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Grandslam Entertainments

Argus Press Software after its managing director bought it

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In November 1987 Stephen Hall, managing director of Argus Press Software, bought the company from the newspaper and magazine group that owned it and renamed it Grand Slam Entertainments, later Grandslam. It published Terramex, Pac-Land, Pacmania, Espionage and The Hunt for Red October, went into receivership in 1990 when Barclays called in its loans, and reappeared under Hall to publish Amiga and ST games such as Nick Faldo's Golf, Liverpool, Beavers and Bump 'n' Burn into the mid-1990s.

Grandslam was what Argus Press Software became when its managing director bought it. In November 1987 Stephen Hall took the games company away from Argus Press, the newspaper and magazine group that had built it by buying Quicksilva, Bug-Byte and others, and gave it a new name. “Grand Slam? Wossat?” asked Your Sinclair’s reviewer, who admitted that the old Argus’s games had “scarcely been Olympian” but liked the new company’s first release enough to believe Hall’s promise that things would be different. Two and a half years later the bank called in the receivers. Then Grandslam came back.

Fast facts

  • Formerly: Argus Press Software, the software house of the Argus Press group.
  • Owner: Stephen Hall, its managing director, who bought it in mid-November 1987.
  • Name: Grand Slam Entertainments in early 1988; Grandslam by the autumn. Grand Slam had already been Argus’s label for sports games.
  • Labels it inherited: Quicksilva and Bug-Byte, among others.
  • 1988–1990: Terramex, Peter Beardsley’s International Football, Chubby Gristle, Pac-Land, Pacmania, Espionage, The Running Man, The Hunt for Red October.
  • Receivership: mid-1990, when Barclays called in its loans.
  • 1991–1996: The Hunt for Red October (the film licence), Liverpool, Nick Faldo’s Golf, Beavers, Bump ‘n’ Burn, Base Jumpers.

Argus Press Software

Argus Press was the publishing and communications arm of the British Electric Traction group, and its software house spent the mid-1980s buying. It bought Quicksilva in June 1984, bought Bug-Byte from the receiver in 1985 to use as a budget label, and in April 1985 took over production and marketing for the wargame publisher Lothlorien. At that spring’s trade show, CRASH reported, “jokes about Argus Press Software’s shopping list for other companies abounded”. Its Mind Games label had published Nick Faldo Plays The Open, and late in 1986 Peter Holme started a new Argus label for sports simulations called Grand Slam, whose first game, Peter Shilton’s Handball Maradona, was, as Computer Gamer put it, “the first game to be named after a single controversial incident in a World Cup match”.

The buy-out

The sale was reported at the turn of 1988. CRASH said that Hall had bought Argus Press Software from Argus Press Group, “the newspaper-publishing group which launched Argus Press Software”, and now owned all its shares. The Games Machine said he “bought the company from his employers in mid-November and renamed it Grand Slam Entertainment”, taking with it the rights to all of Argus’s computer games, including a licence for Tom Clancy’s novel The Hunt for Red October. Your Commodore, itself published by Argus, reported that the buy-out took in all of the company’s assets and liabilities.

The first release under the new name was Terramex (£8.95), an arcade adventure in which the player hunts for a missing scientist to stop an asteroid hitting the Earth, playing as an Englishman, a Frenchman, a German, an American or a Japanese explorer, with puzzles that change slightly for each. It came from Teque, Shaun Hollingsworth and Peter Harrap’s company, who had written the Monty Mole games at Gremlin. “A great start for Grand Slam,” Your Sinclair said in March 1988, “even if all they’ve done is hire the right people to do the job.” ACE gave the Atari ST version 808 out of 1,000.

Licences

Hall’s company bought names. Its football game carried the footballer Peter Beardsley’s, timed to come out as the 1988 European Championship began. It converted Namco’s arcade games Pac-Land and Pacmania, the film The Running Man and the board game Espionage, and took the stand at the 1988 PCW Show “formerly Argus Press”, as Your Sinclair’s show guide put it, to launch Espionage and Pacmania. The original games were less successful. Chubby Gristle, Teque’s game about a cantankerous, food-loving car-park attendant, took 26% in ZZAP!64, whose reviewer was reminded of “the days of Spectrum Jet Set Willy, when I knew no better”.

Receivership, and after

In the summer of 1990 Grandslam went into receivership. ZZAP!64 reported that Barclays had “pulled the plug, calling in their loans after a prolonged attempt to find a rescuer failed”, and recalled that the “two-and-a-half-year-old Grandslam label was established by Stephen Hall, who bought Argus Press Software in 1987”. Commodore User said the company held the rights to games endorsed by the England football team and by Liverpool, and was planning a tie-in with the film of The Hunt for Red October, all now in doubt.

It was not the end. Your Sinclair reported in February 1991 that Grandslam “seemed to have gone too, only to resurface with The Hunt for Red October at the end of the year”, and later in 1991 Hall was again being quoted as Grandslam’s managing director. By 1992 ST Format found the company, “no strangers to the perils of liquidation”, back on its feet with three new releases, among them Liverpool and Nick Faldo’s Golf, which came with tips taken from Faldo’s own training. Most of its later games were for the Amiga. Beavers (1993) was a platform game; Bump ‘n’ Burn (1994) was a cartoon kart racer that Amiga Power called “a technically proficient racing game, plagiarising Super Mario Kart and the cartoon Wacky Races. Great idea, eh? I sincerely wish it had worked.” In 1995 it published Base Jumpers, and a Grandslam spokesman was still giving his views on the Amiga’s future to Amiga Computing that October. The public sources consulted do not say when the company stopped trading.

Sources

  • Sinclair User issue 29, August 1984, p. 16: Quicksilva acquired by the Argus Press group, “the publishing and communications arm of British Electric Traction”.
  • CRASH issue 15, April 1985, p. 59: Argus Press Software’s “shopping list”, Quicksilva and the Lothlorien deal.
  • CRASH issue 46, November 1987, p. 82: Argus buying Bug-Byte from the receiver in 1985 to use as a budget label.
  • CRASH issue 35, December 1986, p. 74: Peter Holme’s new Grand Slam label and Peter Shilton’s Handball Maradona. Computer Gamer issue 23, February 1987, p. 58: Handball Maradona, “Argus Press (Grandslam)”, £6.95.
  • Sinclair Programs, September 1985, p. 19: Mind Games’ Nick Faldo golf game.
  • CRASH issue 48, January 1988, p. 187: “Argus renamed in massive change” (Hall’s purchase from Argus Press Group; the labels; the 1988 releases).
  • The Games Machine issue 3, February 1988, p. 34: Hall’s purchase in mid-November and The Hunt for Red October.
  • Your Commodore, February 1988, pp. 6 and 64: Hall as chairman and managing director; the buy-out; “Grand Slam Entertainments (was Argus Press Software)”.
  • Your Sinclair issue 26, February 1988, p. 7: Hall’s buy-out. Issue 27, March 1988, p. 33: Terramex review (£8.95; Teque, Shaun Hollingsworth and Peter Harrap).
  • ACE issue 7, April 1988, p. 46: Terramex review (prices by format; ST version 808).
  • ACE issue 10, July 1988, p. 8: Grandslam’s Peter Beardsley football game and the European Championship.
  • ZZAP!64 issue 40, August 1988, p. 74: Chubby Gristle review (Grandslam, £9.95; Teque).
  • The Games Machine issue 10, September 1988, p. 73: Chubby Gristle’s authors, “the Teque Software Development team”.
  • Your Sinclair issue 34, October 1988, p. 78: PCW Show guide (“Grandslam … Formerly Argus Press”; Espionage, Pacmania).
  • Atari ST User issue 55, September 1990, p. 36: Grandslam, publisher of Pacmania, Pacland and The Running Man, in liquidation.
  • ZZAP!64 issue 64, August 1990, p. 6: receivership (Barclays; Stephen Hall; Bug-Byte and Quicksilva).
  • Commodore User, July 1990, p. 92: receivership (England team and Liverpool licences; The Hunt for Red October).
  • Your Sinclair issue 62, February 1991, p. 11: Grandslam’s return with The Hunt for Red October. Your Commodore, October 1991, p. 20: Stephen Hall, Grandslam’s managing director.
  • ST Format issue 32, March 1992, p. 13: Grandslam back with Liverpool and Nick Faldo’s golf game.
  • Amiga Power issue 21, January 1993, p. 30: Nick Faldo’s Golf (Andrew Perkins, Gary Tonge, Jamie Moore). Amiga Format issue 43, February 1993, pp. 90–91: Nick Faldo’s Golf review (Grandslam, £34.99).
  • Amiga Power issue 26, June 1993, p. 64: Beavers (Grandslam, Arc, £25.99).
  • Amiga Power issue 40, August 1994, pp. 38–39: Bump ‘n’ Burn (Grandslam, Peter Opdam, £26).
  • Amiga Power issue 54, October 1995, p. 73: Base Jumpers (Grandslam, £26).
  • Amiga Computing issue 91, October 1995, p. 64: Chris Warrender of Grandslam on the Amiga.

See also

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