Well there seems to be some renwed interest in some humble ZX Spectrum games I created 27 years ago.  Not only that, but some of that interest is for a game that was never actually released!

I am of course talking about Dracula, the long awaited sequel to Frank N Stein.  The game was never finished and was likely to end it's days on a microdrive cartridge in my loft.  But for some reason I don't want that to happen, I want the World to see Dracula in all it's glory (maybe glory isn't the right word).

So yesterday I ventured to the darkest part of the loft, an area that only mice inhabit, a location that contains items that were boxed up 24 years ago and haven't seen the light of day since.  I was in and out quickly, I wasn't hanging around.  I found the single box labelled 'Speccy stuff' and made a hasty retreat.  Back in the safety of the house, I opened the box and what a treat I found.  A ZX Spectrum 48K (in a plus case, that I installed it in), with a ZX Interface 1 bolted to it's underside.  There was a Kempston joystick interface, a ZX Interface 2 and 2 microdrives complete with a little plastic wallet of microdrive cartridges.

I opened the wallet and inside were a set of eight microdrive cartridges, one labelled Frank N Stein and another labelled Dracula.  I had found it.  I quickly assembled the bits and plugged the brick of a power supply into the mains.  I switched it on and to my amazement, it worked!  At this point I inserted the Dracula carridge and then tried to remember what I needed to type to read it.  After a bit of messing around I managed to read it and then went on to read some others.  What a treat it was to see all this stuff again.  The Frank N Stein cartridge had seen so much action that it was no longer readable, but there was a second cartridge with some levels and 'features' that didn't make the final release.  There was also a cartridge labelled 'The Goblin Caves', which was another game that I'd completely forgotten about.

So where next?  Well I intend to finish Dracula and release it to the World.  I think I'll also make a second version of Frank N Stein containing the extra features.  And as for The Goblin Caves, well you'll just have to wait and see...