Empire Interactive

Empire was a British publisher that lasted 22 years and changed its shape several times. It began in 1987 as Empire Software, set up, The One reported, by “two refugees from Robert Maxwell’s former distribution company, Microdealer”. By the end of 1989 it was working from an industrial estate in Essex, selling a football game endorsed by Paul Gascoigne and the American developer Paragon’s Marvel Comics game Dr. Doom’s Revenge!. On the Amiga in the early 1990s it became the publisher of serious, expensive simulations, tank wargames and First World War dogfights at £34.99, alongside one of the machine’s strangest adventures, DreamWeb. As Empire Interactive it moved into PC pinball and console racing, and it went into administration in 2009.

Fast facts

Founded: 1987, as Empire Software.
Based: 4 The Stannetts, Laindon North Trade Centre, Basildon, Essex, in 1989; by 1996, The Spires, 677 High Road, North Finchley, London.
Parent: Entertainment International (UK) Ltd, which owned the Empire Software trademark and also handled Titus’s games in Britain.
Published: Gazza’s Super Soccer (1989), Pipe Mania (1990), Campaign (1992), Cyberspace (1993), War in the Gulf (1993), Maelstrom (1994), DreamWeb (1994), Empire Soccer ’94 (1994), Dawn Patrol (1995), Pro-Pinball (1995), the FlatOut games (2000s).
Ended: in administration from 1 May 2009.

Gazza and Pipe Mania

Empire’s first games aimed at the mass market. Gazza’s Super Soccer, endorsed by Paul Gascoigne, was announced in November 1989. ACE’s news page teased it as “the most incredibly original game idea ever! A soccer simulation endorsed by one of the leading lights of the game”. That month Empire was also advertising Paragon’s Dr. Doom’s Revenge! for the Spectrum, Amstrad, C64, Amiga, Atari ST and PC. The hit came from elsewhere. Pipe Mania, by the developers The Assembly Line, was a puzzle game in which you lay pipe sections in the path of flowing slime before it spills; Amiga Format put a playable demo on its cover disk in April 1990 and called it “frustrating yet fabulously addictive”. By 1991 The One listed it as Empire’s hit, and noted that most of Empire’s games were programmed by Oxford Digital Enterprises.

The Amiga simulations

What Empire became known for on the 16-bit machines was simulation. Oxford Digital’s Team Yankee (1990) put the player in charge of four tank platoons at once, each in its own quarter of the screen, and its sequel War in the Gulf (1993) cost £29.99 on the Amiga. Empire published the American developer Paragon’s Twilight 2000, a computer version of GDW’s role-playing game set in Poland after a nuclear war, and Oxford Digital’s Cyberspace, based on Iron Crown’s role-playing game and set in 2090.

Campaign (1992), written by Jonathan Griffiths, let the player fight any land battle of the Second World War, “from brief skirmishes to the D-Day landings”, with more than 100 types of tank, truck and artillery. It worked on three levels. The player moved forces around a strategic map, battles were fought out as units met, and at any moment the player could climb into a single tank and fight in 3D. Amiga Power reviewed it in December 1992 at £34.99 as a two-voice joke: a grumpy wargame reviewer complaining that the 3D tanks “trivialise the whole concept of the wargame”, interrupted by the real reviewer, Jonathan Davies. “They want a two-page wargame review? Then they’ve got one,” one voice began. The other called it “easily the best wargame I’ve played in all the bitter years I’ve been doing this sort of thing for AP”. Empire followed it with Campaign 2 in 1993.

Rowan Software’s Dawn Patrol (1995) was a First World War flight simulation structured as an interactive book of real pilots and their missions. Amiga Format priced it at £34.99 and gave it 69%. Not everything was expensive: Empire Soccer ’94, from Graftgold, cost £26 in 1994, and Magic Boy, a platform game, £25.99.

DreamWeb

DreamWeb came from Creative Reality, which Amiga Computing described in 1994 as just two people, about four years old, neither with any formal training. They had conceived the game in 1989 and spent four years on it, and Empire, the magazine reported, had given them complete freedom. The result is a top-down cyberpunk adventure in which Ryan, the player character, believes he must kill seven people to save the world. CU Amiga gave it 86% in November 1994, at £34.99, and explained the 18 rating by the graphic nature of the killings; Amiga Computing reported that Empire had given the game the certificate voluntarily. In 2012 Creative Reality and its co-founder Neil Dodwell allowed the ScummVM project to release DreamWeb as freeware, so it still runs on modern machines.

By the mid-1990s the company was trading as Empire Interactive from North Finchley. In 1996 it advertised Pro-Pinball, a PC pinball game at a resolution of “up to 1024 x 768 running at 60 frames per second”, which became a series. In the 2000s it published the Finnish developer Bugbear’s demolition-derby racers, FlatOut 2 (2006) and FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage (2007), and, from 1999 to 2004, Sega’s PC games in Europe. In 2006, Wikipedia records, Silverstar Holdings bought 85% of Empire, and on 1 May 2009 the company was placed into administration.

Sources

ACE issue 26, November 1989, p. 11: news of Gazza’s Super Soccer; Empire’s Basildon telephone number.
The One issue 14, November 1989, p. 32: Empire Software advertisement (4 The Stannetts, Laindon North Trade Centre, Basildon).
Amiga Format issue 9, April 1990: cover disk demo of Pipe Mania (Empire; The Assembly Line).
The One issue 37, October 1991, p. 52: survey of British publishers (Empire set up in 1987 by former Microdealer staff; Oxford Digital Enterprises; Pipe Mania; parent company Entertainment International and Titus).
CRASH issue 70, November 1989, p. 48: Empire advertisement for Dr. Doom’s Revenge! (Marvel Comics and Paragon Software).
ACE issue 38, November 1990, p. 58: Team Yankee review (Oxford Digital Enterprises; four platoons).
ACE issue 50, November 1991, p. 35: Paragon’s Twilight 2000, from GDW’s role-playing game (Poland after a nuclear war).
Amiga Power issue 20, December 1992, pp. 40–41: Campaign review (author Jonathan Griffiths; £34.99; reviewer Jonathan Davies).
The One issue 55, April 1993, p. 32: Cyberspace work in progress (developer Oxford Digital Enterprises; Iron Crown’s role-playing game; 2090).
The One issue 58, July 1993, p. 49: Twilight 2000 (Empire).
Amiga Computing issue 63, August 1993, p. 111: War in the Gulf review (Empire Software; £29.99).
Amiga Power issue 33, January 1994, p. 93: Magic Boy review (£25.99).
Amiga Format issue 56, February 1994, p. 8: advertisement (“Empire Software is a registered trademark of Entertainment International (UK) Ltd”).
Amiga Power issue 35, March 1994, p. 34: Maelstrom review (£34.99).
Amiga Power issue 40, August 1994, p. 42: Empire Soccer ’94 review (Graftgold; £26).
Amiga Computing issue 78, October 1994, pp. 118–119: DreamWeb preview and Creative Reality profile (two people; conceived in 1989; four years’ work; the voluntary 18 certificate).
CU Amiga, November 1994, p. 58: DreamWeb review (Creative Reality; £34.99; 86%; the 18 rating).
Amiga Format issue 69, March 1995, p. 54: Dawn Patrol review (£34.99; 69%; the interactive book).
PC Zone issue 34, January 1996, p. 73: Pro-Pinball advertisement (Empire Interactive, The Spires, 677 High Road, North Finchley).
Edge issue 161, April 2006, p. 25: FlatOut 2 preview; issue 178, August 2007, p. 80: FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage review (Empire Interactive; Bugbear).
ScummVM, “Dreamweb released as freeware”, 21 October 2012 (web, secondary). https://www.scummvm.org/news/20121021/
Sega Retro, “Empire Interactive” (web, secondary): European publisher of Sega’s PC games from 1999 to 2004; the North Finchley address; Pro-Pinball games.
Wikipedia, “Empire Interactive” and “DreamWeb” (web, secondary): founding year; Sega’s PC games; Silverstar Holdings’ 85% (November 2006); administration on 1 May 2009; DreamWeb’s story. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Interactive and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DreamWeb