Excerpts from "Mersey Byte!" article. Big K magazine, No.4 July 1984.

Page 19.

EXIT THE MINER

By the following April they had yet another potential star working for them on a freelance basis: Matthew Smith. Smith's first effort for Bug-Byte was Styx, which all sides admit bombed out. And then Smith produced Manic Miner.

More aggro surrounds this game, seemingly, than attends US-Soviet relations. There are claims and counter-claims, all exacerbated by the fact that Matthew Smith has of course now also left Bug-Byte, and is one-third of the newest company, Software Projects. He having taken the rights to Manic Miner with him, the same game has now been in the charts under two labels: old and new. This is a unique situation, and has been attended by angry comments from both sides.

"I know what Matthew's been saying, that he didn't get enough from Manic Miner," says Baden. "But I can tell you he got £50,000 cash from that one game while we sold it, and if that isn't enough, I'd like to know what is.

How was freelancer Smith able to take the Miner with him? Hadn't he signed the old boy away? "There was a clause in original contract," explained Baden, "which, due to a comma in the wrong place, or a missing comma, can't remember which, was a bit ambiguous. Rather than spend a lot of time and money fighting it in court, we agreed to let him take the game with him. At the time, you see, Matthew was a minor, and our legal people told us that against a minor in open court nobody has a chance."

Baden is "neutral" about the idea of more and more software operations setting up house in Liverpool. He also carefully avoids negative feelings concerning Imagine and SP, as far as he can.

Page 20.

TALES OF THE MANIC MINOR

AND THEN there was Software Projects.

This time the ancestry is even more muddled.

Matthew Smith we know about. Then there was Alan Maton, former Dispatch Manager with - you guessed it - Bug-Byte. And there was another executive, Colin Roach, who was working at the time for Imagine, firstborn sons of Bug-Byte.

Maton was "not too happy" at Bug-Byte at about this time last year, he remembers. Restless and - he felt - under employed, he cast around for a new billet.

At the same time or slightly later Matthew Smith, a Bug-Byte (freelance) programmer, began to think himself under-valued, and also began feeling restless.

A businessman, slightly known to Maton, had a son who was keen on this computer stuff. After a one-hour discussion, in which Maton opened the man's eyes with visions of glory and dollars, the wealthy fellow offered Maton a partnership; which he at first refused, then accepted - on condition that Matthew Smith be made the third partner. Smith duly assented, they both quit Bug-Byte (as usual in these cases, rather suddenly), and the following Monday Software Projects was in existence, with an address in the pleasant middle-class suburb of Woolton, Paul McCartney's old manor.

In addition to bringing the rights to his game Manic Miner with him from Bug-Byte, Smith, after a longish delay for final polishing, produced another masterpiece, Jet Set Willy; a fast and colourful game known above all for the bizarre quality of its collectable objects. Its chart showings (as good as you can get) have immediately established the third Liverpool software house as a rival in every sense to its begetters. The company could hardly have enjoyed a better start.

Two months ago (at time of writing) the Trade (that's us and them, but not You) reeled with amazement when Imagine circulated the script of an alleged phone conversation involving their employee Colin Stokes, a senior sales exec. It seems that, suspecting him of disloyalty, they had tapped his telephone.

To save everybody trouble (ourselves included) we won't repeat the allegations made by both sides; let's just record that Stokes departed Imagine forthwith, amid a sea of lawyers' letters, and with in a couple of seconds, as it seemed, had joined Software Projects.

Though none of the SP personnel actually live in Liverpool, Maton is ecstatic about the city, quoting, of all people, Carl Jung: "Liverpool is the Pool of Life...". He has nothing against any other company and remains a personal friend of Tony Milner, co-founder of Bug-Byte.

The company is TRS-80 based, following Smith's own route into computers. (they actually use the big Model 3's.) Smith, according to Maton, is a brilliant but sometimes whimsical perfectionist. Because of the necessary lead time of artwork and packaging over the actual software, the game notes have to be written before the game is finished (assuming it is to be marketed as soon as possible). And Smith's habit of changing quite important specs even at the last moment can put these notes out of date. Though Manic Miner was in fact written in l2 weeks) "Matthew uses his intelligence wisely - he's a good all-rounder as well," says Maton. Even before joining Bug-Byte, at 17, Matthew Smith had been running his own company (with his mother as Managing Director), writing and selling small business packs for the TRS-80.

Those were the days. What comes next?