The last software label of the Spectrum's twilight commercial years?
Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2020 3:07 pm
I'm talking about what I suspect to be the last software label to be CREATED to produce ZX Spectrum games for sale in actual shops.
I think - and I could very well be wrong - it's a little outfit that's a few miles away from me, Beyond Belief, set up in 1991 and still with plans for the future in 1993.
Frankly, running an 8-bit dedicated software house in 1993 is a bit like opening up a new pub in 2020. Fair play to Jim Scott, who ran the operation from a modest semi-detached house in the village of Higham Ferrers. Issue 85 of Your Sinclair heavily featured the label in a two-page feature, as well as the cover illustration pretty much dedicated to them. There are also reviews of the Double-Dragon-ish Hands Of Stone and the Rastan-like Kung-Fu Warriors, which are cruelly MIA, I'm sad to say.
In the interview, Jim Scott says that the major high street outlets won't stock new ZX Spectrum games unless they are issued on other formats, so there was a lot of talk about getting the games converted to the Commodore 64. A casual Google for Beyond Belief's output shows a few results from Amstrad CPC sites, so it's had a presence on all three major 8-bits.
Investigating more, Jim also talked about the battle to get on the high street from a C64 perspective, in Commodore Force, which has plenty of references to the Speccy and Amstrad markets and the small victories they have over the 16-bits.
With football management, fighting games and a Dizzy-like franchise, there was certainly an aim from Beyond Belief to make it commercially, but not all of these games impressed the reviewers.
Anyway, that's my theory that Beyond Belief was the last software label of the Speccy's commercial era, but of course, this is where you hit reply and tell me I'm wrong, because...
I think - and I could very well be wrong - it's a little outfit that's a few miles away from me, Beyond Belief, set up in 1991 and still with plans for the future in 1993.
Frankly, running an 8-bit dedicated software house in 1993 is a bit like opening up a new pub in 2020. Fair play to Jim Scott, who ran the operation from a modest semi-detached house in the village of Higham Ferrers. Issue 85 of Your Sinclair heavily featured the label in a two-page feature, as well as the cover illustration pretty much dedicated to them. There are also reviews of the Double-Dragon-ish Hands Of Stone and the Rastan-like Kung-Fu Warriors, which are cruelly MIA, I'm sad to say.
In the interview, Jim Scott says that the major high street outlets won't stock new ZX Spectrum games unless they are issued on other formats, so there was a lot of talk about getting the games converted to the Commodore 64. A casual Google for Beyond Belief's output shows a few results from Amstrad CPC sites, so it's had a presence on all three major 8-bits.
Investigating more, Jim also talked about the battle to get on the high street from a C64 perspective, in Commodore Force, which has plenty of references to the Speccy and Amstrad markets and the small victories they have over the 16-bits.
With football management, fighting games and a Dizzy-like franchise, there was certainly an aim from Beyond Belief to make it commercially, but not all of these games impressed the reviewers.
Anyway, that's my theory that Beyond Belief was the last software label of the Speccy's commercial era, but of course, this is where you hit reply and tell me I'm wrong, because...