Courting Controversy
The history of Crl’s horror Adventure Games
Graeme Mason discover how CRL created the first 18-rated game for 8-bit home micros
it was A wonder someone hadn’t Tried it Already: make A videogame so violent And so bloody THAT The film Censors had To sit up And Take notice. Then reap The rewards of The righteous indignation because, As They say, There’s no such Thing As bad publicity…
In the era of Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil and Call Of Duty, it’s hard to imagine a time when videogames were unregulated, with no PEGI ratings, no age restrictions and effectively no guidance for parents whatsoever. But a time existed, before Mortal Kombat, Doom and FMV ‘nasties’ such as Night Trap, when videogames were perceived as ‘just for kids’. As technology rapidly improved, the change in this perception was inevitable; but this change was partly instigated (in the UK, at least) from another section of the entertainment industry. By 1984, the ‘video nasty’ controversy had reached such a peak that the Conservative government was forced to act, specifically with the Video Recordings Act, a piece of legislation that effectively gave the British Board Of Film Classification (BBFC) powers over what cinematic work the public could and couldn’t see. The publicity was intense; some banned films, such as The Exorcist and Straw Dogs, became famous through their notoriety, and in many ways the act simply fuelled the desire of people to watch these supposedly dangerous movies.
Back in the world of videogames, the adventure game was still proving a popular genre. With the advent of adventure creation utilities such as The Quill and Professional Adventure Writer, any fan with an imagination could conjure up a story for others to puzzle over and explore. Yet this proved to be a double-edged sword; by the mid-eighties, adventure games were everywhere, and no-one was buying them, at least not in any significant number. One such fan was Rod Pike, a middle-aged Commodore 64 owner from East Anglia, and a lover of classic fiction. Like many, Rod submitted his first effort in to a software house, unsolicited, in the hope of publication, and for reasons unknown, he chose London-based CRL. Meanwhile, the genre had proven itself to be a fertile ground for budding artists, and Jared Derrett was a typical example. Jared was introduced to the software house in 1984 – his brother, Jay, worked there as a coder, as well as his sister, Lorna, in the software house’s office. “I only went there so I could mess about with Melbourne Draw on the ZX Spectrum and Koala Paint on the Commodore 64,” recalls Jared. “I was just copying game cover art for some upcoming releases when Mike Hodges popped over and I thought, ‘Oops, I’ve outstayed my welcome.’” However, CRL’S general manager offered the young artist a job. “I was on more money than my friends and didn’t have to work outside in the cold to get it!” laughs Jared, who would soon find himself at the centre of a media storm.
CRL had been formed by Clem Chambers in 1982, initially with the aim to distribute computer equipment
(CRL standing for Computer Rentals Limited). When the games software market exploded a year later, Clem pivoted the focus of his business, and began publishing some of the many submissions that he was receiving every day. “Games were like pop singles to me,” Clem told us back in issue 97’s retrospective on the company. “Each one had approximately six weeks of life, so I concluded the best way to stay alive was to release one after the other, fire and forget.” During 1983 and 1984 CRL released a number of forgettable titles that nonetheless sold steadily. By 1985, however, competition had become much fiercer; software houses were falling by the wayside with depressing regularity, and it was clear to Clem that CRL’S games needed to be either something exceedingly special, or based on a licence of some description. The former was covered mainly with Pete Cooke and his excellent space adventure games Tau Ceti and Academy. Unfortunately Clem had less success with licensing as games based on The Magic Roundabout, Terrahawks and Blade Runner (the music, rather than the film) all disappointed. Another angle was needed.
By 1986, CRL were still receiving many third-party submissions, often adventure games. “[Adventure games] were tired and dying out by then and I could have signed tons of them,” Clem told us in issue 97. Nevertheless, he saw enough potential in a well-written and atmospheric game that had been created using popular utility The Quill to publish it for the C64. Pilgrim, a simple vengeance tale, contained impressive lengthy descriptions, albeit fewer locations than was