Codemasters

Codemasters
Codemasters' logo circa 1986-1991.
Origin	Warwickshire, UK
Years	1986-present
Consoles	(unlicensed only): NES; Game Genies for Mega Drive, SNES, Game Boy and Game Gear
Sounds used	Codemasters/Gavin Raeburn (NES Games)
Published games by	Camerica, BIC/Realtec, Galoob (Game Genie), Codemasters

Codemasters (also written as Code Masters and CodeMasters) is a British game developer and publisher founded in 1986. The company has developed for most mainstream game consoles and home computers since its foundation, from the ZX Spectrum onward. They were later known and acclaimed for their racing game franchises, namely F1, Race Driver: GRID, and the Colin McRae DiRT series. In 2021, Electronic Arts purchased Codemasters.

Codemasters is also notable for having produced a number of unlicensed NES games in the early 1990s, several of which would later be officially ported to Sega systems, as well as the Game Genie series of cheat cartridges (which were unlicensed on Nintendo systems but licensed by Sega for their systems). Their games were released in the US by Camerica, in Europe by Codemasters themselves, and in 60-pin format in various regions by BIC/Realtec, who also produced a 60-pin version of the NES Game Genie.

Unlicensed NES Games

Name	Released	Description	Cartridge Types
Baseball Pro's	1992	Sports game that only appeared on Quattro Sports.
Bee 52	1992	Shoot 'em up. Later ported to the Commodore 64 but was only limited released by the programmer.
Big Nose Freaks Out	1992	Platformer.	Cartridge, Aladdin Deck Enhancer.
Big Nose the Caveman	1991	Platformer.	Cartridge
BMX Simulator	1992	Racing game that only appeared on Quattro Sports. Remake of Professional BMX Simulator/BMX Simulator 2.
Boomerang Kid	1991	Platformer that only appeared on Quattro Adventure.
C.J.'s Elephant Antics	1992	Platformer that only appeared on Quattro Arcade.
Dizzy the Adventurer	November 1992	Remake of Dizzy: Prince of the Yolkfolk.	Aladdin Deck Enhancer
Dreamworld Pogie	Unreleased	Spinoff of the Dizzy games.	N/A
Eon Man	Unreleased	Cancelled due to Codemasters pulling out of the NES. No other info is known.	N/A
The Excellent Dizzy Collection	Unreleased	Compilation of Wonderland Dizzy, Panic Dizzy, Mystery World Dizzy, Go! Dizzy Go! and Dizzy the Adventurer.	N/A
F-16 Renegade	1992	Shoot 'em up that only appeared on Quattro Arcade.
The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy	April 1991	Later remade in the European version and other consoles/computers as Fantastic Dizzy.	Gold Cartridge, Aladdin Deck Enhancer, Codemasters Plug-Thru.
Firehawk	1991	Shoot 'em up. Sequel to Operation Gunship.
Grand Prix Simulator	Unreleased	Racing game similar to Super Sprint. Remake of Grand Prix Simulator 2. The only details known were Andrew Oliver was going to work on the game and was one of the two earliest NES games in development. The game was cancelled but became the basis of Micro Machines.	N/A
Go! Dizzy Go!	1992	Puzzle game that appeared on Quattro Arcade, Dizzy spinoff.
Linus Spacehead's Cosmic Crusade	1992	Adventure game. Later remade in the European version and other consoles/computers as Cosmic Spacehead.	Gold cartridge, Aladdin Deck Enhancer, Black cartridge (Cosmic Spacehead)
Metal Man	Unreleased	Shoot 'em up, similar to Thrust. Cancelled due to Codemasters pulling out of the NES.	N/A
Micro Machines	1991	Racing game.	Cartridge, Aladdin Deck Enhancer, Codemasters Plug-Thru.
MiG 29: Soviet Fighter	1992	Shooter influenced by After Burner. Remake of MiG 29 Fighter, originally an altered re-release of F-16 Fighting Falcon.
Mystery World Dizzy	Unreleased	Remake of Fantasy World Dizzy.	N/A
Pro Tennis	1992	Sports game that only appeared on Quattro Sports. Remake of Pro Tennis Simulator.
Soccer Simulator	1992	Sports game that only appeared on Quattro Sports. Influenced by the "11 a Side" mode of 4 Soccer Simulators.
Stunt Buggies	1992	Racing game inspired by Rally X that only appeared on Quattro Arcade.
Stunt Kids	1992	2 player split screen racing game, similar to Kikstart.
Super Robin Hood	1991	Action platformer. No relation to the original game. Later ported as Robin Hood: Legend Quest on home computers.
Team Sports Basketball	Unreleased	Sports game.	Planned to be Aladdin Deck Enhancer.
Treasure Island Dizzy	1991	Remake of the game based on the later Amiga/Atari ST versions.
Ultimate Stuntman	1991	Multi-genre game.	Gold cartridge
Wonderland Dizzy	Unreleased		Planned to be Aladdin Deck Enhancer.

Trivia

• A BIC-XX ID number is also present on most 72-pin Camerica game PCBs which suggests BIC may have been the manufacturer of all of the US releases as well, not just the 60-pin versions.
• Some PAL versions of the Codemasters' games came in a black cartridge (most of them were PAL re-releases) which had a special chip inside: the CME-01. This chip has a copy protection mechanism that can fail in the absence of a lockout chip providing a reset signal, which means these cartridges won't going to work on any clone systems or on a real Famicom, since these consoles never had a lockout chip inside.
• All Codemasters NES games include a smiley test that checks the integrity of PRG ROM and CHR RAM of the game. To do this, with a modified controller that allows all directions to be pressed (most NES controllers do not allow for this), or if emulating, an anti-ghosting keyboard, press all directional buttons, A (for PRG ROM) and/or B (for CHR RAM), Start, and Select while pressing Reset on the system. A green smiling face indicates no problems, a frowning red face indicates test failure. Note that if both A and B are pressed together to initiate both test simultaneously, the results will be calculated together by OR in the system RAM.
• Many Codemasters games and the Game Genie use an illegal black value in terms of their palette causing problems with some TV sets. Some European versions such as Cosmic Spacehead and Fantastic Dizzy had fixed the value however not all palettes in a game are fixed with some that still use the wrong value.

External link

• Official website