THE MAKING OF JET BIKE SIMULATOR

PHILIP AND ANDREW OLIVER HAD ALREADY ENJOYED DIZZYING SUCCESS BY THE TIME THEY MADE JET BIKE SIMULATOR. BUT WOULD GAMERS RACE TO PLAY THEIR LATEST CREATION OR WOULD A GAMBLE WITH A NEW PRICING STRUCTURE CAUSE IT TO SINK?

- DAVID CROOKES

The cover of Jet Bike Simulator made something of a splash – internally at Codemasters at least. In a list of features promoting the virtues of this top-down racer (among them a free colour poster and an official Codemasters sticker, no less), were the words “by the famous Oliver twins”. Five words which, as it turned out, made Philip and Andrew Oliver cringe ever so slightly.

When the game was released in 1988, the brothers had indeed made something of a name for themselves. They'd achieved success on the Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 with Robin Hood, Ghost Hunters, Grand Prix Simulator, Professional Ski Simulator, 3D Starfighter and Dizzy so it made sense to promote their undoubted prowess.

But whether or not they were actually famous was another matter. “[It] was Bruce Everiss [Codemasters’ marketing manager] doing it as a joke,” Andrew Oliver told Amstrad Action in September 1988. “Now all the mail we get at Codemasters is addressed to 'The Famous Oliver Twins!’”

Japes aside, Codemasters certainly had lots of faith in the Olivers. When they were given the go-ahead to develop Jet Bike Simulator, the publisher earmarked it for a Codemasters Plus release, reckoning the Olivers had more than enough clout and talent to pull off a game that would retail for £4.99 – half way between budget and full price. “It was one of the launch Codemasters Plus titles,” Philip tells us. “Codemasters was selling all of its games for £1.99 to £2.99 at the time and it wanted to increase the price without going full price which it felt wouldn't be well-received by consumers.”