Where Were They Now?
Seeking out Britain's pioneering video games houses.
Sunday, March 16, 2025
Computer Games Ltd
Sunday, March 2, 2025
The Digital Village
11 Maiden Lane, London, WC2E
The game with the magic words Douglas Adams on the cover. I remember Starship Titanic coming out. It was during that short period from 1996 to 1999 when I was gainfully employed by Virgin Interactive Entertainment and trying to work out if there was any way I could convert my job in Technical Support into some sort of meaningful career in the games industry. I had a friend who worked for a game magazine and I talked to them about Starship Titanic during the bubble of publicity which preceded release. What surprised me at the time was their response, they were already disappointed with it.
Sunday, February 16, 2025
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.
Sunday, February 2, 2025
Games Workshop
27-29 Sunbeam Road, London, NW10
NOW READ ON!
Sunday, January 19, 2025
Mr Chip/Magnetic Fields
1 Neville Place, Llandudno, Gwynedd, LL30 3BL
Three covers? One just isn't enough for Mr Chip/Magnetic Fields. The company was the Three Doctors of UK software. Three distinct incarnations each with their own story. First as a publisher of their own games, then a developer for other software houses, and finally a complete rebrand.
JOYSTICK magazine: Shaun Southern interview
SHAUN SOUTHERN
INTERVIEW: DEREK DELA FUENTE
Shaun Southern is the author of Supercars I and II, and the hugely successful Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge. We went to Wales to worm the truth out of him.[1]
Sunday, January 5, 2025
Alligata Software Ltd
178 West Street/1 Orange Street, Sheffield
This town ain't big enough for both of us. Software houses often cluster. EA has created an entire ecosystem in Guildford. Cambridge remains a hotbed of hardware and software companies. London was always big enough to support a whole load of publishers and developers, as were Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester. So why am I surprised that Sheffield was the home of Alligata Software and Gremlin Graphics/Interactive? Maybe because Sheffield doesn't feel like a big city (the offices of both companies were within easy walking distance) and partly because Gremlin got so big so quickly that it's difficult to imagine another company surviving in its shade. But Gremlin and Alligata were never really rivals because Alligata was on the way down by the time Gremlin was on the way up.
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11 Maiden Lane, London, WC2E The game with the magic words Douglas Adams on the cover. I remember Starship Titanic coming out. It was durin...
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Computer Games Ltd, CGL House, Goldings Hill, Loughton, Essex, IG10 Computer Games Ltd (CGL) were electronics importers in the early eight...
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31-37 Hoxton Street, London, N1 Once upon a time there was a company called Samurai Computers Ltd. Unfortunately for boring business reason...
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35 Rassau Industrial Estate, Ebbw Vale, Gwent, NP3 British hardware never had the same international profile as British software. The Enterp...
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2/4 Oxford Road, Manchester, M1 "I can't believe I walked past the Ocean offices for years without realising the significance of th...
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1/2 King Street, Ludlow, Shropshire So we're doing magazines now are we? Well yes, obviously. The tagline of this blog is "seeking ...