Magnetic Fields was a British game development company founded in February 1982 and best known for developers Shaun Southern and Andrew Morris. The company was originally named "Mr Chip Software" but renamed "Magnetic Fields (Software Design) Ltd." usually simply referred to as "Magnetic Fields", in 1988.

History

Between 1982 and 1984 they released the developed games themselves with limited success. In 1984 they ceased publishing games themselves and instead developed for Publishers Mastertronic and then later for Alternative Software, Gremlin Graphics and other publishers. Probably the best known game released under the Mr. Chip Software company name was ''

Trailblazer A trailblazer is a person who is paving the way in their particular field for future generations. Trailblazer may refer to: Sports * Derby Trailblazers, a British semi-professional basketball team * North Carolina Trailblazers, a US women's rec ...

'' which led to several sequels and ports to other systems. Most of the other games released under the Mr. Chip Software label were already focused on racing like ''

Kikstart 2 ''Kikstart 2'' is a motorcycle trials racing videogame released for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. It enjoyed more success than its predecessor, '' Kikstart''. The game allowed 2-player simultaneous (via a split-screen facil ...

'', but also some non-racing games such as '' Proof Of Destruction'' also found a fanbase. Although early development was focused on the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

and

VIC-20 The VIC-20 (known as the VC-20 in Germany and the VIC-1001 in Japan) is an 8-bit home computer that was sold by Commodore Business Machines. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commodore's first personal computer, the ...

, the company widened the number of target platforms for their games in the mid 1980s. One of the other platforms included the

Commodore 16 The Commodore 16 is a home computer made by Commodore International with a 6502-compatible 7501 or 8501 CPU, released in 1984 and intended to be an entry-level computer to replace the VIC-20. A cost-reduced version, the Commodore 116, was ...

, which featured a few conversions (and the original version of ''Trailblazer''), but also a number of unique titles including ''Arthur Noid'' and ''Bandits and Zero''. Shaun also wrote a completely different version of ''Kikstart'' for the machine to what was produced for the C64. With the switch to the "Magnetic Fields" name the company also switched from 8-bit systems to the rather new 16-Bit systems, with their last 8-bit release being ''Super Scramble Simulator'' (a sort of silent third game in the ''Kikstart series''). While developing games belonging to many different genres, Magnetic Fields soon focussed on racing games. The 1985 release of ''Formula 1 Simulator'' was already technically on par with the competing racing games of that time. The company became well known in 1990 for their releases of '' Super Cars'' and ''

Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge The ''Lotus'' series consists of three racing computer games based around the Lotus brand: ''Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge'', ''Lotus Turbo Challenge 2'', and ''Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge''. Published between 1990 and 1992 by Gremlin Gra ...

'' on most common home computer systems of the time. Especially the strong sales on the

Amiga 500 The Amiga 500, also known as the A500, is the first low-end version of the Amiga home computer. It contains the same Motorola 68000 as the Amiga 1000, as well as the same graphics and sound coprocessors, but is in a smaller case similar to th ...

and

Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...

platforms led to sequels in 1991. All three Lotus titles had the nice additional touch of including hidden games in them, with the sequel containing Shaun's classic Duck Shoot game from the Vic 20. '' Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge'' featured on the TV series ''GamesMaster'' (S2/E11) where it was played by Formula One driver,

Johnny Herbert John Paul "Johnny" Herbert (born 25 June 1964) is a British former racing driver and current television announcer for Sky Sports F1. He raced in Formula One from 1989 to 2000, for seven different teams, winning three races and placing 4th in ...

. In 1996 the company released '' Network Q RAC Rally Championship'' for the MS-DOS platform which received many favourable reviews and led to several expansions and sequels, including the X-Miles and International Rally Championship. The last release of the company was Mobil 1 Rally Championship for Windows and PlayStation platforms in 1999. In 2000 Shaun Southern and Andrew Morris founded a new company called "Eugenicy" to develop more racing games but the company was closed down before anything was ever released. Andrew Morris released the original promotional trailer for Eugenicy on his YouTube channel in 2009. The company has agreed to let fans distribute their 8-bit system software as long as no profit is made from these. This has led to additional interest in the company among users of emulators for such older hardware. Kikstart I and II were released in 2010 for the Commodore 64 emulator on the iPhone. On 5 May 2018 a retrospective video documentary/review produced by Everything Amiga was published on the subject of Kid Chaos. It tells the story of the games' troubled development history, and assesses its impact on the Amiga scene at the time, and long after. Former Magnetic Fields artist, Andrew Morris, agreed for a scan of his original protagonist concept artwork to be included. This was the first time it had been revealed to the public. 'Cosmic Kitten' (alternatively 'Claws') as he was then known was to be the Amiga's answers to Sonic the Hedgehog. However, before publication the character was re-designed as a caveboy known simply as 'Kid' to avoid any legal conflict with SEGA who have always been very protective of their intellectual property.

Games developed

* ''Pacmania'' (1983) * ''AD Infinitum'' (1984) * ''Duck Shoot'' (1984) * ''Kwazy Kwaks'' (1984) * ''Olympic Skier'' (1984) * ''Caves of Doom'' (1985) * ''Hero of the Golden Talisman'' (1985) * '' Kikstart: Off-Road Simulator'' (1985) * ''Tutti Frutti'' (1985) * ''

'' (1986) * '' Cosmic Causeway: Trailblazer II'' (1987) * ''

'' (1990) * '' Super Cars'' (1990) * ''

Super Cars II ''Super Cars II'' is a 1991 top-view racing game developed by Magnetic Fields, and published by Gremlin Graphics Software Ltd. The game was available for the Amiga and then the Atari ST. It is the sequel to the 1990 game '' Super Cars''. The g ...

'' (1991) * '' Lotus II'' (1991) * '' Lotus III'' (1992) * ''

Kid Chaos Kid Chaos, also known as Haggis (born Stephen Harris), is a British rock bassist and guitarist who played in incarnations of hard rock bands Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction, The Cult and The Four Horsemen as well as guesting with ''Appetite ...

'' (1994) * ''Supercars International'' (1996) * '' Network Q RAC Rally Championship'' (1996) ** '' Rally Championship: The X-Miles'' (1997) * ''

International Rally Championship ''International Rally Championship'' (released on PlayStation as ''Tommi Mäkinen Rally'' in UK) is a Rallying, rally racing video game which is a part of the ''Rally Championship (series), Rally Championship'' series. The Microsoft Windows, Wind ...

'' (1997) * '' Mobil 1 Rally Championship'' (1999)

Games published

All of these games were published under the older company name Mr Chip Software. * ''Pacmania'' (1983) * ''AD Infinitum'' (1984) * ''Kwazy Kwaks'' (1984) * ''Olympic Skier'' (1984)

References

External links

Company description
at MobyGames * {{Official website, https://web.archive.org/web/20071211160321/http://www.magneticfields.co.uk/ (archived version)
Official Eugenicy website
(archived version) Video game development companies Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game companies established in 1982 Video game companies disestablished in 2010