Silversoft

London House, 271/273 King Street, W6

FOR ADDED REALISM PLAY THIS STANDING IN THE BATH. The bold advertising strapline on Silversoft Ltd's advert for Worst Things Happen at Sea got the company dinged by the Advertising Standards Authority. CRASH issue 13 (February 1985 page 59) reported how two members of the public complained on the grounds that electricity and water don't mix, and in a game likely to appeal to children the advert encouraged  a disregard for safety. You can view the offending advert here in CRASH issue 11 (December 1984 page 139). Out of curiosity I sent an email to the ASA, and got a polite but brief reply. "Thank you very much for contacting the Advertising Standards Authority with regard to ruling made against the company Silversoft Ltd in 1984 or 1985. I am afraid I am unable to help you on this occasion, as that ruling was archived off many years ago and we no longer have access to it."

Odin Computer Graphics / Thor (Computer Software)

The Podium, Steers House, Canning Place, Liverpool, L1

In the lands of the north where the black rocks stand guard against the cold sea, in the dark night that is very long, the men of the northlands sit by their great log fires and they tell a tale.

Mirrorsoft / Image Works

Maxwell House, Worship Street, London, EC2A

This post frequently felt like a house of cards spinning out of control. I'd started covering Mirrorsoft back in June 2021 (day one, the same day I made a spur of the moment trip to Stratford for CRL) but it quickly became clear this wasn't going to be a simple one-and-done job. One trip down to London became two, and then a third, and then... well you can read about my inability to understand basic street numbers further down the page, along with my flimsy, whinging justification. Oh, look, here's another  address, and it's outside of London, and don't forget Mirrorsoft's spin-off label Image Works. And of course Mirrorsoft is wrapped ivy-like in the complicated corporate structure of Robert Maxwell. At 3000 words this post is so stupidly long I did consider cutting it into two parts but that felt too self-indulgent event for me.

Amstrad / Amsoft

Brentwood House, 169 King's Road, Brentwood, CM14

Brentwood not Brentford. Brentwood not Brentford. Brentwood. Brentwood. I've got a blind spot on the location of the Amstrad HQ which must be a result of reading too many Robert Rankin books.  I'd normally weed out mistakes before publishing but in this case I'm going to allow rogue Brentfords* to remain; to see how many there are. Let's call it a science experiment. Amstrad moved to Brentwood in 1984, 16 years after the company was founded and the same year the CPC 464 was launched.

Micromega

230-236 Lavender Hill, London, SW11

Pop quiz hotshot. It's 1983. You've been given £7500 to promote a new-ish software house. What do you do? If you were Neil Hooper, newly appointed sales manager at Micromega you'd spend £4000 of it on television advertising. HOME COMPUTER WEEKLY (7 June 1983 page 37) went into more detail. "Though TV ads for videogames are nothing new, Micromega is the first home computer software company to advertise its wares on television." Sadly this historic advert hasn't survived or, if it is lurking out there on a videotape (go and check now!), it hasn't made the leap onto Youtube. Micromega were understandably proud of their small step into a new medium and for the next few months their print adverts carry the strapline "AS SEEN ON T.V.!!"

State Soft

Business & Technology Centre, Bessemer Drive, Stevenage, SG1

This is where I rectify a mistake made in the planning stages of this blog. I wanted an early entry to cover a company responsible for a notable Commodore 64 game, and Boulder Dash was always an unmistakably C64 title for me; probably because of trips to a friend's house where the game was always on the menu. However because my background is the C64's bitter rival the ZX Spectrum I defaulted to the World of Spectrum entry for my research and concluded Front Runner was solely responsible for all UK versions of Boulder Dash. It wasn't. It turns out Boulder Dash in the UK has the most convoluted licencing history possible with every version released by a different company; C64 (State Soft), Spectrum (Front Runner), Amstrad (Mirrorsoft), BBC (Tynesoft), MSX (Orpheus). It's tempting to wonder what First Star (the original USA publishers) were thinking but I suspect they were thinking, "cor, aren't we making a lot of money licencing this game."

Spirit Software

 1 1/2 Pembroke Mews, London W8

It began innocently enough. An advert in PERSONAL COMPUTER NEWS (January 21st 1984 page 67). "FORMULA ONE AND STEERING WHEEL," was the eye-catching headline. Followed up by, "Naturally you cannot steer a racing car effectively by pressing buttons or wiggling a joystick so we have developed a steering wheel that fits to the Spectrum... the wheel is strongly made and thanks to a brilliantly simple design we have been able to keep the cost down to a minimum. It will be used for many games in the future but is now only available with FORMULA ONE." How intriguing. And all for the (relatively) low price of £8.95. It's more expensive than a standard game admittedly, but how many games come with an innovative add-on?