Difference between revisions of "Virgin Games"

Revision as of 03:06, 16 May 2010

As with just about every other conceivable market in the 1980s (including travel, radio and soft drinks), Richard Branson's Virgin group were to become big players on the CPC scene.

Their first release for the CPC, Sorcery was by far the most impressive piece of games software that had been made available at that point and is still brought up when discussing the greatest games that appeared on the Amstrad. Such was the impression that Sorcery made, it was quickly adopted as something of a trophy game - appearing in advertisements designed to sell the machine and highlighting just what this new kid on the block was capable of.

Fast becoming recognised as a stamp of quality, Virgin produced the majority of their software in-house with the notorius Gang of Five (and occasionally Gang of Six!) responsible for the coding of these landmark games.

In 1987, Virgin owner Richard Branson bought into Mastertronic, a leading supplier of budget software which had recently overstretched themselves with the purchase of Melbourne House. Retaining a 45% share of the company, initially Mastertronic and Virgin had little direct contact. This all changed in September 1988 when Virgin bought out Mastertronic and the two companies merged to become known as Virgin Mastertronic.

The group continued to release full-price games under the Virgin Games branding with re-releases at first being made on the Mastertronic Plus label and latterly Tronix. The quickly shrinking 8-bit market was not enough to sustain an interest for Virgin, however, and they pulled out of original releases for the CPC scene in 1990.

Releases for the CPC

• Action Force (1988)
• Continental Circus (1989)
• Dan Dare (1986)
• Dan Dare II: Mekon's Revenge (1987)
• Dan Dare III: The Escape (1990)
• Double Dragon (1988)
• Double Dragon II (1989)
• Dynamix (1989)
• Edition One (1990)
• Election (1987)
• F.A. Cup Football (1986)
• Fists of Fury: Edition 2 (1991)
• Gemini Wing (1989)
• Golden Axe (1990)
• How to be a Complete Bastard (1987)
• Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart's Super Off Road (1990)
• John Elway's Quarterback (1990)
• Missile Ground Zero (1989)
• Monty Python's Flying Circus (1990)
• New York Warriors (1990)
• Ninja Warriors (1989)
• Now Games 3 (1986)
• Now Games 4 (1987)
• Shinobi (1989)
• Silkworm (1988)
• Sorcery (1985)
• Strangeloop (1985)
• Trans-Atlantic Balloon Challenge (1987)
• Trashman (1986)
• Virgin Atlantic Challenge (1987)
• Viz (1991)
• World Cup Soccer: Italia '90 (1990)

Vapourware

These titles were advertised for the CPC under the Virgin Games label but did not appear.

• Judge Dredd (1990)