Shortly after the review of Splitting Images in this issue had sent to the printers, Domark encountered problems on the legal front. The company behind Spitting Images, the hit TV show, apparently feels that Domark’s original title for the jigsaw/block puzzle game, Splitting Images together with the artwork for the inlay and posters, breaches their rights. Representations to the directors of Domark were made by a firm of solicitors acting on behalf of Spitting Image Productions with the outcome that the game is currently being repackaged. It should appear in the shops under the title Split Personalities.
MacMillan Software has acquired the rights to Rogue Trooper, the genetic infantryman who features in the comic 2000AD. Details on the likely release date of the game are not yet available, but any improvement upon Strontium Dog, which had all the hallmarks of a severe Thrillsucker attack, is likely to be welcomed by comic fans...
Elite have announced their intention to start a budget label featuring old favourites for the Spectrum and other machines. Negotiations have been in process for some months, and the company has acquired the rights to a respectable quantity of back-catalogue titles from firms as diverse as PSS and Psion.
As we go to press, the final name for the range has yet to be decided upon, but all the games will sell for £2.99 and be repacked in a new livery. Valhalla, 3D Death Chase, Skool Daze and Full Throttle are understood to be in the running for inclusion in the launch of the new label.
Controversy rages around US Gold’s release of World Cup Carnival, tied in to the current World Cup fever. Retailers and distributors have complained to the company that the game is little more than a repackaged version of Artic’s World Cup Soccer, released nearly two years ago. Answering criticisms in the trade paper, CTW, US Gold’s Tim Chaney commented: “World Cup Carnival is a modified, improved, enhanced, localised version of another piece of software: it has two A2 colour posters, a cloth patch, the World Cup competition — all in addition to a better version of the game”.
The issue has bean further complicated by a company that specialises in selling remaindered software at cut prices — the original World Cup Soccer is now available to retailers for around a fifth of the price of the enhanced World Cup product. Re-order levels have been good, according to US Gold’s Geoff Brown — only time and final sales figures will reveal how you, the customers, react to the US Gold launch.