Elite Systems is a British
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
developer and publisher established in 1984 as Richard Wilcox Software.
It is known for producing
home computer conversions of popular
arcade games
An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade ...
.
Elite also published compilations of games on the Hit-Pak label and budget price re-releases on the Encore label.
History
Under the name Richard Wilcox Software, only one title was published: ''Blue Thunder'' for the
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer.
Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...
,
Atari 8-bit
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...
and
Commodore 64. In August 1984, the group was relaunched as Elite Systems,
expanding the team to include graphic designers Rory Green and Jon Harrison; programmers Neil A. Bate, Chris Harvey, Andy Williams and Stephen Lockley; administrators Paul Smith and Pat Maisey; and Wilcox's brother Steve handled sales and marketing.
Its first release under the new Elite Systems label was ''
Kokotoni Wilf
''Kokotoni Wilf'' is an action-adventure game released by Elite Systems in 1984 for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum home computers. The game was inspired by ''Jet Set Willy.''
Gameplay
In ''Kokotoni Wilf'', Ulrich the Magician must ...
'',
which also carried the first of their anti-counterfeiting holograms on the cassette inlay card.
By 1986, the company was developing many home computer licenses of arcade machines. Their
Aldridge
Aldridge is an industrial town in the Walsall borough, West Midlands, England. It is historically a village that was part of Staffordshire until 1974. The town is from Brownhills, from Walsall, from Sutton Coldfield and from Lichfield ...
-based headquarters housed a row of arcade cabinets for games that were being converted. Their hardware had been hacked so the team could analyse the games to ensure an accurate, licensed conversion.
Three of their conversions, ''
Commando
40_Commando.html" ;"title="Royal Marines from 40 Commando">Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin area of Afghanistan are pictured
A commando is a combatant, or operative of an elite light infantry or special operations forc ...
'', ''
Ghosts 'n Goblins
''Ghosts 'n Goblins'', known in Japan as , is a run-and-gun platform video game series created by Tokuro Fujiwara and developed by Capcom. The first entry in the series was '' Ghosts 'n Goblins'', released in arcades on July 7, 1985. The se ...
'' and ''
Paperboy
A paperboy is someoneoften an older child or adolescentwho distributes printed newspapers to homes or offices on a regular route, usually by bicycle or automobile. In Western nations during the heyday of print newspapers during the early 20th ...
'', were among the UK's top ten best-selling home video games of 1986.
At the 1986
Golden Joystick Awards
The Golden Joystick Awards, also known as the People's Gaming Awards, is a video game award ceremony; it awards the best video games of the year, as voted for originally by the British general public, but is now a global event that can be vot ...
, Elite was awarded "Software House of the Year" by ''
Computer and Video Games
''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website ...
'' magazine and received a "Game of the Year" award for ''Paperboy'' from the British software industry the following year.
Elite launched its first budget label, £2.99 Classics in July 1986
achieving chart success with re-releases of older titles from other software houses such as ''Scuba Dive'', ''
Full Throttle'' and ''
Skool Daze''. The label was closed before the end of the year when developers took legal action against the company for non-payment of royalties.
A new budget label, Encore, was launched in 1988
with its first 5 titles, ''
Airwolf
''Airwolf'' is an American action military drama television series that centers on a high-technology military helicopter, code-named ''Airwolf'', and its crew. The show follows them as they undertake various exotic missions, many involving e ...
'', ''
Bomb Jack
''Bomb Jack'' is a platform video game developed and published by Tehkan for arcades in and later ported to various home systems. The game was a commercial success for arcades and home computers. It was followed by several sequels: the console a ...
'', ''
Battleships
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type o ...
'', ''
Saboteur
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...
'', and ''
Frank Bruno's Boxing'' all coming from Elite's back-catalogue.
Elite Systems began creating video games for the
NES and
Game Boy
The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same te ...
in the early 1990s through its associated development house MotiveTime.
In 2010, the company began selling versions of classic ZX Spectrum games licensed from the original developers for iOS and Android systems and in January 2014 they announced plans to crowdfund a Spectrum-themed
bluetooth
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limit ...
keyboard, the ''Recreated ZX Spectrum'', that would attach to mobile devices. Elite Systems took down the ''ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection'' app the following month, due to complaints from authors that they had never been paid royalties. Steve Wilcox responded in a statement on their website where he claimed he was "working towards" making all outstanding payments with 28 days and that the games were being withdrawn from sale in the meantime.
In April 2014, it was reported that Elite Systems had fully repaid the overdue royalties and cancelled the contracts it had with the unpaid developers.
''Wired'' described the finished device, which was styled as an original Spectrum 48k keyboard, as "absolutely gorgeous"
but said it was ultimately more of an expensive novelty than an actual Spectrum. In July 2019, ''Eurogamer'' reported that many of the orders had yet to be delivered due to a dispute between Elite Systems and their manufacturer, Eurotech.
List of mobile games
*''All-new Paperboy'' - In Development
*''
Double Dragon II: The Revenge''
*''
R-Type
is a scrolling shooter, horizontally scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and released by Irem in 1987 and the first game in the List of R-Type video games, ''R-Type'' series. The player controls a star ship, the R-9 "Arrowhead", in ...
''
*''Atlantis Quest''
*''
Double Dragon EX''
*''
Paperboy
A paperboy is someoneoften an older child or adolescentwho distributes printed newspapers to homes or offices on a regular route, usually by bicycle or automobile. In Western nations during the heyday of print newspapers during the early 20th ...
''
*''Star Warriors''
*''
Alien vs. Predator''
*''
Bombjack''
*''
Chuckie Egg
''Chuckie Egg'' is a video game released by A&F Software in 1983 initially for the ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, and Dragon 32/64. It was ported to the Commodore 64, Acorn Electron, MSX, Tatung Einstein, Amstrad CPC, and Atari 8-bit family. It was l ...
''
List of older games
*''
1942
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
* January 1 – WWII: The Declaration by United Nations is signed by China, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 22 other nations, in wh ...
''
*''3DC''
*''911TS''
*''
A Question of Sport
''Question of Sport'' (previously ''A Question of Sport'') is a British television sports quiz show produced and broadcast by the BBC. It is the "world's longest running TV sports quiz". Following a pilot episode in December 1968, broadcast on ...
''
*''
Ace
An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the ca ...
''
*''
Ace 2
Ace 2 may refer to:
* Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2)
* Samsung Galaxy Ace 2, a smartphone
* ''Ace 2'' (video game), ''Air Combat Emulator II'', a video game released in 1987
See also
* Ace (disambiguation)
An ace is a playing card.
...
''
*''Airwolf''
*''Airwolf 2''
*''
Aquablast''
*''
Battleships
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type o ...
''
*''
Batty''
*''
Beyond the Ice Palace''
*''Blue Thunder''
*''
Bomb Jack
''Bomb Jack'' is a platform video game developed and published by Tehkan for arcades in and later ported to various home systems. The game was a commercial success for arcades and home computers. It was followed by several sequels: the console a ...
''
*''Bomb Jack II''
*''
Buggy Boy
known as ''Speed Buggy'' in North America, is an off-road racing game developed by Tatsumi and released for arcades in 1985. The cockpit version of the arcade cabinet has a panoramic three-screen display, a feature previously employed in '' TX ...
''
*''Chain Reaction''
*''Combat Lynx''
*''
Commando
40_Commando.html" ;"title="Royal Marines from 40 Commando">Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin area of Afghanistan are pictured
A commando is a combatant, or operative of an elite light infantry or special operations forc ...
''
*''
Complete Onside Soccer''
*''Deep Strike''
*''
Dirt Racer''
*''
Dogs of War''
*''
Dr. Franken
''Dr. Franken'' is a platform game released in 1992 for the Game Boy and in 1993 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System by Elite Systems. It was titled ''The Adventures of Dr. Franken'' for the SNES in the United States. The game features F ...
'' (titled ''The Adventures of Dr. Franken'' for the
SNES
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in E ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
)
*''
Dr. Franken II
''Dr. Franken'' is a platform game released in 1992 for the Game Boy and in 1993 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System by Elite Systems. It was titled ''The Adventures of Dr. Franken'' for the SNES in the United States. The game features F ...
''
*''
Dragon's Lair
''Dragon's Lair'' is a video game franchise created by Rick Dyer and Don Bluth. The series is famous for its Western animation-style graphics and complex decades-long history of being ported to many platforms and being remade into television a ...
''
*''
Dragon's Lair: The Legend''
*''
Dukes of Hazzard''
*''
European Championship 1992''
*''
The Fall Guy
''The Fall Guy'' is an American action/ adventure television series produced for ABC and originally broadcast from November 4, 1981, to May 2, 1986. It starred Lee Majors, Douglas Barr, and Heather Thomas as Hollywood stunt performers who ...
''
*''
First Strike First strike most commonly refers to:
* Pre-emptive nuclear strike
* Pre-emptive war
First strike may also refer to:
* ''First Strike'' (1996 film), also known as ''Jackie Chan's First Strike'' or ''Police Story 4: First Strike'', an action movie ...
''
*''
Ford Racing''
*''
Frank Bruno's Boxing''
*''
Ghosts 'n Goblins
''Ghosts 'n Goblins'', known in Japan as , is a run-and-gun platform video game series created by Tokuro Fujiwara and developed by Capcom. The first entry in the series was '' Ghosts 'n Goblins'', released in arcades on July 7, 1985. The se ...
''
*''
Great Gurianos''
*''
Grand National
The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England. First run in 1839, it is a handica ...
''
*''
Grand Touring
A grand tourer (GT) is a type of car that is designed for high speed and long-distance driving, due to a combination of performance and luxury attributes. The most common format is a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive two-door coupé with either a ...
''
*''
Gremlins 2: The New Batch''
*''
Harrier Attack''
*''
Hoppin' Mad''
*''
Ikari Warriors
''Ikari Warriors'', known as in Japan, is a Vertically scrolling video game, vertically-scrolling, run-and-gun shooter arcade video game released by SNK in 1986. It was published in North America by Tradewest. The game was released at the time w ...
''
*''
Joe & Mac''
*''
Kokotoni Wilf
''Kokotoni Wilf'' is an action-adventure game released by Elite Systems in 1984 for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum home computers. The game was inspired by ''Jet Set Willy.''
Gameplay
In ''Kokotoni Wilf'', Ulrich the Magician must ...
''
*''
Last Battle''
*''
Live And Let Die''
*''
Mighty Bomb Jack''
*''
Mike Read's Computer Pop Quiz''
*''
Nintendo Soccer''
*''
On The Tiles''
*''
Onside Complete Soccer''
*''
Overlander''
*''
Paperboy
A paperboy is someoneoften an older child or adolescentwho distributes printed newspapers to homes or offices on a regular route, usually by bicycle or automobile. In Western nations during the heyday of print newspapers during the early 20th ...
''
*''
Passing Shot
A passing shot is a forceful shot, as in tennis or team handball, that travels to one side out of the reach of one's opponent. In tennis, this shot is generally a groundstroke and is used when one's opponent is running to the net or if they are at ...
''
*''
Roller Coaster
A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides ar ...
''
*''
Scooby-Doo
''Scooby-Doo'' is an American animated media franchise based on an animated television series launched in 1969 and continued through several derivative media. Writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the original series, ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are ...
''
*''
Space Academy''
*''
Space Harrier
is a third-person arcade rail shooter game developed by Sega and released in 1985. It was originally conceived as a realistic military-themed game played in the third-person perspective and featuring a player-controlled fighter jet, but techni ...
''
*''
Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allies of World War II, Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 ...
''
*''
Storm Warrior''
*''
Strikepoint''
*''
Striker'' (with
Rage Software
Rage Games (formerly Rage Software) was a British video game developer. Formed in Liverpool in 1992, its video games were marked by an emphasis on graphical effects with arcade gameplay.
Rage's first title '' Striker'' sold more than one mi ...
)
*''
Supertrux''
*''
Test Drive: Off-Road''
*''
The Fidgetts''
*''
ThunderCats''
*''
Tournament Golf''
*''
Virtuoso
A virtuoso (from Italian ''virtuoso'' or , "virtuous", Late Latin ''virtuosus'', Latin ''virtus'', "virtue", "excellence" or "skill") is an individual who possesses outstanding talent and technical ability in a particular art or field such as ...
''
*''
Wanderer 3D''
*''
World Championship Soccer''
*''
World Cup Striker''
References
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
Companies based in Lichfield
Golden Joystick Award winners
Video game companies established in 1984
Video game companies of the United Kingdom
Video game development companies
Video game publishers