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Nimitz was being produced by Martech back in 1988 (possibly started even further back in 1986!) and Andrew found the game whilst scanning through ACE magazine (September 1988). In the mention, the price was quoted as £9.99 for cassette and £14.99 for disk.
Anyway, ACE had this to say about the mysterious Martech game...
“Take charge of the largest and most powerful fighting ship in the world. Positioned between two warring nations, one of who is your ally, it’s not going to be easy to protect both yourself and your friends from the constant air and sea attacks. Have you got what it takes to be able to command 6,000 men, and some 100 aircraft? This naval strategy game promises to have some heavy arcade flavouring added.”
Strangely the game was first mentioned around 1986 by Zzap 64, which also assumes that the game was in development for well over a year.
Now looking at the date of 1988, this was around the time Martech went under, but we find that the game was actually cancelled by Martech before they went under.
We find that John P Gibbons was the man behind the game, who originally pitched the idea to Martech after completing Eddie Kidd Jump Challenge. This by his own account was a very ambitious title where the idea was to make the ultimate naval arcade game combining strategy, shoot-em-up and air-combat flight sim in one package. John looking back felt this was overambitious and part of the game's downfall in the end...
Although fairly well advertised by Martech, there were many delays as John soldiered on to complete the game. However there was nothing playable as such, and something which John doesn't describe as a game. A nice selection of demos were created which included some fairly impressive filled-wireframe vector animation, a impressive scrolling carrier deck with missile launchers and a map of the persian gulf. Probably more, but for an almost 20 year old lost title, things understandably are hazy.
Eventually Martech saw after 2 years that the game was not progressing very fast, so they decided to cancel it sadly.. much to John's disappointment. And so the game gathered dust on his work disks.
What now for Nimitz in 2006? ... Well, John offers the possibility that he may still have his floppies with all the remains of Nimitz, which GTW may eventually be able to show to the world. John will also be digging out some A3 flyers of the game which were given out at the PCW 85/86 show.
This is a huge step forward in this previously mysterious Martech title... could we one day see how impressive Nimitz was looking?... We hope so - watch this space!
A corner turned for this long lost game...
Frank and Andrew
(Additional source credits - Paul Norris, Gary Yorke, Peter Weighill, John P Gibbons) |
