Audiogenic | Code Like It's 198x

Audiogenic began by copying other people’s cassettes. Around 1979 it was a tape duplicator in Reading, making copies of programs for the Commodore PET, and by 1983 it was selling American VIC-20 cartridges in Britain. It nearly went under, was bought by another small software house in 1985, and then spent the next decade doing something few British publishers bothered with: making careful simulations of cricket and rugby, alongside one of the best-loved football games on the Commodore 64.

Fast facts

Founded: about 1979 in Reading, as a tape duplication company; managing director in 1985, Martin Maynard.
Refounded: 1985, when Supersoft, run by Peter Calver and Pearl Wellard, bought the business. The new company, Audiogenic Software Limited, was based at Winchester House, Canning Road, Wealdstone, Harrow.
Known for: Graham Gooch’s Test Cricket (1985), Impact (1987), Emlyn Hughes International Soccer (1988), Loopz, World Class Rugby, Graham Gooch World Class Cricket (1993) and Brian Lara Cricket.
Company: Audiogenic Software Limited is still on the register at Companies House. Calver was a director until January 2026.

Reading and the VIC-20

Peter Calver told The One in 1995 that Audiogenic started in 1979 copying tapes for the PET, which is where the “audio” in the name came from, and moved into distributing games in 1981. Your Commodore’s potted history of the company agrees on the dates.

The distribution business was built on American software. In April 1983 Computer and Video Games reviewed the VIC-20 cartridge of Dan Gorlin’s Choplifter, licensed by Creative Software and sold in Britain by “Audiogenic of Reading” at £24.95. The magazine called it “Very addictive and definitely one of the best games now on sale for the Vic”. The same issue listed other Audiogenic VIC-20 games at £24.95. Calver later explained why the business worked. On a visit to an American department store he found “some of the VIC-20 games were selling for as much as 60 dollars!” Audiogenic had been selling the same games in Britain for between six and eight pounds.

By the start of 1985 Audiogenic sold business programs as well as games: a Forth, the Micro Magpie database and the Micro Swift spreadsheet for the Commodore 64. Its managing director, Martin Maynard, told Commodore Computing International that the company had moved into peripherals in 1984 and planned a communications package. Your Commodore’s history records that 1984 brought rumours of financial trouble and a court case over distribution of the Koala Pad, a drawing tablet.

Supersoft takes over

The rescuer was Supersoft, one of the oldest software houses in the country. Its directors, Peter Calver and Pearl Wellard, were both accountants. At the end of 1978 they bought an 8K PET “with the intention of writing programs and selling them, just as a spare time hobby”, Calver told Commodore Computing International in 1985. “There were only about 1000 PETs in the country.” Turnover was £2,000 in the first year and £100,000 in the second, and after 18 months they gave up their jobs. Supersoft sold PET utilities and games, and Andrew Trott’s Mikro assembler.

In 1985, according to Your Commodore, Supersoft bought Audiogenic “and the new Audiogenic is born”. The register at Companies House shows the same step: a company formed in 1984 took the name Audiogenic Software Limited in May 1985. Calver became its managing director, and by the late 1980s Audiogenic was at Supersoft’s old address, Winchester House in Harrow.

Cricket and football

The new Audiogenic’s first big game was Graham Gooch’s Test Cricket. Computer and Video Games announced it in August 1985 for the Commodore 64 at £9.95, with an arcade mode in which the player bowled and batted and a simulation mode for picking the team and making the tactical decisions. CRASH reviewed the Spectrum version in February 1986 and gave it 65%. One reviewer thought cricket and computer graphics had simply not gone together until now; another called it “a must for cricket fans”. The magazine’s verdict was “Best cricket simulation yet on the Spectrum.”

Calver summed up the next years for The Games Machine at the start of 1989: “In 1987, we produced one product worth shouting about — Impact. This year, we produced two worth shouting about — Helter Skelter and Emlyn Hughes International Soccer.” Impact, which ACE reviewed on the Atari ST in 1987 alongside Breakout, was a bat-and-ball game, and Your Commodore claimed it sold “tonnes” of copies on the 16-bit machines. Emlyn Hughes International Soccer began on the Commodore 64, and Spectrum and Amstrad versions followed. Reviewing another football game in January 1989, Computer and Video Games told readers to “Stick to Microsoccer or Emlyn Hughes International Soccer”. The company also said it would keep supporting the BBC Micro, but converting games to it from other machines, not the other way round. Writing for the BBC first and converting to the Commodore 64, Calver said, had been a mistake.

The Amiga years

In the 1990s Audiogenic moved to the Amiga, where it published Exile, credited by Edge to J. Smith and P. Irving. The puzzle game Loopz appeared on machines from the Spectrum to the Amiga, and World Class Rugby, developed with Denton Designs, was reviewed on the Spectrum in 1991. The cricket games kept coming. Graham Gooch World Class Cricket came out on the Amiga in May 1993, and by 1995 Calver said it had sold more than 40,000 Amiga copies, far more than the PC version.

Calver was frank about the company’s size. When its football game FA Premier League Football went to Ocean to publish instead, he told Amiga Power that “the Audiogenic name didn’t really carry the credibility to bypass the huge Sensible Soccer hype”. Ocean could sell four or five times as many copies. Audiogenic then employed about 25 people, and all but two worked on the software itself. “It’s often a challenge to produce something which other companies leave behind,” he told The One. “We’ve always gone for stuff that other people drop, and sometimes that can be successful.”

The same programmer wrote Brian Lara Cricket on the Mega Drive for Codemasters. Codemasters’ David Darling told Edge that it made 20,000 cartridges in 1995, “the first console cricket game”, and retailers had not expected it to sell. Audiogenic’s own cricket game carried on for the Amiga as Brian Lara Cricket ’96. By then Amiga Power’s reviewer was tired of it. He had reviewed Audiogenic’s “new” cricket game before, he wrote, “whether it’s been called Graham Gooch Cricket” or, as it was now, Brian Lara Cricket ’96. Audiogenic was still selling it by mail order from Harrow in 1997, at £19.99 instead of £29.99. After that its new releases stop appearing in the magazines, although the company itself is still registered.

Sources

Computer and Video Games issue 18, April 1983: Audiogenic of Reading’s VIC-20 games at £24.95, and the review of the VIC-20 Choplifter (p. 46).
Commodore Computing International, New Year (January) 1985, p. 53: “Predictions” feature (Martin Maynard, managing director of Audiogenic); Audiogenic’s Forth, Micro Magpie and Micro Swift in the same issue’s software lists.
Commodore Computing International, March 1985, p. 63: profile of Supersoft (Peter Calver and Pearl Wellard; the PET in 1978; turnover; Andrew Trott’s Mikro assembler).
Computer and Video Games issue 46, August 1985: Graham Gooch’s Test Cricket for the Commodore 64 at £9.95, arcade and simulation modes.
CRASH issue 25, February 1986, pp. 12–13: Graham Gooch’s Test Cricket review (Spectrum, £9.95, 65%).
The Games Machine issue 14, January 1989: news item on Audiogenic (Calver on Impact, Helter Skelter and Emlyn Hughes International Soccer; BBC Micro policy; Harrow address).
ACE issue 1, October 1987: Impact review (Atari ST).
CRASH issue 84, January 1991: Loopz news (Audiogenic).
Computer and Video Games issue 87, January 1989: Roy of the Rovers review recommending Emlyn Hughes International Soccer.
Your Commodore, April 1990, pp. 44–45: “Cabbages and Kings”, with “Audiogenic: a potted history” (1978 to 1989) and a profile of Peter Calver.
CRASH issue 94, December 1991: World Class Rugby review (Audiogenic and Denton Designs).
Amiga Power issue 24, April 1993: FA Premier League Football preview, with Peter Calver on Ocean publishing the game and Audiogenic’s staff.
The One issue 81, June 1995, p. 21: “A Cup of Tea With…” Peter Calver (1979 and 1981; VIC-20 prices; Amiga sales of Graham Gooch World Class Cricket; Brian Lara Cricket for Codemasters).
Edge issue 35, August 1996: Codemasters feature (David Darling on 20,000 Mega Drive Brian Lara cartridges).
Amiga Power issue 65, September 1996: Brian Lara Cricket ’96 review.
Amiga Format issue 91, December 1996: Audiogenic mail-order advertisement for Brian Lara Cricket ’96 (£19.99, Harrow address).
Retro Gamer issue 107, October 2012, p. 20: Brian Lara Cricket developed by Audiogenic and published by Codemasters.
Edge issue 80, January 2000: retrospective listing Exile on the Amiga (publisher Audiogenic; developers J. Smith and P. Irving).
Companies House, “Audiogenic Software Limited”, company 01830052 (web, public record): incorporation on 4 July 1984 as Chineham Services Limited; renamed 24 May 1985; officers including Peter Robert Calver. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/01830052