25 YEARS OF MASTERTRONIC: The heroes of Mastertronic

Mastertronic has worked with virtually every major games firm and executive in the world. Andy Payne offers his thanks to some of the Group’s most important partners and friends

Listed below are just some of the people who have been supporters of The Producers, Just Flight, Get Games, Sold Out and Mastertronic over the last 25 years.

All of them trusted us. All of them stuck with us through thick and thin in an industry which, in truth, has always been in constant flux.

Above all, every single one of them are our friends, even though some are no longer with us. There are so many people left off this list and for that I am truly sorry, but you all know who you are. Thank you. Heroes in no particular order are:

• Maxis and Jo Cooke – for putting faith in us in the early days and allowing us to work on the one and only Sim City.

• LucasArts, Clif Crowder and Jodee Fuentes (RIP) – for overloading us with all the best games from LucasArts, Mission Studios, New World Computing and Looking Glass.

• Interplay, Alison Beasley and Christine Rayner – for trusting us with Interplay’s titles including Warcraft and Fallout.

• Krisalis Software and Tony Kavanagh – for Manchester United: The Game.

• SCi, Eidos and particularly Jane Cavanagh – she was there right at the start and always trusted us.

• Highlights include working on SWIV, Double Dragon III, The Lawnmower Man and Carmageddon.

• Virgin Interactive, Sean Brennan and Doron Garfunkel – how many units did we build? HOW MANY??

• MCV and Stuart Dinsey – always helped us at CTW and from the very day he launched MCV.

Top row, left to right: Andy Wood, Bobby Kotick, Caroline Miller, David Smith, David Yarnton.
Bottom row, left to right: Greg Ingham, Ian Livingstone, Jane Cavanage, John Houlihan, Jon Hare

• Gary Winter and the whole team at The Producers – Gary is helmsman supreme.

• Geoff Heath and the team at Mindscape, Melbourne House and NCSoft – Heath trusted us from the start and is always the nicest man around.

• Acclaim and Rod Cousens – sure, there were late night and early morning calls, impossible tasks, but Rod was always loyal.

• Activision 1.0, Rod Cousens and Mark Cale – Last Ninja 2 was one of the hardest jobs ever.

• Activision 2.0 and Bobby Kotick – he trusted us with every product he had, including Kind Words and of course Lost Treasures of Infocom.

• The teams at Sensible, Renegade and Bitmap Brothers, including Tom Watson, Graeme Boxall, Abby Hains, Mike Montgomery and Jon Hare – say no more.

• Fergus McGovern – he backed us when the chips were down in 2005/2006.

Top row, left to right: Cat Channon, Dominic Wheatley, Doron Garfunkel, Fergus McGovern, Frank Herman.
Bottom row, left to right: Kelly Sumner, Kirsty Payne, Mark Cale, March Strachan, Jo Cooke

• Millennium and Michael Hayward – always trusted us with his releases, such as the classic James Pond.

• Domark, Mark Strachan and Dominic Wheatley – we had some of the funniest times ever.

• Andy Wood and Roy Campbell – they were both there for us from the very beginning and then again at Mirage and Real World. True friends.

• OK Media and Doron Garfunkel – backed us all the way, even when times were rough in 2007.

• The Associates, Roger Large and Mungo Amyatt-Leir – some of the happiest days of our lives.

• GAME and Lisa Morgan, Martyn Gibbs, Simon Reynolds – always supported us through thick and thin.

• Telecomsoft – for giving us our first ever job, Starglider II, in 1988.

Top row, left to right: Miles Jacobson and brothers Paul and Oliver Collyer, Geoff Payne, Graeme Struthers.
Bottom row, left to right: Martyn Gibbs, Mungo Amyatt-Lier, Paul Donnelly, Sean Brennan, Simon Reynolds.

• Beau Jolly and Nigel Mason – one of the nicest gentlemen i’ve ever dealt with.

• Novalogic and Lee Milligan – he worked with us from the US with Commanche, Armored Fist and Wolfpack: all amazing packaging tasks.

• Peter Gabriel – for trusting us with his ambitious music games Xplora 1 and EVE.

• Paul Donnelly – one of the very best, told it straight then and still does today.

• Palace Software and Pete Stone – trusted us all the way.

• Accolade and Tim Christian – the first US publisher to give us work.

• GT Interactive, Frank Herman and Peter Deutsch – turned up one day with an emergency: Doom. The rest is history.

• Sold Out and Garry Williams – trusted us with his launch, and then we decided to be partners back in 2004.

Top row, left to right: Tim Christian, Tony Kavanagh, Pete Stone, Peter Gabriel, Richard Keith.
Bottom row, left to right: Richard Stickler, Rod Cousens, Roger Large, Rosemarie Dalton, Roy Campbell

• Rising Star Games and Martin DeFries – for being the first to trust us to sell their games, which we did not publish, to UK retail.

• Eurogamer, Rupert and Paul Loman – for trusting us to set up Get Games with them.

• Kelly Sumner, Take-Two and then Red Octane – a great friend for all seasons.

• Future Publishing and Greg Ingham – for trusting us with PC Gamer Presents.

• Graeme Struthers – thanks for everything down the years: Virgin, Gamecock, Get Games, Indigo Pearl.

• Every single member of staff at Mastertronic, including the teams at Just Flight and The Producers.

• Paul and Ov Collyer – for trusting us with the task of releasing Championship Manager.

• All the founders and trustees at GamesAid – for being brilliant people. Those founders are of course Miles Jacobson, Rupert Loman, Paul Gardner, Greg Ingham, Andrew Eades, Richard Stickler, Mark Ward, Ian Livingstone, Caroline Miller, Rosemarie Dalton, Graeme Struthers, David Walker, Richard Keith, Cat Channon, Louise Fisher, Stuart Dinsey, David Smith, Sarah Seaby and John Houlihan.

Top row, left to right: Garry Williams, Gary Winter, Geoff Heath, Rupert Loman, Sarah Seaby.
Bottom row, left to right: Mark Ward, Martin Defries, Lisa Morgan.

• David Yarnton – just for everything. And his hand grenade management techniques.

• Steve Allwork – for taking a chance and coming to work for us in the ‘90s. Steve retired last year.

• Geoff Payne – for being there right from the start, teaching me the right way to do business and being a true friend to all of the staff.

• Kirsty Payne – for being my wife.

You can read our full celebration of Mastertronic’s 25th Anniversary inthe latest issue of MCV.