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Codemasters
The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer and former publisher based in Southam. It is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts and managed under the EA Sports division. Founded by brothers Richard and David Darling in October 1986, Codemasters is one of the oldest British game studios, and in 2005 was named the best independent video game developer by magazine Develop. It formerly also published third-party games.
Codemasters Group Holdings plc was the holding company of Codemasters, which was publicly traded and owned Codemasters until being purchased by EA in 2021 for $1.2 billion.
While attending school in Vancouver, Richard Darling and his elder brother, David Darling, had learned programming with punch cards and had access to the school's computer room outside of hours through one of the school's janitors. Additionally, on weekends, they were allowed to use the Commodore PET computer owned by their father, James, to create a text version of Dungeons & Dragons. Later on, the two brothers and school friend Michael Heibert, whose family possessed a VIC-20 computer, founded Darbert Computers and created video game clones of popular games, such as Galaxian and Defender.
The Darling brothers later returned to England, where they acquired their own VIC-20 and founded Galactic Software, again with the help of Heibert. An advertisement placed in the magazine Popular Computing Weekly caught the attention of Mastertronic, a British software publisher, and the two brothers quit their education to pursue development of budget-priced games for the company. These games included Space Walk, BMX Racers, Jungle Story, Orbitron, Sub Hunt and Pigs in Space. They also developed The Games Creator, a game-making tool that would later be sold commercially. The Darling brothers found success in making these games, gaining £200,000 by the time they were 16 and 17 respectively. In 1985, the two owned a 50% stake in Mastertronic, which they proceeded to sell in March 1986 when they decided to become independent. By October 1986, the Darling brothers, with help from their father, had founded Codemasters. They initially worked out of the Beaumont Business Centre in Banbury, where their elder sister Abigail managed the front desk.
Codemasters' first game was BMX Simulator, a successor to BMX Racers. According to David Darling, the company aimed at making budget-priced games with the quality of full-priced games, as they would gain a larger customer base that would subsequently create better exposure. To produce more games in less time, Codemasters started hiring developers on a freelance basis. Products developed using this strategy include G-Man and Danger Zone by Mike Clark, Terra Cognita by Stephen Curtis, Super Robin Hood and Ghost Hunters by the Oliver Twins, Super Stuntman by Peter Williamson, Lazer Force by Gavin Raeburn, and ATV Simulator by Timothy R. Miller. By April 1987, Codemasters started seeking programmers that would create platform conversions of Codemasters' games in exchange for four-digit sums, via placements in Popular Computing Weekly.
As the 8-bit computer market diminished, Codemasters turned to the 16-bit console market and moved away from budget titles to full-price games on the 16-bit computers — 1992 saw the last title in the Dizzy series, Crystal Kingdom Dizzy, released at full price. They had major success with the Micro Machines series and Pete Sampras Tennis on the Sega Mega Drive. Both franchises featured the J-Cart, allowing two extra controllers to be attached to the game cart without requiring Electronic Arts' 4 way play or SEGA's four-player adaptor.[citation needed]
Codemasters is notable for making the large majority of games published by Camerica, which bypassed Nintendo's lock-out chip by glitching it and produced unlicensed NES games. These NES games were known for being shiny gold and silver cartridges. Many Codemasters titles were also featured on Camerica's Aladdin Deck Enhancer.
In 1990, Codemasters developed a device called the Game Genie, which came out of the lockout bypass work to play unlicensed games. It was a cheat cartridge for the NES, released in the US by Galoob and in Canada and the UK by Camerica. In the case Galoob v. Nintendo, the courts concluded Game Genie did not violate Nintendo's copyright because it qualified as fair use under the law.
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Codemasters
The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer and former publisher based in Southam. It is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts and managed under the EA Sports division. Founded by brothers Richard and David Darling in October 1986, Codemasters is one of the oldest British game studios, and in 2005 was named the best independent video game developer by magazine Develop. It formerly also published third-party games.
Codemasters Group Holdings plc was the holding company of Codemasters, which was publicly traded and owned Codemasters until being purchased by EA in 2021 for $1.2 billion.
While attending school in Vancouver, Richard Darling and his elder brother, David Darling, had learned programming with punch cards and had access to the school's computer room outside of hours through one of the school's janitors. Additionally, on weekends, they were allowed to use the Commodore PET computer owned by their father, James, to create a text version of Dungeons & Dragons. Later on, the two brothers and school friend Michael Heibert, whose family possessed a VIC-20 computer, founded Darbert Computers and created video game clones of popular games, such as Galaxian and Defender.
The Darling brothers later returned to England, where they acquired their own VIC-20 and founded Galactic Software, again with the help of Heibert. An advertisement placed in the magazine Popular Computing Weekly caught the attention of Mastertronic, a British software publisher, and the two brothers quit their education to pursue development of budget-priced games for the company. These games included Space Walk, BMX Racers, Jungle Story, Orbitron, Sub Hunt and Pigs in Space. They also developed The Games Creator, a game-making tool that would later be sold commercially. The Darling brothers found success in making these games, gaining £200,000 by the time they were 16 and 17 respectively. In 1985, the two owned a 50% stake in Mastertronic, which they proceeded to sell in March 1986 when they decided to become independent. By October 1986, the Darling brothers, with help from their father, had founded Codemasters. They initially worked out of the Beaumont Business Centre in Banbury, where their elder sister Abigail managed the front desk.
Codemasters' first game was BMX Simulator, a successor to BMX Racers. According to David Darling, the company aimed at making budget-priced games with the quality of full-priced games, as they would gain a larger customer base that would subsequently create better exposure. To produce more games in less time, Codemasters started hiring developers on a freelance basis. Products developed using this strategy include G-Man and Danger Zone by Mike Clark, Terra Cognita by Stephen Curtis, Super Robin Hood and Ghost Hunters by the Oliver Twins, Super Stuntman by Peter Williamson, Lazer Force by Gavin Raeburn, and ATV Simulator by Timothy R. Miller. By April 1987, Codemasters started seeking programmers that would create platform conversions of Codemasters' games in exchange for four-digit sums, via placements in Popular Computing Weekly.
As the 8-bit computer market diminished, Codemasters turned to the 16-bit console market and moved away from budget titles to full-price games on the 16-bit computers — 1992 saw the last title in the Dizzy series, Crystal Kingdom Dizzy, released at full price. They had major success with the Micro Machines series and Pete Sampras Tennis on the Sega Mega Drive. Both franchises featured the J-Cart, allowing two extra controllers to be attached to the game cart without requiring Electronic Arts' 4 way play or SEGA's four-player adaptor.[citation needed]
Codemasters is notable for making the large majority of games published by Camerica, which bypassed Nintendo's lock-out chip by glitching it and produced unlicensed NES games. These NES games were known for being shiny gold and silver cartridges. Many Codemasters titles were also featured on Camerica's Aladdin Deck Enhancer.
In 1990, Codemasters developed a device called the Game Genie, which came out of the lockout bypass work to play unlicensed games. It was a cheat cartridge for the NES, released in the US by Galoob and in Canada and the UK by Camerica. In the case Galoob v. Nintendo, the courts concluded Game Genie did not violate Nintendo's copyright because it qualified as fair use under the law.