Load Runner: The Galaxy's First Computer Comic

Ever heard of LOAD RUNNER? I certainly hadn't. It's a real curiosity. A computer-themed comic aimed at 9-16 year olds and featuring a mix of stories told with artwork, photographs, and text. LOAD RUNNER was published fortnightly by ECC Publications who also made WHICH COMPUTER PRACTICAL COMPUTING, IBM USER, and SINCLAIR PROGRAMS and SINCLAIR USER; until they sold the last two to EMAP in September 1984. LOAD RUNNER arrived on 23rd June 1983 and ran for 13 issues, with the last issue dated December 8th 1983.

Future Publishing

Valeside, West Street, Somerton. Somerset TAJ I 7PS

But the biggest news of the moment was that ZZAP! was to be moved from its base in Yeovil to Newsfield's mega-stylish giga-tower block HQ in Ludlow. In the process of moving, a few things were lost such as Gary Penn's Tears For fears tapes, some biros and our erstwhile newshound Ed Banger through an unfortunate accident on the M4. Oh, and Chris Anderson and Bob Wade who decided they prefered Amstrads to Commodores.
(ZZAP!64 Christmas Special 1985 page 96)

Angus Ryall

 This isn't an obituary. Angus Ryall is not dead; as far as I know. So what's it for? Well, writing about Games Workshop made me go back and read again Angus Ryall's short lived Front Line column in CRASH and I think it's great and contains some of CRASH's best writing about games (and also, frequently, not about games). I just want to talk about it. Sorry, this is one for me.

Games Workshop

27-29 Sunbeam Road, London, NW10

Welcome traveller. You stand at the dungeon gates and reflect on the words of the priest who led you here. "Only the very brave or the very foolhardy would risk the journey you are about to undertake." These dungeons are famous throughout the land. You have heard the stories about the danger, and the monsters, and the traps. And the stories of the fabulous treasure and those who entered, seeking it. And yet you have not heard any stories about those who returned. The dungeon gates open in front of you. Only the very brave or the very foolhardy would risk the journey you are about to undertake. Which are you?

NOW READ ON!

Sportscene Specialist Press/Dennis Publishing

14 Rathbone Place, London, W1P

CRASH, YOUR SINCLAIR, and SINCLAIR USER which was your favourite?* I was a CRASH kid but around 1988 it was clear the crown was slipping from CRASH's head and YOUR SINCLAIR picked up that crown and wore it proudly for the next few years. ZERO, Dennis' 16-bit magazine, carried the YOUR SINCLAIR crown on to the next generation, and then PC FORMAT made it a hat trick. Newsfield never really succeeded in producing another magazine that matched the love/nostalgia for CRASH and ZZAP. I'm not familiar enough with EMAP's titles to say whether they passed the success of COMPUTER AND VIDEOGAMES forwards; although I know a lot of people have a soft spot for the MEAN MACHINES titles. And Future. Well, their titles were frequently wildly successful but they always seem stamped from a template; magazines like AMIGA POWER were the exception. I think the point I'm groping vaguely towards is that Sportscene/Dennis was unique in producing a trilogy of beloved magazines.
(*No one ever says SINCLAIR USER.)

EMAP: East Midland Allied Press

Priory Court, 30-32 Farringdon Lane, EC1R

EMAP were first. In 1981 they launched COMPUTER & VIDEO GAMES. The first magazine in the world dedicated to computer games. Not one of those qualified firsts, like the first "regularly published" video games magazine in the world or just the first games magazine "published in the UK" or the first "multiformat" video games magazine. The first. Anywhere. Number one. EMAP did it. [I stand. Sing two verses of Rule Britannia and then sit down again and apologise to the cat, who had been sleeping quietly on my lap].

Thalamus

 1 Saturn House, Calleva Park, Aldermaston, Berks, RG7

I'm pretty sure only four magazine publishers set up software houses; EMAP with Beyond, Argus Press with Argus Press Software, Mirror Group Newspapers with Mirrorsoft and, of course, Newsfield with Thalamus. The surprise is not so much that other publishers didn't dip their toe into the water, it's that Newsfield were so late to the party. Thalamus was founded in 1986, when smaller software houses were being squeezed out of the market and either making the decision to become developers rather than publishers, see Design Design and Realtime, or stepping back from the market completely like Durell and Microsphere.

Newsfield Ltd

1/2 King Street, Ludlow, Shropshire

So we're doing magazines now are we? Well yes, obviously. The tagline of this blog is "seeking out Britain's pioneering software houses," but I've covered Argus Specialist Press and assorted computer manufacturers under the fig leaf justification that those companies did occasionally chuck out a few games. I could have done the same for Newsfield because they spun off a software house called Thalamus but it seems unnecessary. Newsfield were an essential part of the UK software scene in their own right, as were other publishers like Future (AMSTRAD ACTION) or Sportscene/Dennis (YOUR SINCLAIR and YOUR 64), or hardware companies like Romantic Robot (the various Multiface machines) and joystick kings Konix. A whole support industry grew up around software companies like the ecology of a coral reef and to not talk about it is to not tell the whole story.

Beyond Software

Competition House, Farndon Road, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, LE19

Lords of Midnight. Lords of Midnight. Lords of Midnight, Lords of Midnight. Lords. Of. Midnight. Lords of. Midnight. Lords of Midnight. Lords of Midnight. Lords; of Midnight. Lords, of, Midnight. Lords of Midnight -Lords of Midnight. Lords of Midnight.

Lords of Midnight.

Lords of Midnight.

Lords of Midnight.

Lords of Midnight. 

Lords of Midnight. Lords of Midnight Lords of Midnight. Lords of Midnight.

Doomdark's Revenge.