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Time to put this one out of its misery.. maybe?
Virus has been one of the mysterious mysteries in the lost gaming world on the C64, the subject of rumour and also april fool jokes!
It is a 3D game where you view your ship from outside, and fly around stunning (stunning at the time) landscapes destroying enemies across a landscape map. It was an advanced 16-bit game which only maybe Geoff Crammond could have managed on the humble C64 maybe. Firstly from what we know... the real conversion of Virus, if it was ever started, was to contain non-filled vector graphics like the released Spectrum version (Yes - The Speccy indeed got a conversion!)
The second wind of a possible conversion was teasingly mentioned by Zzap 64 in Issue #60, being converted by a "David Doll" and using a number of disk accessing techniques which pushed the limits of the C64.
A screenshot was also given with a "patchwork quilt" effect landscape. This turned out to be an April Fools joke, and the conversion was never heard of again, Then thridly - in 1990, a one off games guide was released for the C64, called "The Complete Guide to the C64", which contained reviews of all of the top games on the C64. One review to startle readers was of Virus on the C64. Just a little box-out, describing a game which depicts a Spectrum port of sorts.. but no screenshots.
It is widely believed that this mention was based on poor research and journalism, and this was simply added to fill the magazine. A bizzare one to add as a filler.
However we are not entirely sure if anything was started, completed, released or what. This could well be vapourware, but we have no confirmation. Because of the coverage the game has recieved - it is due an entry into the archives until we find out more. We expect that a conversion was at least planned.
Richard Hewison (Who runs the excellent "Bird Sanctuary" site) confirms to GTW that Firebird had no official C64 conversion planned... and that it was a miracle that the Spectrum version ever came about. Actually... read this page here to find out more about how the Spectrum version made it in particular....
So was there an unofficial attempt made?... It seems not, and quite likely that we will never find anything of this game. Vapourware indeed it seems... Case closed...
Frank and Andrew.
(Additional source credits - Richard Hewison, Paul Koller)
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