Although many of you may associate Ricochet as Mastertronic’s primary re-release label, followed later by the likes of Mastertronic+ and Tronix, what may not be apparent is that in the early years of Mastertronic, prior to Ricochet, they did re-release games that had been released before, and sometimes these were under a different name.
Following on from the first two parts of this series, where the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum were covered, we now turn to the other 8-bit formats, and how many of the games were given a new lease of life by Mastertronic with a re-release, along with what happened with any other format conversions during that time.
To summarise: this guide will cover any re-releases by Mastertronic up to the date of the launch of the Ricochet label in mid-1987. Any subsequent re-releases also used the MAD and Mastertronic+ labels as part of the standard range as well as Ricochet.
Commodore Vic-20
Kwazy Kwaks (Mr Chip)
If you wanted a lovely little homage to the arcade game Carnival, then Kwazy Kwaks was for you, even having a musical version of Over the Waves by Juventina Rosas during play (as the arcade version did.) It was simple but good fun, and this game running on an unexpanded Vic-20 showed even then that Shaun Southern knew how to program good quality games. This was re-released as Duck Shoot (1V 0001) – and Shaun Southern himself made a Commodore 64 version with different mechanics and more objects to shoot along the way.
Did You Know?
If you have the Amiga version of Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 (also programmed by Shaun Southern), enter your name as DUX, and a version of Kwazy Kwaks appears for you to play, which is exactly the same as the Vic-20 original. Nice!
Jackpot (Mr Chip)
Fruit machine games were an early example of how you could translate these to a home computer format, and this appeared on both the Vic-20 and Commodore 64 (called Jackpot 64 in some cases) and both were coded by Shaun Southern. The Vic-20 version may have slightly less space to display the reels but the graphics were still pretty good and it had that one more go playability factor. Like the Commodore 64 version, this was re-released as Vegas Jackpot (1V 0002) and was a solid early release. Other format conversions were plentiful including one by Shaun himself for the Commodore 16 and Plus/4, as well as the Atari XL/XE, BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum and Dragon 32.
3D Maze (Galactic Software)
Galactic Software was founded by David and Richard Darling, and had a number of releases for the Commodore Vic-20 which were then re-released by Mastertronic later on, as well as them having a good share of the royalties, as covered by Anthony Guter’s history article. 3D Maze was written in BASIC, and you needed to move from one location to the end, whilst not trying to look at the map too often with the F1 key. The need to load the game every time to set up a new maze was a little frustrating. This was re-released by Mastertronic (IV 0012) complete with an additional option for 1 to 8 to choose the maze rather than allow it to generate to a point first before stopping. No other format conversions were undertaken, but Starmaze 2 for the BBC Micro is an interesting related curio nonetheless.
Space Scramble (Kaydee Software)
Space Scramble was a notable attempt to achieve a playable version of the arcade game Scramble on an unexpanded Vic-20, with some well-defined enemy ships and bombs to fire at them. Although you can control with the joystick, the use of diagonals to fire the bombs meant you would hit the landscape, and the keyboard layout was just as puzzling to work out which key was for each direction, meaning you would crash into the landscape without realising. The game was re-released by Mastertronic (IV 0019) with the same flaws as the original. No other format conversions were undertaken.
Neutron Zapper (Galactic Software)
This shoot-em-up game really did get quite frenetic after a while, with its often-randomised enemy placements and fast paced action showing that even if the graphics may be simplistic, with the sound effects being loud and, in your face, what mattered here was the gameplay, and it plays very well with a definite high score challenge to aim at – and David Darling coded this one too. Neutron Zapper was re-released by Mastertronic (IV 0032) pretty much as was, with no other format conversions undertaken either.
Robot Mouse (Galactic Software)
The original game, programmed by David Darling, had the first part where the lead character, as a mouse explores a square maze where you could move in and out of each segment, collecting dots along the way. This first part of the game was effectively a clone of the Sega arcade game Head On, with the second being a simple Snake type game to collect the cheese and avoid running into your own trail. It was simple and yet playable, and was re-released as Bullet (IV 0033) although in this version, some changes were made. Instead, you drove around streets collecting coins and avoiding the cop cars, with the second part collecting the four banks to rob. No other format conversions were undertaken.
Dragon 32
Bug Diver (Galactic Software)
There were only two Mastertronic games released for the Dragon, and this was one of them. It effectively was a sort of Frogger-esque arcade game where you had to head down to the ocean floor, taking all the eggs and returning them back to the surface, whilst at the same time dodging all the fish that would swim, somewhat randomly, towards you. It had its flaws due to this randomness and with a bit more thought could have been a much more enjoyable game. Bug Diver was re-released by Mastertronic (ID 0029) and no other format conversions were undertaken – quite why the other versions were not licenced, or even other Dragon games from Galactic Software, remains somewhat of a mystery.
Atari XL/XE
Hover Bovver (Llamasoft)
This game had originally been released on the Commodore 64 in 1983, with the Atari XL/XE conversion by Aaron Liddiment later on. In this game, and with typical Jeff Minter humour, you need to mow the lawn with your mower, whilst avoiding the flower beds and the neighbour, who seems intent on chasing you around and causing suitable mayhem at the same time. This was re-released by Mastertronic (IT 0172) although the Commodore 64 version was not. No other format conversions were planned, which was a potential missed opportunity.
Attack of the Mutant Camels (Llamasoft)
Another excellent Jeff Minter game back in the day was the fun and somewhat far out storyline that accompanied Attack of the Mutant Camels, where the mutant camels concerned were ninety feet high and could spit out lasers and be shielded too. You fly the tiny fighter over the landscape and end up with fierce encounters. It was a fast, fun, and frenetic game alright, and a game that I enjoyed on the Commodore 64 too. The Atari version was re-released by Mastertronic (IT 0176) but not the Commodore 64 one, and no other format conversions were undertaken either – a shame, as that might have proved to be good fun on the Spectrum or Amstrad.
Gridrunner (Llamasoft)
Gridrunner started life with a glorious Vic-20 version first, followed by Jeff Minter’s own conversions to the Commodore 64 and Atari XL/XE series. This was a rather impressive for its time shoot-em-up complete with a grid to head along to shoot everything. It proved to be a fast and frenetic game for its time, and certainly has that one more go gameplay in abundance here. Curiously, the game did not get a re-release for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum or the Vic-20, but did get a re-issue here (IT 0180) with no other format conversions undertaken by Mastertronic.
Did You Know?
Some later Jeff Minter games were released first on some formats by Mastertronic later – such as Voidrunner (Commodore 64, IC 0171) with conversions to the Spectrum (IS 0171) and MSX (IX 0171) and Revenge II (aka Return of the Mutant Camels) on the Commodore 64 (IC 0200) which had a conversion by Stephen Riding for the Atari XL/XE (IT 0237) and also converted by Icon Design for the Atari ST and Amiga. Notably, Voidrunner was also released on the Commodore 16 and Plus/4 by Ariolasoft, as part of a double pack with Hellgate.
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So, there you have it – not that many games re-released in the early years of Mastertronic on other 8-bit formats, but plenty nonetheless to get your teeth into. Naturally as the re-release label Ricochet took hold, almost all of the 8-bit formats had plenty of quality re-releases, some of which later would come under Mastertronic + and MAD, as well as of course Americana, which we will cover at some point in separating the original titles from the re-releases on that label, a fun task in itself to say the least!
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