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Virgin Atlantic Challenge was to be an arcade game based on Richard Branson's attempt to break the transatlantic speed record in a boat. So, not the same game which was released later on with the rather cool Rob Hubbard tune.
The game was infact released on the Spectrum and Amstrad... but sadly as what usually happens, the C64 version ran into a few troubles on deck.
According to Ian Munro, the game was actually written up by two different people. The first version (by whom we do not know) was actually scrapped because it didn't quite cut the grade. Ian recalls - "I think Virgin weren't happy with with the way the C64 version was looking / working. It looked a lot different to the way the Spectrum and Amstrad versions looked. From what I remember it was quite grey in colour, it was a side view of the inside of a boat. I'm sure it had two levels (or platforms) and may have scrolled left and right. There was definitely a "ships cat" walking about. "
The game was then offered to Millside to do, after doing good conversions on the Amstrad and Spectrum. Jullian Cooper re-did all the graphics for the game and got them finished and ready to use by the programmer to pick up the project. Millside employed a programmer straight from school from an agency (Whom is believed to be Paul Smith). But after 4-5 weeks of work, the programmer left and the game was incomplete. There were still a number of bugs to be fixed, but Millside couldn't get anyone to fix these.
By this time, Virgin had already been marketing the game on the Spectrum and Amstrad, and due to the heavy delays... Virgin decided to cancel the C64 version and put it to rest before any more money was wasted on the title.
The game itself was believed to be almost complete, but we cannot confirm this. Both Paul and Ian sadly had nothing of the C64 version, but suggested that the company directors could still have something of the C64 conversions that never were. We are now looking into finding both directors in the hope that they kept all the Millside work disks from that era.
For now the search goes on, but check out the Spectrum and Amstrad links above to get an idea of what was going to be...
Will the journey for this game be successful?...
Frank and Andrew
(Additional source credits - Unknown, Paul Smith and Ian Munro)
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