The best Speccy game by Argus Press Software: discussion

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PeteProdge
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The best Speccy game by Argus Press Software: discussion

Post by PeteProdge »

Despite being a big name early on in the Speccy's commercial life, the total of Speccy games put out under the label of Argus Press Software can be counted on your fingers.

While there are many many Speccy games the company have been involved in releasing, when it comes to the Argus Press Software brand in its own right, we have just eight. There were a lot more put out under its sub brands, like Grandslam, Mind Games, MC Lothlorien and its acquisition Quicksilva.

There isn't too much of note here in the list I've come up with. The most notorious is the arcade adventure game Grange Hill, based on the BBC's famous children's TV series, which is so jaw-droppingly bleak (even compared with the show's Zammo/Danny Kendall era), it crops up a lot in 'shocking games' YouTube videos.

Also, big thanks to [mention]StooB[/mention], as the 1988 game Hunt For Red October (which was based on the original book by Tom Clancy, not the 1990 movie) would have been put under the Grandslam poll. Now, the games database does count this as a Grandslam release, and, certainly, the packaging scans on WOS (which I tend to use as the ultimate determination of what brand a game came out under) really does point to it being a Grandslam release, but when we discussed the Grandslam poll, StooB provided photographic proof of it originally being an Argus Press Software release. Can't argue with that.

Oh, and if this poll was started, my personal vote would go immediately to Nether Earth, without question. A weird and fantastic strategy game.

Here's my shortlist. You have seven days to tell me how I've got it wrong... or something...

Bismark
Elephant Polo
Evil Crown
Grange Hill
Hunt For Red October, The (book)
Nether Earth
PlanetFall
Roundheads
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Re: The best Speccy game by Argus Press Software: discussion

Post by StooB »

Evil Crown is Mind Games:

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Re: The best Speccy game by Argus Press Software: discussion

Post by StooB »

Roundheads is Lothlorien.


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Re: The best Speccy game by Argus Press Software: discussion

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StooB wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 11:12 am Evil Crown is Mind Games:
[...]
Roundheads is Lothlorien.
Point taken on Evil Crown, I've moved that to the Mind Games list.

However, Roundheads I'm not so sure is MC Lothlorien. The advert uses 'From Lothlorien', and I suppose it can be argued that it's in the context of them as a developer.

Also, the inlay itself has no mention of Lothlorien, just Argus Press Software's name and logo...

Image

...of course, the war helmet icon (MC Lothlorien's logo) is on the cassette label, but then so is '© A.P.S. 1986'.

It's a tough one to call... is Roundheads published by Argus Press Software or MC Lothlorien? I remain undecided...
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Re: The best Speccy game by Argus Press Software: discussion

Post by StooB »

World War One is the same, but you've put that on Lothlorien!
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Re: The best Speccy game by Argus Press Software: discussion

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StooB wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 11:37 am World War One is the same, but you've put that on Lothlorien!
Again, I concede!

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World War 1 will be in my Argus Press Software list, not MC Lothlorien.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Argus Press Software: discussion

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I've never heard of Elephant Polo but I'm certainly going to give it a go.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Argus Press Software: discussion

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

Nether Earth outstands, IMO.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Argus Press Software: discussion

Post by Ast A. Moore »

Nether Earth is going to be miles ahead of any others. If I remember correctly, it was the original genre-defining game period.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Argus Press Software: discussion

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PeteProdge wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 10:15 am While there are many many Speccy games the company have been involved in releasing, when it comes to the Argus Press Software brand in its own right, we have just eight. There were a lot more put out under its sub brands, like Grandslam, Mind Games, MC Lothlorien and its acquisition Quicksilva.
There was also another label under the Argus umbrella - ASP Software, which mainly released simple strategy and adventure games.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Argus Press Software: discussion

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Re: The best Speccy game by Argus Press Software: discussion

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Firefox wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 6:08 pm There's Alien, too.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.php?cat=96&id=145
Ah, but that's on Argus's sub-brand Mind Games. It's going to be in that poll.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Argus Press Software: discussion

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Nick wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 5:53 pm
PeteProdge wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 10:15 am While there are many many Speccy games the company have been involved in releasing, when it comes to the Argus Press Software brand in its own right, we have just eight. There were a lot more put out under its sub brands, like Grandslam, Mind Games, MC Lothlorien and its acquisition Quicksilva.
There was also another label under the Argus umbrella - ASP Software, which mainly released simple strategy and adventure games.
Cheers for that. I'll cover it in the next round. It appears to be a company they acquired.

Hopefully, I'll have done everything related to Argus Press, soon!
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Re: The best Speccy game by Argus Press Software: discussion

Post by Firefox »

PeteProdge wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 6:55 pm Ah, but that's on Argus's sub-brand Mind Games. It's going to be in that poll.
Sorry - I'd got the wrong end of the stick and thought we were including sub-brands.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Argus Press Software: discussion

Post by Hank Scorpio »

Do Argus Press hold the record for the most brands/labels owned or acquired by an 80's computer games company? I can't think of too many others which released software under so many different names.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Argus Press Software: discussion

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Hank Scorpio wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 1:51 pm I've never heard of Elephant Polo but I'm certainly going to give it a go.
It appears that Elephant Polo is MIA so I'll never know if it's one of the greatest games ever released.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Argus Press Software: discussion

Post by StooB »

PeteProdge wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 6:56 pm Cheers for that. I'll cover it in the next round. It appears to be a company they acquired.
ASP Software was Argus Specialist Publications, who also published Home Computing Weekly and ZX Computing among others. They weren't acquired by Argus Press Software, they became them in 1984.

Planetfall and Bismark were APS's first releases but they both say ASP on the loading screens.
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