Pook Posted November 3, 2018 Report Share Posted November 3, 2018 (edited) The 8-Bit era gave birth to many great software studios, many only lasted only a few years, some crossed over to the 16-bit era and a few still survive today under various guises. But who was you favourite? I reckon in a poll the masses would chose 'Ultimate' and that's a great shout as they made some seminal original titles. There were powerhouses like 'Ocean' & 'US Gold' who churned out some good titles and arcade ports but were tainted with terrible franchised titles. Even Codemasters were massive in maintaining the 8-bit era into the budget market. I used to enjoy work from smaller outlets that made some great titles, in that camp I'd include.. Software Projects, DK'Tronics, Microsphere, Gargoyle Games, Melbourne House, Beyond, Durell, Micromega, Hewson, Odin, Elite, and there's probably more. But for me the winner has to be 'Vortex'. I was amazed at not only the 3D but the speed and fluidity of it. Great titles like TLL, Cyclone & Alien Encounter were regularly played on my speccy. Edited November 3, 2018 by Pook Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dad Posted November 3, 2018 Report Share Posted November 3, 2018 All things considered I'd have to say Codemasters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serene02 Posted November 3, 2018 Report Share Posted November 3, 2018 Ultimate, TheEdge, Hewson, Odin SabreWulf, Fairlight, Cybernoid, Robin of the Wood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timbo Posted November 3, 2018 Report Share Posted November 3, 2018 I love buying games made by Firebird brand owned by British telecom 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Posted November 3, 2018 Report Share Posted November 3, 2018 That is a terrible question - but a great one as there is so much choice. It feels like every game has a history that is tired into company x or y for a reason. I would like to cheat and give the top two as depending on certain parts of my life, they are interchangable. 1) Quicksilva for the games you can see here below... 2) Beyond for the more adult type games they made such as Lords of Midnight, Psytron and Shadowfire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pook Posted November 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted November 3, 2018 11 hours ago, A:E said: Ultimate, TheEdge, Hewson, Odin SabreWulf, Fairlight, Cybernoid, Robin of the Wood 0h I forgot about the edge, what a great game Brian bloodaxe was, loved the way it pretended to crash on load and asked you to blow gently on the keyboard, great python soundtrack too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marlon36 Posted November 6, 2018 Report Share Posted November 6, 2018 I'm going to go for the easy option and will say Ocean. Well, they did make Daley Thompson's Decathlon, Match Day, Head Over Heels and my fav The Great Escape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Posted November 6, 2018 Report Share Posted November 6, 2018 2 hours ago, Marlon36 said: I'm going to go for the easy option and will say Ocean. Well, they did make Daley Thompson's Decathlon, Match Day, Head Over Heels and my fav The Great Escape. The Great Escape. That game annoyed the hell out of me. The first session when I owned it, I got really far - surprisingly far and too far what you should have got for a gameplay < 10 goes. Then it was game over... ...after that point I was never able to replicate the luck I had in that game on the early session and I was never able to progress any decent length into it. I am going to have to pick that up and give that ago again ! Again like so many others of this era - so much gameplay in so little memory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Posted November 6, 2018 Report Share Posted November 6, 2018 On 03/11/2018 at 22:52, Pook said: 0h I forgot about the edge, what a great game Brian bloodaxe was, loved the way it pretended to crash on load and asked you to blow gently on the keyboard, great python soundtrack too. You have to wonder on this one - what were the programmers smoking when they made this. I think that was by Edge. It was always disapointing that any of their later titles never lived up to the madness of this little one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serene02 Posted November 6, 2018 Report Share Posted November 6, 2018 Bobby Bearing was an excellent game released by The Edge. I never really played Inside Outing, I had my C64 by then but by 1988 I wasn’t playing computer games on a regular basis. In 1989 I got my Amiga, I didn’t play a great deal of games on that to be honest, I was really into music creation and started using Noise Tracker, got one of those sampler carts and this is what I mainly used my Amiga for, this and Deluxe Paint. J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wearecity Posted November 7, 2018 Report Share Posted November 7, 2018 This is an impossible question to answer. Gremlin Graphics, another decent software house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPU_FIVE Posted December 9, 2018 Report Share Posted December 9, 2018 Can't pick just one so my 5 choiices (in no order) are.... Ultimate: Play the game Software Projects Codemasters Mastertronic Ocean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niallquinn Posted December 10, 2018 Report Share Posted December 10, 2018 Yeah Mpu5, Mastertronic................although they did put out some shite, Quest For The Golden Eggcup? Which arse wrote that?............. Seriously though, some good names mentioned. I'm pretty much the same as Pook, I loved all the main ones Ultimate, Ocean etc, but liked the smaller ones, Odin, Vortex, CRL and DK Tronics. Talking of which, just played and completed Zombie Zombie, and 35 years on, the dual channel beep music, still has an edge to it. Slightly off key, works really well. NQ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatdad Posted December 10, 2018 Report Share Posted December 10, 2018 Mastertronic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Posted December 10, 2018 Report Share Posted December 10, 2018 @fatdad That Chronos was brilliant by Mastertronic. That was great value. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatdad Posted December 10, 2018 Report Share Posted December 10, 2018 2 hours ago, Reg said: @fatdad That Chronos was brilliant by Mastertronic. That was great value. finders keepers was a great adventure.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Posted December 12, 2018 Report Share Posted December 12, 2018 Slighty biased on this one as I did do some work for them but Martech produced a few decent games (check the high score table on Geoff Capes Strongman on the Spectrum ). But removing the rose tinted glasses I would have to say Ocean/Imagine for some of the best arcade conversions out there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scooby52 Posted May 10, 2020 Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 Ocean software some great games and really good artwork as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reg Posted May 10, 2020 Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 Saw this pop up again and thought I'd ask myself the same question a year or so on... ...pleased to say it was still Quicksilva. Strangely my second choice was actually different this time and I think it comes from playing the ZX Spectrum Next a bit. Now that is Vortex who did Cyclone and TLL as per @Pook and his picture above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jabbathehut Posted May 10, 2020 Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 You have to marvel at a playable version of chase hq in just 48k for example.When you have space constraints its amazing what was achieved. Codemaster games always created a buzz for me when they came out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flying giraffe Posted May 12, 2020 Report Share Posted May 12, 2020 ocean for me, some absolute belters, but im now finding ive missed so many great games all these years later, also great playing them on the spectrum next, but that may have to go at some point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savage Posted September 4, 2020 Report Share Posted September 4, 2020 I don't normally like to necropost but I love the idea of this thread. My favourite studio was definitely Ultimate. However, the most important were probably J K Greye Software and CDS Micro Systems who were the good folks behind 3D Monster Maze and Castle Adventure respectively on the ZX81. Why, because they opened the eyes of a 10 year old Savage to how amazing computers are if you can program them. Needless to say this has served me well for nearly 40 years S 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niallquinn Posted September 4, 2020 Report Share Posted September 4, 2020 Steve Davis Snooker was by CDS wasn't it? (crap now talking about a lot of retro stuff, you can google an answer in 2 seconds). @Reg Chronos was a canny shooter, great Tim Follin music though! NQ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wearecity Posted September 4, 2020 Report Share Posted September 4, 2020 3D Monster Maze could well be the best use of a computers hardware of all time. Nightmare Park my favourite ZX81 game. With Football Manager a close second. Ultimate on the Spectrum was a must. On the C64 no no and no again. CRL was another who produced great Spectrum games. I like Rainbow Arts on the Amiga and Microprose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mort Posted September 4, 2020 Report Share Posted September 4, 2020 Sensible Software and Bitmap Bros. Speaking of Snooker games above I always remember Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker which was coded solely by Archer Maclean, who also coded International Karate and IK+ - that guy is a genius both for the physics engine he created for Jimmy White's and particularly for how he coded the third player on IK+ on C64. We had some amazing creative and genius talent that was 'homebrewed' through the 8-bit and 16-bit days many of whom went on to create games of this generation now and for many of them their genius was developed through pushing the hardware to do things which did not seem possible, many of them had origins in the demo scene which they used to create these amazing feats of code and to compete against others to push the envelope. I really struggle to see how creative genius can push the limits in the same way in the era we now live in; instead you hear of disgruntled developers who are being told to work increasingly longer hours to crunch on the latest and greatest game which is trying to provide even more photo realism and complicated mechanics. I feel that we have pushed too far now and this is why games with pixel graphics and simpler gameplay are proving to be more popular. Bring back the bedroom coders, them were the days ! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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