Codemasters

Codemasters (orginally known as Code Masters) is one of the oldest British video game developers, founded in 1985 by Richard and David Darling and based in Warwickshire. The company quickly established itself in the growing Sinclair ZX Spectrum market, mostly with action games that required the player to solve simple puzzles by combining different objects. One of the best examples of these games is the Dizzy series, which turned Dizzy into the un-official Spectrum mascot. Whilst Codemasters became established with the ZX Spectrum, they did not exclusively write for this one computer - they also released software (including the Dizzy series) for the Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga and Atari ST.

As the 8-bit computer market diminished, Codemasters turned to developing for the 8-bit and 16-bit console markets, as well as moving away from their budget title legacy to more full-price games on the 16-bit computers. 1993 saw the final title in the budget Dizzy series, Crystal Kingdom Dizzy, although they released a full-price Dizzy game, Fantastic Dizzy later. They had major success with the Micro Machines series and Pete Sampras Tennis on the Sega Mega Drive. Both franchises featured the J-Cart, allowing two extra controllers to be attached to the game cart without requiring Sega's four player adaptor or EA's 4 way play.

Console Mods

Codemasters is notable for making the large majority of games published by the controversial Camerica company, which bypassed Nintendo's lock-out chip by breaking the 10NES "code" and produced unlicensed NES games. These NES games were released on shiny gold and silver cartridges that were slightly different from normal NES cartridges in shape, although they still fit into the cartridge slot. Many Codemasters titles were also featured on Camerica's Aladdin Deck Enhancer.

In 1990, Codemasters developed cheat cartridge for the NES called the Power Pak, later renamed the Game Genie. The device was released in the US by Galoob and in Canada and the UK by Camerica. Codemasters would later develop a successful game based on Galoob's Micro Machines toy range.

Recent Titles

Codemasters have since continued to release titles for later generation systems, such as the TOCA Touring Car series, Colin McRae Rally series, Brian Lara International Cricket series and Operation Flashpoint. They currently own the rights to use the title Operation Flashpoint 2, but have parted with the original developer Bohemia Interactive Studio. In spite of this, Codemasters released Operation Flashpoint: Elite, developed by Bohemia, for Xbox in October 2005. June 2006 saw the long awaited release of Sensible Soccer 2006 for the PS2.