So, how did I hear about Power Computing? Back in the early days of this blog, my metric to measure how I was doing was to count the number of companies I wrote about who also advertised in the first issue of CRASH [1]. It didn't take long for that to seem restrictive and at some point I found myself wondering who the last company was that advertised in CRASH, in issue 98. The actual answer is quite boring because only three games companies advertised in that final issue; a company called Hi-Tec Software, Codemasters, and Ocean [2].
This set me wondering about other magazines and I turned my attention to AMIGA POWER. A magazine I've got a soft spot for because although I didn't read it at the time I've subsequently come to think it might be the one which properly carried the CRASH torch on to the 16-bit generation. So, what was the last company to advertise a game in AMIGA POWER? The answer is not to be found in the final issue, issue 65, because the lack of adverts is a big part of the reason it's the final issue [3]. The answer comes in issue 64 on page 16.
 |
| AMIGA POWER August 1996 page 16 |
Power Computing is a UK company specializing in the manufacture and distribution of peripheral devices for the Amiga range of computers. We have been developing and sourcing products for the Amiga for over 10 years and have had produced many innovative products including the first high and extra density disk drive on the market and the best hand scanner on the world market. We are always looking for new and innovative products to expand our Amiga range of products as well as looking into other areas of the computer industry. After great success in the Amiga hardware market we have entered into the software market with our newly released game "Breathless", which has been haled as the best Doom-clone ever..
That's the introduction on the Wayback Machine's earliest captured image of the Power Computing website, taken on 29 December 1996. There's a fair bit of information online about the company but not much about those 10 years before Breathless was released. The current Power Computing website says the company was founded in 1985 to make software for the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga. It turns out the company was mainly hardware focused but also released serious software, and very, very occasionally games. Which is where I come in.
Companies House holds a full set of records for Power Computing (company number 02133884) which shows the company was incorporated in May 1987 with the unfortunate name of Trumpstat and didn't formally change their name to Power Computing until 1989. Companies House also hold all the registered addresses for Power Computing so let's skip quickly through them.
138-140 Bedford Road, Kempston, MK42 8BH
An oldster like me associates the town of Kempston with the firm Kempston Micro Electronics, who made joysticks and peripherals for home computers in the eighties. It was also where auditing firm Wilkinson and Company were based. Their office acted as the registered address for Power Computing from 1987 to 2004 at which point the company name changed to Haines Watts and the address got two bigger.
136-140 Bedford Road, Kempston, MK42 8BH
136-140 Bedford Road, Kempston, MK42 8BH
 |
| July 2026 |
That's what it looks like today. Haines Watts stayed at this address to 2015 before they moved here.
First Floor, Woburn Court 2 Railton Road, Woburn Road Industrial Estate, Kempston Bedford MK42 7PN
 | |
|
Another move came in 2017 to an address at Singer Way, which I'll come back to in a bit, and in 2023 the registered address moved again.
17 St John's Terrace, Kingsway, Bedford, MK42 9BJ
 | |
|
That's the office of Lilian Gray Accountants. They took over the responsibility of filing accounts for Power Computing in 2023 and are still doing it today. As nice as it was driving round a quiet and empty Bedford and Kempston on a Sunday evening in July it doesn't really tell us anything much about the company who were the last firm to advertise in AMIGA POWER.
44a & b Stanley Street, Bedford, MK41 7RW
Where was Power Computing really based? A search through magazines on the internet archive turns up a lot of their old adverts. The earliest I could find is this half-page one in the October 1988 issue of AMIGA COMPUTING, offering a selection of external disk drives, monitors, printers, and RAM expansions. This is as far back as I've been able to wind back the clock on Power Computing so their early years remain opaque. I suspect they did a lot of business via mail order and catalogues, as was the fashion at the time, and that rarely leaves a digital footprint.
Where was Power Computing really based? A search through magazines on the internet archive turns up a lot of their old adverts. The earliest I could find is this half-page one in the October 1988 issue of AMIGA COMPUTING, offering a selection of external disk drives, monitors, printers, and RAM expansions. This is as far back as I've been able to wind back the clock on Power Computing so their early years remain opaque. I suspect they did a lot of business via mail order and catalogues, as was the fashion at the time, and that rarely leaves a digital footprint.
44a & b Stanley Street are harder to track down than you would expect. Bedford needs to be stricter on the clear labelling of house numbers because Streetview has two candidates right next door to each other. This place with bins outside labelled 44 and 44b, or more likely this place. The second is more likely because the building has two doors on to Stanley Street. The blue door is helpfully labelled 44b which means the other unmarked door at a diagonal angle to the street must logically be 44a, Watson. The positioning of the door shows it would have been a shop at one point and I know from adverts in AMIGA FORMAT, that 44a was home to the Power Computing shop, called the Power House. This is what it looked like.
 |
| AMIGA FORMAT October 1989 page 72 |
Here, from ST FORMAT, is another photo from a slightly different angle and featuring a lady!
 |
| ST FORMAT September 1990 page 17 |
Winding time back a little. The December 1988 issue of AMIGA COMPUTING gives me a bit more information to weave into a tapestry. Page 10 is a double-page advert for Power Computing's range of hardware and software. Then, on page 92, there's an announcement that Power Computing, Triangle Peripherals, and Eidersoft Software have joined forces. What can I make of these? Well, the page 10 advert has some intriguing small print down the bottom:
We recognise all trademarks mentioned.
© 1988 P J VanDoorn / Trumpstat Ltd
I know Trumpstat was the old trading name for Power Computing but what/who is P J VanDoorn? There's a character called General Peter Van Doorn in XCOM: Enemy Unknown, it's probably not him. It could be the Peter VanDoorn who wrote an article for POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY in 1986. But apart from that, inspiration quickly runs dry. Let's move on. What do I know about Eidersoft? They released Amiga Karate in 1987. Triangle Peripherals? Search me, guv. Call this a tapestry? It's just a pile of loose threads.
Unit 8, Railton Road, Woburn Road Industrial Estate, Kempston, Bedford, MK42 7PM
You'll notice there's no photo of Stanley Road, this is because it is now someone's house so I'm leaving them in peace. Annoyingly, there's also no photo of Unit 8 Railton Road because I didn't know the address existed back in July when I was in town. If, like I did, you go to the 1996 archive of the Power Computing website and click on the Contact Us page you'll see it still lists the contact address as Stanley Road. I can't remember how I found out about the Railton Road address, I think it was while I was fruitlessly searching for any information connecting Eidersoft and Power Computing. It's not the end of the world though because, in a weird coincidence, unit 8 Railton Road was right behind Woburn Court the building I photographed because Haines Watts moved there in 2015. You can see units 4 and 6 in my photo, and they are identical to unit 8 which is tucked away just behind the body of the main building. Et voilà!
It's becoming clear the big question is not so much "what can I learn about the last company to advertise in AMIGA POWER?" as, "how can I reverse out of this article without losing too much of my dignity?"
44a & b Stanley Street, Bedford, MK41 7RW
Power Computing were at Railton Road address from 1991 to 1994. Did they move back to Stanley Street or were they also based there? Logistically I can see Stanley Street making sense, you've got the shop space at 44a and the back office space of 44b, all in one building. The important thing is, they were based back at Stanley Street when Breathless was released.
Outside of AMIGA POWER Breathless did really well. It got a very enthusiastic 95% in AMIGA FORMAT and 92% from CU AMIGA. The game was written by an Italian company called Fields Of Vision Software Design, who started out writing shareware, and Breathless turned out to be their only game. It began as a public domain demo which picked up some attention in the December 1995 issue of CU AMIGA. The same magazine printed a preview the following month, naming Power Computing as the publisher, and briefly described the first demo:
However there were no guns and the enemies didn't attack, so could it be like Fears: all graphics and no gameplay?
gamesthatwerent.com has some additional information about that early demo, which was released in February 1995:
First demo is mostly showing engine presentation. It boots straight into game. You can walk and see different rooms that show what the game engine can do. You can’t shoot and enemies can’t either. There is no working map function, shop, no options to configure graphics and bottom HUD do not work.
A second demo followed after Power Computing picked up the game. The credits for this list Tony Ianiri of Power Computing in the Special Thanks section. He was also named in the January 1996 CU AMIGA preview.
Some historical context. Commodore International, the American parent company, declared bankruptcy in April 1994. However, the UK subsidiary, Commodore Business Machines (UK) Ltd, was an independent company and continued trading, even though it didn't have much in the way of Amiga stock. What it did have was a good cash flow so their solution to the lack of stock problem was to keep buying the stock of other Commodore subsidiaries as they followed the parent company into liquidation. This grim but effective strategy kept Commodore Business Machines (UK) Ltd selling Amigas to British customers through 1994 and into 1995. The UK company actually ended up in a strong enough position to announce that it planned to buy up the assets of the parent, but they were thwarted when German company ESCOM turned out to have deeper pockets and got there first. Commodore UK must have remained part of the overall structure of Commodore International, with the result that it got absorbed into ESCOM as part of the takeover. The UK arm was quietly wound down and finally dissolved on 5th December 2000.
Up the page I sort of thoughtlessly implied the Amiga was a dead format by the time Breathless was released. That's not exactly true, there remained a thriving UK Amiga scene. It was strong enough to keep AMIGA FORMAT in print until May 2000. In fact Power Computing are a big presence in the last few years of the magazine and take several pages of advertising in the final issue. There's a double-page advert on pages two and three. This is mainly for hardware but the advert mentions you can buy Breathless for £9.95, Red Mars for £19.95, and the CD version of Big Red Adventure for £9.95. Then there's a single page advert for accelerator boards on page 81 and, on page 47, a review of Power Computing's adaptor to plug a PC mouse into an Amiga.
In 1995, with Commodore Business Machines (UK) Ltd keeping a supply of Amigas flowing to the UK market, the format was clearly strong enough to convince Power Computing it was worth dipping their toes into games publishing, something they had not done before. That's not to say that Power Computing didn't have a slight ulterior motive. The release of Breathless synergised (eww) nicely with their primary role selling hardware. Breathless only worked on the Amiga 1200 and 4000 models, which might encourage people to upgrade from their Amiga 500. Plus, it seems like every preview and review of Breathless mentions how the game ran so much better on an Amiga with addition RAM or an accelerator board. Both of which were sold by Power Computing; 4MB RAM might set you back £159 and an accelerator board around £125. CU AMIGA even ran an offer for readers as part of the Breathless review, buy the game and Power Computing would offer you a 5% discount on RAM boards or an accelerator card.
 |
| CU AMIGA February 1996 page 48 |
Unit 82a, Singer Way, Woburn Road Industrial Estate, Kempston, MK42 7PU
Power Computing relocated to Singer Way around the start of 1997. You can track the blowing of the winds of change through the snapshots of their website on the Wayback Machine. PC hardware gets its first mention in October 1997. The archive of the Power Computing website contains next to nothing about their 1997 game Big Red Adventure, converted to the Amiga by Dynabyte, the Italian developer who also produced the PC version for Core Design in 1995. Core dithered over whether to produce an Amiga version or not. Core stopped supporting the Amiga so the answer was "not". It somehow took another two years for the Amiga version to appear. Red Mars, when it comes out in 1999, doesn't appear to be mentioned at all. Gradually the Amiga becomes less and less important to Power Computing but clicking through their archived website, the company does continue to support the format all the way through to 2006.
 |
| July 2026 |
This is where Power Computing moved to in 1997 and its where they are still based today. It's actually not far from Railton Road, and in the same sort of area that Kempston Micro Electronics had a couple of offices as well. The town of Kempston has a long history in the home computer hardware field and its one that continues.
Power around the world
Around 1991, Power Computing suddenly starts listing four overseas branches on the bottom of their adverts. I've struggled to find anything meaningful about any of these. How long did they last? Were they part of the same company or did they just licence the name? I've got no idea but these are the addresses along with a Google Streetview link so you can see where they were. If you live anywhere near one of them, please take a photo and send it to whereweretheynow@gmail.com
Around 1991, Power Computing suddenly starts listing four overseas branches on the bottom of their adverts. I've struggled to find anything meaningful about any of these. How long did they last? Were they part of the same company or did they just licence the name? I've got no idea but these are the addresses along with a Google Streetview link so you can see where they were. If you live anywhere near one of them, please take a photo and send it to whereweretheynow@gmail.com
POWER COMPUTING U.S.A.
21 South 5th Street Suite 900 PHILADELPHIA-PA 19106
21 South 5th Street Suite 900 PHILADELPHIA-PA 19106
I think this one was here. Overlooking the Independence National Historic Park, where the Declaration of Independence was signed and also the home of the Liberty Bell.
POWER COMPUTING SRL ITALY
Via delle Baleari, 90 00121 Ostia Lido ROMA
The Italian branch of Power Computing appears to have been based here, at the base of this gloomy tower block where someone has scrawled Odio Napoli (I hate Naples). Someone really hates Naples, the graffiti has been there since 2011.
POWER COMPUTING FRANCE
15 Bld Voltaire 75011 PARIS FRANCE
Power Computing France was here, in what is now the Hobby One trading card shop.
The Italian branch of Power Computing appears to have been based here, at the base of this gloomy tower block where someone has scrawled Odio Napoli (I hate Naples). Someone really hates Naples, the graffiti has been there since 2011.
POWER COMPUTING FRANCE
15 Bld Voltaire 75011 PARIS FRANCE
Power Computing France was here, in what is now the Hobby One trading card shop.
The advert also mentions an Australian branch, in Perth, but only directs interested punters to telephone their enquiries to "ACL Engineering Perth AUSTRALIA".
This article would not have been possible without the good work of everyone who contributes to the Amiga Magazine Rack. Thanks all. If you are P J VanDoorn or if you visited the Power Computing shop in Stanley Street then leave a comment or send an email to whereweretheynow@gmail.com to confirm if my guess about where the shop was is correct. Everyone else, leave a comment if I've got something obviously wrong (I owned an Atari ST, sorry) and/or follow me on Bluesky @shammountebank.bsky.social
[1] The score currently is eight; CRASH MICRO GAMES ACTION themselves, Crystal Computing, Durrell, Martech, New Generation, Penguin Books, Silversoft, Softek, and Ultimate. There were 31 companies listed in the advertisers index of issue one. A disappointingly low CRASH factor of 26% after all this time.
[2] If you go by page layout. It's Ocean with a vertical half page advert for The Addams Family on page 67. It's hard not to think this is pity advert on Ocean's part, to say thanks for the CRASH SMASH review of the game in the same issue.
[3] Okay. Look. Cards on the table. My definition of advert here is "a big full-page colour promotion for a game like wot they did in the olden days" because otherwise this article gets nibbled to death. The final issue of AMIGA POWER is full of small classified adverts, like the one for the Outer Limits Bulletin Board: "Adult glamour Gifs, Jpegs, Movies, and a whole lot more!" But these small adverts clearly don't pay the rent, otherwise AMIGA POWER would have kept going. There are also a couple of half-page adverts including one for the game Tin Toy In The House Of Fun Adventure by Mutation Software, on page seven of issue 65. But I don't want to write about Mutation Software because their address traces back to a house. So, within the strict limits of the question "Who was the last company to run a full page colour advert for a game in AMIGA POWER", the answer is Power Computing. Work with me here, please.
[2] If you go by page layout. It's Ocean with a vertical half page advert for The Addams Family on page 67. It's hard not to think this is pity advert on Ocean's part, to say thanks for the CRASH SMASH review of the game in the same issue.
[3] Okay. Look. Cards on the table. My definition of advert here is "a big full-page colour promotion for a game like wot they did in the olden days" because otherwise this article gets nibbled to death. The final issue of AMIGA POWER is full of small classified adverts, like the one for the Outer Limits Bulletin Board: "Adult glamour Gifs, Jpegs, Movies, and a whole lot more!" But these small adverts clearly don't pay the rent, otherwise AMIGA POWER would have kept going. There are also a couple of half-page adverts including one for the game Tin Toy In The House Of Fun Adventure by Mutation Software, on page seven of issue 65. But I don't want to write about Mutation Software because their address traces back to a house. So, within the strict limits of the question "Who was the last company to run a full page colour advert for a game in AMIGA POWER", the answer is Power Computing. Work with me here, please.
[4] Joke.
[5] A joke?
[6] No, not a joke. A sales campaign.
[5] A joke?
[6] No, not a joke. A sales campaign.
No comments:
Post a Comment