Piranha was the book publisher Macmillan’s attempt at games. It was launched at the PCW Show in September 1986 with a party in a wood-panelled room and snacks with fish puns (“The Piranha Balls caused much merriment,” CRASH reported), and it closed in the spring of 1988 because, in CRASH’s words, “current turnover was not considered sufficient to justify further investment”. In between it published some of the best-reviewed Spectrum games of the time, among them Don Priestley’s Trap Door and Design Design’s Nosferatu, and bought licences from British comics that it never got the chance to use.
Fast facts
- Parent: Macmillan, the book publisher. Mail orders went to Macmillan Distribution at Houndmills, Basingstoke.
- Address: 4 Little Essex Street, London WC2. Contacts in the advertisements were Richard Bason (1986) and Helen Holland (1987).
- Launched: at the PCW Show, September 1986.
- Closed: reported in the June 1988 issues of CRASH and Commodore User; CRASH called it “18-month-old”.
- Machines: ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC.
- Prices: £7.95 to £9.99 on cassette.
- Writers: Don Priestley, Design Design, Delta 4 (Fergus McNeill), Five Ways Software, Dalali.
The first games
Piranha arrived with its catalogue planned. Your Computer’s preview of the 1986 PCW Show listed five games: one licensed from a television programme still to be shown, Rogue Trooper from the comic 2000 AD, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Strike Force Cobra and The Colour of Magic. Sinclair User had already reported that Design Design was writing Rogue Trooper and Nosferatu for Piranha, and that Delta 4 was turning Terry Pratchett’s novel The Colour of Magic into an adventure.
The television game was Trap Door, based on the children’s series that CRASH noted was “due to be broadcast this Autumn”. Don Priestley drew its castle-cook hero Berk and his monsters in large, brightly coloured characters, and CRASH gave it 88% in October 1986: “a very neat and original game with endearing graphics”. Strike Force Cobra, written by Five Ways Software, scored 83% in the same issue. At the launch, CRASH’s columnist was one of eight journalists photographed in greasepaint moustaches so that the game’s digitised pictures of its commando team would have faces.
The next two were Design Design’s. Nosferatu, an isometric game based on what CRASH called “the Twentieth Century Fox film of the same name”, took 91% and a CRASH Smash in January 1987; the magazine later said it “was an instant Smash with reviewers, which was nice for Design Design who wrote it, and for Macmillan’s fledgling label”. Rogue Trooper, in the same issue, “wasn’t received with quite the same enthusiasm” and scored 79%. The Colour of Magic, Delta 4’s adventure from Pratchett’s first Discworld novel, followed in February at 88%. On the Commodore 64, ZZAP!64 gave Nosferatu 88%.
The second year
Piranha’s best review came for another Delta 4 adventure. The Big Sleaze (£9.95), Fergus McNeill’s spoof of a 1930s New York private-eye story, scored 93% in CRASH in August 1987; the reviewer found the writing “so good it’s hard to believe the text wasn’t taken from a real novel”. Don Priestley followed Trap Door with Flunky (£7.95), a game about a footman to the royal family, which CRASH gave 60%, and the sequel Through the Trap Door (£8.95), which took 70% that December. Yogi Bear (£9.95), a Hanna-Barbera licence written by Dalali, scored 62%.
By the PCW Show of September 1987 Piranha was a year old and celebrating, CRASH said, with “a cosy, almost homely stand — real, goldfish-devouring piranhas notwithstanding” and “more new games than most software houses”: running demonstrations of Yogi Bear, Judge Death and Gunboat, all due in November, with Roy of the Rovers expected early in 1988. It had also started a fan club, the Fin Club, with a pen, badge, card, posters and a quarterly newsletter. Not everything was good. On the Commodore 64 ZZAP!64 gave Gunboat 20% and Mr Weems and the She Vampires 19%.
The licences
Piranha’s later plans rested on characters from British comics. ZZAP!64 reported in October 1987 that it was “hard at work on” Judge Death, from 2000 AD, in which the player was the psychic judge Anderson. Your Sinclair ran a competition for its Halo Jones game, another 2000 AD licence, and Roy of the Rovers came from the football comic. When Piranha closed, Commodore User listed those three as its “three major licences”.
ACE looked back at the end of 1988, in a round-up of the year’s licensed games, under the heading “The ravenous Piranha”:
Snapping up a host of valuable licences to IPC comic characters, including Roy of the Rovers and a clutch of 2000AD characters (collected for a mere £1,000 … so the rumour has it), Piranha spent a lot of time and money developing games before parent company Macmillan pulled the plug out of the aquarium, asphyxiating Piranha and leaving the licences high and dry. So far, Gremlin have picked up Roy, but as for the rest…
The £1,000 figure was, as ACE said, a rumour. Gremlin Graphics did publish Roy of the Rovers, which ZZAP!64 gave 18%. Sinclair User expected that Judge Death would “never see the light of day”.
Closing
The news broke in the spring of 1988. CRASH reported that Macmillan had “decided to close down their 18-month-old games label”, and Commodore User that the company, though its “overall experience in the market had been a successful one”, was not prepared to go on “as a ‘small fish in a big pond’”. ACE headlined its story “Piranha sinks”: the name “conjures up images of aggressive marketing”, it wrote, but “Piranha never really cut it”, hits were “few and far between, with the result that the Macmillan board pulled the plug”.
The games did not disappear with the label. CRASH reported that Trap Door, Strike Force Cobra, Yogi Bear and others had already been bought by the budget label Alternative Software: “At least the better games won’t go down with the name.”
Sources
- Your Computer, September 1986, p. 51: PCW Show preview (Piranha’s first showing; the five games).
- Sinclair User issue 53, August 1986, p. 7: Design Design writing Rogue Trooper and Nosferatu, and Delta 4 The Colour of Magic, for Piranha.
- CRASH issue 32, September 1986, p. 12: the launch (Macmillan; the WB Yeats room; Strike Force Cobra’s photographs).
- Sinclair User issue 55, October 1986, p. 48, and Computer & Video Games issue 60, October 1986, p. 49: advertisements (Richard Bason; 4 Little Essex Street; Macmillan Distribution, Houndmills, Basingstoke).
- CRASH issue 33, October 1986, p. 28: Strike Force Cobra (Five Ways Software, £9.95, 83%); p. 122: Trap Door (Don Priestley, £7.95, 88%).
- CRASH issue 36, January 1987, p. 27: Nosferatu (Design Design, £9.95, 91%); p. 36: Rogue Trooper (Design Design, £9.99, 79%).
- CRASH issue 37, February 1987, p. 52: The Colour of Magic (Delta 4, £9.95).
- CRASH issue 43, August 1987, p. 71: The Big Sleaze (Fergus McNeill, £9.95, 93%).
- CRASH issue 44, September 1987, p. 104: Flunky (Don Priestley, £7.95, 60%).
- CRASH issue 46, November 1987, p. 12: Piranha at the 1987 PCW Show.
- CRASH issue 47, December 1987, p. 12: Through the Trap Door (£8.95, 70%); p. 122: Yogi Bear (Dalali, £9.95).
- CRASH issue 48, January 1988: “The CRASH History” (Nosferatu and Rogue Trooper) and the review index (The Colour of Magic 88%, Yogi Bear 62%).
- ZZAP!64 issue 29, September 1987, p. 42: the Fin Club and Helen Holland. Issue 30, October 1987, p. 57: Judge Death. Issue 72, April 1991, pp. 41–44: review index (Gunboat 20%, Mr Weems and the She Vampires 19%, Nosferatu 88%, Gremlin’s Roy of the Rovers 18%).
- Your Sinclair issue 26, February 1988, p. 7: Halo Jones competition.
- CRASH issue 53, June 1988, p. 9: the closure and Alternative Software.
- Commodore User, June 1988, p. 7: Piranha to cease trading; the three licences.
- Sinclair User issue 75, June 1988, p. 104: Piranha’s demise; Judge Death.
- ACE issue 10, July 1988, p. 8: “Piranha sinks”.
- ACE issue 15, December 1988, pp. 119–120: “The ravenous Piranha” (the IPC licences, the £1,000 rumour and Gremlin’s Roy of the Rovers).