Companies & Studios

Software Projects

Matthew Smith's company, born of a Bug-Byte split

Founded in 1984 by Alan Maton and Matthew Smith after a contract dispute with Bug-Byte, Software Projects published Jet Set Willy, the second pressing of Manic Miner, and a handful of other early-Spectrum titles before fading by the late 1980s.

sinclair-zx-spectrumcommodore-64amstrad-cpcMSX developerspublishersbritish-gaming 1984–1989

Overview

Software Projects was a British software publisher founded in early 1984 by Alan Maton (formerly managing director of Bug-Byte) and Matthew Smith in Liverpool. The company existed primarily to publish Smith's Manic Miner and the upcoming Jet Set Willy after a contractual dispute with Bug-Byte over the original Manic Miner royalties.

Software Projects's release of Jet Set Willy in April 1984 made the new label commercially significant overnight. The mansion-exploration platformer sold quarter-of-a-million copies on the Spectrum alone and was ported to multiple other platforms. Subsequent releases — none with Smith's involvement after 1985 — included Lode Runner, Twin Kingdom Valley, Glug-Glug, and Star Trek: The Rebel Universe. The company declined alongside the Spectrum market through the late 1980s and ceased trading around 1989.

The Bug-Byte split

The split that created Software Projects is one of Spectrum-era's most-told business stories. Smith had written Manic Miner and signed it to Bug-Byte in 1983. The game sold extraordinarily well, but the contract terms — typical of early Spectrum publishing — gave the publisher rather than the programmer the bulk of royalties. Smith and Bug-Byte's MD Alan Maton both believed Smith was owed more.

The resolution, depending on which version of the story you read: either Smith retained ownership of the Manic Miner source code per the contract's wording and Maton resigned from Bug-Byte to co-found a new company with him, or Maton left first and convinced Smith to move with him. Either way, by early 1984 both were at Software Projects and Manic Miner migrated there for its later cassette runs. Bug-Byte itself continued for a while but lost much of its momentum without Smith.

What they published

After Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy, Software Projects's catalogue grew through a mix of in-house development and externally-acquired titles:

  • Jet Set Willy (1984) — Matthew Smith. The mansion sequel.
  • Manic Miner (1984 re-issue) — Re-pressed under Software Projects branding.
  • Lode Runner (1984) — Ported from the US Broderbund original. Strong seller.
  • Twin Kingdom Valley (1984) — Text adventure.
  • Star Trek: The Rebel Universe (1987) — Late-era licensed title.
  • Glug-Glug (1984) — Submarine action game.

Smith worked on a never-released Jet Set Willy II and an even more ambitious never-finished project called Attack of the Mutant Zombie Flesh Eating Chickens From Mars. Neither shipped before Smith disengaged from the company around 1985. Software Projects published Jet Set Willy II: The Final Frontier in 1985 as an expanded version of the original, but Smith was no longer the designer.

Why this matters to Code Like It's 198x

Software Projects is the company that published the Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy most players experienced. The beeper music — Mountain King and "If I Were a Rich Man" — that defined Spectrum audio in the 1980s came through Software Projects releases. When the Shadowkeep curriculum talks about period-faithful Spectrum game development, the Software Projects releases are the canon being referenced.

See also