MelCroucher.net
Video Games & Computers | In The Pipeline
Here's an overview of the electronic entertainments Mel Croucher is working on for future release. At least, that's the intention. They are in no particular order of priority.
Scheherazade
This one is a long, slow burn - in fact Mel has been working on it since 1993. Absolutely no details here, but prospective development partners are very welcome to contact Mel using the contact form on the Home page of this website, for access to the full presentation, details of the creative team, the product specification, and the revenue generation model.
As for the rest of you, enjoy the preview trailer animated by Kim Goossens, marketed by Jacques Chapon and voiced by the wonderful Aoife McMahon.
Thanatos
In 1986, there was a really cool award-winning game called Thanatos for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC. It was written by Mike Richardson, and Rob Hubbard contributed music. For reasons we won't go into here, Mel Croucher has the rights to it, on condition a chunk of any profits goes to a particular charity dear to Mike Singleton's heart.
This is one of several projects Mel worked on with his favourite voice Christopher Lee, as one of the Great Man's last projects. Now Mel is turning the plotline on its head, and this Thanatos will feature a sorceress with balls and a supervillian to die for, all set to dystopian music worthy of a Tarantino movie.
The artwork on the right is by Vasco Oliviera, but probably won't make it to the final cut, seeing as Mel wants to set the entire action within the reflections of a dragon's eye.
PiMania
This one is the most far advanced, thanks to the help of original Automata programmer Andy Stagg the Boy Wonder (who is now a grandfather.) Mel's ambition is to steer his original 1977 concept of real-world computerised treasure hunts, force-feed them to the PiMan character, and harness the result to the latest technology.
Whereas the original only had one prize and took more than two years to solve, this reimagination has an unlimited number of prizes, allows players to set up one-on-one challenges, and should only take a few minutes to play. That's progress.
The theme song is extremely silly and was recorded way back. It features Ian Dury, Christopher Lee and Mel himself.