Microdeal

Many of Microdeal's 16-bit titles were updated versions of successful 8-bit games such as Time Bandit and Tanglewood, but proved less successful the second time around. This was followed by The Karate Kid Part II: The Computer Game, based on the 1986 film. The company was quick to recognise the music capabilities of the Atari ST and Amiga and went in production of Music Samplers such as "MasterSound" and "Amas", the latter of which was featured on a Paula Abdul music video, which won MTV's Music Video of the year award. The companies publishing licences were sold to "Hi-Soft" and it ceased trading in the early 1990s.

• Name — Microdeal • Founder — John Symes • Hq Location — St Austell, Cornwall, England • Industry — Video games • Products — Video games

Some of Microdeal's software was produced in-house by the company's own programmers (including Steve Bak, Rita Jay and Ed Scio) but they also licensed software from foreign sources, such as the American Tom Mix Software and Spectral Associates, and published the works of independent programmers (notably Ken Kalish, who was responsible for some of their most successful titles). Frequently the digital artist Pete Lyon was responsible for the graphics as well as having some design input. Pete worked on MicroDeal games such as Goldrunner, Airball, Tanglewood, Leatherneck and Fright Night. Much of the software brought to the United Kingdom from the United States was originally written for the Tandy CoCo (which was the more popular machine there) and converted to work with the Dragon. These conversions were contracted out to a company called Northern Software Consultants where they were handled by lead programmer Chas Robertson. Robertson also designed the dongle device that was experimentally used for copy protection of a single Microdeal title, Buzzard Bait. Some of Microdeal's licensed games were renamed for the British market. For example, they released a series of games based around the company mascot Cuthbert (Cuthbert Goes Digging, Cuthbert in the Jungle, etc.). The original members of this series were written in-house by Steve Bak, but later additions were completely unrelated. Rather, they were renamed titles from several different sources – the graphical limitations of computers at that time meant that a character was unrecognisable and could be given any convenient name. Microdeal also had a brand called Pocket Money Software, which published simpler games submitted by users at a lower price than the main titles. While some Pocket Money games were arguably of poor quality, others were among the company's most popular titles. Microdeal also sold Cuthbert-branded blank media (tapes, disks, etc.), re-boxed and sometimes adapted hardware (such as joysticks) made by other companies and published an occasional semi-informative, semi-promotional magazine called The Cuthbert Chronicle. They also accounted for most of the advertising space and reviews of Dragon User magazine.