Mastertronic
| Mastertronic | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Limited |
| founding | 1983 |
| resolution | 1988 |
| Reason for dissolution | Merger with Virgin Games |
| Seat | St Ives (Cambridgeshire) (United Kingdom) |
| Branch | Software development |
Mastertronic was established in 1983 publisher of computer games in the low-price segment. Mastertronic became known above all for their consistent low price policy and the fact that they managed to get computer games onto the shelves of large department stores, petrol stations and many other retailers.
history
Mastertronic was founded in 1983 by Martin Alper, Frank Herman, Terry Medway and Alan Sharam. At the beginning of the 1980s, computer games were still largely to be found in computer stores, and the large retail chains distrusted this new product field too much. Mastertronic's recipe for success was based on three factors: the very low price of £ 1.99 in England (DM 9.95 in Germany), the large-scale distribution involving retail chains, which enabled large numbers of items to be sold, and the low risk for the Dealer, since leftover games were replaced by new ones and the dealer did not have to sit on unsold goods. With its aggressive pricing policy, Mastertronic turned the entire British computer game industry against itself. At first the computer scene was quite skeptical about these cheap games, but it was quickly accepted that Mastertronic games offered at least something like a good price-performance ratio. Even later these games were seen as "cool", especially since there were some classics to be found in addition to the sometimes mediocre to bad games. Even Rob Hubbard had its share in the success of Mastertronic, because often the music was written for the Games of it, so that often the quality of the music was a lot better than the game itself.
Mastertronic tried to offer games for all home computer platforms; The company was particularly successful with the Commodore 64 , Schneider CPC and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum , which was mainly due to the greater popularity of these computers. In order to keep a mix-up of the versions for different platforms as low as possible, the so-called "color code" was thought of, so that one could see from the color of some design elements on the cover which computer the game was written for. The concept of cheap games on cassette has found some imitators , so there have been countless companies that have released their games in a similar way. Firebird software was one of the best known . The “color code” was also often copied with slight changes.
In May 1987 Mastertronic announced that it wanted to produce arcade machines. The technical basis for the project called "Arcadia" was the motherboards of the Amiga computers .
In 1987, the Virgin Group acquired from Richard Branson 45% of the company's shares, which were held by outside investors. In 1988 the company was completely sold to Virgin and merged with Virgin Games . For a short time the merger operated as Virgin Mastertronic . When it was renamed Virgin Interactive Entertainment , the company's name also disappeared. Virgin used a label called "Tronix" for a short time, but it soon disappeared.
From 2005 to 2015 there was a software company called Mastertronic Group. Frank Herman, one of the founders of the original Mastertronic company, bought the naming rights from rights holder Sega. In 2015 business operations were discontinued.
Games catalog (selection)
Web links
- Mastertronic at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Guter.org: A History of Mastertronic. Retrieved August 18, 2019 .
- ^ Graham Taylor: Taking No Chances . In: Popular Computing Weekly . 3, No. 29, 1984, p. 12.
- ↑ David Kelly: An A to Z88 of 1987 - A review of the year. In: The Guardian , London, December 17, 1987. (English)
- ^ GamesIndustry.biz: One out, Sold Out. Retrieved August 18, 2019 .
- ↑ GamesIndustry.biz: Mastertronic enters administration after 32 years. Retrieved August 18, 2019 .