Elite

Anchor House, Anchor Road, Aldridge, Walsall, WS9

The spiritual home of this blog is Anchor Road, Walsall. I've written before about my long fascination with the artwork on Elite's 1987 job advert and it's Gerry Anderson-esque vision of Anchor Road as the Moonbase Alpha of the Midlands. A trip to Anchor House was inevitable at some point. It just took slightly longer than expected because The Great Petrol Panic of autumn 2021 put paid to my first set of plans. It's going to be a while before the Travel Tube brings us to Anchor Road and before that address, before in fact Elite was even called Elite, the company had a more humble origin.

Richard Wilcox Software, Station Road, Walsall, WS7

There is no Station Road in Walsall, that's Station Street. A search for Station Road WS7 points to a short length of tarmac on the edge of a village called Hammerwich a couple of miles from Lichfield. Appropriately enough for a Walsall address which isn't in Walsall, there isn't a station in Station Road. It closed in January 1965 as part of the Beeching cuts. There are some expensive looking houses along the short road and presumably in 1984 one of them was home to young Richard Wilcox and his brand new software house. Richard Wilcox Software (not to be confused with Richard Shepherd Software, which I've be doing constantly) only released one game, Blue Thunder for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Atari 400/600/800 in spring 1984. This was perfect timing because it coincided with BBC1 showing the short lived 11 episode television series of the same name from February to April; although presumably the game took its title from the film, released in the UK in August 1983.Richard Wilcox Software doesn't seem to be a business in its own right. There's mention at the bottom of the cassette inlay that "The game and name BLUE THUNDER... are the exclusive property of Foundry Business Systems Ltd," and gives an address of, guess what, 2 Station Road, Walsall, WS7. Richard Wilcox's father Brian, who became a director of Elite, came from a "background firmly set in the Midlands metal foundry business," THE GAMES MACHINE issue 5 (May 1988 page 27). It seems fair to assume Foundry Business Systems was a Wilcox family company. Perhaps the Richard Wilcox Software label was a quick way to sell Blue Thunder without exposing Richard to the liabilities of running a business, and a way to test the viability of the software market which some people regarded as a fad.

December 2021

55 Bradford Street, Walsall, WS1

By June 1984 Richard's brother, Steve Wilcox, was talking to POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY about their as yet unnamed new company (Volume 3, Number 25, 21-27 June 1984 page 1&5). "We're planning to concentrate on licenced titles for our games," said Steve, "and we are working on others, all US TV series at the moment." But before that, there was a name to be sorted out.

"Ever wondered how software companies get their names?" asked COMPUTER AND VIDEOGAMES issue 33 (July 1984 page 13). "A new software company called us the other day and said 'Look we've got absolutely no idea what to call ourselves and we reckon your readers could come up with a terrific name." C&VG were coy about the new company's details. "It has a staff of four young programmers -the average age is about 17. They have around 20 years of programming experience between them... That's all we're going to tell you for now." Unsurprisingly the winning name was Elite, as revealed in the October 1984 issue, and was suggested by David Bucknall of Kent. His prize? A copy of Kokotoni Wilf and a day out at Alton Towers with the programmers. Elite Systems Ltd was incorporated on 14th August 1984.

Kokotoni Wilf, a non-licenced game, was released for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum on 15th September 1984; according to this advert in BIG K issue 7 (October 1984 page 2). It was by Elite's new team of four; Rory Green, Neil Bate, Andy Williams, and Steven Lockley. The advertising copy has a bullish tone. "Kokotoni Wilf is an arcade adventure programme whose undisguised intention is to steal the title of 'best arcade adventure programme bar non' from Jet Set Willy... The 48k programme features a number of advances over Jet Set Willy... each of the game's 60 plus screens is genuinely high resolution as opposed to pseudo high-res and doesn't require a title to explain what you are looking at...  Jet Set Willy fans will no doubt feel both sceptical and intrigued." The Fall Guy followed in October and then Airwolf. Elite was now firmly on its preferred path of releasing licenced games. In THE GAMES MACHINE interview mentioned above Steve Wilcox grumbled of competitor Ocean, "they are always typically three months ahead of everyone else," but Airwolf was an early success for Elite. Ocean were so confident of winning the licence they'd started work on the game and commissioned artwork -which you can see here. It's been suggested Ocean's game was finally released by Software Project's budget label Software Super Savers as Super Chopper. 

Bradford Street runs out from Walsall town centre, and number 55 is a solid Victorian red brick building housing a solicitor's office. Given the slow pace of change in the legal profession I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't the same in 1984 and provided a business address for Elite. This is what Johnson Murkett & Hurst did for Ashby Computers and Graphics (AKA Ultimate Play the Game), and they still operate out of Rawdon House 37 years later. Elite would use the Bradford Street address into 1985 and the release of 911 TS; a game which might be the silliest point of Elite's licencing policy, promoting the tyres wrapped around the wheels of a Porsche 911 and produced with the assistance of Dunlop. 

December 2021

Anchor House, Anchor Road, Aldridge, Walsall, WS9

Yes, that's Anchor House; Shangri-La, Avalon, Nysa, Omphalion, Axis mundi. It has many names. Feel free to scroll back up the page to Elite's job advert and compare it to the artist's impression. For absolute confirmation go to page 131 of CRASH issue 21 (October 1985) the Scooby Doo preview. Check out the picture of Elite's Scooby Squad at the top of the page. Ignore the four small children (who are presumably there for Bring Your Son to Work Day) and look at the big slab of a building outside the window. Now point Google Maps to Anchor Road and look at the Avion pub opposite Anchor House. Impressed? No of course not. Even I'm saddened by my display of geographical nerdery. I should have spent longer in the quiet waters of Anchor Road but typically I was on my way to another appointment and running late. I parked opposite, in front of a parade of shops, and took the picture without getting more than two steps from my car. I should at least have gone to the Aldridge Chippy.

Meanwhile, back in 1986. Elite's 2.99 Classics label was launched and discontinued in the same year. 11 titles were rereleased; Jasper!, TLL: Tornado Low Level, Valhalla, 3D Starstrike, Scuba Dive, Deathchase, Pool, Skool Daze, Full Throttle, and Super Chess. Several of these games were barely two years old, and it's a sign of how quickly the software market had matured that back catalogue titles were now seen as best suited for budget ranges. Why did the range close down? POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY Vol 5 Number 49 (4-10 December 1986 page 5) reported Steve Wilcox claiming managerial staff could not cope with extra work caused by the range. However, the magazine also quoted Luke Andrews of Vortex. "We made three of our titles available to 299 Classics on the understanding that they would be released in six months. One, Tornado Low Level, was released but the others were not... Additionally, I was not aware that we had been dealing with Foundry Business Systems -I had thought the label was part of Elite." It appears Elite managed the 2.99 Classics range through their old Blue Thunder company. 

Eastern Avenue, Lichfield, Staff, WS13

The Mercury August 6th 1988

In 1987 Elite was on the move again. Adverts for Thundercats carry a new address one town over in Lichfield, and the Companies House website records a change of registered office in May 1988. Eastern Avenue is a long road which marks the boundary of Lichfield. It's lined with industrial units and retail parks and there's no way to track down where Elite might have been based. At least that's what I thought when I was planning my trip, so I didn't bother to go looking. I found the news story to the right more recently; so this page needs to be marked as incomplete and at some point I'll grab a picture. The story from The Mercury is about the opening of the Lichfield Business Centre in a converted warehouse in Hermes Road (it's behind the Central England Co-operative HQ now). The section about Elite is top-right headed From Little Acorns. It describes Lichfield as the company's sales and distribution centre with Elite employing 45 staff in Lichfield and Aldridge and hoping to buy a bigger site in the city to build new premises. Marketing Manager Gill Birch is photographed holding up a copy of Beyond the Ice Palace and another game which looks like it might be Paperboy but the picture's too murky to be sure.

[30/11/23] Incomplete no more. Back in September I embarked on an epic road trip across England and Wales and remembered to stop off in Lichfield.

September 2023

Ripping stuff eh? Unfortunately what I hadn't taken into account was that I was visiting on a Sunday, so this was as close as I could get. If you look behind the tree you can sort of make out part of the building. The Lichfield Business Centre hasn't changed, unlike the surrounding area. To the left used to be the UK headquarters of a company called Norgren. They relocated around 2017 and the site was cleared and turned into a retail park. Streetview captured the whole process and it's worth starting in 2009 and clicking through the pictures to see the stages of redevelopment.

Return to Anchor House

Elite always kept one foot in Anchor House. Their new budget range, Encore, 1987 to 1991, used Anchor Road as the business address, and it also began appearing again on adverts for full priced games in 1990; THE ONE issue 20 (May 1990 page 15). Eastern Avenue was still the company's registered address although this changed in January 1994 when the company reverted back to Anchor Road and stayed there for another seven years until 2001.

Elite went into voluntary administration in 1998. The statement of administrator's proposal describes Elite as, "clearly insolvent... it was our conclusion that the granting of administrators orders would be likely to ensure better realisation of assets than would be the case in a winding up by allowing games software in production to be completed". "There are four games currently in development and the future of the companies is dependant on the sale of those games." It took almost two years before the administration order was discharged. Mobygames credits no games to Elite from 1998 to 2004.  

2001: Anchor House and beyond the infinite

In 2001 Elite finally waved goodbye to Anchor House and began a more nomadic existence. Over the next few years the registered business address wanders as follows:

2001: Prospect House, Prospect Road, Burntwood, WS7
2003: Unit 8b, Electra Park, Electric Avenue, Birmingham, B6
2004: 8a Holland Street, Sutton Coldfield, B72
2010: C/O offices 9 &10, 12A Lombard Street, Lichfield, WS13
2014: C/O Inspired Accountants Ltd 4 Parkside Court, Lichfield WS13

In the same period adverts for the mobile version of Paperboy, from fanzine ZX SHED, give a contact address at 10-12 Chase Road WS7; 2006, and 2009 but this address doesn't turn up on the Companies House website. If you'd knocked on the door of Prospect House or Unit 8b I'm pretty sure you'd find people actually involved in the business of making games but by 2014 Elite is trading using the address of an accounting company.

Elite comes out of administration a smaller more nostalgic company. It's still operating today, you can find their website at elite-systems.co.uk, but the games released since 2004 are mobile versions of previous Elite hits or acquired retrogaming titles; Chuckie Egg, Skool Daze, Starquake, and more. Elite has a 38 year (and counting legacy) and that's not to be sniffed at but it would be dishonest to end this article on a Churchillian roar of triumph. Elite is not the company which punched above its weight in the 1980s and sometimes outmanoeuvred its bigger rivals. It can't be because the UK software industry has changed beyond all recognition and the business environment which allowed Elite to develop doesn't exist anymore.