Flair Software was a small games publisher in Ponteland, a village outside Newcastle upon Tyne, and in 1993 and 1994 its games came in the box with Commodore’s Amiga CD32. Commodore’s console launched with Flair’s platform game Oscar. Before Christmas 1993 Commodore added Flair’s beat-’em-up Dangerous Streets and named the pack after it. Amiga Power gave Dangerous Streets 3% and warned that it “could single-handedly destroy the credibility of the CD32”.
Fast facts
- Based: The Smithy Side, Ponteland, later Meadowfield House, Ponteland, Newcastle upon Tyne.
- Parent: Micro Value, whose full-price label Flair was; advertisements in 1993 and 1994 were signed “Microvalue/Flair”.
- Games: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (Commodore 64), Elvira: The Arcade Game, Winter Supersports ’92, Trolls, Oscar, Dangerous Streets, Whale’s Voyage (developed by Neo Software) and Whizz (1995).
- The CD32 packs: Oscar with Diggers at launch; Oscar, Diggers, Wing Commander and Dangerous Streets from December 1993; the same four plus Microcosm and The Chaos Engine from spring 1994.
Micro Value’s full-price label
Flair appeared in spring 1991. ZZAP!64 reported in May that Elvira, “fresh from her stint on the Amiga”, was making “her debut on the C64 through Flair, the full-price label of Micro Value”. Micro Value had been selling budget compilations from Blaydon, on Tyneside, since at least 1987. Flair’s Commodore 64 conversion of Horror Soft’s Elvira: Mistress of the Dark sold on disk only, at £24.99, and the press were impressed that it fitted at all: ZZAP!64 called it “quite an achievement to fit it into the Commodore 64”.
Flair’s own games followed on the Amiga at £25.99. Amiga Action gave Elvira: The Arcade Game, a platform game starring the horror hostess, 87% and called it “almost faultless”; it gave Winter Supersports ’92 79%. When the magazine profiled “a small team of people” in January 1993, “based in Geordie land in a small historical village”, it found three games in progress: the puzzle game Metamorphosis, a football game, and Trolls, a bright platform game starring a troll doll. Amiga Power gave Trolls 83%.
Oscar and the CD32
Oscar was another platform game, with a cartoon character in place of the troll. Amiga Power found it “just a cute character to replace the slightly nauseous troll that featured in Flair’s” earlier game, gave the A1200 version 66% and the CD32 version 51%. By then it was already in the CD32’s box: the console launched in 1993 with two games, Oscar and Millennium’s Diggers, and the A1200 versions of both went into advertisements beside the console that winter.
The bundle grew before Christmas. Amiga Computing reported in February 1994 that “an improved CD32 pack containing extra games” had reached the shops “during the last few Christmas shopping days”. It added Electronic Arts’ Wing Commander and “Micro-Value Flair’s Dangerous Streets”, a fighting game with “eight exotic combatants from across the globe”. Commodore said the four games would cost £120 bought separately, but kept the console at £299. The pack was called the Dangerous Streets bundle.
Commodore’s UK managing director, David Pleasance, explained the change to Amiga Format. The first bundle had been rushed: “We were under a lot of pressure to get the bundle into the shops, and we launched it when we weren’t really ready. There wasn’t that much software to choose from to put in the package, but now there are plenty of games around and we had the opportunity to choose the best.” Amiga Format also reported his forecast of more than 70,000 CD32s sold by Christmas and another 25,000 in the first quarter of 1994. Amiga Computing put sales at 75,000 in Britain by the end of 1993, “around a third of the original projection made at launch”.
Three per cent
Amiga Power reviewed Dangerous Streets in March 1994. Stuart Campbell wrote that it “could single-handedly destroy the credibility of the CD32, beyond repair. It’s the lead game in the bundle that most people will get their machine in”, and so “probably the first one they’ll play”. The magazine’s verdict was “the worst game you’re ever likely to see on the CD32”, and the score was 3%.
The bundle soon grew again. In April 1994 a retailer offered Amiga Power readers a CD32 with Microcosm, The Chaos Engine, Wing Commander, Dangerous Streets, Diggers and Oscar for £229.99. In May the magazine reported that Commodore itself had added Microcosm and The Chaos Engine to the “embarrassingly poor Dangerous Streets bundle”, at the same price. Both of Flair’s games stayed in the box. By then Commodore International had announced its liquidation, on 29 April 1994.
After Commodore
Flair kept publishing for the Amiga and the CD32. Amiga CD32 Gamer was still listing Oscar, Trolls and Whale’s Voyage as Flair CD32 titles in 1995, and Amiga Computing reported in May 1995 that “Flair Software are back” with a new platform game, Whizz. An advertisement in The One that October, for a game due on the Amiga, A1200 and CD32 “early October”, still gave the Ponteland address. The period magazines do not record when Flair stopped trading.
Sources
- ZZAP!64 issue 73, May 1991: Flair as “the full-price label of Micro Value”, the C64 Elvira at £24.99 on disk. Issue 74, June 1991: review of the C64 Elvira (Flair Software, £24.99, disk only).
- Commodore Disk User vol. 4 no. 9, July 1991: Flair Software advertisement and review details (The Smithy Side, Ponteland; £24.99).
- ZZAP!64 issue 25 and CRASH issue 40, May 1987: Microvalue compilation advertisements (Addison Industrial Estate, Blaydon, Tyne & Wear).
- Amiga Action issue 40, January 1993: profile of Flair Software (Elvira: The Arcade Game 87% and “almost faultless”, Winter Supersports ’92 79%, Metamorphosis, Trolls, the football game).
- Amiga Computing issue 62, July 1993: Whale’s Voyage advertisement (“a Neo Software production from Flair Software”). Issues 63, August 1993, to 73, May 1994: “Microvalue/Flair” advertisements for Dangerous Streets, Oscar and Surf Ninjas. Issue 70, February 1994: “Games give CD32 sales a boost” (75,000 sales, the four games, £120 and £299). Issue 86, May 1995: Whizz.
- Amiga Format issue 53, December 1993: mail-order advertisements for the CD32 with Oscar and Diggers. Issue 55, January 1994: “Now with four games!” (David Pleasance on the first bundle; his sales forecast).
- Amiga Power issue 31, November 1993: Oscar (A1200) 66%. Issue 32, December 1993: Oscar (CD32) 51%. Issue 33, January 1994: buyers’ guide (Trolls 83% in issue 21). Issue 34, February 1994: “CD32 takes off” (the Dangerous Streets bundle at £299); Oscar compared with Trolls. Issue 35, March 1994: Dangerous Streets review (Stuart Campbell, 3%). Issue 36, April 1994: the Paradise Isle offer at £229.99. Issue 37, May 1994: Commodore’s six-game bundle.
- Amiga CD32 Gamer issues 7–13, December 1994 to June 1995: CD32 buyers’ guides listing Flair’s titles.
- The One issue 85, October 1995: Flair Software advertisement (Meadowfield House, Ponteland).
- Commodore: the liquidation announcement of 29 April 1994.