Malcolm Mackenzie ran Persona, a software publishing house which published a number of original games and utilities towards the latter end of the Sam’s commercial existence.

He also negotiated the rights to reissue and distribute several older titles.

Persona’s bimonthly disk magazine, Blitz, was edited by David Ledbury.

Sadly, Malcolm passed away suddenly in February 1999. For his immense enthusiasm towards the SAM and its community, he will be remembered and sorely missed.

A buyer and retailer of surplus electronics and various other items.

Their only real connection to the Sam is that for a while they had a stock of Sam power supplies, probably sourced from SamCo when it went into liquidation, which they sold for a fiver. (The standard price from West Coast Computers etc. was twenty-five pounds).

Still going, it seems (or at least, the company with that name now, appears to be doing the same trade as in the nineties).

Easy

1. NONE
   
2. ALTERNATE
   
3. BALLISTIC
   
4. CYCLONE
   
5. DOLBY B
   
6. ELFIE
   
7. FOREIGN
   
8. GOLDEN AGE
   
9. HIGH SCORE
   
10. INVISABLE
    
11. JABBA
    
12. KNOCKOUT
    
13. LIMITED
    
14. MONSTROUS
    
15. NUCLEONICS
    
16. ORACULUM
    
17. PATIENCE
    
18. QANG QUANG
    
19. REACTOR
    
20. SILICON

Hard

1. NONE
   
2. MAGICAL
   
3. ATOMICS
   
4. FANTASY
   
5. KHAZAD DUM
   
6. DISASTER
   
7. SYMPHONY
   
8. X RAYS
   
9. LEVEL 9
   
10. BLAH BLAH
    
11. DUNGEON
    
12. AUTOGUN
    
13. ILUVATOR
    
14. D SIGN
    
15. UTOPIA
    
16. AY MUSIC
    
17. DIABOLUS
    
18. OXYGENE
    
19. SCRAMBLING
    
20. UNIVERSE
    
21. DAMERON
    
22. CATHEDRAL
    
23. STEALTH
    
24. HELLOWEEN
    
25. DIGITAL
    
26. ABAQUAR
    
27. THRILLER
    
28. SMASHING
    
29. AGONIA
    
30. CHRYSALIDS
    
31. BUG BYTE
    
32. ERIDANUS
    
33. DETONATION
    
34. FIRE WORX
    
35. AAAAARGH
    
36. GHOSTBUST
    
37. COMPACT
    
38. BAD DREAM
    
39. OOPS UP
    
40. BREAKDOWN
    
41. WARRIOR
    
42. TERRORPOD
    
43. VALTARUS
    
44. THE AMIGA
    
45. DESTINY
    
46. SKELETOR
    
47. CRYSTALION
    
48. THUNDER
    
49. WIZARDS
    
50. DOOMSDAY

Several software houses announced titles for the Sam, which never appeared. The earliest of these earned a particular notoriety.

“Y’know, we’ll be starting our first SAM game soon? Oh yes, we’re doing Treasure Island Dizzy. We’re taking the original Oliver Twins speccy code and slamming in graphics from the Atari ST version. It should look excellent, and play a lot faster due to the increased running speed of the Sam.” - David Darling, Crash 73, February 1990.

Read full quote from Crash Issue 73, courtesy of worldofspectrum.org

“We’re getting a very experienced programmer at Tiertex called Chris Brunning to produce a SAM version of Strider for us. Supposedly it’ll only take two weeks using our existing Speccy code and ST graphics, but we’ll have to see. In my mind I picture it looking a bit like a Konix console game - lots of colours, but without the resolution of the ST, so it’ll all look a bit duller and flatter. It’s a bit of a try-out for us - if it does really well we’ll be happy to continue to support it, but we could still come across any number of problems” - David Baxter, Development Manager at US Gold, Your Sinclair 51, March 1990.

Read the full quote from Your Sinclair in March 1990, courtesy of The YS Rock ‘n’ Roll Years.

• Treasure Island Dizzy - Codemasters
  
• Strider - US Gold
  
• Xybots - Domark
  
• Trivial Pursuit - Domark
  
• F-16 Combat Pilot - Digital Integration
  
• Retros - Fred Publishing
  
• Kaboom - Revelation
  
• Pitlane - Apex developments

The password for Level 1 is ABOLISH
The password for Level 2 is ABROACH
The password for Level 3 is ACRONYM
The password for Level 4 is ACOLYTE
The password for Level 5 is AFFABLE
The password for Level 6 is ALIMONY
The password for Level 7 is BAGGAGE
The password for Level 8 is BANSHEE
The password for Level 9 is BEATING
The password for Level 10 is BEGRIME
The password for Level 11 is BOULDER
The password for Level 12 is BRITAIN
The password for Level 13 is CAESURA
The password for Level 14 is CADENCE
The password for Level 15 is CAPTAIN
The password for Level 16 is CEREOUS
The password for Level 17 is CHARIOT
The password for Level 18 is CRIMSON
The password for Level 19 is DECAGON
The password for Level 20 is DECEASE
The password for Level 21 is DISAVOW
The password for Level 22 is DISEASE
The password for Level 23 is DISGUST
The password for Level 24 is DOWAGER
The password for Level 25 is ECLOGUE
The password for Level 26 is ELDERLY
The password for Level 27 is ELEMENT
The password for Level 28 is EMERALD
The password for Level 29 is ENDEMIC
The password for Level 30 is ENTHRAL
The password for Level 31 is FAIENCE
The password for Level 32 is FANATIC
The password for Level 33 is FARRAGO
The password for Level 34 is FEATHER
The password for Level 35 is FINAGLE
The password for Level 36 is FRAUGHT
The password for Level 37 is GALLEON
The password for Level 38 is GARBAGE
The password for Level 39 is GENUINE
The password for Level 40 is GHASTLY
The password for Level 41 is GLIMMER
The password for Level 42 is GONDOLA
The password for Level 43 is HAGGISH
The password for Level 44 is HAMSTER
The password for Level 45 is HEINOUS
The password for Level 46 is HEROINE
The password for Level 47 is HEXAGON
The password for Level 48 is HIRSUTE
The password for Level 49 is ICELAND
The password for Level 50 is ILLEGAL
The password for Level 51 is ILLICIT
The password for Level 52 is IMBECIL
The password for Level 53 is IMPULSE
The password for Level 54 is INCUBUS
The password for Level 55 is JACINTH
The password for Level 56 is JACKASS
The password for Level 57 is JANUARY
The password for Level 58 is JOCULAR
The password for Level 59 is JOURNAL
The password for Level 60 is JUSTIFY
The password for Level 61 is KENTISH
The password for Level 62 is KESTREL
The password for Level 63 is KEYNOTE
The password for Level 64 is KIBBUTZ
The password for Level 65 is KINETIC
The password for Level 66 is KNUCKLE
The password for Level 67 is LACQUER
The password for Level 68 is LAMBAST
The password for Level 69 is LAYETTE
The password for Level 70 is LICENSE
The password for Level 71 is LIMINAL
The password for Level 72 is LUCENCY
The password for Level 73 is MANSION
The password for Level 74 is MASSAGE
The password for Level 75 is MAWSEED
The password for Level 76 is MISERLY
The password for Level 77 is MORPHIA
The password for Level 78 is MURRAIN
The password for Level 79 is NOSTRIL
The password for Level 80 is NOXIOUS
The password for Level 81 is NUMERAL
The password for Level 82 is NUCLEUS
The password for Level 83 is NUPTIAL
The password for Level 84 is NOSTRUM
The password for Level 85 is OCARINA
The password for Level 86 is OFFSIDE
The password for Level 87 is ONEROUS
The password for Level 88 is OSMOSIS
The password for Level 89 is OUTWALK
The password for Level 90 is OXONIAN
The password for Level 91 is PADLOCK
The password for Level 92 is PARABLE
The password for Level 93 is PESSARY
The password for Level 94 is PETTING
The password for Level 95 is PREVIEW
The password for Level 96 is PYJAMAS
The password for Level 97 is QUALIFY
The password for Level 98 is QUARREL
The password for Level 99 is QUERIST
The password for Level 100 is QUIBBLE
The password for Level 101 is QUIDDLE
The password for Level 102 is QUONDAM
The password for Level 103 is RAUCOUS
The password for Level 104 is REGULAR
The password for Level 105 is REUNION
The password for Level 106 is RIPPING
The password for Level 107 is ROMANCE
The password for Level 108 is RUBICON
The password for Level 109 is SCRAPPY
The password for Level 110 is SHEBANG
The password for Level 111 is SQUALOR
The password for Level 112 is STEALTH
The password for Level 113 is SUBFUSC
The password for Level 114 is SYRINGA
The password for Level 115 is TENANCY
The password for Level 116 is THIMBLE
The password for Level 117 is TONSURE
The password for Level 118 is TREMOLO
The password for Level 119 is TRIBUNE
The password for Level 120 is TYPICAL
The password for Level 121 is UNIFORM
The password for Level 122 is UNSLING
The password for Level 123 is UNSWORN
The password for Level 124 is UNTRIED
The password for Level 125 is UPRAISE
The password for Level 126 is UTENSIL
The password for Level 127 is VAMPIRE
The password for Level 128 is VARMINT
The password for Level 129 is VENISON
The password for Level 130 is VERMEIL
The password for Level 131 is VERTIGE
The password for Level 132 is VIBRATE
The password for Level 133 is WARFARE
The password for Level 134 is WARTIME
The password for Level 135 is WARSHIP
The password for Level 136 is WARRIOR
The password for Level 137 is WARRANT
The password for Level 138 is WHATNOT
The password for Level 139 is YARDARM
The password for Level 140 is YIDDISH
The password for Level 141 is YOGHURT
The password for Level 142 is YOUNKER
The password for Level 143 is YULELOG
The password for Level 144 is YIELDER
The password for Level 145 is ZEALAND
The password for Level 146 is ZOOLOGY
The password for Level 147 is ZIONISM
The password for Level 148 is ZEALOUS
The password for Level 149 is ZAMBIAN
The password for Level 150 is ZYMOTIC

Fred Publishing

Balor Knight

Brian McConnell

The year is 2991. The earth’s energy resources have slowly dwindled into nothingness. Man has been looking to deep space for the answer… And now, in a distance galaxy, a new crystal, ‘Dyzonium’, has been discovered. Scientist believe it to be a great source of energy. A piece the size of an old 23rd century moonbus will power a major city for a month! But there is just one problem… This galaxy is inhabited by nasty mutants from the 25th century intergalactic war. They hate visitors!
This is why the people have hired you, Dr Zyzedd, the most notorious mercenary this side of Xzonia! Your mission, then, is to visit the 10 zones of this galaxy, collect all the Dyzonium crystals, and warp on to the next zone. On your travels look out for weapon power ups scattered about. Collecting them will improve your chances of survival.
Yours is the mission … only you can succeed!

Your Sinclair review, courtesy of The YS Rock ‘n’ Roll Years.

Review by Steven Pick from the Sam Coupé Scrapbook

Hooray! Rejoice in the streets and celebrate as… it’s ANOTHER Fred Publishing title! Three cheers for Colin! Dyzonium has been written by Balor Knight. If that name rings a bell somewhere, he was also responsible for Astroball on the SAM and Spectrum. The plot, as always, is remarkably ridiculous. It goes along the lines of “Earth’s energy resources are exhausted, so you have to go out and get the energy-rich crystals of Xzreyadia (you play Dr Zyzedd, or something) watching out for the 25th time bandit invaders of Xqiarhdfr (or Llandudno, or even Xzonia). I don’t know! Why couldn’t they call the bloke in the spaceship “Bob” and the baddies of “Planet X” or something? It’s hard to believe people get paid thousands to write this stuff!

Anyway, to cut a long plotline short, Dyzonium is your average 8 way scrolly shoot ‘em up affair. Most scrolly shooters on the Coupe normally have a moving starfield and sprites as backgrounds, as it is incredibly difficult to scroll backgrounds like in the many arcade games around. You control a spaceship which has to collect as many crystals, and zap out of the level, as possible. Obviously, the aliens from Xqiarhdfr are out to get you, as well as protect these crystals with all their might. This is where your laser guns come in handy. These double fire and move in the direction you move in. You can destroy most aliens with these, but others must be manoveuvred around to get to the crystals. Icons replenish energy as well as firepower, and you can also use smart bombs to nuke entire portions of the screen.

Fred Publishing

Graham Burtenshaw (including room layouts by Graham Goring)

Tom Kincaid

Prevent an invasion of earth by finding and collecting 365 alien eggs among an extensive 3D landscape.

Revelation and later Persona

David Gommeren

Martijn van Spanje (Cover art: Darrren Blackburn)

Rob Mies

An arkanoid-styled game. Fast, smooth and staggeringly difficult, with lots of power-ups and other features. 150 levels plus bonus screens.

Best played with using the Mouse Interface.

Your Sinclair [review](http://www.ysrnry.co.uk/articles/sambatznballs.htm), courtesy of The YS Rock ‘n’ Roll Years.

Crash review, courtesy of worldofspectrum.org

Fred Publishing

Mat of ESI

Mat and Ziutek of ESI

Ziutek of ESI

Basically Pac Man, though of course we’re not supposed to admit that. 100 mazes with dots, ghosts and power pills; later on, one-way walls (which look the same as normal walls) appear which makes navigating the maze very much harder.

Review by Graham Goring from the Sam Coupé Scrapbook

Well, I bought Bulgulators at the last show, mainly because I like PacMan and also because of the extra features it boasts.

For the benefit of complete arse-faces (like myself), I’ll explain the idea of PacMan. :)

In the original PacMan, you played the part of a small yellow tennis ball with a slit for a mouth, and two black eyes (not as in, smack! Ouch, I’ve got a black eye.). On each of the numerous and repetitive levels you had to negotiate a maze containing four ghosts intent on eating you.

Whilst doing this you had to eat all of the dots littering the maze, and perhaps eating the Power Pills, these gave you the power to eat the ghosts for a while, until it wore off and the ghosts returned from their “blue” frightened state, whereupon the ghost that you thought you had time to eat would turn round and kill you.

At the side of the screen there was a tunnel which you could enter and it would warp you to the other side of the screen, the ghosts could not follow you down this and so it proved a useful escape route.

Also, from time to time, small, food-orientated, bonuses would appear in the middle of the screen to tempt you and increase your score.

One other thing, the PacMan of the arcades had the occasional “cartoon” between levels. When I say “cartoon” I refer to a bit of mindless chasing about the screen rendered in poxy little graphics. (And I must say that The Bulgulators has captured the complete crapness of this event in side-splitting perfection).

Revelation Software (Malevolent Design)

Matt Round

Matt Round

TomKin

No hidden treasure, no kidnapped relatives and no mad-scientist bad-guy with a silly name. Just a couple of kids having fun…

T’n’T plays a bit like a modernised version of Bomb Jack, with colourful graphics, power-ups, speed and polish. What makes this game really shine, though, is the variety in the levels; rather than just being a slightly varied arrangement of platforms and targets, almost every level has some unique feature about it. For example, one level is half underwater, in another you’re zooming around on a rocket pack. In one level you can’t stop jumping, in another you’re stuck to the floor firing bullets upwards.

Almost certainly the best game ever written using GamesMaster.

Review by Graham Goring from the Sam Coupé Scrapbook

T’n’T stands for Ted ‘n’ Tam, not Trinitromethylbenzene as I had expected, and it’s a Bombjack clone. Well, I hate to use the word clone, as it expands upon Bombjack and adds many diverse features not found in the original, but the fact is the central gameplay has been ripped mercilessly from the heart of the arcade classic, leaving it to bleed in an unpleasant carpet-staining puddle of red.

For people who have were kidnapped by aliens in 1985 and only returned recently the idea of Bombjack was to leap about platforms all over the screen collecting bombs and avoiding enemies spewed from invisible portals about the screen. Once they had all been collected, it was time for the next screen, albeit pretty indistinguishable from the previous one.

In T’n’T the difference is that the bombs have been replaced by little Smilies, which you detonate by flying into, and enemies do not appear on the level, but start already in place. And there are a lot less of the enemies, but the game still remains difficult, thanks to the high degree of intelligence given to the little buggers that ensures that they are either:

1. Just above you when you jump.
   
2. Just below you when you land, or…
   
3. Hovering by the last Smily on the board, just as your final seconds tick away.

Every two or so levels, there is a chance to gain a life, by flying up to a heart bonus as it escapes off of the top of the screen. This is very easy, and since the changes in the levels design alters only in it’s colour, it reeks of an attempt to pad out the game. A load of normal levels without the fancy backgrounds would have been better I feel.