Gyruss ?-??-84

Behold, the long lost Roklan version of Gyruss! This version by Anthony Weber was done for Parker Brothers while he was at Roklan but ultimately was unreleased. Why Parker Brothers decided to scrap this version and use a completely different version (done by On-Time Software) is a mystery. According to Anthony, he was about two weeks from finishing the game when he had a falling out with Parker Brothers over them not honoring a verbal agreement. Oddly Parker Brothers actually used screenshots of Anthony's version on the back of the box for the 400/800 and 5200 versions! The only explanation I have for this is that it's possible that the boxes were already printed by the time of the disagreement and they didn't want to go through the expense of re-printing them.

Although Anthony said his version was nearly finished, the only version that has surfaced is missing all collision detection. This means you can't shoot any ships and they can't shoot you, so advancing through the game is impossible. Without being able to play the game, it's impossible to know how complete this version is, but what's there is impressive. This version has excellent music and graphics, but there are no sound effects. There appears to be a two player mode as well, but since the first player can't die it can't be tested out. The "# Warps To <planet name>" screen and the stage number at the bottom also seem to be missing.

Interestingly it appears that some of the graphics and music from Anthony's prototype were used in the released version. Not only are the game title graphics the same (it even has the same stars coming out of it), but the game music is also exactly the same with the addition of some sound effects.

Gyruss Box Featuring Anthony's Screenshots

The Roklan title screen is very similar to the final version

Here's the final title screen for comparison

Looking good!

Too bad you can't shoot anything...

The Roklan version features a much smaller ship

Here's the released version for comparison

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