31-37 Hoxton Street, London, N1
Once upon a time there was a company called Samurai Computers Ltd. Unfortunately for boring business reasons it had to change its name to Elan. This name also didn't stick and the company briefly toyed with the name Flan but everybody laughed. So the company changed its name again, to Enterprise. And then it finally released the computer it had been developing for nearly three years.
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| PERSONAL COMPUTER NEWS May 27-June 2 1983 page 6 |
In 1982 the British computer market was going gangbusters with seemingly a new computer launched every week. A company called Domicrest and another called Intelligent Software, founded in 1981 by international chess champion David Levy, both set up and took a joint share in Samurai Computers Ltd who would make a new home computer. YOUR COMPUTER detailed the thinking behind this machine. The starting point was, "a Spectrum but with a better keyboard and interfaces for around £100". Samurai, as Amstrad would also later do, studied rival computers to learn from their strengths and weaknesses. "The Apple had a few too few keys and we had seen the advantage of products like the Atari which give a wide colour choice. We are a programming house so we wanted a nice machine in program with."
Four things sunk the Enterprise. Thing One. Delays. When the Enterprise was revealed to the press in 1983 it was competitively priced and had a specification way ahead of rivals. Then, in January 1984, Amstrad announced what would become the CPC464, to launch in April 1984. The same month Sinclair revealed the QL. The Enterprise no longer had the market to itself and problems debugging the custom sound and graphics chips pushed back the April 1984 on sale date; and back, and back. Amstrad launched their computer on time in September 1984 and the potential market for the Enterprise was nibbled away. Christmas 1984 was the last time the UK hardware market was really up for grabs and Enterprise missed it. By early 1985 the market had set around the Sinclair, Commodore, Amstrad, and Acorn computers. Plus, there were rumours coming out of the US about mysterious beasts called the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga.
Thing Two. 1985 was not a great year for the UK computer market on both the hardware and software side. Sinclair and Commodore UK got into difficulties, for different reasons, and a lot of software houses closed down or merged with other, bigger companies. On the magazine side, single format magazines dominated and the multi format magazine market shrank. In 1984 there were four magazines which could have covered the Enterprise and its software; YOUR COMPUTER, BIG K, COMPUTER & VIDEOGAMES, and PERSONAL COMPUTER GAMES. BIG K and PCG, both closed early in 1985. C&VG did give some coverage to the Enterprise but by September 1986 they were printing readers letters asking "I know you have heard of the Enterprise because the word is printed in your software chart... So why don't you support it?" Meanwhile YOUR COMPUTER was a shadow of its former self, and no longer printing ABC circulation figures. Amstrad got round this marketing problem by starting its own magazine, AMSTRAD COMPUTER USER, but presumably Enterprise didn't have the resources. Amstrad also made sure its computers maintained a constant presence in magazines and Future Publishing helped by launching AMSTRAD ACTION. Enterprise's advertising campaign seems to have ended by autumn 1985. Again, presumably the company didn't have Amstrad's resources. There was a television advertising campaign. It's an early project from Aardman Animation, voiced by Matt Frewer in the style of Max Headroom, and you can watch it on Youtube. I don't remember seeing the advert at the time.
Thing Three: The High Street. Enterprise couldn't get their computers on to the shelves of the big high street shops. This made smaller, independent retailers reluctant to support the new computer.
Thing Four. The name changes. It sounds trivial but the company's search for a name became a running joke and gave the impression the company didn't know what it was doing. The Companies House register for company 01674248 records four different names; Samurai Computers Ltd, Elan Computers Ltd, Flan Computers Ltd, and Enterprise Computers Ltd. The first two name changes were caused by conflicts with other companies. The third, Flan, was laughed at from day one. POPULAR COMPUTNG WEEKLY and PERSONAL COMPUTER NEWS both headlined their stories with variations of the same pun, "Egg on the Face for Flan," and "Egg on faces as Elan turns into Flan" and PCN had tremendous fun with its report:
More than a few people refused to believe that the company could make the machine and/or deliver it on time. Elan Computers was adamant that it could. But this pales into insignificance compared to the latest credibility crisis to hit the all-new micro maker. It is having troubles with the Elan name.
PCN asked marketing director Michael Shirley whether it was true that the company was changing its name "Yes. We have signed exclusive distributor deals in 20 countries now and found out that we could not use the Elan name in some of them We therefore decided to change the name so that the machine would have the same name throughout the world.'
So what is the new name then? "I can tell you that from now on the company will be known as Flan Computers.' Would you care to spell that? F-L-A-N But why? "Well, some magazines have already started to refer to the micro as the Flan Enterprise.' (This is thought to be a reference to a typographical error on the contents page of a monthly magazine. The then editor is now Elan's software manager.)
I haven't been able to track down this infamous typo. It took approximately two weeks for Flan to realise that no one would take seriously a computer called the Flan Enterprise.
According to Mike Shirley. Flan Computers' marketing manager, the company plans to announce details of the new name within two weeks. "We want to come up with a really good name that goes well with the company. and 'Flan' obviously isn't very suitable."...PCW is offering a free 12 month subscription for the best suggestion of a new name for Flan. -POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY (8-14 March 1984 page 5)
The new name was Enterprise. Mike Giggler Bernard Dinneen won the, "Flan competition... He offered the name Teflon Computers for Flan — because they can't find a name that will stick." POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY (22-28 March 1984 page 5).
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| YOUR COMPUTER April 1983 page 8 |
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| PERSONAL COMPUTER NEWS June 23-29 1983 page 17 |
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| PERSONAL COMPUTER NEWS May 4 1985 page 12 |
"With obsolescence built-out" was the advertising slogan but obsolescence wasn't the problem. Enterprise struggled through 1985 and somewhere in the region of 80,000 units were made before the inevitable news came in July 1986.
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| POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY 3-9 July 1986 page 5 |
Presumably if the name hadn't changed the headline would have been "Flan's off". Approximately 20,000 unsold units were sent to Hungary where they sold well and generated an enthusiastic and still active Enterprise community.
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| May 2023 |
I was about six years too late getting to Hoxton Street. The original building (visible on Streetview in 2017) was extensively refurbished and looks a lot more stylish than it did. At one point Aviva owned the site and planned to knock through into 28-30 Hoxton Square behind. This generated a row about gentrification and big corporations muscling in on smaller creative communities in an attempt to capture some of their cool; coverage of this row means the ex-Enterprise building is one of the few software house buildings (the only one?) to be mentioned in the pages of The Guardian.
37 Bedford Square, London WC1B
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| POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY 16-22 May 1985 |
CRASH ran an angry reader's letter in October 1986 blaming software companies for the demise of the Enterprise:
"I thought I'd write to let you know how I feel about software (horrible) houses!... it get me really angry to think how they are holding back the home computer industry... Only last week I heard that Enterprise Computers had gone bust, why? Well the answer is simple, people didn't buy it. Oh wow! I hear you all think, but listen, the Enterprise had hardly any software available, why? because no damn software house would produce software for it because it didn't sell!! This seems like a pathetic attitude to take! If software houses produced software for it, people would buy it and everyone would be happy. It has got to the stage where no company will produce software for any other computers beside Spectrum. Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPCs... until software houses change their attitude In the 1990s we will be stuck with 80s computers when we should be having super high tech computers and many more companies will end up like Enterprise when they had a marvellous computer"
Letters Editor Lloyd Mangram gave a balanced reply:
You seem angry and surprised about the Enterprise, yet hardly anyone else is, I think. When the Spectrum was released, the fledgeling software industry such as it was were easily able to leap up from producing ZX81 games by converting them straight to the Spectrum, Development of software was cheap because the punters didn't actually expect too much then. Software houses could make money, survive and prosper to do better things. When the Amstrad was launched, the company had taken care to ensure a reasonable quantity of utilities and software was already available and backed up their hardware by also becoming a (non too successful) software house themselves, helping Spectrum houses to convert existing games by the hundreds to the CPC464. The Commodore, already a massive worldwide success, could draw heavily on hundreds of American games, also cheaply converted to run on British machines. None of this did the Enterprise have— no real back up at all.
You can't expect software houses (who have to live just like you and me) to spend thousands of pounds paying for programmers, promotions and advertising to develop an Enterprise game when there were probably only three to four thousand machines sold (don't know the actual figures), it would mean selling hardly any copies of the games. Equally, who wants to buy a computer with no software to run on it? A vicious circle which other manufacturers have managed to crack. Enterprise didn't
In 1982 a computer that sold around 5000 units would start to attract programmers to write for the machine; this was how Bug-Byte got started on the Acorn Atom. A couple of years later and the market had radically changed. Lloyd's reply above misses a key point, Enterprise did try to ensure there was a reasonable supply of utilities and games available. They just couldn't do it on the same scale as Amstrad. Enterprise's version of Amsoft was called Entersoft and by May 1985 they were advertising for programmers out of Intelligent Software's address at 37 Bedford Square.
As I said earlier, I think the closure of two multi-format magazines reduced the number of places which could cover the new computer and its games. I've only found four reviews of Entersoft games, three from POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY; Sorcery (17-23 October 1985 page 11) and Orient Express (March 13-19 1986 page 14) both £7.95; and The Market (23-29 January 1986 page 12) £5.95. Plus one in C&VG, Eggs of Death (June 1986 page 45).
CRASH interviewed Realtime Games in June 1986 and the subject of the Enterprise and Entersoft came up:
Filed under E in (their filing cabinet, lurks an Enterprise. A while ago, they agreed to convert games to run on this machine, quoting a price and a three week turnaround! After a slow start, they managed to crack the three week deadline, and are now capable of knocking the bulk of an Enterprise conversion out in a few days, spending a week on the music to round the protect off. Getting paid has proved a little problematic and all three now adamantly insist that this line of work is not one they are keen to pursue. The Enterprise is about to be moved to the drawer headed T in the cabinet -they've found it makes an excellent tray, and it's more often seen in the corridor, keyboard side down, supporting three cuppas on their way to the programming zone.
Realtime's version of 3D Starstrike for the Enterprise is excellent and may be better than the Spectrum version (shh!). The interview suggests they worked on a lot more games than just 3D Starstrike but there doesn't seem to be a way to work out the names of the other titles.
Steve Wetherill talks about the development of the Enterprise version of Nodes of Yesod at his blog:
This was basically as direct a port as you can imagine from the Spectrum version...
I had actually seen one of these machines the previous year, as I had been tasked with evaluating it while at Software Projects. Nothing came of those efforts, however...
All told, the Enterprise version probably took me a couple of weeks. It was a clean clone of the Spectrum original. I think the Enterprise folks were disappointed that we didn't make more use of the hardware; that said, the ability to clone the Spectrum screen mode made that the obvious development choice. I'm still not sure it was a worthwhile endeavor, I'm not sure that even one unit of the game was sold, though there are photos of the packaging out there (I'd be interested to hear otherwise from anyone that actually bought a copy). I had fun doing it, nonetheless. :-)
I do distinctly recall Enterprise asking for their machines back once the port was finished. I believe they were out of business by 1986.
Meanwhile, in a fit of early enthusiasm, Domark were supposed to be converting A View to a Kill to the Enterprise but it was never released. A March 1985 report in C&VG states that "most of the initial software" will be coming from Quicksilva who are due to convert their "bestsellers". That software also doesn't seem to have arrived.
The bulk of the software came directly from Entersoft who released games in distinctive packaging labelled with "ENTERPRISE PROGRAMS". There are several very good sites about the Entersoft range; a list of games on the Launchbox Games Database and the Hungarian sites Számítógép Múzeum and Enterprise Forever. But here's where I hit a problem. I have difficulty working out what games were released during the Enterprise's lifespan and survived and have been archived, what games were released during the Enterprise's lifespan but haven't fully survived and so their packaging has been recreated as a best guess, and what games were later written by fans and distributed with packaging mocked up to make them look like part of the Entersoft range. I'd expect the genuine Entersoft range to only include games made between 1985 and 1986.
For example. There's an Enterprise version of Robocop. Now Ocean released Robocop in 1988. Did they really write and release a version for a computer whose manufacturer went into receivership two years previously? It's not impossible but it seems unlikely for a big commercially minded company. The Enterprise version is not mentioned on adverts.
Then there's the Enterprise version of the 1982 Imagine game Arcadia. Imagine were still a big deal in early 1984 when Enterprise were giving out development kits, and Arcadia is a logical game for them to cheaply and quickly convert. But Imagine were insolvent by July 1984, six months before the Enterprise went on sale. I have a lot of questions about the Enterprise version of Arcadia but I think I can boil them down to two:
1. Did the Enterprise version of Arcadia make it to the shops?
2. The Arcadia artwork online, is it what was used at the time or a modern recreation?
For question 1. I think the answer is yes. Enterprise Forever has for download at least two Imagine games (that is, games by the original incarnation of Imagine not the label relaunched by Ocean in 1985); Arcadia and Alchemist. However, I suspect they were licenced and released by Entersoft rather than the, by then, bankrupt Imagine. Entersoft appear to have done this for another dk'tronics' 1983 game Dictator. The Számítógép Múzeum site has a picture of the cover and the cassette; and both record the Enterprise version as copyright Entersoft, 1984. I did download an Enterprise emulator and try to get Arcadia running, to see if the loading or title screen gave any give a clue about who was responsible for it. Alas, my technical ineptitude meant I couldn't work out how to load a game. For question 2, there are inconsistencies in the Arcadia packaging which makes me think it's a modern recreation; not least the copyright date being recorded as 1982 which is right for the Spectrum version but wouldn't be right for the Enterprise version (unless of course someone in 1984/1985 made a mistake). For comparison I'm much more sure the Dictator cover is genuine because the artwork matches the Entersoft style of the time and the 1984 date is consistent with Entersoft licencing the game to make their own version. I'm sorry if this reads like I've gone down some mad rabbit hole. I wanted to go into this level of nit-picking to show how little information I could find about the Entersoft range as it existed at the time of release. I also want to make it clear I'm not accusing the Launchbox Games Database or Számítógép Múzeum of being deceptive in any way. I'm just trying to pick my way through a muddle of confusion caused by my own lack of knowledge. If a home coder produced an Enterprise version of Robocop or Alien 8 then that's a tremendous achievement and I can well understand they'd also want it to be made available to share with authentic looking packaging.
It is possible to get an idea of how much Enterprise software was available in 1985. The Enterprise Forever site has several pages of box photographs and a 1985 catalogue for Enterprise Programs. The catalogue also gives some background to the range: "Manufactured by some of the leading software houses in the UK, the titles are marketed and sold under licence from Entersoft Ltd". "Thirty titles are currently available, with a further thirty under development for the second half of 1985." Over at Számítógép Múzeum the records for some games include pictures of the cassette (kazetta) label. The label for Airwolf has a 1985 copyright date and a number, EP 041; could this mean game number 41 of the Enterprise program range? The Abyss, also1985, is EP 046. Diligently clicking my way though the kazetta pictures gives a list of 38 games numbered from EP 001 to EP 062 with some numbers missing and EP 017 appearing twice; for Machine Code for Beginners and Starstrike 3D. I'll include the full list of games at the end of the article. The brief summary is as follows. Four games have a 1984 copyright date. Demonstration Cassette, marked as copyright Enterprise Computers so presumably like the Horizons tape which came with the Sinclair Spectrum. Most games are copyrighted to the original software house but three are specifically copyrighted by Entersoft; Games Pack One and Five in a Row, and, as mentioned earlier, the Entersoft version of Dictator. The 1985 batch is a mixture of old, 1983's Colossal Adventure from Level 9 Computing to brand new for 1985; Nodes of Yesod by Odin Computer Graphics. There is only one obviously non-Entersoft game; Williamsberg Adventure by Microdeal. So where did all the post 1986 software come from? My best guess, Enterprise fans (remember those 20,000 units shipped to Hungary) converted them from the Spectrum or Amstrad versions. These computers, like the Enterprise, used a Z80 processor and converting a game across would be relatively simple (says the bloke who couldn't get Arcadia running on an Enterprise emulator).
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| July 2023 |
37 Bedford Square, unlike Hoxton Street, will never change. It's one road over from the British Museum, a Grade I listed building, and part of the Bloomsbury Conservation Area. It's very nice. I came into the square from Gower Street, having walked down from Euston Square tube station, and I don't think the space has changed since it was built in the eighteenth century; although the trees in the middle must have grown a little taller. I was keeping an eye on building numbers as I swung round the corner from the east side to the south. Down towards the southwest corner a number of white vans were parked and people were industriously unloading stuff into the central park, where some high culture event was apparently going to take place. Bedford Square is numbered anticlockwise, starting in the southeast corner, and I was now walking passed number 50, 49.. 48. I was getting closer and closer to where the white vans were parked and I was running out of buildings. 46, 45, 44. It would be just my luck to find 37 obscured by the white vans. Fortunately it wasn't. The building I wanted was just round the corner on the west side of the square and, apart from a lone motorbike, no one was parked in front of it.
Entersoft Games list:
Going back to the list at Számítógép Múzeum, these are the games whose records include a cassette picture with an EP catalogue number.
EP 001 1985 Fantasia Diamond
EP 002 1985 Colossal Adventure
EP 003 1985 Adventure Playground
EP 004 1985 Steve Davis Snooker
EP 005 1985 French is Fun
EP 006 1985 German is Fun
EP 007 1985 Animal Vegetable Mineral
EP 008 1985 Word Hang
EP 009 1985 Heathrow A.T.C
EP 010 1985 Cyrus Chess 2
EP 011 1985 Castle of Dreams
EP 012 1985 Happy Numbers
EP 013 1985 Happy Letters
EP 015 1985 Spanish Gold
EP 016 1985 Tiny Touch 'N' Go
EP 017 1985 Machine Code for Beginners
EP 017 1985 Starstrike 3D
EP 004 1985 Steve Davis Snooker
EP 005 1985 French is Fun
EP 006 1985 German is Fun
EP 007 1985 Animal Vegetable Mineral
EP 008 1985 Word Hang
EP 009 1985 Heathrow A.T.C
EP 010 1985 Cyrus Chess 2
EP 011 1985 Castle of Dreams
EP 012 1985 Happy Numbers
EP 013 1985 Happy Letters
EP 015 1985 Spanish Gold
EP 016 1985 Tiny Touch 'N' Go
EP 017 1985 Machine Code for Beginners
EP 017 1985 Starstrike 3D
EP 022 1985 Demonstration Cassette
EP 023 1985 Spectrum Basic Converter
EP 026 1985 Hisoft Devpac
EP 027 1985 Jack's House of Cards
EP 023 1985 Spectrum Basic Converter
EP 026 1985 Hisoft Devpac
EP 027 1985 Jack's House of Cards
EP 033 1985 Mordons Quest
EP 036 1985 Nodes of Yesod
EP 037 1985 Submarine Commander
EP 039 1985 Wizards Lair
EP 041 1985 Airwolf
EP 043 1985 Wriggler
EP 046 1985 The Abyss
EP 047 1985 Chains
EP 050 1985 Orient Express
EP 053 1985 Sorcery
EP 054 1985 King of the Castle
EP 037 1985 Submarine Commander
EP 039 1985 Wizards Lair
EP 041 1985 Airwolf
EP 043 1985 Wriggler
EP 046 1985 The Abyss
EP 047 1985 Chains
EP 050 1985 Orient Express
EP 053 1985 Sorcery
EP 054 1985 King of the Castle
EP 058 1985 Forth
EP 062 1985 Race Ace
The 1985 Enterprise catalogue includes the following titles which do not appear on my list above: Spread Sheet, Chicane, Adventure Pack, Daley Thompson's Decathlon, In Store Demonstration, Match Day, Beach Head, Games Pack II,, Sprite Handler, Lisp, Basic to Basic, Assembler/Disassembler, Flight Simulator, 737 Flight Simulator, Spy Hunter, Bruce Lee, PASCAL, English is Fun.
Beatcha, Spectrum Basic Converter, Hisoft Devpac, Jack's House of Cards, Devil's Lair, Mordons Quest, Nodes of Yesod, Submarine Commander, Wizards Lair, Airwolf, Wriggler, The Abyss, Chains, Orient Express, Sorcery, King of the Castle, and Race Ace are all games with an EP number that don't appear in the 1985 catalogue. They must be part of the wave of software "under development for the second half of 1985".
Beach Head is unique. It's in the 1985 catalogue. It's listed at Számítógép Múzeum. It has a cassette picture. But, the cassette label doesn't have an EP catalogue number. The game is just recorded as copyright Dream Software 1985.
Demonstration Cassette, Games Pack One, Five in a Row, and Dictator all feature in the 1985 catalogue but do not have an EP number because they are copyright 1984.
Can you fill in any of the gaps in my Enterprise Programs catalogue? Leave a comment or email shoutingintoawell@yahoo.com. Or let me know if I've got something wrong. Why not follow me on Twitter @shammountebank. I'm going to investigate Instragram soon, promise.
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