U.S. Gold

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U.S. Gold Limited
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
Founded1984; 37 years ago (1984)
FounderGeoff Brown
DefunctApril 1996 (1996-04)
FateClosed by parent
Headquarters
Witton, Birmingham
,
England
Parent

U.S. Gold Limited was a British video game publisher based in Witton, Birmingham, England. The company was founded in 1984 by Geoff Brown in parallel to his distributor firm, CentreSoft, both of which became part of Woodward Brown Holdings (later renamed CentreGold). The company primarily aimed at publishing games imported from the United States with a lower price tag in Europe and especially the United Kingdom.

History[]

By 1985, U.S. Gold projected a turnover of US$6 million for their first fiscal year, and expected to release further 150 games in the year to come.[1] In 1988, U.S. Gold received the Golden Joystick Award for "Software House of the Year".[2] The company also operated the budget range label Kixx.[3]

In 1988, the company struck a deal with Japanese company Capcom to port their arcade video games for home computers in Europe. They paid £2 million or $3,557,642 (equivalent to $7,800,000 in 2020) for a ten-game deal with Capcom. The first four games they announced as part of the deal were ports of the 1987 arcade games Street Fighter, Tiger Road, 1943: The Battle of Midway and Black Tiger for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST and Amiga platforms.[4] Their first five Capcom releases sold over 250,000 copies in the UK by 1989, with their best-selling Capcom release up until then being Bionic Commando with over 70,000 UK sales. Their next Capcom release was Forgotten Worlds in 1989.[5]

In April 1996, Eidos Interactive acquired the entire CentreGold umbrella (including U.S. Gold) for GB£17.6 million,[6][7] as a result of which U.S. Gold and CentreSoft ceased all operations.

Games published[]

Title Release date Platform(s)
1943: The Battle of Midway 1988 (EU) Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum
Another World 1991 (EU) Amiga, Atari ST
Beach Head 1984 (EU) Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro
Bionic Commando 1988 (EU) Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum
Black Tiger 1990 (EU) Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum
Flashback: The Quest for Identity 1992 (EU, NA) Amiga, Acorn Archimedes, Mega Drive/Genesis, MS-DOS, NEC PC-9801, Super NES, Sega CD, FM Towns, 3DO, CD-i, Atari Jaguar
Forgotten Worlds 1989 (EU, JP) 1990 (PAL, NA) Arcade, Sega Genesis, Amiga, Commodore 64, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Master System, TurboGrafx-16, Wii
Fever Pitch Soccer 1995 (EU, NA) Super NES, Sega Genesis, Atari Jaguar
Hurricanes 1994 (NA: SNES), 1994 (EU: SNES, Genesis) Super NES, Sega Genesis
Infiltrator 1986 (EU) Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum
Raid over Moscow 1984 (EU) Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, BBC
Ace of Aces 1986 (EU) Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-bit, Atari 7800, Commodore 64, MSX, MS-DOS, Master System, ZX Spectrum
Beast Busters 1989 (Arcade), 1990 (Amiga, Atari ST) Arcade, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Action Game 1989–1992 (EU) Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, C64, MS-DOS, Game Boy, Game Gear, MSX, Genesis, Master System, NES, ZX Spectrum
Izzy's Adventure 1996 (EU) Windows 95, Windows 3.1
Izzy's Quest for the Olympic Rings 1995 (EU) Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Mega Man (Game Gear) 1995 (NA) Game Gear
Final Fight 1991 (EU) Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC
Shadow Dancer 1991 (NA), 1991 (EU: ZX Spectrum & Amstrad CPC) Commodore 64, Amiga, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST
Street Fighter 1988 (EU) Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum
Techno Cop 1988 (NA), 1989 (NA: Amiga) Apple II, Atari ST, MS-DOS, Amiga
The Incredible Hulk 1994 (NA: SNES, GEN, MS), 1995 (NA: GG), 1994–1995 (EU) Super NES, Genesis, Master System, Game Gear
Tiger Road 1989 (EU) Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, DOS
Putty 1992 (Amiga), 1993 (SNES), 1994 (Amiga CD32) Amiga, Super NES, Amiga CD32
Turbo Outrun 1989 (EU: Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC), 1989-92 (Amiga), 1990 (ZX Spectrum) Amiga, Commodore 64 , ZX Spectrum , Amstrad CPC

References[]

  1. ^ Anderson, Chris (June 1985). "On top of the US Goldmine". Zzap!64. No. 2. Newsfield. pp. 46–48. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
  2. ^ Lacey, Eugene (May 1988). "Golden Joystick Awards 1988". Computer and Video Games. No. 79. Future Publishing. p. 39. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
  3. ^ Rob (December 2001). "Interview with an Ex-ACG (Ashby Computers & Graphics) Employee". www.retroisle.com. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  4. ^ "Ready Steady Go!". Computer & Video Games. No. 80 (June 1988). 15 May 1988. pp. 84–5.
  5. ^ "Capcom: A Captive Audience". The Games Machine. No. 19 (June 1989). United Kingdom: Newsfield. 18 May 1989. pp. 24–5.
  6. ^ "Eidos proposes to take over Centregold". www.telecompaper.com. 29 March 1996. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  7. ^ Moss, Richard (31 March 2015). ""It felt like robbery": Tomb Raider and the fall of Core Design". arstechnica.com. Retrieved 4 June 2017.


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