Mastertronic

United Kingdom · Founded 1983 · Closed 1991 · 1983 – 1991

The budget publisher that sold games for £1.99 through newsagents, became one of Britain's biggest software houses, and ended up bringing Sega's Master System to the UK.

Martin Alper, Frank Herman, Terry Medway and Alan Sharam founded Mastertronic in 1983, and its first games went on sale on 2 April 1984. Its idea was price: complete games on cassette for £1.99, sold not only in computer shops but through newsagents and other ordinary retailers where any child with pocket money could find them. The approach made Mastertronic one of the largest software publishers in the UK during the 1980s. Its catalogue included Kikstart, Action Biker and Finders Keepers. In late 1985 it launched Mastertronic Added Dimension (M.A.D.), a label for slightly more ambitious titles at £2.99, and it later added other labels including Entertainment USA, Bulldog and Rack-it. Martin Alper took the business into the United States in 1986. Mastertronic's most consequential move had nothing to do with budget games. Early in 1987 Frank Herman noticed that Sega had no distributor for the Master System in the UK, and Mastertronic took on the role, building a large hardware distribution business. Cash-flow problems led Virgin to acquire the company around 1988. By 1991 the budget market had declined, Sega acquired the distribution business, and the publishing side became Virgin Interactive Entertainment.