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Cancelled & Unreleased Video Games

## 1989 Virgin Mastertronic ### Platforms: ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC (potentially Commodore 64 too) Springclean is an intriguing unreleased title from PAL Developments that was due to be published by Virgin Mastertronic around 1989. This one was actually completed, with master disks produced for both the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC versions. The game was developed by Rich Stevenson, who very kindly got in touch with GTW to reveal that the source and master disks still survive within his personal archive. According to Rich, Springclean was loosely inspired by Ultimate’s classic Cookie, with a character called Mrs. Mopp taking the starring role. Interestingly, the concept doesn’t sound too far removed from Tina Billett’s 1984 ZX Spectrum game Mrs Mopp. Despite development being completed, circumstances surrounding PAL Developments’ publishing agreement meant that Springclean was ultimately left on the shelf. The game had been produced as part of a multi-game deal between PAL Developments and Virgin Mastertronic and would have been the final title released under the arrangement. However, PAL had already fulfilled the required number of games suggested by the agreement, leaving Springclean surplus to requirements. There were later plans to potentially rebrand the game for release through the Hi-Tec label, but these also came to nothing and Springclean remained unreleased. There is also a curious Commodore 64 connection. Ariolasoft had released a C64 version of Mrs. Mop back in 1987 (ironically by an unrelated John Stevenson), yet the same game later appeared on Zzap! 64’s Megatape 28 covermount in 1992, where it was presented as a previously unreleased title associated with PAL Developments/Hi-Tec. As the game had already been commercially released several years earlier, it’s unclear exactly what was going on. It may suggest that PAL Developments or Hi-Tec had acquired some form of rights to the game or character with plans for another release, but for now we don’t have enough information to say for certain whether this was directly connected to Rich’s Springclean project. Dave Palmer recalled Mrs Mop in an email back in 2006, and that Rich was involved – but is likely thinking of Springclean. He recalled: > “Haha… A real blast from the past… Mrs Mop… it was called this for a bit of fun on my part, it was my nick name for my mother from when I was a kid… Honestly cannot remember much about it but I think it was a game written by Richard Stevenson for me? Will apply the grey matter to it.” Back to the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC versions, this is one lost game where we know the material hasn’t disappeared over the intervening years. Rich still has the original source and master disks for both versions, along with other material from his development career. He has also kindly supplied us with several photographs showing the loading screen and a glimpse of the game art, which you can see below. For now, there are no plans to release the surviving builds, as Rich is currently documenting his development career and hopes to include a number of his missing games as additional material for the project. Hopefully we’ll get to learn much more about Springclean and his other unreleased titles in the future. It’s nevertheless great to finally document the game within the archive and, most importantly, know that both completed versions still safely survive after all these years. With a huge thank you to **Rich Stevenson** for getting in touch, sharing the story behind Springclean and providing the photographs for inclusion within the archive. ## Gallery

Cancelled & Unreleased Video Games

Norweigan musician and War Child Ambassador AURORA is offering two tickets to her sold-out show What Happened To The Earth? Wembley Arena on 3 May 202

YouTube video by Reseller George

L’invité de Juliette Nesson dans le Brunch du 10 décembre 2024 est Geoffrey Lesire, chanteur et musicien du groupe Springclean.

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