David Jefferies, programmer and project leader, has recently confirmed that this project will now "almost certainly never be released". David has been working for Psygnosis in Leeds for around a year, and any code he writes now automatically becomes the property of Psygnosis. Similarly the lead artist is now working for SCi (Swiv, Swiv3D, Carmegeddon and so on) and has no free time that he can spend on the project. When he started work at Psygnosis David thought the project might at some time be finished, but now he has virtually categorically stated that it is permanently dead. Which is a real shame.

Stryker's Run III looked like it was going to be one of those games which make everything else seem somehow pale in comparison. It aimed to be an Acorn platform game which bucked the trend of awful graphics (a la Sylvia Laine), aiming for something more Flashback-like, although with gameplay a cross between a platformer and a beat'em'up.

It's a shame the game will never be released after all the work that went into it. The main code had all been written, but there was still a lot of tidying up, debugging, playtesting and level details to be completed.

For those of you who haven't heard previously about SRIII, here's some more information: (not that it's much use now!)

Stryker's Run III's story stated that the game was set in a city in the middle of a huge riot. The anarchists are out in force against the police, with John Stryker stuck in the middle, with both the police and the anarchists after him. Since Stryker's Run II (of 1987 vintage) John has been through intensive martial arts training, and now has a spectacular range of moves at his disposal. On each level Stryker has certain objectives to meet - he might have to blow up a bridge, for example. (In fact, the game had little to do with the previous two incarnations, other than the name of the game and the name of the main character).

Claimed game features included:

• Full screen multi-directional parallax scrolling
• Over 1000 frames of smooth rotoscoped animations (similar to those used in Flashback only larger and more detailed)
• Karate moves performed by one of the country's top karate experts
• Advanced artificial intelligence (whatever that may mean)
• 10 megabytes of background graphics
• 5 levels

• 16-bit music (if you had a 16-bit sound card or Risc PC 700)
• High-resolution screen modes
• Many more in-game special effects, such as transparency and reflections

The game was due to be published by Davyn Computer Services. The team developing it christened themselves `Godhead', after a Nitzer Ebb song (don't ask me!). The game was originally being developed by Machine Love, but the least said about that the better - it ceased to exist when the person in charge turned out to be defrauding its members and contacts.

Five pictures of a development version of the game are still available here:

• Stryker getting attacked and kicking out
• Stryker strolling through a post-apocalyptic looking landscape
• Attacking some strange vehicle
• Traversing moving platforms
• Caught in a brawl

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