The Hobbit, a 1982 text adventure by Philip Mitchell and Veronika Megler,[5] sold more than 500,000 copies.

[9] In 1987 Beam's UK publishing arm,[10] Melbourne House, was sold to Mastertronic for £850,000.

[11] Beam chairman Alfred Milgrom recounted, "...around 1987 a lot of our U.K. people went on to other companies and at around the same time the industry was moving from 8-bit to 16-bit.

Targeted at an Australian audience, releases such as Aussie Rules Footy and International Cricket for the NES proved successful.

[12] In 1992 they released the original title Nightshade, a dark superhero comedy game.

The game was meant to be the first part in a series, but no sequels were ever made; however, it served as the basis for Shadowrun.

in North America and the puppet character Agro in their home country of Australia.

In December 2005, Atari decided to shift away from internal development, seeking to sell its studios, including Melbourne House.