IJK Software
Michael Bruhn
Hi, I can't sleep at night, because the following question
is haunting me, so please help.
Does anyone know if IJK Software, where a real Software House?
Or did they only fill the scene with bad imitations of big hits?
I know they released Crimebusters, which was taken of market,
because it was a type of cracked Spellbound (Mastertronic). But
did they carry on, and actually selling games as a company, or
what?
Please help.
Jim Grimwood
On 28 Dec 97 15:18:03 GMT, Michael Bruhn <fra...@image.dk> wrote:
>Does anyone know if IJK Software, where a real Software House?
>Or did they only fill the scene with bad imitations of big hits?
>I know they released Crimebusters, which was taken of market,
>because it was a type of cracked Spellbound (Mastertronic). But
>did they carry on, and actually selling games as a company, or
>what?
According to a news article in SU (Dec.1986) IJK had been around for five
years prior to the release of "Crime Busters Inc" (rather an ironic title,
considering what happened), writing software for the BBC micro. CB was their
first program for the Spectrum, and it would seem also their last, as I've
no record of any subsequent Spectrum releases by them. I would suggest
redirecting your enquiry to the comp.sys.bbc newsgroup - except that there
isn't one. :-/
There was a game called Crime Busters (aka. Crimebusters) released by
Players in 1988, but that was unrelated to the earlier game, other than
having a similar name.
--
Another Fine Product from:
Jim Grimwood, Dead Dog Farm, Hatfield, England
Home of the SPOT Database (Spectrum Oracle on Trumpton)
C/SU/YS indexed: 197(54%); Subjects: 4,053; References: 16,232.
--
Garry Lancaster
On Sun, 28 Dec 1997, Jim Grimwood wrote:
> >Does anyone know if IJK Software, where a real Software House?
> >Or did they only fill the scene with bad imitations of big hits?
> >I know they released Crimebusters, which was taken of market,
> >because it was a type of cracked Spellbound (Mastertronic). But
> >did they carry on, and actually selling games as a company, or
> >what?
>
> According to a news article in SU (Dec.1986) IJK had been around for five
> years prior to the release of "Crime Busters Inc" (rather an ironic title,
> considering what happened), writing software for the BBC micro. CB was their
> first program for the Spectrum, and it would seem also their last, as I've
Not so, as although I never heard of them releasing any software
themselves, several of their games were released by "Tynesoft", who seemed
to specialise in releasing compilations of crap Artic & IJK games.
Especially memorable is "Who Said That?", a poor copy of the excellent
ZX81 game "Micromouse Goes Debugging" (although now I've mentioned it,
somebody'll probably point out that it wasn't by IJK after all...)
--
Garry Lancaster dhar...@menaxus.demon.co.uk
Z88 Forever! Page - http://www.menaxus.demon.co.uk/
Peter Thomas
ji...@globalnet.co.uk (Jim Grimwood) wrote:
>>Does anyone know if IJK Software, where a real Software House?
>>Or did they only fill the scene with bad imitations of big hits?
>>I know they released Crimebusters, which was taken of market,
>>because it was a type of cracked Spellbound (Mastertronic). But
>>did they carry on, and actually selling games as a company, or
>>what?
>According to a news article in SU (Dec.1986) IJK had been around for five
>years prior to the release of "Crime Busters Inc" (rather an ironic title,
>considering what happened), writing software for the BBC micro. CB was their
>first program for the Spectrum, and it would seem also their last, as I've
>no record of any subsequent Spectrum releases by them. I would suggest
>redirecting your enquiry to the comp.sys.bbc newsgroup - except that there
>isn't one. :-/
IJK Software are total rip-off merchants. I think one guy was behind
it all - Harry S Price - a 'coder' who 'wrote' (ahem) such IJK
classics like:
Mutations ( = Spawn Of Evil)
H.A.R.D ( = Android )
plus some others, (where I can't remember what the original games
were)
One For The Road
Odd Job Eddie
--
Peter Thomas, retro games anorak
New to Speccy emulation? see www.kendalls.demon.co.uk/cssfaq
Richard G. Hallas
In message <34a6846f...@read.news.global.net.uk>
ji...@globalnet.co.uk (Jim Grimwood) wrote:
> On 28 Dec 97 15:18:03 GMT, Michael Bruhn <fra...@image.dk> wrote:
>
> > Does anyone know if IJK Software, where a real Software House? Or
> > did they only fill the scene with bad imitations of big hits? I
> > know they released Crimebusters, which was taken of market,
> > because it was a type of cracked Spellbound (Mastertronic). But
> > did they carry on, and actually selling games as a company, or
> > what?
>
> According to a news article in SU (Dec.1986) IJK had been around for
> five years prior to the release of "Crime Busters Inc" (rather an
> ironic title, considering what happened), writing software for the
> BBC micro. CB was their first program for the Spectrum, and it would
> seem also their last, as I've no record of any subsequent Spectrum
> releases by them.
I'm not at all sure that that's true. Certainly there /was/ a software
house called IJK that produced a lot of BBC games in the early days,
but I don't think it bore any relation to the IJK Software that
produced Spectrum games.
Why? Because:
(a) BBC IJK Software produced a lot of moderately reasonable games by
different authors. Nothing earth-shattering among them, but they were
fairly reasonable games. (IJK Invaders was pretty good, as was IJK
Frogger.)
(b) Spectrum IJK Software was around rather later, and specialised in
producing illegal rip-offs of other publishers' games. These included
the Spellbound hack, Crimbebusters, together with other notables like
a rip-off of Spawn of Evil, a modified version of a game published by
16/48 magazine(!!!) and other bits of plagiarism. These weren't just
/copies/ of other people's games; they were the *actual* games
themselves, which had been hacked about a bit and had their text and
graphics slightly altered. Crimebusters isn't even logical (e.g. you
can 'blow' objects that can't really be blown) because the puzzles
are the same as in Spellbound, and the objects have just been renamed.
The culprit responsible for these illegal activities was one Harry S.
Price, and I never saw his name associated with any BBC games.
> I would suggest redirecting your enquiry to the
> comp.sys.bbc newsgroup - except that there isn't one. :-/
Hardly surprising, since the BBC is a rather well-known TV company
which in all probability wouldn't know the first thing about 8-bit
games!
You might imagine that there could be a comp.sys.acorn.bbc newsgroup;
but there isn't.
Anyone who's really keen to ask about BBC games can do so on the
comp.sys.acorn.games newsgroup - but note that this caters mainly
for the 32-bit Acorn computers of today. However, there's plenty of
old BBC enthusiasts on there who may be able to help. There's been a
thread about Codename: Droid recently.
--
Richard
-=-=-=-
Richard G. Hallas -oOo- Editor of RISC User magazine
Proprietor of KeyNote: Music Typesetting & General Desktop Publishing
E-mail: Ric...@hallas.demon.co.uk * Telephone/Facsimile: 01484 460280
Jim Grimwood
>On Sun, 28 Dec 1997, Jim Grimwood wrote:
>[...]
>> According to a news article in SU (Dec.1986) IJK had been around for five
>> years prior to the release of "Crime Busters Inc" (rather an ironic title,
>> considering what happened), writing software for the BBC micro. CB was their
>> first program for the Spectrum, and it would seem also their last, as I've
>
>Not so, as although I never heard of them releasing any software
>themselves, several of their games were released by "Tynesoft", who seemed
>to specialise in releasing compilations of crap Artic & IJK games.
That would explain things. I have products recorded by publisher, not by
software house or programmer (which is frequently not mentioned in reviews,
anyway, and often not even mentioned in the cassette documentation or in the
program, so it's often difficult to determine who wrote a program).
Games I've got listed for Tynesoft are: Buffalo Bill's Wild West Rodeo Show,
Circus Games, Colin the Cleaner, Summer Olympiad (preview only), Super Gran,
Superman (preview only), Who Said That?, Winter Olympiad '88.
>Especially memorable is "Who Said That?", a poor copy of the excellent
>ZX81 game "Micromouse Goes Debugging" (although now I've mentioned it,
>somebody'll probably point out that it wasn't by IJK after all...)
I've got an original tape of Who Said That? (pub. Tynesoft), b/w Colin the
Cleaner, but there are no programming credits on the cassette inlay, the
loading screen, or in the game anywhere, so I can't confirm who wrote Who
Said That?. Colin the Cleaner has a big IJK credit on the instructions
screen, and was programmed by Harry Price.
As Michael Bruhn mentioned to me in e-mail, Witchfiend was by IJK, but I
know this was published by Strobe, on a cassette b/w Odd Job Eddie (which I
also happen to have, although I've never loaded it up until now). Witchfiend
has "IJK" in massive letters on the loading screen, but Odd Job Eddie just
has a copyright credit to Harry Price (so also probably from IJK).
Seems I'm awash with original IJK 'gems' and didn't know it!
Darren Salt
> On 28 Dec 97 15:18:03 GMT, Michael Bruhn <fra...@image.dk> wrote:
>> Does anyone know if IJK Software, where a real Software House? [...]
> According to a news article in SU (Dec.1986) IJK had been around for five
> years prior to the release of "Crime Busters Inc" (rather an ironic title,
> considering what happened), writing software for the BBC micro. CB was
> their first program for the Spectrum, and it would seem also their last, as
> I've no record of any subsequent Spectrum releases by them. I would suggest
> redirecting your enquiry to the comp.sys.bbc newsgroup - except that there
> isn't one. :-/
Consider this crossposted to comp.sys.acorn.games :-)
--
| Darren Salt anti-UCE | Spec+3, A3010, | 01268 515441 | Toon Army
| arcsalt@spuddy,mew,co,uk | Acorn Risc PC, | free mail, news | Season ticket
| darren,salt@unn,ac,uk | BBC Master | nr Ashington, Northumberland
| Down with the Mackems!
Mediocre players sink to the level of their opposition.
Richard G. Hallas
In message <34a91438...@read.news.global.net.uk>
ji...@globalnet.co.uk (Jim Grimwood) wrote:
> I've got an original tape of Who Said That? (pub. Tynesoft), b/w
> Colin the Cleaner, but there are no programming credits on the
> cassette inlay, the loading screen, or in the game anywhere, so I
> can't confirm who wrote Who Said That?. Colin the Cleaner has a big
> IJK credit on the instructions screen, and was programmed by Harry
> Price.
Ah! But nothing was ever programmed by Harry Price, was it?
Load up a copy of Colin the Cleaner and have a good look at it.
Now grab a copy of 16/48 magazine, issue 18. Load up the 'free game'
on there, called Ralph on Alpha 2.
Similar, eh?
The great programming maestro Harry Price has taken a copy of ROA2,
hacked its graphics a bit, put an IJK credit in there, and inserted
his own name as the author... and sold a game, written by someone else
for peanuts for a magazine, for his own profit.
What a splendid, moral chap.
> As Michael Bruhn mentioned to me in e-mail, Witchfiend was by IJK,
> but I know this was published by Strobe, on a cassette b/w Odd Job
> Eddie (which I also happen to have, although I've never loaded it up
> until now). Witchfiend has "IJK" in massive letters on the loading
> screen, but Odd Job Eddie just has a copyright credit to Harry Price
> (so also probably from IJK).
Witchfiend is at least an original game, by Grant Jaquest, so it's
not a rip-off of anything else. I didn't know that Odd Job Eddie was
"by" Harry Price, though. I don't know what game it's ripped off from,
but I'd be interested to find out.
The various Harry Price rip-off statistics that I know about are:
Bubble Run
= Bubble Trouble, a type-in listing from Your Sinclair!
Colin the Cleaner
= Ralph on Alpha 2, published on 16/48 issue 18
Crime Busters
= Spellbound from Mastertronic (MAD)
HARD (Heavy Armed Roboid Destroyer)
= Android 1 from Vortex
Mutations
= Spawn of Evil from DK'Tronics
One for the Road
= heavily hacked Spectres from Bug-byte, I think
The Steelyard Blues
= ???
Odd Job Eddie
= ???
If anyone can fill in those two blanks, or maybe come up with any
more, I'd be most interested.
NB I'm not certain that those last two /are/ by Harry Price, so they
might really be legitimate games. Can anyone say one way or the other?
Alex Card
In article <4800BA766E%arc...@spuddy.mew.com.uk>, Darren Salt
<URL:mailto:arc...@spuddy.mew.com.uk> wrote:
> In message <34a6846f...@read.news.global.net.uk>
> ji...@globalnet.co.uk (Jim Grimwood) wrote:
>
> > On 28 Dec 97 15:18:03 GMT, Michael Bruhn <fra...@image.dk> wrote:
>
> >> Does anyone know if IJK Software, where a real Software House? [...]
>
> > According to a news article in SU (Dec.1986) IJK had been around for five
> > years prior to the release of "Crime Busters Inc" (rather an ironic title,
> > considering what happened), writing software for the BBC micro. CB was
> > their first program for the Spectrum, and it would seem also their last, as
> > I've no record of any subsequent Spectrum releases by them. I would suggest
> > redirecting your enquiry to the comp.sys.bbc newsgroup - except that there
> > isn't one. :-/
They released a few titles the one I remember best was "Leap Frog"
on the BBC, it was a Frogger clone of course. Can't think of their
other titles but I'm sure there were a few more.
--
Alex Card - I know nothing.. RTFManuel
E-mail : al...@acetone.demon.co.uk
Web Pages : http://www.acetone.demon.co.uk
Jim Grimwood
>In message <34a6846f...@read.news.global.net.uk>
> ji...@globalnet.co.uk (Jim Grimwood) wrote:
>[...]
>> According to a news article in SU (Dec.1986) IJK had been around for
>> five years prior to the release of "Crime Busters Inc" (rather an
>> ironic title, considering what happened), writing software for the
>> BBC micro. CB was their first program for the Spectrum, and it would
>> seem also their last, as I've no record of any subsequent Spectrum
>> releases by them.
>
>I'm not at all sure that that's true. Certainly there /was/ a software
>house called IJK that produced a lot of BBC games in the early days,
>but I don't think it bore any relation to the IJK Software that
>produced Spectrum games.
As determined earlier in this thread, IJK didn't publish under their own
name on the Spectrum, but used publishers such as Tynesoft and Strobe.
The SU article on "Crime Busters Inc" reads in part:
"IJK, the top BBC software house, now trying to break into the Spectrum
software market, is covered in embarrassment.
[...]
Ian Sinclair, a director of the company, says: "We're an old software house,
five years old, and we're extremely upset that something like this could
have happened when we launch our first Spectrum game. It is the sort of
thing that could happen to any software house [...]."
"
... that employs Harry Price as their Spectrum programmer ? :-/
So it was the same IJK who produced Crime Busters Inc, anyway, and
presumably the same Harry Price who wrote that and the later IJK Spectrum
games. Perhaps he subsequently acquired the rights to the IJK name?
>> I would suggest redirecting your enquiry to the
>> comp.sys.bbc newsgroup - except that there isn't one. :-/
>
>Hardly surprising, since the BBC is a rather well-known TV company
>which in all probability wouldn't know the first thing about 8-bit
>games!
But surely thou dost jest, good sir! So it's not British Basic Computer,
then?
Joe Mackay
Hello there,
>Witchfiend is at least an original game, by Grant Jaquest, so it's
>not a rip-off of anything else. I didn't know that Odd Job Eddie was
>"by" Harry Price, though. I don't know what game it's ripped off from,
>but I'd be interested to find out.
A friend of mine gave me that very same cassette ages ago. Odd Job Eddie is a 128K-only rip off of Pyramania, given away with 16/48 issue #12 (needless to say Pyramania was much better!)
Sorry to go off topic, but I was amused to learn that #12 of 16/48 actually gained collectors' item status at one point - the only issue I actually own on tape! What happened to 16/48? I got hold of issues one to thirtysomething from the net, and the later issues seem crap in comparison with the issue 12 "era"!
<tsb>Joe Mackay - E-mail: mac...@sedgehill.lewisham.sch.uk
Young Ones quote:
Vyv: "You haven't got a sister, Rick! You're the classic example of an only child."
Peter Thomas
"Joe Mackay" <mac...@sedgehill.lewisham.sch.uk> wrote:
>>Witchfiend is at least an original game, by Grant Jaquest, so it's
>>not a rip-off of anything else. I didn't know that Odd Job Eddie was
>>"by" Harry Price, though. I don't know what game it's ripped off from,
>>but I'd be interested to find out.
>A friend of mine gave me that very same cassette ages ago. Odd Job Eddie is a 128K-only rip off of Pyramania, given away with 16/48 issue #12 (needless to say Pyramania was much better!)
Yeah, somewhere in the code, you can see PYRAMANIA.
Harry S Price, what a fraud.
Graham Goring
Quoth the Raven in article <883598451.3274.0.nnrp-
07.9e...@news.demon.co.uk>, Peter Thomas <pe...@prodge.demon.co.ukSPAM
STILLSUXX> writes
>"Joe Mackay" <mac...@sedgehill.lewisham.sch.uk> wrote:
>
>>>Witchfiend is at least an original game, by Grant Jaquest, so it's
>>>not a rip-off of anything else. I didn't know that Odd Job Eddie was
>>>"by" Harry Price, though. I don't know what game it's ripped off from,
>>>but I'd be interested to find out.
>
>>A friend of mine gave me that very same cassette ages ago. Odd Job Eddie is a
>128K-only rip off of Pyramania, given away with 16/48 issue #12 (needless to say
>Pyramania was much better!)
>
>Yeah, somewhere in the code, you can see PYRAMANIA.
>
>Harry S Price, what a fraud.
Wierd thing is, loved Pyromania, hated Odd Job Eddie. Same thing with
Switchblade and Stryker In The Caverns Of Trogan! Loved the original,
hated the *alledged* code-lifted-cut-and-paste-retread.
Graham
--
/====================================================\ +--------------+
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Richard G. Hallas
In message <927.304T23...@sedgehill.lewisham.sch.uk>
"Joe Mackay" <mac...@sedgehill.lewisham.sch.uk> wrote:
> Hello there,
>
> > Witchfiend is at least an original game, by Grant Jaquest, so it's
> > not a rip-off of anything else. I didn't know that Odd Job Eddie
> > was "by" Harry Price, though. I don't know what game it's ripped
> > off from, but I'd be interested to find out.
>
> A friend of mine gave me that very same cassette ages ago. Odd Job
> Eddie is a 128K-only rip off of Pyramania, given away with 16/48
> issue #12 (needless to say Pyramania was much better!)
Oh, well done! Thanks - you're obviously quite right, now that I've
had a look at the two side by side.
All that remains is to find out what game Steelyard Blues is a rip-off
from.
> Sorry to go off topic, but I was amused to learn that #12 of 16/48
> actually gained collectors' item status at one point - the only
> issue I actually own on tape!
Oh, really? I think I have it as well.
> What happened to 16/48? I got hold of issues one to thirtysomething
> from the net, and the later issues seem crap in comparison with the
> issue 12 "era"!
I don't know - I never bought it when it came out, but I collected
most of them when they were being sold off at 50p each in the
Wakefield branch of the Computer Store chain. I thought that they were
very good, actually. Perhaps some of the latter ones were less good,
but they stayed pretty good throughout - much better than Spectrum
Computing, the other tape magazine.
Are you /sure/ you've got up to issue thirty-something? I've only got
up to issue 26, which I thought was the last one. Please check! If I'm
missing any, I want them! :-)
Joe Mackay
>> Sorry to go off topic, but I was amused to learn that #12 of 16/48
>> actually gained collectors' item status at one point - the only
>> issue I actually own on tape!
>Oh, really? I think I have it as well.
Horror! Woe! I've just remembered that mine was partly mangled in my old tape recorder! Well, thank goodness for TAP files, that's all I can say...
>> What happened to 16/48? I got hold of issues one to thirtysomething
>> from the net, and the later issues seem crap in comparison with the
>> issue 12 "era"!
>Are you /sure/ you've got up to issue thirty-something? I've only got
>up to issue 26, which I thought was the last one. Please check! If I'm
>missing any, I want them! :-)
Um, sorry, you're right. Serves me right for not checking my archives! :-/
Although if I remember rightly the last issue didn't really _mention_ it being the last one. It just sort of tailed off...
<tsb>Joe Mackay - E-mail: mac...@sedgehill.lewisham.sch.uk
Young Ones quote:
Rick: "And that's Vyvyan....being sick"
Richard G. Hallas
In message <34aa95ac...@read.news.global.net.uk>
ji...@globalnet.co.uk (Jim Grimwood) wrote:
> > > According to a news article in SU (Dec.1986) IJK had been around
> > > for five years prior to the release of "Crime Busters Inc"
> > > (rather an ironic title, considering what happened), writing
> > > software for the BBC micro. CB was their first program for the
> > > Spectrum, and it would seem also their last, as I've no record
> > > of any subsequent Spectrum releases by them.
> >
> > I'm not at all sure that that's true. Certainly there /was/ a
> > software house called IJK that produced a lot of BBC games in the
> > early days, but I don't think it bore any relation to the IJK
> > Software that produced Spectrum games.
>
> As determined earlier in this thread, IJK didn't publish under their
> own name on the Spectrum, but used publishers such as Tynesoft and
> Strobe.
Yes - but that doesn't really matter, does it? They were still a
'company' in terms of originating software. I'm surprised if the
Spectrum IJK and the BBC IJK companies are the same, but it seems
that they must be.
> The SU article on "Crime Busters Inc" reads in part:
> "IJK, the top BBC software house, now trying to break into the
> Spectrum software market, is covered in embarrassment. [...] Ian
> Sinclair, a director of the company, says: "We're an old software
> house, five years old, and we're extremely upset that something like
> this could have happened when we launch our first Spectrum game. It
> is the sort of thing that could happen to any software house [...]."
> "
Was that the same Ian Sinclair who wrote several computer books (about
several machines, not just the Spectrum)?
What else did the SU article say? (Needless to say, not being an SU
reader, I didn't see it!)
What was IJK being "covered in embarrassment" about? Precisely what
"could happen to any software house"? Did they get into trouble for
ripping off Spellbound or what?
> .. that employs Harry Price as their Spectrum programmer ? :-/
I wonder if IJK actually knew what Harry Price was doing. Perhaps they
just asked him to write stuff, and were completely unaware that he was
just ripping off other people's stuff. Seems plausible to me. After
all, IJK was a perfectly respectable company in the BBC market, and
they did produce other legitimate non-rip-off games on the Spectrum
(like Witchfiend).
> So it was the same IJK who produced Crime Busters Inc, anyway, and
> presumably the same Harry Price who wrote that and the later IJK
> Spectrum games. Perhaps he subsequently acquired the rights to the
> IJK name?
Why do you say that?
> > > I would suggest redirecting your enquiry to the comp.sys.bbc
> > > newsgroup - except that there isn't one. :-/
> >
> > Hardly surprising, since the BBC is a rather well-known TV company
> > which in all probability wouldn't know the first thing about 8-bit
> > games!
>
> But surely thou dost jest, good sir! So it's not British Basic
> Computer, then?
Fie no, thou unwisest blackguard! Mockest thou the sacred name of the
BBC? 'Tis all but cursing and lies!
You could search for a newsgroup about the Acorn Proton if you like,
but you wouldn't have much luck there either! ;-)
Jim Grimwood
>In message <34aa95ac...@read.news.global.net.uk>
> ji...@globalnet.co.uk (Jim Grimwood) wrote:
>
>> > > According to a news article in SU (Dec.1986) IJK had been around
>> > > for five years prior to the release of "Crime Busters Inc"
>> > > [...]
To cut a getting ever longer story short :-), here's the article from
Sinclair User 57 (Dec.1986):
"" - BEGIN
PROGRAM CRIME BUST
IJK, the top BBC software house, now trying to break into the Spectrum
software market, is covered in embarrassment. It's been forced to drop its
first Spectrum release because chunks of the game's code had been pirated
from Mastertronic's Spellbound.
Harry Price, the author of the offending game, called somewhat ironically
Crime Busters [Inc], at first denied the program was a rip-off, but Alison
Beasely of Mastertronic says: "The first 50 bytes of both programs are
exactly the same, the solutions to the games are almost the same, the
character sets are copies, and even our hacker trap is included in IJK's
game."
Beasely gave Price two options: "I told him to write an apology to us,
stating that the game was copied." Price refused and, according to Beasely,
she said, "In that case you'll receive a writ for fraud and infringement of
copyright tomorrow." "After that he agreed to write the letter," concluded
Beasely.
Since their discussion IJK has withdrawn Crime Busters and asked
distributors to return all stocks. Ian Sinclair, a director of the company,
says: "We're an old software house, five years old, and we're extremely
upset that something like this could have happened when we launch our first
Spectrum game. It is the sort of thing that could happen to any software
house - the market's got so big that we can't possibly look at all the
games."
Mastertronic received the game from SU staffer Jim Douglas who, being a
sharp lad, noticed similarities between Crime Busters and Spellbound.
"" - END
>> So it was the same IJK who produced Crime Busters Inc, anyway, and
>> presumably the same Harry Price who wrote that and the later IJK
>> Spectrum games. Perhaps he subsequently acquired the rights to the
>> IJK name?
>
>Why do you say that?
As it appeared that IJK transformed from a saintly BBC software house to a
dastardly Spectrum software house, so perhaps it was all that Harry Price's
fault? (although, as has been said, IJK did produce some quite legitimate
Spectrum software by other programmers). As there were so many Harry Price
'tribute' games, one wonders how he got away with it for so long, unless he
had no one supervising his work.
--
Another Fine Product from:
Jim Grimwood, Dead Dog Farm, Hatfield, England
--
Richard G. Hallas
In message <34ad48c...@read.news.global.net.uk>
ji...@globalnet.co.uk (Jim Grimwood) wrote:
> To cut a getting ever longer story short :-), here's the article
> from Sinclair User 57 (Dec.1986):
[snip]
Very, very interesting! In fact, decidedly the most interesting thing
I've ever seen in relation to Sinclair User! ;-)
Thanks very much for typing it up.
> As it appeared that IJK transformed from a saintly BBC software
> house to a dastardly Spectrum software house, so perhaps it was all
> that Harry Price's fault? (although, as has been said, IJK did
> produce some quite legitimate Spectrum software by other
> programmers). As there were so many Harry Price 'tribute' games, one
> wonders how he got away with it for so long, unless he had no one
> supervising his work.
Yes, that's weird, isn't it? I'd assumed that Crime Busters was
actually IJK's *last* Spectrum game, because (a) Spellbound is the
newest of the games that was ripped off (the others were really old
hat, like Spawn of Evil), and (b) if it was this one that IJK got
into trouble over, then you wouldn't have thought that they'd continue
to publish rip-offs after that!
Ian Sinclair's explanation sounds plausible to me, that they weren't
aware of Harry Price's activities, and that they can't expect to be
familiar with all the games that are around... but what beats me is
why they continued to employ him afterwards.
Adam D. Moss
Joe Mackay wrote:
> What happened to 16/48?
"The Long Way Home" finished.
--Adam
aDaM d M0s5 +=+ GIMP GaFfA & r0aDi3 =-= ad...@gimp.org +=+ & A f0X f4n 2!
..Nothing cures insomnia like the realization that it's time to get up..