night. Apparently it was meant to prove that a budget game could be made in a very short time period. They had meant for Cargo to have Vorpal loader and Rob Hubbard’s soundtrack, but they’re not there on the version that exists today.

The game feels fairly ready regardless of its shortcomings, and definitely worth trying for those who are interested in this kind of game.