111111115555
RETRO
IISSSUUEE 338833 |COMPUTER SHOPPER|JJANNUUARRYY 2002200
before just prior to MGT going under,asthe
company dangled aprize pot of £20,000 in
front of anyone who could createsomedecent
games and applications. MGT also looked into
publishing software itself,snapping up
Spectrum classics such as Lord of Midnight
that could be enhanced with better graphics to
showcase what the SAM Coupé could do.
Such astrategy, if repeated,Sugar and
Gordon surmised, would get around the
problem of third-party software houses
waiting to see how well the SAM Coupé
did before committing themselves. The
situation had been causing prospective
purchasers to be cautious.
The owners had already formed aclose
relationship with Enigma Variations, which
pledged to support the new company.
Theyappeared together at the All Formats
Computer Fair in LondoninAugust 1990,
showcasing Defenders of the Earth, agame
that had made good use of the SAM Coupé’s
sound and graphics capabilities. Meanwhile,
distributor Hollington Myers said it would
continue to place the computer with retailers.
Things were looking up.
In September 1990, Amstrad axed the
Spectrum Plus 3, which, in theory at least,
should have given the SAM Coupé aleg up
given the elimination of acompetitor.
That same month, Sugar and Gordon’s newcompany relaunched its computer,making
the disk drive astandard feature and lopping
£50 off the price so that the new SAM Coupé
–rechristened the Super Spectrum (in amove
that wouldn’t help haters of the name) –
would cost £199.GENESIS TO REVELATION
Stocks of the machine were purchased from
MGT’s receivers and there was no doubting
the effort being put in to try and make a
success of the computer.InMay 1991,there
was news of the company’s new software
house,Revelation, which planned to launch
games such as Quizball by Dave Tonks and
educational titles including HighwayCode by
David Philpot.
Talks were under waywithOcean Software,
Domark, Mastertronic and Palace about
converting existing games. Approaches were
made to topcodingtalent in the growing
public domain scene,and new hardware,
among them alight pen, was in the works.
It yielded some wonderful results. Coder
Chris Whiteconverted Prince of Persia, which
instantly became the best game forthe
computer (awarded 96% inCrashmagazine).
The deals were ashotinthe arm forthe
format, and yet sales were still achingly slow,⬆Prince of Persia is arguably the best game for
the SAM Coupé,and its graphics were not faroff
the capabilities of 16-bit computers➡SAMRevivalmagazine has had acover disc or two
since issue nine.Issue 26 is currently being written