In this the fifth part of the First and Last series, we will look at the short-lived PAL Developments range, which started life in March 1989, so well before the end of the main Mastertronic 310 range, and by release date, actually had games released later than the end of the 310 range too. It is one that certainly fascinates collectors, although as per usual Mastertronic did their level best to derail the trainspotters, in true inconsistency style.
PAL Developments was a producer of games, and they were founded by Dave Palmer, who previously ran Palmer Acoustics Limited, a supplier of audio equipment to radio, television and movie studios. Dave then gained experience in the computer games industry based around his native Sheffield, and the developments part came in with the PAL moniker to produce a series of games for Mastertronic. Eventually, Dave would go his own way and form Hi-Tec Software, so he could publish the games himself – along with a nice deal to licence Hanna-Barbera characters along the way. There is plenty more over on the Commodore Format Archive here, which is well worth a good read.
Of course, what did not help was that although games were released all with the PAL prefix (like the early MAD ranges) not all of the games were of PAL Developments’ making – indeed Mastertronic decided to use that range for the re-releases of Tetris, Rescue on Fractalus, and Barry McGuigan’s World Championship Boxing. Effectively, they had a format prefix too – CM for Commodore, AT for Atari 8-bit, AS for Amstrad CPC and SP for ZX Spectrum, with SA being used for the initial “flippy” releases which contained both Spectrum and Amstrad versions. In addition, earlier releases were with Mastertronic packaging, and later ones with Mastertronic Plus, showing the £2.99 price point, just to add the confusion.
For this article, we’re covering the 8-bit cassette releases only. If two of the games released first or last have the same date, the lowest catalogue number for the first and the highest for the last is the winner, which follows the same rule we established originally for the main 310 range.
PAL Developments – The Flippy Releases
As there were only three releases that were “flippy” ones with the Spectrum and Amstrad versions bundled together, it made sense to group these by the release date and catalogue numbers separately, as both ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC owners may wish to know which ones to look out for that are on this format – the rest, as per the checklist, are single format onwards from these. They are as follows:
- Bomb Fusion (PAL SA1) – March 1989
- Speed Zone (PAL SA2) – March 1989
- Dynamix (PAL SA3) – April 1989
PAL Developments – The First
For the standalone single format releases, it was interesting to note that there were in the main four formats used for this range, apart from one game, as we will see.
Commodore 64
Bomb Fusion (PAL CM1, March 1989)
The first of the PAL Developments range, and like the ZX Spectrum version, it is a pretty entertaining puzzle platform game. Effectively, you need to ensure that your pods are placed in the relevant package cases, whilst ensuring that any bombs that are about to go off are defused, and avoiding the nasty Balloid along the way. It may not look the prettiest, but the gameplay elements hold together well and the sensible difficulty level means you can progress with each go. You may find this one quite addictive after a while, and it is a good opening title to the range, unlike the other game released that month:
Also released in March 1989 for the Commodore 64:
Speed Zone (PAL CM2)
Atari XL/XE
Speed Zone (PAL AT2, April 1989)
The other format versions of Speed Zone had been rightfully criticised for being a terrible game, with all of them being much too fast for you to react. Unlike the others, the Atari version plays a little slower, so you can actually react in time to be able to shoot the enemies down. The enemies are still at random, and there is the appearance of a copyright-breaking Tardis too. It’s the best version, but that does not say much and still would not score very highly on review either. You would only hope that some of the other releases would be better, especially when you consider what Zeppelin Games were producing on budget for the same system.
ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and BBC Micro / Acorn Electron
Tetris (May 1989)
ZX Spectrum (PAL SP8)
Amstrad CPC (PAL AS8)
BBC / Electron (PAL BE8)
This was the first re-release on the PAL Developments label, immediately derailing the plan that all games with the range would be PAL Developments produced. Whilst the game is effectively as addictive as it ever was, you always felt that it needed the grandeur and epic feel that the Commodore 64 version’s soundtrack had to keep you playing. That said, all three versions here are perfectly playable, and for the BBC and Electron, this was the only release in the PAL Developments range. As most of the market for that format had died out by this point, it explains the low sales numbers – just 1,198 copies were sold in all, so is quite a scarce game to locate. One of the team was fortunate enough to purchase one recently for a reasonable price, but do keep your eyes out.
PAL Developments – The Last
There were only four eight-bit formats that had more than one game released in this range, so rounding up the last ones is quite simple, well, sort of! In some cases, the highest catalogue number wins out, as you will see.
Atari XL/XE
Sidewinder II (PAL AT14, September 1990)
Sidewinder of course had been the game which Mastertronic had for their Arcadia series of arcade machines, based on the rousing Amiga version, complete with the iconic sound effects. Notably one thing will hit you when loading the Atari version – the title theme is basically a cover of Adam Gilmore’s title theme from the classic Zeppelin budget game Zybex. The game does scroll well, uses the hardware sprites and had a nice use of bas relief graphics, and the pausing of the scrolling to get into position works well. Almost as good as the Commodore 64 version, and a worthy game for the range for this system.
ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC
Rugby Manager (September 1990)
ZX Spectrum (PAL SP18)
Amstrad CPC (PAL AS18)
Rugby Manager shows a date of 1989 but was not released until September 1990. Effectively, this is a management simulation of rugby league, not rugby union, and for those up North who prefer this version of the format (me included) you could move the pointer around the office and desk to effectively buy and sell players, check the team stats, play a match, and very much in the line of the Football Manager style of games. The matches themselves have a text-based commentary very similar to Tracksuit Manager, but there is no interaction to be able to change the players around or even think tactically, which is a shame. Nonetheless, good to be able to have a different sport covered, even if it is not the best management game out there.
Also released in September 1990 for the ZX Spectrum:
Sidewinder II (PAL SP14)
Commodore 64
Sidewinder II (PAL CM14, October 1990)
The final dated release was several months after the end of the main 310 range, and for some reason the Commodore 64 version was released a month after the others. That said, it does have a quite good Julian Potts (Japmaster) soundtrack on the title screen that is a rousing five minutes, and the fact you can pause the scrolling to get into position to shoot the enemy targets is quite a nice and positive touch overall. Graphically it does look pretty good, and the playability certainly means that it is one you can have a good few goes on, getting further every time.
Final Thoughts
One of the interesting points to note about the PAL Developments range is that the first batch of releases up to Die Alien Slime were released by September 1989, and then there was a sizeable gap of ten months before the release of T Bird in July 1990. Quite why there is such a gap, I am not sure, although some of the dates coincide with the launch of Hi-Tec Software around late 1989, so maybe a deal was done to publish the remaining games afterwards and this took time – with all three games released in 1990 (T Bird, Sidewinder II and Rugby Manager) all showing 1989 on the respective loading and title screens on most formats. It would be good to know for definite what happened here and why there was such a gap between releases, and that adds another air of mystery to this intriguing range of games.
There was definitely something for everyone, including a great fruit machine game (Super Nudge 2000, aka Fruitbank, well on the Commodore 64 at least), shoot-em-ups that varied in quality, puzzle games such as Bomb Fusion and Dynamix (again, the Commodore 64 version is the best one here by some distance) and even some quality re-releases, especially Rescue on Fractalus, a true classic of its era. Definitely well worth you investigating further and seeing how many of them you can pick up cheap.
Leave a Reply