No pics here, only text ! This is just to let you know the detail of every update.

15th November 2020

20th October 2020

8th February 2018

Paul Woakes escaped from Earth Paul Woakes, author of the Mercenary games many loved so much, passed away on 15th July 2017. Words fail me. My thoughts are with his family, friends, colleagues... And with the Mercenary and Novagen games players. Paul left us with a few video games that are part of history. And with many amazing memories for all those who played them. Thank you, Mr Woakes. A personal note: I only met Paul Woakes once, in 2007. That was in another sad moment, at Bruce Jordan's funeral. I remember a very welcoming man, and we had a short, interesting chat about Mercenary. I was first afraid it would be inappropriate but I was encouraged by Tim Bosher with a "Bruce would have loved a Mercenary discussion!". We never got to carry on the chat - Paul being a legendary private man (to my knowledge, there is no interview of Paul at all). To anyone willing to say something to celebrate the man's work, or share memories with us, you can send me an email. In the following days or weeks, I will set up a page grouping them (email addresses will remain hidden). You can also leave a message on the Mercenary BBS.

15th November 2015

Updated items now and in 2016 are tagged with , so that you notice them easily.

Update (78 files added or modified)
Small update, but still worth a look!
New versions of Pawel Garycki's detailed maps for Damocles and Damocles mission Escape From Eris, and for Mercenary III. They hold towns with all named locations and all items inprinted, as well as buses and taxi roads. The more valuable items (1000+) have the price indicated. Also there are all trading posts with percentage prices indicated.
You may also notice on the Damocles solution page that Pawel has found the sunshade item can be used as an alternative to the heat resist suit!

Links
- Steven Gregory has written a nice entry on the AtariCrypt blog about Mercenary, with details about this site history.

16th May 2015

Update (55 files added or modified)
Another quick update, but quite interesting for Italian fans: thanks to Devilmaster and Enjo, the MDDClone has been recompiled with 100% Italian translation (meaning this includes now Mercenary III too!).
Added too a small page with music and sounds from the games.
Finally, updated the reviews section with:
- new scans from The One magazine, one of them really worth reading, holding details on the games creation process at Novagen
- higher definitions scans (and a few new ones) from most of the French magazines.

Links
- Andy Krouwel's excellent article about the making of Mercenary (published in Edge #153) is online, thanks Andy. Also, don't miss the small comment about it on Andy's main page, really worth reading IMHO ;)
- I stumbled upon a blog (apparently shelved since 2006) by Mo Warden, with a detailed post about her games industry career.

4th January 2015

Happy new year!
This is a very quick update, just to wish everyone a happy 2015 - making Mercenary 30 years old this year! Last year was probably the one that left me the less spare time in my life, hope things will (they should) get better this year.
In the meantime, a few new links:
Electrondance blog has a full 3-parts article on Mercenary 1 by Joel Goodwin. It's excellent!
Another good read on US Gamer, about the 3 episodes, by Pete Davison. With pictures taken from this site ;)
View the ST Damocles Demo video (thanks to '256 Colors').

20th July 2014

Interviews
A new interview from Steven Sargent, where you'll discover why his name was in the Novagen Cabinet in Damocles, and in Mercenary III (as a pilot).
And a new interview from Stewart Gilray, where you'll... Discover why his name was in the Novagen Cabinet in Damocles, too! And very interesting details about another aborted attempt at releasing the PC version of Damocles, in 1998.
You can now order the documentary From Bedroom To Billions, which holds an interview with Mo Warden! Haven't seen it myself but it seems promising.

Other
Check this great article on Mercenary from Tony Coles, for Eurogamer. Very nice read!
Added pictures of Mercenary boxes for Commodore Plus4, thanks to Allan Ullmann. I had totally forgoten them, sorry for the delay Allan.
Also added some more hints for The 2nd City, from unknown source, sent long ago by John Pollard. He belived it was from some C64 cheat page. I googled it but never found anything.
Added information on the pyramid in Mercenary I, thanks to various contributors long ago.

22th July 2013

Interviews
Added a great interview from Ian Thompson-Yates. He sent it last year, sorry for the delay, very Damocles-like!
Updated the interview from Simon Berry. After reading Ian's interview, Simon sent me an update with more details about Albex duplication process.
Finally added Dave Dewson on the Novagen page. He left a message on the BBS saying he worked there too.

5th May 2012

Rather big update. It took a while but the site is now filled with many small things I found back from emails between 1996 and 2003. It's been a 150-pages trip back in time (in font size 8)! Updated items tagged with a "new" picture, so that you notice them easily.

Mercenary 1
Updated the Escape From Targ Solution (more hints section) with a piece of advice from Szymon Grygiel about the Mechanoid, another by Mooz about fighting tactics, and a couple of maps by Pawel Garycki. Added many details to Pawel's military solution. BTW Pawel was right: the Mechanoids don't give any reward for the destruction of Palyars, nothing except a message! (I guess I dreamt I got a big reward, or was it in the 2nd City?). Finally, added two small videos of a bug in the game.
Thanks to Ben Hill, completed the Second City Solution with the Antenna position; and thanks to Mooz fixed a mistake with the Maze in the solution (ooops), detailed Domnion Dart maximum altitude or Neutron Fuel position. Also fixed little things or gave more small details here and there.
In both solutions, I have also offered alternate maps from the great Mooz's maps, with new colours so that people with aging eyes like me can read them better. Added details about how to fly the PC BIL new ship.
Also added a new Mercenary 1 box and manual page, incomplete for now as there are so many different versions and packages, but that's a start. If you have nice and detailed pictures of your versions that are not up on the site, please send! (and hope for them to be updated before 2020 ;-))

Damocles
Minor updates and corrections to the Damocles Solution (spelling), and updated the Damocles guides and maps sent by Pawel Garycki. Also added details in Damocles' Mercenary 1 saved games feature, and thanks to Simone how to have strange fun with explosives. Oh, and finally added the turbo mode for the Author's Chair, discovered by the MDDClone author!
Removed the link to the video of the Damocles Demo, which has been deleted a couple of months ago it seems.
Added one or two small details on the Damocles for PC page.

Mercenary 3
Major update of the Mercenary III Solution, years after some of you sent me hints. The guide is much more complete now and various help files have been added. Interesting news about the Authors Computer, how to avoid PC Bil forces, and much more!

Other
Added a link in credits/links section to Simone Gremmo's works around Mercenary (take a look at TADPSID!), to Amiga Magazine Rack (filled with press reviews), fixed links to the Automation and D-Bug team website, and added links to Youtube videos (not comprehensive).
Added Gary Walton's name in the Novagen Team and many other in the Novagen related people, as well as a small page about the Novagen office.
Made an attempt to start a new version of the games page, trying to list all the different relleased versions (including boxes, laguages, contents...). This is unfinished work and I'll need help as I almost don't know 8-bits verions of Escape From Targ or Second City.
Also made a new page about references to Novagen games, just spotting funny things.
Finally added a Damocles review from the Italian edition of The Games Machine, thanks to Simone again.

On the cosmetic side, with all the magic and incerdible new technology of HTML 3, you can now make the frame menu appear or disappear from the main page, with a graphic frame in Benson font, or the good old text frame (see at the top left of the page).

2nd February 2011

We're back! The last 2 years have been so busy, the site had been left aside. But not dead!
Added Eddie Fisher's interview, he sent so long ago. Apologies for the delay Mr. Fisher :-/
Also updated the MDDClone page which now holds the great MDDClone SDL, a recent port made by Szymon Ender.
Finally fixed several links on the credits and links page, also added there the nice Devil Master's work: TADPSID, a virtual environment based on Damocles for PC.

8th February 2009
http://membres.lycos.fr/vesta (with frames) WARNING due to Lycos stopping activities, this address will disappear in February 2009. Update your bookmarks!
Also added 2 new pictures on the Mercenary 3 box page: the Atari ST sticker, and Atari ST disk.

23th November 2008
Small update: finally added the Mercenary 3 box and manual scans.

2nd March 2008
Small update: corrected a link to the BBS, updated Mark Sachs's contact information, corrected the fact that Psygnosis kept releasing PC games in the reasons why Damocles '95 PC version was dropped.

17th February 2008
Seems that spare time becomes a lux as life goes on. Well, finally the update is there.
The main update is that you will find here Damocles and Mercenary III patched to run on Atari Falcon. Follow the link !

Also updated:
- modified the reasons why Damocles '95 PC version was dropped.
- modified the link to a video of the Atari ST Damocles demo.
- updated the link to the BBS

Oh by the way, I think this website is about 10 years old now. I'd have to search old hard drives to check some files' date...

23th September 2007
In Memoriam: Bruce Jordan
We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Bruce Jordan, on 21th Sept. For those visiting this site who didn't know Bruce, he was one of the main team members at Novagen and lead business and operational aspects of company as well as directly contributing to the games that many visiting this site know and love. His Benson text is surely an eye into the soul of a real gentleman with a cracking sense of humour.
Despite Novagen being no more, Bruce provided information for this site by kindly answering so many questions about the Mercenary series, life the universe and everything.
Our thoughts are with him, and those who loved and knew him.
RIP Bruce.

3rd February 2007
After a few months of real life, the virtual 3D world strikes back with the MDDClone's v3.1 release! More bugs fixed, Polish translation update, and minor improvements. Download it on the MDDClone page.

You will also find, thanks to MetroMaster, a configuration file to play the MDDClone with a Saitek X-52 flight control system.
Also added a link to Youtube video of the Atari ST Damocles demo.

31th August 2006
Ladies and Gentlemen, here is now the first MDDClone's v3.0 release (not beta). This version fixes the bugs found in the beta, and has several updated translations. If you want to play to any Mercenary game on your PC, see the MDDClone page to download it!

Also updated:
The keys locations in the Mercenary 3 solution.

29th April 2006
Champagne! Here is the very first MDDClone's v3.0 beta release, including all the possible solutions for Mercenary III. See the MDDClone page to download it! (English version only so far)
This means the MDDClone is really close to completion. Once again, thanks go to the MDDClone author, for his constant work, that started more than 4 years ago. Cheers!
This site must be about 10 years old, too. So Champagne is really needed these days ;-)

11th March 2006
This is a special one. We are celebrating the MDDClone's 4th birthday! And, of course, no birthday without gift: MDDClone V2.5 is out, including updates for Mercenary III. It is now possible to complete four solutions to this game. See the MDDClone page to download it!

I think all the Mercenary fans will join me in this special moment to thank the MDDClone author, for his major contribution in the Mercenary history, and for his continuous work. I must say he's also keeping me updating this website, which wouldn't happen that much if he wasn't there ;-) So, really, and simply: thank you!
Simon.
PS: this site must be close to its 10th birthday - I now have to try and find when the 1st version of the Mercenary 3 Solution Page went online!

February 2006
Don't forget that MDDClone V2.4 now includes Mercenary III! In case you downloaded the 2.4 version in early December 2005, please note this is no longer beta since December 30th - it is possible to complete a few of the solutions to this game. So keep the download counters crazy!

Also updated:
Thanks to Iain Smith who kindly contacted me, the new page with Damocles box and manual scans now holds the Damocles Mission Disk 1 scans in high resolution (Amiga version). I have noticed the Compendium is incomplete and updated it. Once again, thanks go to the former Novagen Team for their agreement. Mercenary 3 may follow (before 2008 ;-), and Mercenary 1 later.

30th December 2005
Holiday season update: MDDClone V2.4 now includes Mercenary III! In case you downloaded a month or so ago, please note this is no longer beta - it is possible to complete a few of the solutions to this game. So let the download counters go crazy!

Also updated:
Did you notice it in the menu? Finally, here it is: new page with Damocles box and manual scans. Once again, thanks go to the former Novagen Team for their agreement. Mercenary 3 may follow (before 2007 ;-), and Mercenary 1 later.

early December 2005
MAJOR UPDATE: MDDClone V2.4 now includes Mercenary III first beta-release! Once again we have to thank the MDDClone author for his constant effort. You can now have a look at The Dion Crisis, so let the download counters go crazy!

Also updated:
Mercenary 1 solution page: Szymon Ender updated the theft solution for Mercenary 1.

November 2005
MDDClone V2.4 in Polish (updated Nov. 20th) now available thanks to Szymon Ender's translation. Players from Poland, any feedback is welcome!

Also updated:
Mercenary 3 Preview (from Amiga Power issue 1, Apr. 1991) on the reviews page, thanks to Angus.
Added a link to Angus' Amiga Games Database: a collection of Amiga Game reviews by Amiga players, including several reviews of Mercenary and Damocles.

September 2005
MDDClone V2.3 now available. Thanks for all the feedback - apologies to all the loyal followers and fans for the gremlins that seemed to creep in to V2.2. There are some significant fixes in this version for the animation and sound... hope you like this version better!

Also updated:
Mercenary 1 solution page: Szymon Ender sent the theft solution for Mercenary 1!

August 2005
MDDClone V2.2 is available, fixing bugs in Mercenary 1 and introducing the German version of Damocles.
If you downloaded the game on 8th or 9th August 2005 and find a bug, please download the game again - we placed a corrected v2.2 sixteen hours after the initial release, correcting a few problems (and if the bug persists, then contact us ;-).

Also updated:
Nothing else!

March 2005 update
MDDClone V2.1 is available, fixing bugs and introducing the French and Italian versions of Damocles.

Also updated:
- new sites in the links section: Daren Pearcy's website with a walkthrough recording of Mercenary for Spectrum, and a reviews website.
- added a zip file holding HTML pages with the Damocles Mission Disks instructions.

February 2005 update
We are proud to announce the availability of MDDClone V2.0. Sanctioned for free distribution by the former Novagen team, this version now includes Damocles (and the mission disks) as well as Targ and the Second City. This release is due in no small part to the many fans that have contributed so much testing time, and to the translators that have localized the games in to several languages. Free download on the MDDClone page.

Also updated:
- new '95 Damocles PC pictures sent by Timo Weirich
- I added a new Damocles review (see also recent Andy Krouwel's Mercenary 1 reviews scans)

January 2005 update
IT'S THE NEW YEAR AND IT'S HERE:After much anticipation, Damocles is available in beta (V2) - check it out on the MDDClone page!
Thanks to all the fans working with us so far, we will be announcing the official release date very soon. Thanks also to the translators - 6 other languages are in the works.
I am also pleased to announce that the former Novagen team has officially allowed us to distribute freely this version!

Also updated:
- new Mercenary 1 reviews thanks to Andy Krouwel
- new Damocles maps and Mission Disks guide by Pawel Garycki
- old links in the Amiga hard-drive installers page
- added a search function in the Mercenary BBS

December 2004 update
IT'S CHRISTMAS, AND IT'S THERE:After much anticipation, Damocles is available in beta - check it out on the MDDClone page!

Many thanks to its author for this wonderful Christmas gift :-)
I am also glad to announce that the former Novagen team has officially allowed us to distribute freely this version!

October 2004 update
GOOD NEWS: Thanks to the moral support from fans, the MDDClone has now recovered from the recent setback and is well on its way to earning its first D! I have been testing Damocles, and it's looking promising. We can now fly around space, the planets and walk around buildings. Currently we are testing some of the basic game play features in preparation for releasing a beta version in November, and with any luck should have a first release for Christmas!

August 2004 update
BAD NEWS: The latest MDDClone source code, stored on an USB key, has been stolen. So you'll understand that the promised Damocles demo is delayed, time for the author to stomach this, and then re-create what has been lost. You can send your moral support to the MDDClone author, many of us know what it is to lose days of work - suggest you don't ask for a release date, check the BBS from time to time for the latest information.

To try and compensate this bad news, here's a big update:
Read this incerdible interview of Jonathon Wild, beta-tester at Psygnosis. He tested the '95 Damocles for PC game!
Check the new pictures of '95 Damocles PC version, thanks to Derrick Bill Newall that scanned the Edge magazine preview (Also added 6 Damocles previews from Generation 4 magazine).
Also updated seriously the Amiga hard-drive installers page (about time, some mails from 1998 were warning me that new versions existed!)
Totally updated the Damocles solution page with maps, mission disks, corrected guide...
Added new Escape From Targ maps from Graham H Dodsworth, and added more Escape from Targ and Second city information from Pawel Garycki.
Finally, added two new interesting links.
Icons contest for the MDDClone is over. See the results here.

April 2004 update.
Found back the Atari ST demo of Damocles, from ST User magazine! Don't miss this!
The Mercenary 1 solution page has been totally updated with lots of datas from Paul Dixon, Pawel Garycki, John Selck and Achim Haertel. Some of the infos were waiting on my computer for more than 1 year :-/