The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

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PeteProdge
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The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

Post by PeteProdge »

Ah, Players Software - a creation of Interceptor Micros (who started pushing full price software as Interceptor Software). One of the also-rans when it came to budget labels - of which there were many in the late 80s, all trying to grab a share of the Mastertronic and Code Masters pie.

The visual brand of Players was quite striking, a welcome contrast to the forgettable Interceptor Software. They did issue a few text adventure games at first, maybe a hangover from the Interceptor Software days, but shifted over to action games that seemed aimed at teenagers. They had a bit of proliferation with Speccy magazines Your Sinclair and Sinclair User, giving them full games and playable demos for covertapes. Oh, and their 'Loada-Game' system - letting you play things like a simple Pac Man game while the main game loaded (similar to many efforts on the Commodore 64) was a commendable techical effort.

What they really tried hard to push onto the market, was the Joe Blade franchise. It may just be me, but I've found this baffling. I don't find any excitement from these games, they're really below average in my eyes, yet they persevered in trying to make him a notable character. Sorry, but it smacks all too much of 'Gabbo Is Coming' for me.

Taking inspiration from Mastertronic's £2.99 label for 'higher quality' budget releases (M.A.D. aka Mastertronic Added Dimension), they set up Premiers Premier, but that's a brand I'm treating separately from Players Software, you'll see that in another topic.

What I have here, is a list of original games for the ZX Spectrum under the Players Software brand.

Now, there are few chin-stroking moments. I've kept in a few games which came out exclusively on magazine covertapes for YS and SU. And then there is the omission of Los Angeles Police Department, which I'll explain afterwards...

Anfractuos
Blob the Cop
Brat Attack
Cagara
Claws Of Despair
Crime Busters
Cybernation
Denizen
Desert Hawk
Deviants
Dizzy Dice
European Soccer Challenge
Joe Blade
Joe Blade II
Journey To The Centre Of Eddie Smith's Head
Lop Ears
Matt Lucas
Metal Army
Miami Cobra GT
Powerplay
Psycho City
Riding The Rapids
Serf's Tale, The
Shanghai Karate
Shanghai Warriors
Shrewsbury Key
Skateboard Construction System
Street Gang
Sword Slayer
Tanium
Thing!
Tomcat
Turbo Kart Racer
Xanthius
Zacaron Mystery

Now, onto the diabolical Operation Wolf clone, Los Angeles Police Department, which was sold by Players Software. I haven't put it in the list above. You're welcome to disagree with this. Here's my reasoning...

Before it hit shop shelves as a Player Software game, it had been advertised quite a lot as a small advert in many of the Speccy magazines for quite an age, as LA Drugs Bust...

Image

I've always thought this was the programmer trying to sell his game independently through mail order, before selling the license to it to a proper software label. However, if you look at the address - the Hampshire village of Tadley is where father-and-son Interceptor founders Julian and Richard Jones come from. It seems to be a deliberate attempt (okay, maybe an experiment) to sell a game direct through mail order in an anonymous way. And I suspect it didn't set the world alight...

What happened next - is really bizarre. The game got reskinned around Neighbours characters (yep, the Australian soap opera was very very prolific at the time) and retitled A Nightmare On Robinson Street, as an exclusive release on a Your Sinclair covertape. I don't include it here, because it was under the Players Premier brand (pretty odd, because this really is an atrocious game, even if you overlook the 'comedy' restyling). Mind you, another terrible Operation-Wolf-wannabe game designed to raise a smile and appearing on a YS covertape is YS Capers, but that has nothing to do with Players/Interceptor.

Anyway, despite a 75p mail order release as LA Drugs Bust, a comedy reskinning magazine covertape exclusive as A Nightmare On Elm Street, it amazingly was saw fit to publish as a £1.99 shop shelf game by Players Software. This was the LA Drugs Bust version, but hastily retitled to Los Angeles Police Department.

As you can see, I see this as a re-release, and not eligible for this poll. However, it does seem like the original release has come from Players, albeit without the Players or Interceptor (or even Pandora or whatever) branding. Have I done the right thing in excluding it?

Anyway, that's my list and in a few weeks I'll conclude the Interceptor brands coverage by doing a Players Premier poll. I'll also get round to a Severn Software poll, which is a label that's sort of connected to Interceptor.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

Joe Blade games and Deviants are really good, but my fave will be Pycho City, a very atmospheric isometric adventure.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

Post by hitm4n »

I really liked Deviants too. Always thought "Players" had good output, be interested to see the poll and the screenshots for the reminders on some of these.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

Post by Firefox »

PeteProdge wrote: Sun Nov 24, 2019 11:17 am Before it hit shop shelves as a Player Software game, it had been advertised quite a lot as a small advert in many of the Speccy magazines for quite an age, as LA Drugs Bust...

Image

I've always thought this was the programmer trying to sell his game independently through mail order
So what exactly were they getting out of this exercise? Were they able to manufacture and post the tapes for 50p and pocket the remaining 25p, or something like that?
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Re: The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

Post by toot_toot »

I sent off for LA Drugs bust and I’m sure it came with a players catalogue or flyer. I think it was done purely to raise awareness of the company through a free game.

I thought the game itself wasn’t too bad, although some of Players games suffer from feeling like a game that you couldn’t afford at full price, so here’s a cheapo version (Shanghai Karate was like IK+, Subway Vigilante was like Renegade. Although ironically the Hit Squad and Kixx labels ended up killing off that approach, because you could just buy the original games for £2.99)

Players games also seemed to have a very similar graphical style. But I really loved the Joe Blade games, but I also really liked Death Wish 3 by Gremlin, which I think they took a lot of inspiration from.

I also remember YS having a covertape with a few Players games, but there was a “rare special edition” that had a few extra games on it (two extra adventures from Interceptor and an extra Players game). I remember my mate managed to get this tape, it was amazing to get 6 games on a cover tape at that time!

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=19231
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Re: The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

Post by PeteProdge »

Firefox wrote: Sun Nov 24, 2019 9:17 pm So what exactly were they getting out of this exercise? Were they able to manufacture and post the tapes for 50p and pocket the remaining 25p, or something like that?
It would very much appear so, because there were many parts of Interceptor Group, such as a cassette duplicating business; an inlay printing service; packaging, etc. They'd be available to other software companies too, which must have brought in some income.

Here's a look at them on a TVS news feature from 1985...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig8xP9H2W6Q
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Re: The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

Post by Vampyre »

A friend of a friend wrote Metal Army (Mark Haden). They met when they started working together at a company on business applications in the early 90's. Went out drinking with them a few times back in the day. Mark also worked as an apprentice/work-experience with Follis and Carter at Gargoyle Games for a while too.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

Post by Ralf »

Players software have very distincive graphics style in their games. It's obvious that they went from the same artist - Martin Severn called Jabba ( https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... el_id=6748 )

I would say most of them are okay, above average if we compare them to other companies.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

Post by PeteProdge »

Vampyre wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 8:50 am A friend of a friend wrote Metal Army (Mark Haden).
Do congratulate him on that. It's possibly going to be my vote. Such an underrated gem, far better than Deviants. I'm tied between Metal Army and Skateboard Construction Kit.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

Post by Firefox »

PeteProdge wrote: Sun Nov 24, 2019 10:29 pm Here's a look at them on a TVS news feature from 1985...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig8xP9H2W6Q
Really interesting stuff! Thanks for posting that.

(Jammy git... ;) )
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Re: The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

Post by Swainy »

I remember really looking forward to this after seeing a rolling demo on a YS tape.

Image

Graphically I thought it looked great and I was hoping that it might be a Target: Renegade beater but sadly it played really badly.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

Post by Ralf »

I remember really looking forward to this after seeing a rolling demo on a YS tape.
I remember that game. Unfortunately very repetetive and very average gameplay.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

Post by Morkin »

A lot of my favourite games came in the mid-80s, with games from the likes of Hewson, Gargoyle etc that was impressing me on regular occasions.

I think by the time Players appeared on the scene, their offerings seemed a bit lacklustre, though I found some games fairly playable and they were very cheap.

I think the Joe Blade games were decent and good value but like Pete they didn't particularly blow my mind (except for that pacman loader of course)..
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Re: The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

Post by Swainy »

Personally I think that there best game was one of their later releases... Miami Cobra GT. it wasn’t the best racing game on the Spectrum but for a few quid you had something looked pretty nice and played rather well.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

Post by PeteProdge »

Swainy wrote: Tue Nov 26, 2019 6:27 am I remember really looking forward to this after seeing a rolling demo on a YS tape.

Image

Graphically I thought it looked great and I was hoping that it might be a Target: Renegade beater but sadly it played really badly.
Another pseudo-Renegade effort from Players (alright, Players Premier, so not going to be part of this specific poll) was Subway Vigilante. Looked like a budget Spectrum version of Renegade, played like a budget ZX80 version of Renegade...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4sinZN0WyY

It's utterly vile. I would go so far as to say it is equal with Renegade III. Yes, I went there. It truly is that bad.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

I remember a Subway Vigilante vs Renegade III poll either here or in WoS, don't remember, which forced me to play both games (that I had never played before).

I don't remember which one was the winner, but I still have nightmares! :lol:
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Re: The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

Post by Swainy »

You guys need to try the C64 version of Subway Vigilante.

https://youtu.be/gFfX2q_JLik
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Re: The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

Post by PeteProdge »

Firefox wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 5:16 pm Really interesting stuff! Thanks for posting that.

(Jammy git... ;) )
Oh, it didn't go totally his way. The businesses all tanked around the start of the 1990s.

If you've got Retro Gamer issue 115, there's an extraordinary multi-page article about the rise and fall of Interceptor. And this webpage, by the author, brings out many of those interviews in full.

Mind you, he did end up in California in the end, so it wasn't all bad.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Players Software: discussion

Post by jdanddiet »

PeteProdge wrote: Tue Nov 26, 2019 9:19 pm
Firefox wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 5:16 pm Really interesting stuff! Thanks for posting that.

(Jammy git... ;) )
Oh, it didn't go totally his way. The businesses all tanked around the start of the 1990s.

If you've got Retro Gamer issue 115, there's an extraordinary multi-page article about the rise and fall of Interceptor. And this webpage, by the author, brings out many of those interviews in full.

Mind you, he did end up in California in the end, so it wasn't all bad.
I wrote that. I interviewed Richard over the phone to California. It was quite...interesting :-D
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