Spirit Software

 1 1/2 Pembroke Mews, London W8

It began innocently enough. An advert in PERSONAL COMPUTER NEWS (January 21st 1984 page 67). "FORMULA ONE AND STEERING WHEEL," was the eye-catching headline. Followed up by, "Naturally you cannot steer a racing car effectively by pressing buttons or wiggling a joystick so we have developed a steering wheel that fits to the Spectrum... the wheel is strongly made and thanks to a brilliantly simple design we have been able to keep the cost down to a minimum. It will be used for many games in the future but is now only available with FORMULA ONE." How intriguing. And all for the (relatively) low price of £8.95. It's more expensive than a standard game admittedly, but how many games come with an innovative add-on?

The advert was small and plain; a quarter page in size with a black and white picture of the game. It ran again over the next few weeks and also appeared in PERSONAL COMPUTER GAMES and YOUR COMPUTER between January and April. People sent off their cheques and postal orders to an address in Kensington and waited. And waited. And waited. 

March 2022

Slowly more details emerged about Spirit Software. Starting with an article in the 10th March edition of PERSONAL COMPUTER NEWS. "Spirit is run by Simon Stevens... at the time of writing [the telephone number on the advert] had only led to an answering machine. A number of PCN readers have left messages on this machine and these have not been answered... Spirit also operated from an accommodation agency, a place where someone answers the phone for you and you collect messages every now and again. This particular agency also took messages for Boom Software, Golden Challenge Software and Silicon Tricks. It’s possible that these four companies have more in common than just an accommodation address. Silicon Tricks used the same telephone number as Spirit does — the exchange is West Kensington. The address in Kensington, West London, where cheques to Spirit were sent, is also apparently an accommodation address. PCN spoke to someone at this address who claimed that mail for Spirit was still being collected."

As you'd expect the Kensington address is très posh, a very quiet residential mews tucked away, off Earls Court Road. It gave me a problem because I don't like to violate my no-pictures-of-peoples-houses rule, and in the end I had to compromise by taking a more general picture of the street. By a happy coincidence the London Picture Archive has a photograph of Pembroke Mews in 1983 taken in almost the same spot where I stood 39 years later. The difference is remarkable. In 2022 number 1 Pembroke Mews is a smart white-painted property with a giant front window and the interior hidden discreetly behind a curtain. In 1983 the same address is a seedy looking set of garage doors. Presumably the  accommodation address at number 1 1/2 is behind one of those sets of doors.

The next issue of PERSONAL COMPUTER NEWS, March 17th, carried more cheerful news. "Readers who tried to buy Spirit Software's racing game (Issue 52) may have some hope of receiving it after all. A number of PCN readers have been sent a letter claiming there have been problems with the moulding of the steering wheel, which is intended to provide the sort of control you get in a racing car." There was also an apology. "Please note that the number printed last week was wrong — PCN apologises to the subscriber on that line for any inconvenience caused."

Up to this point news about Formula One was confined to the weekly magazines. The monthly titles with their longer production cycles didn't print anything until June, when reader's letters arrived. PERSONAL COMPUTER GAMES, "Please will you give me any information on Spirit Software... On the 1st March I sent a cheque for £8.95. About three weeks after I had not received software, so I sent a letter asking why. I have not had a reply. Are these people rip-off artists, dead slow, .or have they gone out of business? Because by hook or by crook I'm going to get my £8.95 back." The magazine's reply was short and to the point. "Several other people have complained about Spirit Software who are no longer advertising with us. We have been unable to contact them."

CRASH also heard from a reader. "Dear CRASH, I am writing to tell you and warn others of a bogus software company that is ripping off loads of people! The company, called Spirit Software, placed an advertisement in Personal Computer Games magazine in their February and March issues. Finding this to be an interesting idea and a good version of Atari’s Pole Position game, I decided to send off for it. After four weeks were up I received a letter stating how sorry they were because they had received faulty steering wheel mouldings from their supplier and the game would be delayed until 12th March. Fair enough, I thought, but three weeks later nothing had arrived. I phoned up the company to enquire but I was greeted with an answering machine and that was that. A week later I phoned PCG and was fobbed off with the excuse that Spirit Software are a bogus company and many people had phoned them to complain. They said it wasn’t PGS’s fault and nothing could be done. They know about the answering machine and they think the owner has disappeared!" Letters editor Lloyd Mangram's reply was longer than that from PCG and more blunt. "From a review point of view, we also contacted Spirit Software, and we too received the reply that faulty mouldings had caused a delay in the game and steering wheel. As a magazine, it is a little difficult to be sure that a customer who wishes to advertise is bona fide, or that he won’t go bust next week. There is a customer protection scheme for mail order companies, or those offering sale by mail order, but sadly, it isn’t usually enforced by magazines, and often it’s difficult to do so. As to bringing the owner of Spirit Software to justice, the answer is technically ‘probably’, practically ‘hardly likely’. People like Spirit Software are frankly a pain in the *** as all they do is give British software innovation a bad name. We would be very interested to hear from any other readers who have sent money to Spirit Software for their Formula One and Steering Wheel."

More bad news followed in June. Imagine you're a reader of YOUR COMPUTER. You've got fed up waiting for your copy of Formula One to arrive and to distract yourself you open the new issue to page 184; and see this unprecedented advert.

CRASH issue 6 had more details, more bad details. "Bogus software company Spirit Software, who widely advertised a game called Formula One and boasted it would come complete with a steering wheel joystick for £8.95, are being investigated by London's Metropolitan Police. A Mr Alexander is being sought, not only by the authorities, but also by the several magazines who accepted his advertisements and have not been paid. Mr Alexander has been a rather shadowy figure on the software scene for some time, and his name has been associated with some other companies of dubious honesty. The Kensington police, responsible for the investigation, are returning cheques sent in by mail order customers to Spirit Software. These are only those cheques which were still uncashed at the time of Mr Alexander's disappearance. Customers whose cheques and postal orders have been cashed are unlikely to see their money back." CRASH followed this up in issue 7 under the unnecessarily punning headline Dispirited Software. 

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"Since Mr Johnson's letter regarding the bogus company Spirit Software was published in CRASH we have received numerous letters and phone calls on the subject, largely telling the same sad story of unanswered letters and answering machines, no game, no money. Just in case anyone is still in any doubt about the matter contact Detective Sergeant Condon at Kensington Police Station." Fortunately Detective Sergeant Condon wouldn't have a long walk because Pembroke Mews is right behind Kensington Police Station and the distance can be covered in about one minute. 

A Mr Alexander had been named earlier in 1984, in the April issue of PERSONAL COMPUTER GAMES (issue 5 page 24). "I am simply dying to have a chat sometime with the gentleman behind Boom Software who calls himself Simon Alexander. He is becoming well known for his innovative business practices, designed to maximise profits. These include, requesting money in advance for software orders which he then fails to deliver, defaulting on bills, ripping off other companies' games, supplying false references, and generally making a lot of money at other people's expense. His latest trick has been to vanish, so I can't ask him all those questions I'd like to." 

2-4 Chichester Rents, Chancery Lane, London, WC2A

March 2022

Boom Software is one of the four companies mentioned in the earlier 10th March news story from PERSONAL COMPUTER NEWS. According to this advert in YOUR COMPUTER (December 1983 page 67) Boom Software operated out of 2-4 Chichester Rents, an odd, narrow, side alley which opens off Chancery Lane, right in the heart of London's fancy legal district. 2-4 Chichester Rents is now home to a restaurant called Siam Eatery and the whole area looks radically different to how it would have done in 1984. The space over the alley has been reclaimed by an odd stepped overbridge which joins the buildings on either side. The bridge is narrower at the bottom and widens as it goes up. It stops the alley from feeling closed in and keeps it light. Chichester Rents also turns out to be the same address used in adverts for Golden Challenge Software and Silicon Tricks; the two other companies mentioned in the 10th March PCN story. Maybe the rarefied legal atmosphere of Chancery Lane is making me overcautious but I want to note that apart from the coincidence of all four software companies using the same accommodation address there is nothing to suggest Spirit Software and Boom Software, Golden Challenge Software and Silicon Tricks are linked. I include it here out of completeness. Also, PGC drew no connection between Simon Alexander of Boom Software and Mr Alexander of Spirit Software.

Box 27, 168 Kings Street, W6

March 2022

Things might be expected to end there, but in September something unexpected happened. CRASH printed a review of Formula One (issue 8 page 12). "Well, after months of speculation and rumours the road racing game with the famous steering wheel has arrived." CRASH was bemused by the unexpected arrival of the game but eager to see the notorious peripheral. "What makes Formula One different... is the much vaunted steering wheel which comes with the game. This is a yellow plastic device shaped rather like the top of a big pickle jar and was promptly labelled the yellow ashtray in the CRASH offices. It's designed to fit neatly on the Spectrum in such a way that it can be rolled left or right along the top row of keys." The mind boggles. And the reviewers weren't kind with keywords from the review being; flimsy; gimmick; ripped off; and appalling. The overall score, 25%. No photographs exist of the yellow pickle jar lid, sadly.  Pictures of the Formula One cassette inlay show the company had a new address in Kings Street, W6 which appears to be a misprint of King Street in Hammersmith, and number 168 is the closed (it was Sunday) Post Office in the middle of the photograph. Box 27 in the address suggests a PO box, another accommodation address, on the premises.

Did Formula One ever make it into the shops? It's not clear. But the game had an afterlife. Someone associated with it, possibly the credited author S. C. Stephens (also often listed as the author of a ZX81 database program called ComputaCalc published by Silicon Tricks), did a deal with budget publisher Mastertronic who rereleased the game in 1985 as Formula One Simulator. It went on to be the companies best-selling title. Anthony Guter's Mastertronic website lists sales across all formats as 568,000.

What's the moral of this story? I don't know.