(earlier known as '''Code Masters''' and often nicknamed '''Codies''' in magazines) is one of the oldest
British Video Game Developer s. The CEO is Rod Cousens, formerly of
Acclaim . In 2005, Codemasters was named as the top independent games developer by "Develop magazine", an international monthly journal for video game developers
Codemasters ‘on top of the world’ as top 100 games developers league is revealed , Games Industry Biz, 06/05/2005.
Founded in 1985 by Richard and David Darling (who worked previously for
Mastertronic ), Codemasters quickly established themselves in the growing
ZX Spectrum market, mostly with action games that required the player to solve simple puzzles by combining different objects. One of the best examples of these games are the
Dizzy Series (created by the
Oliver Twins ), which turned ''Dizzy'' into the un-official Spectrum
Mascot . While Codemasters found their roots in the ZX Spectrum, they did not exclusively write for this one computer - they also released software (including the Dizzy series) for the
Enterprise 128 ,
Vic 20 ,
Commodore 64 ,
Commodore 16 ,
Amstrad CPC ,
Atari 8-bit ,
Commodore Amiga and
Atari ST .
They were famous for releasing a long series of games called "Advanced ''Something'' Simulator" or "Professional ''Something'' Simulator". This led to the parody "
Advanced Lawnmower Simulator " being developed, praised to the skies and then published by
Your Sinclair magazine as an
April Fool's Day stunt.
Codemasters were unique in the 1980s for the fact that they only released
Low-retail-price titles. Hence when, in 1992, they began to cut down on the budget releases in favour of full-price titles, they attracted the ire of many fans and the gaming press, the latter questioning the commercial logic behind it as Codemasters had known a great deal of success from their budget titles.
As the
8-bit computer market diminished, Codemasters turned to developing for the 8-bit and
16-bit console markets, as well as moving away from their budget title legacy to more full-price games on the 16-bit computers -
1993 saw the last title in the budget
Dizzy series, ''
Crystal Kingdom Dizzy '', although they released a full-price Dizzy game, ''
Fantastic Dizzy '' later. 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
EA 's ''4 way play'' or
SEGA 's four player adaptor.
The company also attracted both smirks and scorn from the gaming press and the gaming public in the 1980s with gleaming quotes that appeared to come from the gaming press on the packaging of their games (e.g. "This game is absolutely brilliant!" on
Fruit Machine Simulator ) - a standard feature of game packaging. However, on closer inspection, the quote could be seen to be attributed to none other than David or Richard Darling, the founders of Codemasters.
Codemasters is notable for making the large majority of games published by the controversial
Camerica company, which bypassed
Nintendo 's
Lock-out Chip by breaking the
10NES "code" and produced unlicensed NES games. These NES games were known for being shiny gold and silver
Cartridge s that were slightly different from normal NES cartridges in shape, though they still fit into the cartridge slot. Many Codemasters titles were also featured on Camerica's
Aladdin Deck Enhancer .
In 1990 Codemasters developed a device called the Power Pak, later renamed the
Game Genie . It was a cheat cartridge for the
NES , released in the US by
Galoob and in
Canada and the
UK by Camerica.
Codemasters have since continued to release titles for later generation systems, such as the '''', developed by Bohemia, for
Xbox in October 2005. June 2006 saw the long awaited release of ''
Sensible Soccer 2006 ''. On
1 June 2007 Codemasters changed their logo. Later that month they released the latest in the
Colin McRae Rally series,
DiRT . They have recently published
Overlord
''See also: ''
In the early 1990s, the studio was the focus of an entire edition of "It's a Living", a regional
ITV programme that examined unusual careers and companies. The show was able to examine the inner workings of the offices and was primarily concentrated on the development of
Cosmic Spacehead , plus the marketing efforts surrounding it.
