SOFTWARE HOUSE CAPERS
Richard Burton takes a look back at Bug-Byte Software.
Playing and collecting computer games invariably go hand in hand. Most of us have an affinity to a software house because of the games, programmers and the sentimental attachment we have to them. We might collect for nostalgic reasons or simply because the tapes look great lined up on a shelf with co-ordinating colour coded uniformity. Whatever the reason, we will be bringing you collecting guides to some of your favourite software houses.
Richard Burton kicks off with one of the oldest, the one responsible for bringing us Miner, Turmoil and The Birds and The Bees. Let’s take a look at Bug-Byte…
Formed in May 1980 by Tony Baden and Tony Milner and ably assisted by Alan Maton, Bug-Byte Software were one of the earliest companies to bring commercial home computer games to market in the
UK. Based in Liverpool, the first months of business saw Bug-Byte catering for the Acorn Atom, ZX80 and ZX81 with games and programming utilities.
However, their spiritual home was always going to be the ZX Spectrum.
Bug-Byte, with its familiar bug logo, released their first three Spectrum titles in 1982 and, as many other companies did, launched with clones of Pac-Man and Space Invaders named Spectres and
Spectral Invaders respectively. Both were well received.
The third title was Aspect, a machine code utility. However, 1983 was to be a pivotal year with several key titles released including two by a young programmer called Matthew Smith. His first Spectrum game entitled
Styx received a warm response. His second,
Manic Miner, did quite well too.
Bug-Byte also moved its operations to Mulberry House, Canning Place in Liverpool. This proved beneficial as their preferred tape
Manic
duplication company, Spool Limited, had premises nearby. Soon after, BugByte bought a 50% share in
Spool. This kept costs down, duplicating was immediately to hand and they could, to the irritation of other Liverpool based software houses who also used Spool, unofficially jump the queue when tapes were required quickly.
Bug-Byte continued releasing games until mid1985 when liquidation finally
caught up with them after several troubling months. Key staff had left to form Software Projects, taking the perpetual cash cow Manic Miner with them. Bug-Byte, in its original form, ceased trading in June 1985 and shortly afterwards were bought by Argus Press who merged them into their own software division.
In 1987 Argus Press
Software itself became embroiled in a management buy-out, finally succumbing and was later renamed Grandslam Entertainment. Sadly, the familiar and much-loved Bug-Byte bug logo was abandoned in favour of something a lot more indistinct and a lot less loveable. To some it looked like an eye hovering over a cowpat.
Bug-Byte had now become established as a vehicle for re-releasing old games in budget form. Their quickly expanding catalogue of budget releases would predominantly consist of old Quicksilva, Domark and Mind Games titles.
The Bug-Byte brand continued for a while longer with the introduction of the Bug-Byte Premier sub-label but the short-lived venture only saw five games released under that banner.
Bug-Byte released 26 games in their original form with a further 46 games released under Argus Press and five more as part of Grandslam’s short-lived BugByte Premier label for a total of 77 games.
That sounds like a testing yet obtainable collecting target… until you factor in that many of Bug-Byte’s early releases had variant inlays (and indeed variants of variant inlays) including colour changes to titles, packaging alterations or complete inlay artwork overhauls. While we won’t highlight the minutiae of every inlay spelling error, we will point out the major differences.
While the bulk of Bug-Byte titles are easily obtainable and shouldn’t cost more than £3 to £5
each, some of the rare variations will certainly punch a bigger hole in your savings.
Beginning with the original Bug-Byte releases, we find the rarest and arguably the most sought after of all Bug-Byte games, the big box version of Styx.
It is ridiculously hard to find in this form and will set you back a small fortune to procure. Should a copy ever surface, expect to splurge £100+.
An old Bug-Byte classic that has started to rise in value is Turmoil. The oil collecting platform game frequently raises between £10 and £15. Conversely, the likes of Pool, Aquarius, Kung Fu and Cavern Fighter will happily bumble around the £3 price range. Other titles such as The Castle,
Flyer Fox, Bomber Bob
in Pentagon Capers, Roboto and Ludoids command higher prices and usually fetch £5 to £8 each.
To indulge the OCD collecting completist in you, you may also want to track down the earlier releases that have inlay variations. These have a change of colour and text size for the title on the inlay spine. Titles in yellow are the earlier first releases with a change to red for the second printing. There are five of these games to look out for; Aquarius, The Castle, Manic Miner, Pool and Styx.
Thankfully, the price isn’t affected by colour… except for Manic Miner…
The cultural icon and collecting favourite that is Manic Miner famously has two completely different inlay designs. The first release used the yellow title on the inlay spine and a front cover featuring a miner carrying a ladder (known to collectors as “The Whistler” inlay). The
second release (sometimes referred to as “The Lantern” inlay) is more common but is still in demand. Price wise Whistler can garner a £20 price tag while Lantern about half that.
Bug-Byte’s strategy game Star Trader also followed suit with two distinct versions. There was the Spectrum only release which sported BugByte’s familiar yellow bordered inlay livery but there was also a dual format version with a unique white bordered inlay that contained the Commodore 64 conversion on the flip side. The cover artwork for both inlays is very similar in composition but on closer inspection varies significantly. While the dual format copy is a smidge easier to find, both versions can still be snapped up for less than £5.
Bug-Byte’s early Pac-Man
clone Spectres is another game with differing inlays. The original release has a full colour cover while the later inlay features the Bug-Byte logo inside a black box across the top of the inlay. Thankfully both can be nabbed for just a couple of pounds each. Bug-Byte’s editor/assembler utility
Aspect also falls into this category with the earlier full colour cover the harder to find of the two although expect to cough up £10 each for either version.
Spectral Invaders goes one better with a triple threat variant headache. While the two most abundant versions are inlays with a bold blue title on the spine (1982 release) or a yellow title on the inlay spine (1983 release), the hardest to find by far is the early first release black and white inlay. Regular copies will cost about £3, the monochrome inlay is nearer to £15 - £20.
The Argus Press period of Bug-Byte’s life saw the name used principally for re-releases. Only Zoot from Bug Byte’s original games succeeded in straddling both these eras by receiving an Argus press re-release. £5 would be enough to buy either version of Zoot.
Fortunately for the
collector, much of the Argus Press era of Bug-Byte output is readily obtainable and reasonably priced with all but a handful of game valued around £2 - £4.
Nevertheless, there are a few rarer titles to stay watchful for with Alien, Rubicon and Tantalus fetching around £10 each with S.T.I. (Search for Terrestrial Intelligence),
Headstart, Plum Duff and
Piggy being the more sought after of the budget range. A nice clean crisp copy of each should cost you between
£10 - £15.
Not a budget game but a very uncommon full priced re-release was World War 1.
Originally by MC Lothlorien, the Bug-Byte re-release is a double jewel cased rarity and would siphon £15 - £20 from your wallet should you find a copy that hasn’t been battle scarred.
Similar to Argus Press, most of Grandslam’s BugByte output is available in abundance except for a few choice titles. Expect to pay £10+ for Friday the 13th and International Cricket.
Bug-Byte Premier was the so-called premium budget label for Grandslam and was a way of regurgitating some of their own former full price games. There were just five releases and all were very much tepid offerings such as The Flintstones, Peter Beardsley’s International Football, Power Pyramids, Chubby Gristle and, arguably, the best of the worst, Terramex.
They were produced in large quantities with below average sales throughout 1988 and as such are the easiest of all the Bug-Byte games to obtain. It’s even possible to find whole cases of new stock. If you’re paying more than £2 for any of these games, you’re being robbed.