Harry S Price
Harry S Price must claim the dubious distinction of having ripped off more Sinclair Spectrum games than anybody else. He made slight changes to commercial releases and magazine type-in listings, often introducing bugs in the process, and sold the results to unwary software houses. Some of his rip-offs were even bundled with the Spectrum +2.
Apparently, the only time Price got into trouble was after the release of Crimebusters, based on David Jones' Spellbound. Mastertronic demanded a letter of apology, and the story was covered in the December 1986 issues of Crash and Sinclair User.
Here is a list of Harry S Price's rip-offs and the games they were based on. (Thanks to Michael Bruhn and others on comp.sys.sinclair for helping to compile this information.)
| Price's rip-off | Original game |
|---|---|
| Big Bad John (Tynesoft, 1986) | Molecule Man (Mastertronic, 1986) |
| Bubble Run (Tynesoft, 1986) | Bubble Trouble (Your Sinclair, 1986)
Magazine type-in listing. |
| Cashdash (Tynesoft, year?) | Eggo (Spectrum Computing, 1986) |
| Chaldon (unknown) | (unknown) |
| Colin the Cleaner (Tynesoft, 1987) | Ralph on Alpha 2 (16/48, year?) |
| Collywobbles (Pirate Software, 1987) | (unknown) |
| Crimebusters (IJK Software, 1986) | Spellbound (Mastertronic, 1985) |
| Don't Say It, Spray It (IJK Software, 1988) | One Man and his Droid (Mastertronic, 1985) |
| Dusty Droid and the Garbage Gobblers (Pirate Software, 1988)
Some graphics are taken from Games Designer by Quicksilva. |
Rocket Man Mike (Your Computer, 1985) |
| Gangplank (Pirate Software, 1987) | Icicle Works (Statesoft, 1985) |
| Ghostly Grange (Creative Sparks, 1988) | Rocket Man Mike (Your Computer, 1985) |
| H.A.R.D. (IJK Software, 1986)
Jim: "I noticed that Harry Price did H.A.R.D. in 1986, a rip-off of Android (1983) by Costa Panayi. Could this be why Costa titled one of his later games H.A.T.E. (for Gremlin in 1989)?" |
Android 1: The Reactor Run (Vortex Software, 1983) |
| I Ain't Got Nobody (Tynesoft, year?) | The Caves of Doom (Mastertronic, 1985) |
| Knightfall (Pirate Software, 1987) | Rock 'n' Roll (Your Sinclair, 1986) |
| Ku Ku (Micro Value, 1988)
Some or all graphics are taken from Sabre Wulf. |
Project Future (Micromania, 1985) |
| Mind Your Head (IJK Software, 1986) | Icicle Works (Statesoft, 1985) |
| Monkey Run (IJK Software, 1986) | (unknown) |
| Mutations (Tynesoft, 1986) | Spawn of Evil (DK'Tronics, 1983) |
| Odd Job Eddie (Strobe, 1985)
The "128K version" has no additional features, but has been sneakily modified to crash on 48K machines. An incorrectly linked room means that you cannot collect every item in the game, but items are irrelevant because you only have to reach the "viewing room" to win. |
Pyramania (16/48, 1984) |
| One for the Road (Tynesoft, 1986) | MacMan (Your Spectrum, 1985)
Magazine type-in listing. |
| The Steelyard Blues (Tynesoft, 1987) | Cheekah's Exploits (Your Computer, 1986)
Magazine type-in listing. |
| Them (Pirate Software, 1988) | Project Future (Micromania, 1985) |
| Tidy Tony (Tynesoft, 1987) | Drive In (Fantasy Software, 1984) |
| Who Said That? (Tynesoft, 1987) | Micro Mouse Goes Debugging (M C Lothlorien, 1983) |