Spun off from book publisher Melbourne House in 1980, Beam Software was established to design games for its sister company to release. After developing for early home computers, Beam helped define the Spectrum throughout 1982, with triumphs like the Pac-Man-inspired Hungry Horace and the popular text adventure The Hobbit.
Beam releases then came thick and fast, with highlights including the platformer Sir Lancelot and the mobster sim Mugsy. Then in 1985, Beam arguably had its finest hour with The Way Of The Exploding Fist, which introduced beat-’em-ups to many gamers. In the same year, Beam continued its success with The Hobbit follow-up Lord Of The Rings: Game One and the Elite-influenced Starion.
In 1987, Melbourne House was sold to Mastertronic, allowing Beam to focus on development. The following year, Mastertronic was sold to Virgin, which mothballed the Melbourne House name. Meanwhile, Beam produced the brawlers Exploding Fist+ and Samurai Warrior: The Battles Of Usagi Yojimbo.
The Nineties saw Beam shift to consoles, with titles like Bill & Ted’s Excellent Game Boy Adventure and Shadowrun for the SNES being well received. In 1997, Beam regained the Melbourne House name and used it as a label, before selling it and its games studio to Infogrames in 1999. Finally, in 2006, all that had been Beam was sold to Krome Studios, who ran it as Krome Studios Melbourne until closing it in 2010.
What remains of Beam now is its impressive games library, which reflects not only the quality of output but also the innovations made by the renowned studio.
ALFRED MILGROM
Cofounder of Beam Software and Melbourne House, Alfred Milgrom ran Beam from its inception in 1980 until 2001, following the sale of the studio in 1999. Far from just a figurehead, Alfred designed graphics for Beam’s early releases, and had a hands-on role on a number of its later games.
HUNGRY HORACE
ZX SPECTRUM, VARIOUS • 1982
Although its sales were bolstered by being a Spectrum pack-in title, Hungry Horace earned its ubiquity by being one of the system’s best Pac-Man-inspired titles. Rather than slavishly copying the coin-op, Beam’s game enhances its inspiration’s basic concept with a set of eclectic mazes.
“The reality of Horace’s look is that I was the graphic artist for the character, and I am not a graphic artist! His size was dictated by the limitations of the Spectrum, and there was not much I could do in such a small space. I could either make Horace just a head or give him more of a body, and my limited skills dictated a head with a rat’s tail on legs.”
PENETRATOR
Arcade companies largely ignored the home-computer game market in stands out from the pack thanks to its quality as much as for being an accurate recreation of Konami’s side-scrolling shooter . Early Spectrum games weren’t known for their scale or aesthetics, but manages to excel on both fronts. Players have to bomb and blast their way through five unique levels, each depicted in a different hue, and once beaten they have to be played through in reverse order to complete the game. also impresses with a virtual fireworks display after each attempt.
