Mr Chip Software

Mr Chip Software at a Glance

Mr Chip Software operated as a British game development company between 1983 and 1987 before changing its name to Magnetic Fields in 1988. Founded in February 1982, the studio released a total of 17 games on PlayPile. They developed 16 of these titles and acted as the publisher for four. The company is best known for developers Shaun Southern and Andrew Morris. Their entire catalog comes from the 1980s, with no output recorded in other decades. The studio focused heavily on the Commodore home computer market. Fourteen games were released for the Commodore C64/128/MAX, followed by six titles for the Commodore 16. They also produced five games for the ZX Spectrum and four for the Amstrad CPC. Smaller numbers of releases appeared on Atari 8-bit systems, PC, Atari ST, MSX, and Commodore Plus/4. The company began by self-publishing games between 1982 and 1984. After that period, they shifted to developing titles for external publishers such as Mastertronic, Alternative Software, and Gremlin Graphics. Genre output varied across their short lifespan. Arcade games made up the largest portion with six releases. Platformers and shooters each accounted for five titles. Adventure, racing, sport, card and board games, pinball, and quiz or trivia games rounded out the list with single entries each. Their rating profile shows consistent performance rather than extremes. The average IGDB rating sits at 69.8 across two rated titles. There are no great or poor ratings in their dataset. Both Kikstart (1985) and Trailblazer (1986) received good scores, landing at 69.7 and 70 respectively. Most of their activity occurred between 1985 and 1987. Recent releases from the end of their run include Rollaround in December 1987 and Cosmic Causeway: Trailblazer II in August 1987. Earlier in this final year, they launched Fearless Fred and the Factory of Doom and Bandits at Zero. The studio produced a steady stream of games during this five-year window before dissolving into its successor company.

Rating Distribution