Their range of budget games were incredibly successful during the 1980s, with titles such as Kikstart, Action Biker, Finders Keepers, Chiller and Flash Gordon (released under the M.A.D.

It resulted in the Master System selling much better than its rival, the NES than in many other territories[3] and was cited by some as Virgin Group's reason for investing in the company (and later buying it outright).

Their initial venture involved bundling packages of 100 tapes ("dealer packs") and sending them to newsagents, toy shops, motorway service stations, or just about anyone who would take them.

[5] Another key figure at the time was ex-Notts Cricket batsman Richard Bielby, who ran a distribution network servicing a large number of small retailers.

The UK company was managed by Frank Herman, whilst Alan Sharam increasingly specialised in sales and logistics (warehousing, packaging, controlling production schedules).

As the business continued to grow Mastertronic created another label in 1986, Entertainment USA, when it began working closely with several American writers including Sculptured Software and Randall Masteller.

[10] Having bought Melbourne House and with heavy financial commitments to the Arcadia project Mastertronic (now renamed the 'Mastertronic Group Ltd') was now suffering severe cash flow problems.

The remaining 55% was held by Alper (25%), Herman (20%) and Sharam (10%) until 1988 when they sold out in a highly complex deal which required their continuing involvement in the business and achievement of profit and cash flow targets.

Emphasis was set on creating a brand image, establishing distributor chains, persuading the larger high street stores to stock the product and ensuring a fast turn-round from the tape duplicators and the printers so that fresh supplies of successful games could be produced quickly.

Much of the early output was supplied by just two producers: the Darling brothers, who formed Codemasters as soon as they could break their contract with the company, and Mr. Chip Software who continued to write games for Mastertronic for some time.

As well as permanent staff temporary assistance came from several game authors, including Nigel Johnstone, Richard Aplin, Mike Harrison, Jeremy Burrell, Stephen N Curtis[11] and Tony Takoushi.

Composer Rob Hubbard produced music for the company's C64 range such as One Man and His Droid, Hunter Patrol, Spellbound, Action Biker, Phantom of the Asteroid, and Master of Magic.