Arcade Wizzard

Lore & Background

Arcade Wizzard was programmed by Bill McIntosh with additional programming by Tony Smales. The game was partly created using the animation engine from the canceled Commodore 64 version of Inspector Gadget and the Circus of Fear. A total of 15 pinball tables were planned, but the prototype version includes simple and uncompleted music. The game uses a split screen rather than a scrolling screen, with transitions between screens described as 'very clunky'; the right side of the display shows an outline of the entire table.

Reader's Guide

The game features a progression system where players start with access to a limited selection of pinball tables and must beat scores and 'local arcade bullies' to progress. It includes five arcades—Top Spin, Games, Action City, Wonder Dome, and Manic—each containing three pinball machines. Tables include 'Hot Harem', 'Mine Dump', 'Drag Strip', 'Desert Queen', 'The Mob', 'Vegas', 'Lazer Blazer', 'Black Box', 'Zipper', and at least one table called 'Rat Race' in the final two arcades. An early version was played by Zzap!64 in 1988, which noted a score target on the first table had to be reached to play the next, the control method was 'very unusual', and graphics required improvement. The game's rediscovery in 2026 by Tony Smales sheds light on an unfinished project from Beam Software's history.

Did You Know?

• The game was partly created using the animation engine from the canceled Commodore 64 version of Inspector Gadget and the Circus of Fear.
• The prototype version includes simple and uncompleted music.
• The game uses a split screen rather than a scrolling screen, with transitions described as 'very clunky'.
• At least one table, called 'Rat Race', was developed in the final two arcades.

Development & Technical Architecture

Arcade Wizzard was programmed primarily by Bill McIntosh, with supplementary coding contributions from Tony Smales, both working at Beam Software during 1988. A notable aspect of the project's technical foundation was its reuse of an animation engine originally built for two other Commodore 64 titles—Inspector Gadget and Circus of Fear—neither of which ultimately shipped. This repurposed engine shaped how the game rendered its pinball tables and animated elements. The display layout employed a split-screen design rather than a traditional scrolling approach, with the right-hand portion of the screen presenting a simplified outline of the full table geometry so players could track the ball's position. Transitions between screens were described as "very clunky," a limitation that likely reflected both the engine's origins and the project's unfinished state. The prototype also featured only rudimentary, incomplete music, suggesting the audio track was never finalized. Beam Software had planned a total of fifteen distinct pinball tables for the full release, though not all were completed before the project was shelved.

Gameplay Structure & Progression

The game was designed around a tiered progression system in which players began with access to only a small subset of pinball tables and had to achieve specific score thresholds while defeating so-called "local arcade bullies" to unlock further content. The overall structure comprised five distinct arcades, each housing three individual pinball machines, for a planned total of fifteen tables. The named arcades include Top Spin, which contained the tables Hot Harem, Mine Dump, and Drag Strip; Games, featuring Desert Queen, The Mob, and Vegas; and Action City, home to Lazer Blazer, Black Box, and Zipper. Two additional arcades, Wonder Dome and Manic, rounded out the set, with at least one table called Rat Race developed for the final two locations. This layered structure gave the game a sense of narrative escalation, moving players through increasingly themed environments as they climbed the score ladder and confronted each arcade's local competition.

Pre-release Impressions & Critical Feedback

In 1988, the magazine Zzap!64 obtained an early build of Arcade Wizzard and offered a hands-on preview before the project was ultimately abandoned. In this particular version, the gating mechanic required players to hit a mandatory score target on the very first table before they could advance to the next one—a slightly different implementation from the later "local arcade bullies" concept. The reviewers flagged the control scheme as "very unusual," suggesting the input mapping felt unintuitive or inconsistent with what Commodore 64 players had come to expect from other pinball or action titles of the era. Visual presentation was also called out as needing significant improvement, a fair assessment given that the game was still in prototype form and its graphics had not yet been polished. The combination of awkward controls, unfinished art, and the clunky screen transitions noted in other accounts paints a picture of a game that was still in rough developmental shape when it was shown to the press, even if the underlying structural ambition of five themed arcades was clearly visible.

Rediscovery & Afterlife

For nearly four decades, Arcade Wizzard existed only as a forgotten artifact within Beam Software's archives, an unfinished pinball game that never reached a retail release on the Commodore 64. The project was shelved in 1988, leaving behind a prototype with incomplete music, clunky transitions, and a partial set of the fifteen tables that had been planned. It was not until 2026 that the game resurfaced, when Tony Smales—a former Beam Software developer who had contributed additional programming to the title—rediscovered the code. His personal connection to the project made the find especially poignant, as he had been part of the small team that built the game using repurposed animation technology from the canceled Inspector Gadget and Circus of Fear adaptations. The rediscovery was shared with the broader retro-gaming community, including a feature on the YouTube series This Week In Retro, where it was presented as a lost Commodore 64 title finally revealed to the public. The event underscored how many ambitious projects from the late 1980s home-computer era simply vanished without ever being played by a single consumer.