Also, Bulldog Software was set up to send titles the other way a year later. Some well known programmers sold games through Mastertronic, including the Darling Brothers, who later founded Codemasters and David Jones, author of the Magic Knight series of games for the company.Īnother Mastertronic subsidiary label, Entertainment USA brought titles over to Britain from America starting in 1986. Even though the games were cheap, they sold in huge numbers, and the generous royalty payments meant most of the programmers did very well indeed. In 1985 the company launched the M.A.D label (Mastertronic Added Dimension) which started to publish games at £2.99, these were considered more worthy titles, and was a way of keeping their freelance programmers with better royalties. The company was further strengthened in sales by Richard Bielby who ran a distribution network for smaller retailers. By 1984 Mastertronic had gained a reputation as a real player in the software industry, and it was the start of many more budget labels such as Codemasters and Players coming into retail. The artwork on the boxes was often of a hugely high standard and would often drive up sales with players buying the game on the strength of the cover. Not just the large shops of the day such as Woolworths and WH Smith, but also newsagents, toy shops, petrol stations, and motorway service stations.Įarly on there was suspicion of such cheap software, as the games retailed for £1.99 when most games were around the £7.99 - £9.99 mark, but the software sold in huge numbers, as generally the quality of the games matched those of high-end software, and even if they didn't, gamers were more prepared to spend a couple of pounds on a title that was not as good. The company initially sent packages of 100 tapes to anyone who would take them. Mastertronic was a pioneering budget software label and publisher, founded in 1983 by Martin Alper, Frank Herman, Terry Medway and Alan Sharam using money from investors and their knowledge of video distribution. Mastertronic Home > Browse Our Collection > Computing Companies > Mastertronic
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