Atarisoft

I'd like to go back to the Atari well one more time to talk about the short-lived Atarisoft UK range. I originally planned to make this part of the Atari article but it was just too long. In America, the label was a success, at least at first. Whatever plans Atari UK had for the range were disrupted at the end of July 1984 when Warner Communications sold the consumer division of Atari to Jack Tramiel. Atarisoft UK rapidly stalled and although a few games slip out across the remainder of 1984, its surprisingly difficult to make sense of what happens or why.

Atarisoft was born out of desperation. In America, Atari's exclusive rights to publish home versions of arcade games had served their VCS and Atari 400/800 home computer range well for several years. Until 1983. Then Atari had to deal with collapsing interest in their VCS console and a home computer market that was consolidating around the machines of rival companies. The solution was to convert their games for non-Atari machines. It was a success. INFOWORLD (9 April 1984 page 50) reported:

The surprise software-series success of Christmas 1983 was Atarisoft... I say it was a surprise because nobody expected Atari to be able to do anything right.... The Atarisoft line recently added some more new games, such as Moon Patrol, Ms. Pac-Man, Pole Position, and Jungle Hunt. Atari was feeling so cocky that it even released these games for the Texas Instruments 99/4A, a computer that some analysts are saying is already dead and buried in a million American closets.

The logical thing to do was import the Atarisoft brand to the UK. The first advert ran in a range of magazines between February and May 1984. Three American home computers feature heavily; the Commodore VIC-20, Commodore 64, and Texas Instruments TI 99/4A. Games for these formats are listed as available on ROM cartridges, which was what Atarisoft preferred in the US. The problem with this, ROM cartridges were more expensive. According to a BIG K report on the Atarisoft launch, (July 1984 page 5), Pole Position for the C64 would sell at the ludicrous price of £24.99 (£78 today). Atari also couldn't afford to ignore successful local computers like the Spectrum and Acorn's BBC Model B and Electron. This gave the company another problem. The preferred format for UK software was cassette, Atari couldn't sell the Spectrum version of Pole Position for £5.95. It would make the ROM versions look even more expensive. Atari's solution, raise the price all round and claim the range was premium. BIG K's July news report prices the Spectrum and Acorn versions of Pole Position at £14.99 and quotes Atari's UK Marketing Director:

There will be no compromises for the sake of cost.

That BIG K report was out of date almost as soon as it was written. The sale of Atari took place at the beginning of July 1984, as that issue went on sale. By October 1984 BIG K was reporting:

ATARI SLASH PRICES AS NEW REGIME BITES

ATARI HAVE cut virtually all their hardware and software prices as the first steps in the fightback to success following the takeover two months ago by ex-CBM chief Jack Tramiel...

And Atarisoft titles will also be cut -down to the £8-10 range. Interestingly, amid conflicting rumours from the U.S. about Tramiel's overall strategy in buying the Atari empire, reports are now emerging claiming that in the near future Atarisoft will dump the CBM format entirely. 

Pole Position was clearly the big game for Atarisoft phase one. It's the only game to get its own advert which did the rounds in June and July 1984 and again in December 1984/January 1985. And that was it. Sayonara Atarisofuto. The closest thing to an obituary for the range came in September 1985 when COMPUTER GAMER reviewed US Gold's tape and disc release of Pole Position and noted:

Pole Position for the Spectrum came out originally in May 1984 under the Atari label. But with the 'new look' Atari, they lost the licence from Namco for Pole Position. So Datasoft ended up with the game rights to Pole Position.

So to cut a very long story short US Gold have ended up with the Datasoft version of the game. The only difference between the two versions is that the signs on them are different. One says 'Datasoft' a lot and the other says 'Atari' a lot.

The first UK Atarisoft advert names 13 games and and divides them into two categories Out Now and Out Soon. How many of these titles actually made it to the shops? It's really hard to tell. It's normally possible to track the history of a company by seeing when games were reviewed but that doesn't work for Atarisoft. It's surprisingly hard to find reviews for a lot of their games and some games are reviewed months after the range must have been discontinued; although this is possibly due to some magazines not feeling any great pressure to be timely with their reviews. Not being able to sort the games into release order, it seemed easiest for me to divide the games up by the company responsible for the original arcade game.

Atari

Battle Zone: Listed as out soon, for the BBC Model B/Acorn Electron (which I'll occasionally refer to as Acorn computers, because it seems less cumbersome). The Acorn version gets a very short mention on the Stairway to Hell website in a comment from Matthew Atkinson: "I went to Atari initially about converting Battlezone but ended up doing [Tempest] instead. I did complete "Battlezone" which had mode 5 palette switching to achieve very smooth vector graphics but never got released. Sadly no longer exists..."

The advert's omission of the C64 version and VIC-20 versions of Battle Zone is strange. They were released by Atarisoft in America. Were they held them back for a second wave of releases which never came.

Speculation: When Warner Communications sold the consumer division of Atari to Jack Tramiel it kept the arcade division; the bit which made Battle Zone. Is it possible that after the sale Atarisoft/Tramiel found it no longer had the rights to convert a game by Atari Games (Warner). This could potentially also explain how Quicksilva were able to release an official version of Battle Zone for the ZX Spectrum, in autumn 1984. Atarisoft wouldn't have allowed a competing version to be released for one of their target machines but Atari Games (Warner) wouldn't care.

Centipede: Out now for the C64 and TI 99/4A. America also saw a VIC-20 version which isn't mentioned here. This is odd because YOUR COMPUTER reviewed the VIC-20 version in March 1984 and gave the price as £19.99.

CRASH reported on Atarisoft prior to the label's launch (February 1984 page 5). They included Centipede in the list of games. Did the magazine have inside knowledge about a planned Spectrum version or did they include it on the assumption that it was a title Atarisoft was likely to release.

Irem

Moon Patrol: Listed as out now for the C64 and out soon for the VIC-20 and the ZX Spectrum. The Spectrum version of the game was finished and exists for download, but was never released.
Speculation: Moon Patrol was by Irem, a Japanese company but the Atarisoft C64 version lists the game as copyright Williams; they had licenced the arcade game for distribution in America. Atarisoft planned to release other Williams games, which also didn't happen. Did they fall foul of post-sale licencing problems?

Namco

Dig Dug: Out now on the VIC-20, C64, and TI 99/4A. Out soon on the Spectrum and BBC Model B/Acorn Electron. There is no record of either version at spectrumcomputing.com or the Complete BBC Micro Games archive. Wikipedia lists them as unreleased.

Galaxian: Out now, on the Spectrum and C64. Out soon, on the VIC-20. The Spectrum version was written by David Aubury-Jones who also worked with David Looker of DJL (see Pac-Man and Ms Pac-Man) on the Speedlock copyright protection system for games (CRASH September 1987 page 44).

YOUR SPECTRUM reviewed Galaxian in April 1985 and gave the price as £7.99, I suspect this was a very delayed review rather than a hint the Atarisoft label was still running in 1985.

Pac-Man. Out now, for all formats expect the BBC Model B/Acorn Electron, which has no version listed at all. I'm surprised. Pac-Man is one game I'd expect Atarisoft to make available on all formats. The Spectrum version was written by DJL Software and sold as Z-Man. Atari leant on DJL for copyright infringement and then brought the rights to Z-Man and sold it again as the official conversion. This was something Atari did on a semi-regular basis; their Apple II version of Pac-Man (never available in the UK, so far as I know) started out as an unlicenced clone called Taxman. Atarisoft really did price the Spectrum version at £14.99. This was quite a mark up, Z-Man sold for £5.95.

Pac-Man is more heavily reviewed than most Atarisoft games. It got unenthusiastic write ups in BIG K (July 1984, "Too Late... Too Pricey!"), PERSONAL COMPUTER GAMES (May 1984, "Why did they bother"), POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY (17-23 May 1984, "this would be the one to get if it wasn't for the unbelievable price,"). 

In November 1984 BIG K looked back at the Atarisoft version of Pac-Man and compared it to the earlier Atari VCS version which did so much to help crash the US console market.
Curiously history repeated itself with the launch of the Atarisoft range. Once again Pac-Man was set up as a figurehead and once again Atari fumbled the ball. Their Spectrum version was almost as big a turkey as the earlier VCS ROM. "Our big mistake was going for 16K,'' a spokesman was heard to moan. Realising their mistake Atari once again turned their attention to Ms Pac-Man. The as yet unreleased (48K) Spectrum conversion is brilliant. 

YOUR SPECTRUM reviewed Pac-Man in September 1984, after the game had been re-released at £9.95. They quite liked it.

Ms Pac-Man. Out now for the ZX Spectrum. Out soon for the VIC-20, and C64 and the BBC Model B/Acorn Electron; although this version never appeared. Not available for the TI 99/4A.

The Spectrum version was also written by David J. Looker of DJL Software, which is an acknowledgement that Z-Man was a good Pac-Man clone.

The Spectrum version of Ms Pac-Man gets some surprisingly late reviews in Spring 1985 (COMPUTER GAMER, April 1985, and YOUR SPECTRUM, March 1985). These are probably delayed from a late 1984 release, around the same time as Pole Position. Both reviews price the game at £9.95, still unreasonably high but much more in line with late 1984 prices.

C&VG
May 1984 page 19

Pole Position. Out soon, on everything except the TI 99/4A.

C&VG printed a type in listing for a Spectrum game they called Pole Position, in April 1984. The following month they had to make it clear that this was not the official Atarisoft version. Presumably Atari had had a word.

In October 1985 Home Computing Weekly printed a letter from Mike Curtis of Weymouth:

After a great hassle and three letters to Atari I have finally got a copy of Pole Position for my Spectrum. having forked out 15 quid for a cassette I was expecting it to be similar to the amusement version, also made by Atari.

The first shock was when the programme turned out to be all BASIC with not one bit of machine code. However the worst was yet to come.

The game is the worst game I have ever played.

The following month, in CRASH, Lloyd Mangram's replied to a reader's letter about the review of another racing game, Full Throttle. His reply sheds light on Mike Curtis' tale of woe: 

The comparison was being made against Atarisoft's Spectrum version of Pote Position, long awaited and barely glimpsed at the Earls Court Computer Fair before it was withdrawn after software reviewers had laughed it out of existence. 

The Pole Position review CRASH printed in the 1984/85 Christmas Special continued the theme:

There were rumours earlier in the year that Atarisoft had released the game. It was seen at the Earls Court Computer Fair in September and almost immediately withdrawn after unfavourable comment from the critics present.

Mike Curtis' letter makes it sound as if he was sold a copy of the earlier "laughed out of existence" version. Whatever he got, it clearly wasn't the version CRASH reviewed. Mike's comment about the game being wholly in BASIC and not having any controls except left and right is intriguing because that matches the description of the Pole Position listing printed in the April 1984 issue of C&VG; "The car is controlled using the 5 and 8 key." But it's not possible Atarisoft sold him a copy of a C&VG listing on tape for £14.99 is it? Is it? IS IT? (No).

CRASH give the RRP of the Spectrum version as £7.99. C&VG reviewed the BBC version in February 1985, and also gave the price as £7.99. A later review in ACORN USER, March 1985, priced it at £9.99,

Nintendo

Donkey Kong or Donkey Kong Jr? That is the question. The advert refers to Donkey Kong and it's out now for the VIC-20 and TI 99/4A. It's also out soon for the Spectrum and BBC Model B/Acorn Electron. There is no mention of the C64 version of Donkey Kong that Atarisoft released in the US.

However, BIG K and HOME COMPUTING WEEKLY both name the sequel, Donkey Kong Jr. And it's going to cost £14.99 according to BIG K. I'd be inclined to dismiss this as magazines getting confused but, over at the Complete BBC Micro Games, the game they have archived there is definitely Donkey Kong Jr. Turning to the Spectrum version is no help because that's AWOL. Neither the Spectrum or Acorn version was released.
C&VG unexpectedly reviewed the TI 99/4A version (May 1984 page 23). They quite liked it despite the £29.99 asking price.

Taito

Jungle Hunt: Out soon on both the VIC-20 and C64. I don't know if they ever saw UK shop shelves.

Williams

Defender: Out now on the C64 and out soon on the TI 99/4A . Not listed, the VIC-20 version, but that's what YOUR COMPUTER reviewed as early as March 1984. RRP, £19.95. COMMODORE USER agreed with that price when they reviewed the game in June 1984 (page 27). C&VG disagreed when they reviewed the game two months later (August 1984 page 34), £24.99 was the prices they gave. TV GAMER didn't review the VIC-20 version but in May 1984 they covered both the C64 and TI 99/4A versions, and priced them even higher at £29.95.

Joust, "Out soon," on the C64 and VIC-20. GAMES THAT WEREN'T  has updates on both versions. The VIC-20 version was "cancelled either due to the dying Vic 20 market or the collapse of Atarisoft." The C64 game was lost due to the winding down of Atarisoft but the finished game was recovered in 2020 and can now be downloaded and played.

Not mentioned on the Atarisoft advert is a BBC version which finally saw release in 1987 by Aardvark Software.

Stargate: Out soon on the C64, VIC-20, and TI 99/4A but unreleased for the same reasons as Joust. The C64 version was finished and programmer Steve Evans sold it on to Alligata, who released it as a game called Guardian in the autumn of 1984.

Robotron: 2084: "Out now" on the C64 and TI 99/4A. C&VG reviewed the Commodore version in April 1984, giving the RRP as £19.99

Not mentioned in the original Atarisoft advert are versions written (but not released) for the ZX Spectrum and BBC Model B/Acorn Electron. The Spectrum version was reviewed in PERSONAL COMPUTER GAMES, October 1984, at a RRP of £9.95. The BBC/Acorn version, in May 1985 in ACORN USER, price £9.99.

Not listed on the advert are three additional unreleased Acorn games available at the BBC archive; Sinistar, Crystal Castles, and Asteroids Deluxe. Over at the STAIRWAY TO HELL website is a story from programmer Paul Shave who wrote a Crystal Castles clone for a company called MRM. Castle of Gems was released by MRM in October 1984 and within a month Atari leaned on MRM and got them to withdraw the game.

Are you Mike Curtis of Weymouth? What do you remember about your copy of Pole Position? Curious minds need to know. Leave a comment or send me an email to whereweretheynow@gmail.com. You can do that even if you didn't buy a rubbish version of Pole Position from Atarisoft in 1984. Other methods of communication include Instagram, shammountebank, and Bluesky @shammountebank.bsky.social.