Mikro-Gen was a UK software company based in

Bracknell Bracknell () is a large town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, the westernmost area within the Greater London Urban Area and the administrative centre of the Borough of Bracknell Forest. It lies to the east of Reading, south of Maidenhe ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Be ...

that produced games for home computers in the early to mid-1980s. The company was formed by Mike Meek and Andrew Laurie in 1981, in order to capitalise on the growing boom of

microcomputers A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (P ...

in the home. The company had a solid reputation but became more prominent with its series of games featuring Wally Week and his family, all of which got excellent reviews in the highly respected computer magazine Crash. Later, the company produced the Mikro-Plus add-on 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 ...

. The company was bought out by Creative Sparks Distribution in 1987, which subsequently went into receivership six months later.

Releases

* ''Star Trek'' - 1982. * ''Knockout'' - 1983. * ''Mad Martha'' - 1983. * ''Genesis II'' - 1984 - written by Dale & Shelley McLoughlin. * ''Witch's Cauldron'' - 1985 - written by Dale & Shelley McLoughlin * ''Laserwarp'' - 1983; Reviewed in ''Crash'' with an overall score of 77% * ''Air Traffic Control'' - 1984 - by Dale McLoughlin *''Shadow of the Unicorn'' - 1985. Reviewed in Crash issue 24 - 7/10 - required ''Mikro-Plus'' Expansion Unit to run * ''

Battle of the Planets ''Battle of the Planets'' is an American adaptation of the Japanese anime series '' Science Ninja Team Gatchaman'' (1972). Of the 105 original ''Gatchaman'' episodes, 85 were used in the ''Battle of the Planets'' adaptation, produced by Sandy Fr ...

'' - 1985. Reviewed in Crash issue 26 - 71% *''

Equinox A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun crosses the Earth's equator, which is to say, appears zenith, directly above the equator, rather than north or south of the equator. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise "due east" ...

'' - 1986. Reviewed in Crash issue 30 - 87% * ''Stainless Steel'' - 1986.

''Wally Week'' series

* ''Automania'' - 1984. Reviewed in ''Crash'' with an overall score of 88% *''

Pyjamarama ''Pyjamarama'' is a video game for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and the Commodore 64. It features Wally Week as the central character and is the second (after ''Automania'') of a series of games featuring Wally and/or members of his family. I ...

'' - 1984. Reviewed in Crash issue 10 - 92% *'' Everyone's A Wally'' - 1985. Reviewed in Crash issue 14 - 93% *''Herbert's Dummy Run'' - 1985. Reviewed in Crash issue 18 - 90% *''

Three Weeks in Paradise ''Three Weeks in Paradise'' is a video game released in 1986 by Mikro-Gen for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC platforms. It is the last action-adventure platform in the Wally Week series. Gameplay The Weeks family are trapped on a tropical islan ...

'' - 1985. Reviewed in Crash issue 26 - 93%

Mikro-Plus

The Mikro-Plus was an add-on for the

computer. While this computer was limited to 48KB of usable RAM, the Mikro-Plus let it load 64KB programs by storing 16KB as a shadow ROM in the add-on itself, and loading the remaining 48KB from cassette tape as usual. Mikro-Gen invested £130,000 in producing it. Bundled with the game ''Shadow of the Unicorn'', it reached no. 5 in the ZX Spectrum charts and no.9 in the All Formats charts in October 1985. It sold 11,000 copies, almost 30,000 short of the number needed to break even and no further Mikro-Plus games were produced.

References

{{Authority control Software companies of the United Kingdom Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Bracknell