| Sinclairvoyance |
WITH HIS LATEST ALBUM, The Bop Won't Stop, pop idol Shakin' Stevens adds his name to those other rock stars whose records carry additional computer program tracks. Pete Shelley, Chris Sievey, and Mainframe are among those musicians who have used the computer boom to improve record sales, although so far that gimmick does not appear to have had the desired effect.
Putting aside the rather dubious advantages of using hi-tech to sell hard rock, the practice does serve to underline the growing bond between the music scene and the software scene, a bond which indicates the similarity between the two industries.
Rock and roll has always preached the rags to riches myth - the garage band which becomes an overnight sensation, signing fat contracts and shooting straight to the top of the charts with a bullet. The truth was somewhat different, and bands often spent gruelling years on the road to success, waiting for the big break which never came.
The software games industry, being relatively new, can still hold out the carrot of overnight success and untold wealth. It is not so long ago, after all, that software publishing was itself a cottage industry, and companies with household names today were previously only to be found hidden among the classified advertisements. Young up-and-coming programmers are still being discovered by talent-spotting publishers and the contracts can involve ludicrous amounts of money.
The times they are a-changing, however, and it is becoming as difficult to break into the software market as it is to get a recording contract. Software houses are endeavouring to promote the programmers as well as the programs, and consequently would-be games writers must be exceptional to be accepted. No longer anonymous boffins, those whizz-kids might soon be elevated to the status of superstars, and punters could be asking at their local micro shop for the latest game by Mike Roman rather than the recent releases from the Martian Software stable. We at Sinclair User have always emphasised the human factor in computing, and our Hit Squad series introduces the brains behind the best-selling games. Neither books nor discs are sold on the strength of the publishers' name but on that of the author or musician, and many believe that software should be no different.
Instant success, Top Ten charts, lavish publicity and the cult of personality - all those the games industry has in common with the pop world, and it is worth remarking that it is in those companies with experience in the music industry, such as Virgin Games and K-Tel, where such factors are most apparent. It could also be argued that software games have the same transitory appeal as pop singles; this year's model quickly becomes last year's thing. Zapping aliens and maze man games will be golden oldies, played only by ageing micro freaks. The kids will have moved on to something else.
ILLEGAL RECORDINGS - bootlegs - have long been the bane of the record industry. Even before rock and roll arrived jazz fans were paying high prices for illicit recordings of Charlie Parker. Breaking almost every copyright law, bootlegs have nevertheless continued to enjoy a healthy existence, despite legislation and tighter security at studios and concerts, and despite their often inferior quality and exorbitant prices.
Now, inevitably, bootlegging has come to the games industry, and software houses across the land are up in arms and preparing to man the barricades. Apparently colossal amounts of money are being lost to the dastardly pirates, and some of the smaller publishers have their backs to the wall. Whether the pirates are members of the Dunzappin Computer Club or Foster-swilling Antipodeans, the combined might of the software publishers will give no quarter. The thought of all that lost revenue has been too much to bear.
It is extremely unlikely, however, that they will succeed where the long established record companies have failed, and though they might be able to frighten a few school-children, overseas the organised pirates will probably continue to flourish, at least until the software houses have the export market sewn up.
In the meantime, the games industry is fighting to retain its legitimate hold over its products, lobbying M.P.s and publicising its cause. Technology might be introduced to prevent copying, of course, though that has been attempted before by record manufacturers. The truth is, that as long as cassette players can record as well as play back, copying will continue, and perhaps the publishers and programmers of games which have been pirated will think twice when they next record one of their Barry Manilow albums for a friend. Illegal copying is not, after all, confined to the software industry alone.