Konix

35 Rassau Industrial Estate, Ebbw Vale, Gwent, NP3

British hardware never had the same international profile as British software. The Enterprise had a degree of success in Hungary. The Dragon likewise in Spain. Acorn, Sinclair, and Amstrad all had a greater impact but you'd be hard pushed to describe any of them as globally famous. The Sinclair Spectrum sold five million units in total, a figure dwarfed by the 17 million Commodore 64s sold around the world. Then in 1989, one company came up with a device that could change everything. A console that could take on the world. 

The failure of the Konix Multisystem is documented much more thoroughly at Slipstream: The Konix Multi-system archive, with interviews, archive documents, videos, even an emulator. What makes the Multisystem endlessly interesting is that it wasn't just vapourware. It wasn't an unsupported failure. It was ambitious but Konix had a track record of success. They had innovated with their Speedking joystick and built a reputation for selling a qualify product globally. Shops wanted to sell the Multisystem console. Software houses were making games for it. People wanted to buy it. And then as so often happened, the money ran out. The explanations for how and why the money ran out are varied but it's not my story to tell. The Multisystem and Konix never made it across the finishing line but came unbearably close.

Unit 13, Sirhowy Industrial Estate, Tredegar, Gwent NP2 4QZ

Konix founder Wyn Holloway described how the company came to be, to RETRO GAMER (issue 74 page 60):

I used to run a computer shop in the Eighties, and the joysticks that were on the market were very cheap and cheerful. And our biggest problem was joystick returns... We used to have a 'try before you buy' section in the shop... But instead of setting the joystick down... The kids used to hold them... So I brought some Plasticine and moulded it into a handheld unit, and then thought, "Right I've got to design something to fit inside that shape." 

Wyn Holloway's computer shop has proved next to impossible to track down. The best I've been able to do is find this report in THE GAMES MACHINE (March 1989 page 18) which also gives a little more background to the development of the joystick:

Holloway. a carpenter by trade, was working in a computer shop in Cardiff s central Clifton Street when he noticed the number of glum faces arming with broken joysticks - broken from Daley Thompson's Decathlon, the Ocean sports classic.

POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY
17-23 October 1985 page 29

His craftsman mind began to grind away at the problem, and he soon realised that most users hold joystick in their hands: they have no use for the suction cups beloved of early joystick manufacturers. The result was the Speedking joystick, built to be handheld, with more than three million sales now notched up.

The shop in Clifton Street might (emphasis on the word might) be Citisoft at 136 Clifton Street but please get in touch if you know for sure. The first public sighting of Konix was in October 1985. An advert in POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY for the Konix Speedking "a major breakthrough in joystick design." That advert describes Konix Computer Products as "a trading name of Creative Devices Research Ltd." I can tell you that they were Company Number 01870142, incorporated on 20 Dec 1984 and dissolved on 17 Dec 1996. And that's it. I'm going to refer to Creative Designs Research/Konix interchangeably, hopefully it won't get too confusing.

SOUTH WALES ECHO
May 15 1986 page 3

Its took the computer press a while to notice Konix and their new joystick design, even though the company was advertising regularly from the start of 1986. ZX COMPUTING get in first with a review in June 1986. Other magazines pay more attention from November 1986 as Konix generated publicity for the Christmas market. COMPUTER GAMER reported production rates of the joystick had risen from 3,500 per week to 50,000 and also that US company Epyx had picked up the Speedking for distribution and renamed it the Epyx 500XJ. You can watch a 1986 Epyx advert here. That US deal had actually gone through in May, as reported in the SOUTH WALES ECHO in an item rightly headlined "South Wales success story".

The report fills in a little bit more background about the lightning in a bottle story of Konix. Creative Designs Ltd was backed by the Welsh Development Agency, who had also been involved with Dragon Data and their computer. When Creative Designs Ltd was founded six months previously the WDA expected it to employ seven people. It was already employing 27, and the Epyx order would allow the workforce to be doubled. The factory unit where Konix was based was a WDA facility and the American order meant they had just taken on a second unit.

I drove into Wales via Ludlow, round Hereford and onto the A465. The Head of the Valleys road. A spectacular route which really shows off the scenery. The only downside was it meant I did Konix's history backwards because I got to the location of the Rassau factory first. Sirhowy, and the small industrial unit where Konix got started, are a short drive away.

September 2023

This is not a great picture. It was strictly a one-and-done deal. It was 11.30 on Monday morning and my heart sank as I pulled up because there was a bloke standing outside Ryglaze Windows, having a conversation on his mobile phone. There was no one else around. It was just me and the bloke. I didn't want to take a picture which had someone in it and I also wanted to avoid the inevitable follow up conversation which would result. Fortunately the building behind is a Planet Fitness gym so I parked and pulled out my phone and pretended to be waiting for someone, or lost, or studying the form for the 3.57 at Chepstow, or anything at all, while really I kept an eye on the bloke and waited for him to finish his call. He didn't. Time was ticking on. A knot of tension was brewing in my stomach. How long can somebody speak on the phone, anyway? He's still there. What if this is the start of a mammoth four hour conversation?  I'm going to get noticed if I wait here until 3pm. Time to make a backup plan. I could just brazen it out and just get our of the car and take a picture. No. I could get out of my car, stand up and theatrically stretch and "accidentally" take a photo. Maybe. What if I took a photo through my car window. Oh! Quick! He's gone inside.

I leapt out of the car. Snapped the picture above and then got back in the car. Just in time because the bloke came back out, still on his mobile, and still talking about whatever he was talking about. The latest hot goss in the double-glazing biz, presumably. The whole performance probably made me look more suspicious and lunatic than usual. But the important thing is I took a picture. I can look back, on my deathbed, and go "well at least I got a photo of that industrial unit in Wales." Fortunately for me the picture contains all the essential elements. Unit 13 is to the right of Ryglaze. You can just make out the number above the loading bay.

What really caught the attention of the games magazines was a Speedking destruction test. Or rather, what really caught the magazines' attention was a PR event to promote the Speedking destruction test. John Minson wrote about it in the 1986 CRASH Christmas Special (page 12):

Competition of a different sort the following day. Mike Baxter, had invited the press, magazine advertising staff and even his Auntie down to that almost trendy cross between a restaurant and a television showroom; The Video Cafe.

The excuse for this bash was the Konix Speedking joystick, an object which resembles nothing more than that most tuneless musical instrument, the occarina. For some reason, Konix wanted the gentlemen of the press to try and destroy two of these things.

YOUR COMPUTER
July 1985 page 10

A weekend for two in Amsterdam was on offer to the gentleman of the press who scored the highest on Daley Thompson's Decathlon (destroying joysticks since 1984).  

The weekend in Amsterdam went to the YOUR COMMODORE competitor though. Obviously a man who gives his right wrist lots of exercise.

The real winners were the joysticks. Not only did they stand up to the action, their easy switching meant that it was possible to go for that Coe burst of speed and maintain it. Driven on to greater things, Konix is at this very moment inventing a robot joystick destructor, and is inviting you, the public, to guess how long a Speedking will endure this bionic bashing.

If you'd like to win £100. whizz off your estimate to Konix, C/o SOLUTION PUBLIC RELATIONS, 2 Wellingtonia Court, Varndean Park, Brighton BN1 6TD and mark it Daley Thompson's Decathlon Test. Don't forget your name and address and do mention that Hunter S sent you. You'd better be quick off the mark, because the big event is happening in early January

YOUR SINCLAIR
November 1987 page 6

Actually, the real winners were Konix. The joystick destruction test caught everyone's imagination and most of the magazines covered the event when it began in early March 1987 [1]. An electric drill was set up so to activate the joystick with a "waggle per minute" rate of 450 wpm. This was enough to qualify for the 100m event in Daley Thompson's Decathlon and the unfortunate joystick was connected to an Amstrad 6128 computer running a monitoring programme written by Daley Thompson's Decathlon co-author Christian Urquhart. The joystick survived for 652 hours in The Machine. It broke after 604,000 waggles. Maris Geert from Belgium won the contest with a guess of 643 hours. The highest estimate, according to CRASH, was eight years and the lowest was 14 minutes (they must have been thinking of Amstrad's SJS1 joystick). CRASH printed a picture of Maris Geert with their report but YOUR SINCLAIR printed a better one of him holding a Konix Speedking in front of the Manneken Pis fountain.

THE GAZETTE
July 2nd 1987 page 6

THE GWENT GAZETTE, July 2nd 1987, carried another report on the Konix/Creative Devices Research success story, which includes a nice picture taken inside unit 13. The report describes how Konix is once again set to double their workforce from 40 to 108 and will be moving to the Rassau Industrial Estate in "August". I don't think this move happened on schedule, or if it did the company still kept a foot in Sirhowy because by December 1987 the company has upgraded the address.

Units 12/14, Sirhowy Industrial Estate, Tredegar, Gwent NP2 4QZ

Konix expanded to take over three bays on the Sirhowy estate. In my photo above that's the units occupied by a company called Oak Slabs and my current nemesis Ryglaze Windows. However, at the start of 1988 the company really did move and by July 1988 the Rassau address is used on adverts.

Unit 35, Rassu Industrial Estate, Ebbw Vale, Gwent, NP5

THE GWENT GAZETTE, January 7 1988, reported that "the new factory will be opened on January 15 by Welsh Secretary Mr Peter Walker. The move was also covered by THE GAMES MACHINE, in the February and March 1988 issues.

The Speedking was just over two years old but still selling well. There were four variants on offer, two for home computers, a standard version and one with autofire, plus a model for the Sega Master System and another for the Nintendo Entertainment System. ACE reported on a new joystick in issue 15 (December 1988 page 7), the Konix Navigator which looks a bit like a Star Trek phaser (ACE printed a picture of one upside down). And then the report drifts off into more interesting territory:

While happy to wax on enthusiastically about their new joystick, Konix are at pains to deny rumours of a new games console apparently due for launch in the middle of next year. "Console, what console" was about as far as Konix supremo Wyn Holloway was prepared to go when quizzed..."

"We know otherwise", was how ACE ended their report. And they did. The Konix Multisystem was an industry open secret. The last quarter of 1989 saw ACE and rival THE GAMES MACHINE, running reports designed to try and coax an official statement out of Konix. Barnaby Page wrote a two page news story for the November 1988 issue of THE GAMES MACHINE which is a good example of how a few strands of smoke can be weaved into a fire. He makes the rumour and lack of information a key point of his story: 

Konix have wrapped the machine in a shroud of silence. Everyone who's seen it has been sworn to secrecy, and Konix's Financial Controller Tim Scott would only say to TGM 'we don't wish to make any comment'.

For this reason TGM is unable to identify most of the sources for our information. They include several top figures in the software and hardware world and naming them would endanger their jobs.

ACE and TGM would both continue to drop hints through the winter and the fire finally roared into life in early 1989 when the Multisystem was formally unveiled. THE GUARDIAN got the scoop on 26th January 1989 in a report written by ex-CRASH hack John Minson:

One only needs to look at the short history of computing to see the noble failures. The usual problem is marketing. Certainly Holloway is not stinting on advertising, with a £2 million advertising campaign.
His aim was for sales of 100,000 in Europe by Christmas but he already has orders exceeding this. But the large markets of America and Japan are more difficult, owing to the established bases of Sega and Nintendo machines. Konix does not plan to enter America until 1990, giving his rivals 12 months to adapt at least some of his ideas to their machines.

ACE and TGM, and the rest of the games press would have seen the console at the same time but the lead time of monthly magazines meant their readers wouldn't get the details until the March issues, published in February. ACE gave the new console a cover story, see the top of this page, and a rapturous write up.

Take some hardware. Optimise it, so that you can use it to draw intricate, multicoloured 3D shapes on screen and move them around really fast. Just what you need to produce stunning cockpit-view games.

Then put the hardware inside a mechanism, a mechanism that can put the player in the driving seat Of a car, the pilot's seat of an aeroplane or the saddle of a motorbike. Sell the whole lot for a mere £200, get people to write disk-based games for it that cost £15, plan peripherals that build the unit into a coin-op ride, and what have you got?

A dream machine, unlikely to be available for years? No. The Konix Multi System will be available in the UK and Europe six months from now.

It's a terrific piece of writing. Who wouldn't want to buy one after that description? What really caught my attention were the pictures of the Multisystem doing its clever Transformers-like shift from steering wheel controller, to flight yoke, to handlebars. I'd moved away from the ZX Spectrum in 1988, to a brand new Atari ST . I liked it. A lot. But it was an incremental step rather than a quantum leap into the future. The Multisystem was clearly something different. "THE £200 ARCADE MACHINE," yelled ACE's headline and it didn't look like they were wrong. There were similar reports in March's TGM and COMPUTER & VIDEOGAMES.

The Multisystem archive has a much more comprehensive collection of press coverage.

The spring press blitz pointed to an August release but August came and went. The release date was reset to September after worried software companies persuaded Konix to double the system's memory from 128K to 256K ; TGM, June 1989 page 7. The base level Atari ST and Amiga both had 512K RAM. The cartridge-based Nintendo and Sega consoles operated differently; if I understand it properly they didn't have memory as such. You (kind of) plugged the memory in when you plugged in a cartridge.  But Konix didn't want to use cartridges. They wanted their games to run off cheaper, standard, 3.5-inch discs. Konix were now "looking at the PC Show [September 27 'October 1]" to launch . The PC Show was the starting gun for the Christmas sales race and a good place to launch the Multisystem.

The October 1989 issue of ACE gave the Multisystem its second cover of the year and a four page review. It's good:

THE ACE VERDICT

Although more expensive than when first announced, currently due to be priced at 'over £200', the Konix could make a very attractive this Christmas. In the mid-term, the only competing machines are likely to be the Sega 16-bit machine or the Fujitsu FM Towns. neither of which is planned for sale in the until next year (if at all).

The Konix is British, superbly designed, and extremely powerful. provided the software base shapes up, we have no hesitation in recommending it. The company expect demand to outstrip supply before  Christmas, so if you see one on the shelf, think twice before passing by..

More interesting are some of the small details. A list of some games under development "and due to appear before the beginning of 1990"

The review also revealed: 

All firms that sign up to do a game for the Multi System pay £2000 for a development kit. The money is payed back as soon as the game is delivered. Duplication of the disks is handled by Konix themselves with a guarantee of zero piracy thanks to a built in security

device. No restrictions are placed on developing the Konix title for other systems it the software house so desires — unlike Nintendo, for example. who insist any title developed for their games console must be theirs and theirs alone.

This issue of ACE review was published on 7th September, well before the PC Show began. When the show started, something was wrong as THE GUARDIAN reported (Thursday 5 October 1989 page 29).

Highlight of the entertainment section was expected to be the launch of the new British-made Konix games console. But for much of the first day the stand was empty, and even by Friday only half of it was being fully used. The trade and press launch is now not expected until the end of November[2].

A later GUARDIAN review of the year (Thursday 14 December 1989 page 33) noted:

The first day of the PC Show saw a proud Konix stand entirely bereft of anything approximating to a console, "revolutionary" or otherwise. 
Enterprisingly, it was said to be delayed in customs, then in traffic, and then by the show's organisers. The show itself is not only the poorest but also probably the last.

Over on Bluesky, James Hutchinson (‪@crashlander.bsky.social‬) recalls seeing the Multisystem at the PC Show:

I got to play one of these at a games show back in the day. (They had the chair and everything!) It was ahead of its time, but not *that* far ahead. Think like a faster Atari ST. But the sound was off the hook. It had 25 channels or something and you could really hear the difference.

Then there was silence. In previous years magazines had gone big on their coverage of the PC show. Not this year. Coverage is virtually non-existent, which might be related to that "poorest" comment by THE GUARDIAN. Raking back through my memory, this is roughly where I lost track of the Multisystem story. I never much liked multiformat magazines and by Christmas 1988 I had moved away from ACE and TGM to ST ACTION. The result, I never saw what happened next which accounts for my confused idea that the system just vanished. It didn't but the coverage gets very sparse. ACE briefly stops writing about the Multisystem which makes me wonder if they got some pushback over their unofficial review. You can scour the next few issues and find no mention the system. Remarkable, considering how closely they had followed the story to date. TGM does better. They lay bare the problems Konix was facing in their December issue:

After many months of speculation and rumours, it seems that there are real troubles at the offices of Konix — probably resulting in a post-Christmas release for their still-unfinished Multi System console.

Rumours abound how Wynfoid P Holloway has been banned from signing anymore cheques, while the rest of the Board try to get the company back into shape. One employee commented to TGM: 'Just two days ago I thought they were going to call in the Receiver.' Others were complaining that they hadn't been paid since Konix took on their services, checks had bounced had bounced, but assurances, TGM were told, are now rock solid and Konix are getting back on their feet again

It was known that Konix had experienced some delays but no-one expected it to be this bad. It also appears that Konix turned down many offers for the console, coming from such luminaries as Ocean and George Lucas — although Konix will not confirm any of this Konix still insist that the November release is plausible, however, we doubt you'll be able to find it in the shops now. 

Software is another problem for Konix. In mid-October, Konix revealed that all software projects had been halted, explaining that all the developers bad reached a stage where they could not continue without further development of the hardware. Konix Software chief, Jon Dean, commented recently that the freeze was temporary, with projects being delayed for six weeks.

With all these problems, it is unlikely Konix can continue without a major cash injection Apparently Konix are talking to a major hardware distributor about backing- Regardless, everyone involved in the project is confident the machine will see the light of day — eventually

The same month ZERO also had some information:

KONIX KLIFFHANGER

The future of the Konix Multi-System is hanging in the balance. Rumours have been flying round for months but things now seem to have reached crisis point.

Konix has over-stretched itself financially with the Multi-System project and is finding itself in a bit of a pickle. It'll either have to drop its plans, Or the whole (or part) of Konix will have to be brought out. Already companies like Amstrad and Atari have been named as possible front runners.

Unfortunately, Konix still are still reeling after US-based software giant Epyx recently went bust. Epyx owed Konix a vast sum of money those great Speedking ijoysticks it distributed all over the shop. Then Epyx's sudden downfall left Konix in a very precarious position. And to make matters worse, the continual re-development of the Konix Multi-System is eating up cash quicker than a Pacman hooked  on Power pills.

All eyes are now on Konix boss Wyn Holloway to see if he can rescue his company yet again.

So stay tuned.

The comment about Epyx is interesting. I think this is the first time I've seen this given as a contributing factor in Konix's difficulties. Wyn Holloway never stopped trying to raise finance and in March 1990 TGM reported he was selling the family silver:

KONIX KICKS STIXS

In a shocking move successful joystick manufacturer Konix have relinquished the rights to its range of joysticks, which include the original Speed King and Navigator Spectra video have snapped up the rights to sell the sticks in the UK. Spectravideo also has the rights to the Quickjoy range (pictured). Konix's move is thought to be an odd one, selling the UK rights of the product which actually built the firm. Although Konix reckon they have a larger presence outside the UK — they should know, I Suppose. It Should also give Konix a chance to concentrate on the Multi System console now expected in, wait for it... autumn.

Even reading it now makes me wince. I appreciate the report is only taking about the UK rights but the sale is not a good sign. ACE finally printed something in March 1990, six months after their review, in an article looking back at events of the previous year. 

The Konix Multi-System burst into the limelight at the Toy Fair in January with a prototype console and its imaginative 'add-on', the hydraulic chair. The press and software publishers were captivated and eulogistic articles appeared. Konix went back to its headquarters high above Ebbw Vale and prepared for the Multi-System's grand launch at the PC show in September.

In the event, the 'grand launch' turned into a nightmare of embarrassment. as the system failed to turn up until a couple of pre-production machines stuttered into action on the last two days. The chair was still a prototype.

Meanwhile the media remained relatively quiet, unwilling to broadcast the open secret that Konix had run out of money to bring the Multi-System into production, just in case adverse publicity caused the whole house of cards to collapes. The problem appeared to be alleviated in October when distributor Add-Ons took a stake the Company. The Konix saga continues into the 1990s.

ACE
October 1990 page 168

The following month, Krysalis began advertising MANCHESTER UNITED THE OFFICIAL COMPUTER GAME. The adverts, obviously designed and booked several months in advance noted the game was coming soon for: "IBM PC, ARCHIMEDES, KONIX MULTI-SYSTEM," Unless anyone knows differently,  this advert is the only time I've seen a Multisystem version advertised.

THE GUARDIAN, 11 October 1990, reported that Creative Devices Research had called in the receiver. The same month, ACE began a guide to the contents of back issues. The Multisystem rated six lines:

• KONIX CONSOLE, a powerful British console with revolutionary built-in joystick controller which could change into a steering wheel, motorbike handle or aeroplane yoke. Ultimately failed due to a lack of marketing money. Rumours suggest a new buyer is interested. [ACE18/25]

In just over a year, the Multisystem had gone cover star to little more than a footnote.

September 2023

I don't have much to say about the Rassau factory. It's on a big but quiet industrial estate and it looks more professional than the homely Sirhowy units. It's probably a coincidence of timing but I can't help noticing Konix moved at the point when they began development the Multisystem. You'd want to bring potential financers to a big, solid business unit like Rassau rather than Sirhowy if you hoped to convince them your company was a safe investment.

The Rassau factory stayed open until at least 1994. There's a story in the SOUTH WALES ECHO, 21st April 1994 page 23, reporting a break in at the "Creative Designs/Konix factory" during which "several thousands of pounds worth of computer discs, joy sticks [sic] and  office equipment was stolen." The Multisystem also had an afterlife, of sorts. The Konix Multi-system archive talks about a company called MSU (Multisystem UK) set up in the wake of the Multisystem to market and sell the chips and technology inside the console. There are a couple of companies with that name, and both have Wyn Holloway as a director. Once called M S U Ltd (company number 02587301) traded from 1994 to 2005; it changes names to MSU (UK) LIMITED on 4th August 1999 and when it finally ceased trading it was under the name WEB 2 U LIMITED. There's another company called Reddwerks, company number 02896074, dissolved 3rd April 2018. They orginally traded under the names MSU PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY from 14 Jun e1994 to 17 April 2002 and then as MSU DEVICES LTD from 17 April 2002 to 22 December 2003.

[1] Joystick waggling innuendos were widespread. "Have you ever wanted to waggle your joystick to death?" asked C&VG. "Konix stick faces stiff waggle test," said YOUR COMPUTER. Meanwhile CRASH tried "RIDDLE OF BOFFIN'S WAG BID TRAGEDY". "A-waggling we will go,.." was AMSTRAD ACTION's headline. ZX COMPUTING went with "Destruction test," which goes some way to explain why the magazine closed six months later.

[2] Which raises the question, how did ACE manage their October 1989 review? My best guess, they got their hands on the system while they were looking at either System 3's Last Ninja or Mev Dinc's Hammerfist. The review makes it clear that early versions of both games have been played. 

I'm on email at whereweretheynow@gmail.com. Leave a comment, or follow me on Bluesky @shammountebank.bsky.social and Instagram, shammountebank.