104 Bradwell Road, Bradville, Milton Keynes, MK13 7DH
There's an Peanuts comic strip where Lucy very reluctantly reads a story to her brother Linus. "A man was born... he lived and he died! The end!" That's the story of Mizar Computing. I feel bad for being glib but that's pretty much all we know. Mizar were founded in 1984 by Robert Waller and Richard Woodward. The company released one game and closed. The end. They failed. As did so many companies. It's the circumstances of their failure I find interesting because the short story of Mizar and their game Out of the Shadows is also the story of CRASH magazine, one year old and newly confident, and thinking they could make a game a hit by sheer force of will. And learning they couldn't.
Housekeeping first. The tagline of this blog is "seeking out Britain's pioneering software houses." Well in this case I haven't sought out either of the two addresses Mizar listed on their adverts. They are both houses and I have one firm rule for this blog, no photos of people's homes. People deserve their privacy. This rule is sacrosanct. I never break it. Except by accident or on purpose or because not breaking it is too complicated or I can't be bothered to care. I have my principles [1]. Most of the time it doesn't matter. The companies I write about usually shook off their spare-room roots and got offices [2] but occasionally I have to compromise. This is a very long-winded way of saying, there are no pictures of 104 Bradwell Road, MK13 or 10 Northwich, MK6. This is good because I don't want to go to Milton Keynes. It's bad because it goes against what this blog is supposed to be about. I'll try not to do it again until the next time in about four weeks.
Out of the Shadows arrived without ceremony. POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY covered the game in their This Week section for the 27 September issue and gave it a brief write up the following week:
Out of the Shadows is an unusual adventure. It has the interesting idea that you have to explore a land — illustrated by an on-screen map in which large sections are obscured by darkness. You have a torch which will light a certain area, but not where corners or buildings obscure the beam.
‘You must explore this world fighting various baddies and meeting people who may be of use to you, building up levels of character skill and searching various treasures,
Commands are mostly verb-noun but that doesn't limit the variety within the game. With the elements of magic, fighting stamina, knowing what to buy, when to fight and when to run away it should appeal to more traditional strategy adventurers. Cheap too.
PCW gave Bradwell Road as the contact address. Derek Brewster, the adventure correspondent for CRASH, must have also got the game around September to have his review printed in the December 1984 issue; available from 15th November (so being edited through October). His review was a rave:
If you are intelligent and into fantasy games (and I think the two go together no matter what some might say) then you'll like this one.
Derek Brewster's review highlighted multiple areas of originality for the
Spectrum, like the fog-of-war shadows which swept across the screen as
you moved and concealed monsters, and the way beaten monsters would later avoid you, or one of a pair of monsters might run off when its friend was killed:
Even after playing a game for some time a new feature will crop up, like the time a fracas with a dragon saw my lantern knocked over plunging me into darkness.
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| CRASH December 1984 |
Derek Brewster gave Out of the Shadows a CRASH SMASH rating. One of seven that month. Christmas was coming and a lot of software houses were releasing their big games for the year. Out of the Shadows was listed on the cover along with Starstrike by Realtime Software; Turmoil by Bug-Byte; Sir Lancelot by Melbourne House; Dark Star by Design Design; Tir Na Nog by Gargoyle Games; and Skool Daze by Microsphere. It was a good month for ZX Spectrum games and Mizar was in illustrious company.
Out of the Shadows, like Skool Daze, is a proto-sandbox game with open world/emergent gameplay and complex behaviours coming from simple rules. No two games are the same. You can watch it being played here and admittedly it's difficult to see the cleverness today because it's hidden under basic graphics and ear-splitting clicks and beeps.
Out of the Shadows entered the CRASH reader's Adventure Chart in the next issue, the 1984 Christmas Special. It went in at at number three. The following issue, February 1985, it was still in the top ten but down to number four.
10 Northwich, Wroughton Park, Milton Keynes, MK6
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| MICRO ADVENTURER February 1985 page 7 |
Richard Woodward originally wrote Out of the Shadows for a Univac Computer. He's also a keen astronomer (which explains the company name. Mizar is a star in the Big Dipper). He teamed up with Robert Waller, also a programmer writing operating systems and communications software, and the pair spent six months converting Out of the Shadows to the Spectrum on computers set up at a dining room table. They were now working on another game which would:
...incorporate a naturalistic landscape, displayed from a projection, The closer you get to, say, a coast line, the more detail you will see. To do this, they will be using the same sort of mathematical techniques, involving fractal numbers, as the programs on the Cray II to produce animated landscapes.
The last chunk of the interview talks about Mizar and its difficulty finding a place in the rapidly changing and increasingly commercial software industry. It's clear that Mizar's outsider status struck a chord with CRASH Editor Roger Kean because the magazine had recently also been considering its place in the industry. A process which started back in the Christmas Special with this editorial:
CRASH would seem to have become, as several people in the business have said, the trade buying guide for Spectrum software. Trade papers, on the whole, steer clear of making personal comment on product, their job being to help sell it. I’m not saying that we have felt too much of this (unfair?) pressure over the year, but it has been there... At the end of the day, whether the accolade of being also a trade guide is true or not, CRASH is here for the buyers of software as well as for the producers of software.
Much later, in 1987, Lloyd Mangram went into more detail about the pressure CRASH had been under. He wrote in the CRASH history:
By its ninth edition, the effect CRASH was beginning to have on the software industry was, in turn, being reapplied to its staff. Roger Kean had already been horrified a couple of months earlier at Micromania's concern when they were informed by the most powerful software distributor of the time that unless a game achieved better than 65% in CRASH it wouldn't be accepted for distribution. Now, proof sheets of CRASH reviews were being requested by retail chains to see whether a game was worthy of shelf spaceRoger Kean's thought process is clear. With great power comes great responsibility. If the retail industry was going to treat CRASH as a trade buying guide then the magazine had a duty to shine a light on games and companies which the trade was neglecting. May 1985, the next issue after the Mizar interview, featured an editorial explicitly about the problems facing small publishers. It's worth quoting in full because this is the point CRASH goes into full crusading mode to make Out of the Shadows a success:
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| CRASH May 1985 page 7 |
SAYING ‘YES’ TO SOFTWARE
IN HIS introductory editorial this month, I notice Derek Brewster complains about the lack of decent software in shops; and again I have seen his reference to the difficulty many readers have experienced in trying to obtain the excellent adventure Out of the Shadows by Mizar (featured last month). At the annual Computer Trade Association’s ‘Award Dinner’ in February, Christian Penfold of Automata (who won the Best Program of the Year for Deus Ex Machina) took the opportunity of the ‘thank you’ speech to attack software distributors and retailers for the fact that at that time they had only been able to sell some 700 copies of the program. Christian might be interested, therefore — as well as CRASH readers, to note that Mizar have so far only been able to sell some 300 of their Out of the Shadows although it was CRASH Smashed and definitely a game Derek raved over.
In one of the computer trade papers (I think it was Computer Trade Weekly) a shop keeper replied to Penfold’s attack by saying that Deus Ex Machina simply did not sell when he put out three copies — it was not wanted by the public. This, of course, could well be true — very often the public do not want something that is both ‘very different’ and also a bit pricey; but the real point is being missed — with only 700 copies out on the shelves, its visibility is extremely tenuous. More praise, then, to the angry shop keeper who at least gave it a try. Mizar’s problem is really more serious, because in their case none of the major distributors agreed to distribute the game at all. You might think I’m taking it personally that a CRASH Smashed game should fail so spectacularly to get into the shops — well I am! And so, as readers of this magazine, should you, because it means that through the judgement (or lack of it) of a tiny handful of people you have been prevented from purchasing a game that it seems many of you want.
On talking to several people a month ago, I discovered that in the case of two distributors they had ‘assessed’ the game and found it ‘not suitable for the Christmas period’ — whatever that is supposed to mean. I take it that it means... ‘this isn’t an obviously big-selling arcade megazap thriller with a £10,000 promotion budget and besides that it’s an adventure game with graphics I don’t understand and we all know adventures never sell....’ The men at Microdealer UK were somewhat more thorough, sending their preview copy to an independent reviewer whose job is to assess the game’s marketing potential rather than, like Derek, its final player appeal. In all fairness (I’ve seen the report) the reviewer obviously liked the game a lot, pointed out what he felt to be some of its failings and remarked on the graphics which he felt might put some people off. But for Microdealer the clincher seemed to be that Mizar were a totally unknown company with a first game and no apparent promotion going behind it. Distributing it would be a risk.
To me this seems a terrible indictment of an industry that in only two and a half years has grown from back bedrooms. In the beginning all the great hits came from totally unknown companies with no promotion budgets, and the exciting part of it all is that the situation really hasn’t changed all that much. An important chunk of last year’s hits and advancements came from the same ‘amateur’ stable. But before all the major distributors throw their hands up in horror at my remarks here, I do want to dispel the commonly held belief of producers that distributors just sit in the middle raking in the money for no risk — the matter is too complex to suggest that the current problem is one of unimaginative money men selling only the product that will make them a fortune. All I am asking is that software distributors take more care in their selection and attempt to follow the trends of what the public may want rather than dictate it.
The problem Derek outlines in his piece is slightly different, though linked. There are both among the specialist computer shops and the large chain stores like WH Smith and J Menzies, managers, counter staff and buyers who are enthusiasts and who care. The following remarks are NOT aimed at them, for in their hearts they know who they are. Sadly they are few and far between, especially in the chain stores. It’s as though the computer business has gone stale for them. There’s an analogy here between software and the cinema. Falling attendances at cinemas during the 60s and 70s were put down to TV and the lack of general interest in movies — partially true. Equally proven, however, is that enthusiastic, intelligent and careful buying in of selected films made some cinema managers a big success. It’s time that the bigger shop managers really learnt something about the trade they are supposed to be operating and pulled their fingers out of that pension packet. It would be really nice to see software producers not having to cope with the appalling barriers put in the way of magazine publishers when it comes to selling product of the shelves of a shop which is supposed to be there for that very purpose. Perhaps we in Britain should take a lesson from across the water — where Americans always seem to want to say YES first, the British always want to say NO first and last.
Derek Brewster also wrote about Out of the Shadows in the same issue:
Many people appear to be having problems obtaining this game as, rather oddly, it appears to have been overlooked by many retailer, presumably because Mizar haven't bothered with the hype so common for the megaBASIC bores they try to force upon us... I live in hope that one day the retail trade will stock goods based purely on quality and what the public want, but there again I'm probably just an idealist. Anyway, if you are having trouble finding the game, it can of course be obtained from the CRASH mail order department.
May was the month Out of the Shadows got its only coverage outside of CRASH when POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY ran an enthusiastic review. MICRO ADVENTURER had unceremoniously closed one issue after Mizar's advert and so the one other magazine which would have covered the game was no longer on sale. Fortunately Tony Bridge contributed to both MICRO ADVENTURER and PCW, and was able to transport his enthusiastic review to his PCW Adventure Corner (9-15 May 1985 page 35). Then June 1985 saw CRASH reporting good news:
GETTING OUT OF THE SHADOWS
A nice lady from Gem Distribution phoned up last week to pass on the news that they have taken on Mizar's Crash Smashed Out of the Shadows. Retailers having difficulty in getting hold of a copy can contact Gem on 0279 444615 and Gem will be happy to supply on a Cash on Delivery basis to retailers who haven't got an account with them. Nice people.
The same issue saw an interesting letter from Colin Newman in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex giving the counterpoint to CRASH's positive coverage:
MISERLY MIZAR
In reply to your editorial 'Saying Yes to Software' in the May issue of CRASH. I would like to mention a couple of factors that seem partly to explain the nobody wants-to-know demise of the adventure game Out of the Shadows.
I first read about it in your excellent magazine. I was sufficiently impressed by Derek Brewster's review to decide to get a copy.
Problem number one — none of the retailers I contacted had heard of the game, let alone stocked it. And the only advertisement I had seen — again in CRASH— did not give an address for mail orders[3].
So I wrote to your Mr Brewster asking if he could give me Mizer's address so I could obtain Out of the Shadows. I never had a reply to my letter.
I am a news editor on a provincial daily newspaper and recently began writing a monthly computer games feature including reviews of the latest software.
Mizar's advertising was now carrying an address. I was still keen to see the game and publicise it in our paper. I wrote to the company asking if they could send me a review copy of Out of the Shadows so that I could feature it in our next computer games roundup. Again there was only the sound of silence, and they didn't even bother to reply to my letter.
No, I do not believe the blame for an obviously good adventure game failing to succeed lies solely with the distributors. The programmers, the publishers, the promoters — if there are any — should realise that publicity usually works wonders. And the more people read about a new game the more it will become known, asked for and bought.
Letter editor Lloyd Mangram replied:
I'm sorry you didn't receive a reply from Derek but as I pointed out to another letter writer a month or so back, he does receive a large mailbag, which doesn't get sorted through in an instant, and for which he simply hasn't the time to reply to. Mizar's silence is more unaccountable and puzzling. Perhaps they will take heed of this instance when it comes to the launching the next product.
Of course, there was no next product. Mizar quietly disappeared and the company's only full time worker, Richard Woodward, presumably went back to working as a systems programmer. The fate of Mizar can be contrasted with Microsphere or Realtime Games. They were both small publishers with games that were Crash Smashed alongside Out of the Shadows in the December 1984 issue. Both companies had a little more experience of the software industry. They knew the importance of advertising and running a good campaign to attract the attention of the public and distributors. They also had the advantage of selling games with more obvious retail appeal. Mizar seem to have been caught out by the importance of advertising. Their first advert doesn't appear until two months after the CRASH review and misses the all important Christmas period. And how much would those full-page colour adverts have cost? Assume £500 each that's £2000 in total. A lot of money for a fledgling company who had sold 300 tapes at £5.95 each.
Could Mizar have succeeded? Yes. Quite possibly. If they'd been able to get Out of the Shadows ready even six months earlier they might have stood a chance but by Christmas 1984 the software market was a more hostile place. Distributors gatekept the route into shops. The BBC Commercial Breaks documentary The Battle for Santa's Software showed the hoops even a big company like Ocean had to jump through to get their games accepted for sale. Advertising was expensive. Mail order sales no longer really existed. Small and quirky software houses were increasingly rare. The first half of 1985 was a real clearing out of the smaller software houses. Automata, publisher of Deus Ex Machina, the other game mentioned in the Saying 'Yes' to Software editorial effectively closed down. They stopped releasing new games and just sold back catalogue titles via mail order. July 1985 saw Bug-Byte, Micromania, and Fantasy close. CRASH ran an editorial on the subject with the headline This Tormented Business. The other route to success for Mizar was to release the game via a publisher, although the two obvious ones were Games Workshop and Red Shift and they would both close their doors in 1985. Mizar were unlucky. The closure of MICRO ADVENTURER lost them access to an audience more open to a game like Out of the Shadows and while other magazines had columns dedicated to adventure games none of them felt obliged to to review every game newly on the market.
Out of the Shadows had an afterlife. In spring 1986 a mysterious company called Global Software included it in a compilation called Fourmost Adventures, four adventure games chosen by Tony Bridge. This compilation got Out of the Shadows more coverage than it did on the original release but by this point the consensus was, good but dated.
CRASH finally wrote Mizar's obituary in October 1987. The CRASH History article for the December 1984 issue included these words by Lloyd Mangram:
To cap it off Out Of The Shadows from unknown Mizar was a Smash, and thereby hangs a tale - and a CRASH failure. If anyone at CRASH felt unhappy about the reliance distributors and retailers were putting on CRASH reviews for stocking, then they were probably equally happy at being able to employ this unasked for power on the behalf of new or very small software houses . Some were finding it harder to get a look in with the increasingly professional and hard-nosed market place. Our record in their favour had been encouraging. But with Mizar, we drew a blank. No distributor would accept the game, having failed to spot its marketability, despite its CRASH Smash status. It was galling. And it showed more clearly than ever that the world was changing with blinding speed. At the beginning of 1984, an advertisement helped sales, by the end of the year even a full-scale marketing campaign was capable of failing to attract the distributors' attention. For the small independent software house, it looked like the beginning of the end.
"A man was born... he lived and he died! The end!"
[1] Groucho Marx joke goes here.
[2] Even if, as in the case of Mr Chip/Magnetic Fields, it took a really long time.
[3] This comment is mystifying. Mizar only ran four adverts and they all carried an address. I don't know if Colin Newman is describing Derek Brewster's review as an advert?
Leave a comment or send an email to whereweretheynow@gmail.com I am also on Bluesky @shammountebank.bsky.social
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