In the summer of 1985 a Mastertronic game was advertised on 12 million packets of crisps. The budget publisher had teamed up with KP to release Clumsy Colin Action Biker, starring the mascot of KP’s Skips, for the Spectrum and Commodore 64 at £1.99. Its managing director, Martin Alper, explained to Computer & Video Games why it mattered: “Most importantly working with KP has given us access to the big multiples.” Getting cheap games into shops that had never sold software was what Alper’s company did best. Ten years later he was president of Virgin Interactive Entertainment in California.
Mastertronic
Mastertronic launched its first £1.99 games in the spring of 1984. The Games Machine later said the company was founded by three people; Alper, the chairman Frank Herman and Alan Sharam are usually named. In a 1996 profile Edge said that Alper and his friend Herman had set the company up together, and in January 1986 Sinclair User described “the big four at Mastertronic”: Herman, Alper, Sharam and Terry Medwhite, “the heavy guys with the suits”.
Alper was managing director by 1985, and he was not shy about the competition. That May, CRASH reported that Mastertronic had set up Shuttlesoft to distribute budget software, and that Alper had said Firebird was the only other budget company likely to stay in business.
America and Virgin
By April 1987, when Mastertronic bought Melbourne House, CRASH described Alper as the man “who runs Mastertronic’s American operation”. Later that year Virgin bought 45% of Mastertronic, and in 1988 the business became Virgin Mastertronic. Edge’s 1996 profile said he had moved to the United States to set up the American office, and that this office, with a European headquarters in London, had driven Virgin Interactive Entertainment up “to stand alongside EA as one of the most successful game publishers in the world”.
Edge gave his title as president of Virgin Interactive Entertainment, based in Orange County, and noted that the Blockbuster group had bought a 90% stake in the company in 1994. In 1997 Edge described him in the middle of a difficult year, with costs out of control on the adventure game Toonstruck, waiting for Westwood Studios’ Blade Runner to repeat the success of Command & Conquer: Red Alert.
Alper died in Laguna Beach, California, in 2015.
Sources
- CRASH issue 16, May 1985: Shuttlesoft; Martin Alper, managing director, on Firebird.
- Computer & Video Games issue 46, August 1985: Mastertronic and KP launch Clumsy Colin Action Biker (£1.99; 12 million packets of Skips; Alper on the multiples).
- Sinclair User issue 46, January 1986: “the big four at Mastertronic”.
- CRASH issue 39, April 1987: Mastertronic buys Melbourne House; Alper runs the American operation.
- The Games Machine issue 1, October 1987: budget feature (Mastertronic founded by three people).
- ACE issue 4, January 1988: Virgin’s 45% stake in Mastertronic.
- Edge issue 30, March 1996: industry profile of Martin Alper (Mastertronic with Frank Herman; the move to the United States; president of Virgin Interactive Entertainment; Blockbuster’s 90% stake).
- Edge issue 49, September 1997: the making of Blade Runner (Alper as president of Virgin; Toonstruck; Red Alert).
- Wikipedia, “Martin Alper” (web, secondary): birth and death. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Alper