![]() ![]() We were also fans of top-down vertical scrollers such as Xenon and Battle Squadron, so we wanted to do something like that." In honour of its inspiration, the working title for The Sales Curve's next game became Silkworm 2. Jane was so pleased that she wanted to use the same team to work on something new. "We all loved Silkworm, and it had been described by some critics as better than the arcade original. ![]() Partnering with Pieket on the 16-bit games was artist Ned Langman. | Image credit: The Sales Curve/Graeme Mason "But it meant we had complete artistic freedom," notes Pieket, "and as we were fans of vertically-scrolling games, that decision was easily made." So if The Sales Curve was going ahead with another Silkworm game, they couldn't call it Silkworm 2 and were understandably reluctant to pay Tecmo just for that honour. Cashing in on Silkworm's success became a priority for Cavanagh, but there was just one slight problem: Tecmo hadn't actually created a sequel to the arcade game itself. "The Sales Curve was a newcomer to the scene, and it really put them on the map." From the Commodore Amiga to Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, each version of Silkworm was a critical and commercial hit - a rarity for arcade conversions back in the 80s, with at least one port almost always turning out to be a dud. "Silkworm was a surprise hit," he tells me. Part of that creative team was programmer Ron Pieket. Under the banner of Random Access, The Sales Curve's team focused on the 16-bit games first. "It was relatively easy as I already had a good relationship with Tecmo - I then just had to assemble the creative and management teams," she says. As a result, Silkworm was top of Cavanagh's list of potential arcade games to license. Tecmo had occupied the second rung of arcade game manufacturers before the popularity of side-scrolling shoot-'em-ups such as R-Type and Gradius thrust its 1988 game, Silkworm, into the limelight. One of Cavanagh's contacts was a coin-op producer named Tecmo. "Within the first year, however, we started developing our own titles and self-publishing." "Even though the industry was in quite an embryonic stage, through my travels to Japan, I became convinced that it would be huge." Cavanagh's belief in the games industry compelled her to leave Telecomsoft and start her own company, The Sales Curve, initially to help others with licence acquisition, product development and distribution. "Between '85 and '88, I frequently went to Japan on behalf of Telecomsoft, negotiating the sale of our titles in Japan and purchasing arcade game licences," she remembers. Instead, inspired by an official arcade conversion hit, one company stretched its remit to a spiritual sequel, creating one of the finest shoot-'em-ups of the era in the process.ĭeveloper-publisher The Sales Curve was formed in 1988 by ex-Telecomsoft employee Jane Cavanagh. However, as the 90s dawned, a general tightening of licensing laws meant fewer home-exclusive sequels appeared. Manchester's Ocean Software specialised in the trick, creating follow-ups such as Target: Renegade and Yie-Ar Kung Fu 2. ![]() One of the more curious licensing phenomenons of the 80s was the home-exclusive sequel to an arcade game. ![]()
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