Category: ChartedPage 4 of 57

A British history of popular video games, told one sales chart #1 at a time

Monty on the Run – “Bon Voyage Monsieur Le Monty”

Manic Miner did not have very much to say about mining. Its name and ostensible theme came from Miner 2049er, but anything mine-related was incidental to all the…

Hyper Sports – “Six hyper-sporting events”

“Our accountant just couldn’t believe it. He thought we’d end the year with about £2,000 in profits”. So said Mark Butler, co-founder of Imagine Software, in a profile…

The Way of the Exploding Fist – “10th Dan”

Gregg Barnett was born in Swan Hill, Victoria, Australia. He moved to Melbourne for university and then joined software company Melbourne House in 1982. Up to then, his…

Soft Aid – “Feed The World”

“The games industry was in the ascendancy, but was still in the shadow of the music business in those days” said Rod Cousens, when reflecting on the events…

Football Manager – “Match highlights to follow”

The UK chart success of Computer Scrabble in 1984 showed the audience for direct computer versions of modern board games. The makers of predecessor Monty Plays Scrabble had…

Alien 8 – “Activated cryogenic chambers”

Right after Ultimate released Underwurlde and introduced the ability-unlocked-gateway mechanic to 2D platformer maze games, they also put out the much more significant game they had been holding…

Ghostbusters – “You crossed the streams”

Games based on movies go back a long way, including in the UK’s games charts. Earlier in 1984, the charts played host to Richard Wilcox Software’s Blue Thunder,…

Underwurlde – “Scurrying slithering shadowy grave”

1983 was a good year for Ultimate. They released their first game Jetpac to much success earlier in the year. Then (after some other, less successful 16K games)…

Elite – “The Universe will open up before you”

The Universe, as has been observed before, is an unsettlingly big place, a fact which, for the sake of a quiet life, most people tend to ignore. […]…

American Football – “The tactical battle against the Opposing Team”

In 1984, the Los Angeles Raiders won Super Bowl XVIII. I had to look that one up. Despite that lack of American Football knowledge, though, I know something…