By the time the Bullfrog management and construction sim Theme Park arrived on home computers in 1994, the Commodore 64 was a distant memory for many players, so an official port of the game was likely never going to be on the cards. However, it is now 2023 and thanks to a recent release from the developer Arlasoft, we can finally get a glimpse into an alternative dimension and see what a version of the Bullfrog classic might have looked like on the Commodore computer, in the form of an exciting, new Theme Park tribute game, called Funfair Inc. (Thanks IndieRetroNews!).
Funfair Inc. is a Theme Park-style park management game that features 32 rides and animal attractions, in addition to 20 shops and gaming stalls, and 16 other features and facilities. In it you're able to create and run your own park, research attractions and improvements, hire new staff, and manage the financial side of things, among other activities. It's essentially one large sandbox to mess around in and brings us back to those late nights spent in front of a computer, plonking down the latest rides and trying our best to boost our customers' happiness.
Before you go rushing off to install it, we should mention that this latest release is only a preview of what Arlasoft had initially intended for the project, and it's unlikely the game will ever receive another update (leaving it without mouse support). This is because the developer stopped development on it a couple of years ago, as he outlined on itch.io:
"This downloadable version is where development stopped a couple of years ago, I just hit a brick wall and the motivation to tackle even the smallest feature or bug disappeared.
Unfortunately unless I get into a position where I can do my own thing all day every day I don't see me having the time or energy to finish it, but I will make the code available to anyone who wants to have a go. Most of the planned features are implemented, it would just be a question of bug fixing, adding mouse support and making sure all the finances and RNGs are balanced to make the game fun. At present it's just a bit of a sandbox to muck around in and try and break"
If you want to give it a try, you can download the preview now from itch.io. You can also watch a video of it below: