U.S. Gold

United Kingdom · Founded 1984 · Closed 1996 · 1984 – 1996

A Birmingham company named for its first business — importing American games to Britain at British prices — which became the country's leading publisher of arcade conversions, from Gauntlet to Street Fighter.

Anne and Geoff Brown founded U.S. Gold in Witton, Birmingham, in 1984. The name described the original idea: American computer games were sold in Britain at prices of £30 or more, and Geoff Brown negotiated with US publishers to sell their games in the UK for around £10. The company began by manufacturing and distributing licensed titles from American publishers such as Cosmi, MicroProse and Synapse Software, before moving into publishing in its own right. It was part of the CentreGold group, alongside the distributor CentreSoft. U.S. Gold became best known for arcade conversions. It brought games such as Gauntlet, Out Run, Strider and Street Fighter to home computers including the Commodore 64, Atari ST and Amiga — conversions that varied greatly in quality and were often criticised as the hardware struggled to match the arcade originals. In 1988 it signed a deal with Capcom worth £2 million for the home computer rights to ten games, and the same year it won the Golden Joystick Award for Software House of the Year. It also ran the budget label Kixx and the GO! imprint. In April 1996 Eidos Interactive acquired CentreGold for £17.6 million, and U.S. Gold ceased operating soon afterwards.