Your Commodore - Commodore Is Awesome

swallowing Moby Dick
whole. Not that Virgin didn't
have a good reputation, but
their games organisation
was hardly on the same scale
as mastertronic's empire
which ecompassed its range
of budget labels, Melbourne
House, a (then) new deal to
market the Sega games system,
and a flirtation with the
video market.
Today Frank Herman,
the man who loomed large
in the company's creation of
the budget market, still
champions Mastertronic's
cause, assisted by his old
mate Alan Sharam. Now,
with their abilities combined
with Virgin Games' boss,
Nick Alexander, Virgin
Mastertronic has a new
vitality.
Virgin Games hadn't
really done very much since
Dan Dare but it blossomed
earlier this year with the
brilliant Silkworm and the
highly successful Double
Dragon. More fruits are now
starting to appear in time for
the Christmas consumers
and Double Dragon II is
spearheading the attack.
At the end of Double
Dragon, Billy and Jimmy
Lee made Marion a free
woman again, but her captors,
the Black Warriors
were not totally eliminated.
One member escaped and
she, with her new Tong, have
dispatched Marion to that
great pagoda in the sky. Billy
and Jimmy are a bit peeved
off and have sworn revenge
and will be out for vengeance
in November. Eight bit or 16
bit, the choice is yours.
Taito's Ninja Warriors is
another Ninja binger currently
in the Virgin M astertronic
pipeline and due for
release in December. Rebel
leader, Marc, has built two
Ninja robots to defeat the
world's latest dictator,
Rangier. These Ninja Warriors
are under your control
as they make bangler's criminal
army see stars (little,
pointed metal ones). Can I
save the world sure I can.
Continental Circus has
nothing to do with jugglers
but, from what I saw at the
YOUR COMMODORE
Show, you do need a lot of
balls to get through this
roadrace. As race games go
it has little to lead me to
recommend it over the
hordes of games of this
genre. As good as some,
better than many, it will have
a hard time battling against
Domark's excellent Hard
Driving' or the reputation
preceding the launch of US
Gold's Outrun
By far the biggest news
from the Virgin Mastertronic
stand at the Show was
their Christmas Coin-op
Collection Competition.
With prizes totalling
E30,000, it's the biggest gamble
that the company has
ever taken - either before or
after the take over.
The competition is based
around Virgin Games Silkworm,
Gemini Wing, Shinobi,
Continental Circus,
Double Dragon II and Ninja
Warriors. To qualify, tokens
must be collected from any
three of these games before
January 1990. Submitting
the game and answering a
'simple' question puts an
entry in the grand draw and
the five winners will each
receive £1,000 worth of their
chosen software (not necessarily
Virgin Mastertronic
stock), or £500 worth of
software plus an Amiga for
the intelligent or an Atari ST
for those who don't recognise
a bargain when they see
one - by the way, I noticed
one friendly loon at the show
scrawled 'HI' between the S
and T of the Atari logo.
Although we don't condone
such disgraceful behaviour -
good on yer, sport. And to
show no ill intent against
Atari, what do you call
Silkworm on the ST? Virgin
on the ridiculous.
The rest of the prize
money for the competition
comprises 10 second prizes
of .C500 of software and £250
worth for each of the 20 third
prize winners.
Elsewhere in Virgin's
Vernon Yard HQ, Melbourne
House and Leisure
Genius are still chugging
away. Looking like Double
Dragon on dope, Cyst.
sorry, Fist II is about to
appear on Mastertronic at a
realistic price of £2.99, while
Melbourne House pursues
its current trned for fantasy
role playing and graphic
adventures with Demon's
Tomb and Grimblood plus
the conclusion to the bloody
grim Lord of the Rings
trilogy as Frodo and Sam
plod on towards the War in
Middle Earth.
Leisure Genius sounds
much more hopeful with
their trilogy. Monopoly,
Scrabble and Clued° for a
combined price of £19.95
Above: Roadwars
Above: Ninia Warriors
Above: Kelly X
GAMES UPDATE 1111
(C64 only). There is also the
promise that my favourite
board game Risk! will soon
be appearing. Ah! World
domination isn't that what
life's about?
Incidentally, you may
have heard that 1990 is the
latest nominee for the Year
of the Games Machine
whatever happened to them
in 1989? Consequently, the
Virgin Mastertronic stockrooms
are frantically being
loaded with Sega games
which sounds like the storm
before the calm to me.
Nineteen