1982-83 Merlin Enterprises
Platforms: Atari 8-bit, Apple II, Commodore VIC-20, Commodore 64
Merlin Enterprises was a mysterious publisher based in Torrance, California that exclusively advertized in Compute! in 1982-83. It seems none of the software titles mentioned has surfaced on any platform, which makes it an even more interesting case.
The first publication in November 1982 lists five games for the Atari 8-bit, Apple 2 and VIC-20:
- Codename: Cobalt
- Laser Arena
- Mind Lexica
- Arthur Davis Detective Encounter Series #3 – Murder in the Manor (Partially found!)
- Arthur Davis Detective Encounter Series #4 – Death for Dessert
Although the memory requirements are a hint, the ad isn’t very clear about system availability. It ran unchanged for three issues:
https://archive.org/details/1982-11-compute-magazine/page/198/mode/1up
In February 1983, the company had a new ad with more titles (repeated in the March 1983 issue of Compute!):
https://archive.org/details/1983-02-compute-magazine/page/230/mode/1up
The Apple II was dropped from the line-up and programs for the Commodore 64 were said to be “coming soon”. We were finally given details about platform availability, with Codename: Cobalt noted as an Atari exclusive and all the other games as Atari / VIC-20 (expanded) releases. There were also six new titles for these computers, two featuring the previously seen Arthur Davis and four in the Merlin Alpha-Series:
- Arthur Davis Detective Encounter Series #5 – Transatlantic Treachery
- Arthur Davis Detective Encounter Series #6 – Terminal Express to Victoria
- Bottomless Abyss
- Parking Lot Fever
- Pyromania
- Wet Cement
The sixth and last Merlin Enterprises ad appeared in the April 1983 of Compute! and was much simpler. It only featured five titles: Codename: Cobalt for the Atari and the Arthur Davis Detective Encounter Series programs. However, more importantly, the four Arthur Davis games were marked as available for the Commodore 64:
https://archive.org/details/1983-04-compute-magazine/page/n31/mode/1up
There were some mentions of Merlin Enterprises in both Commander and the Midnite Software Gazette for the Commodore platforms.
On the Atari side, Codename: Cobalt had a tiny review in The Atari User’s Encyclopedia in 1984. For the first time, Merlin Enterprises was listed with a physical address, not just a post office box, which could mean the company was a legit publisher.
Finally, The Directory of Software Publishers from 1983 also mentions Merlin Enterprises. It is the only source which gives us the name of a person to contact: Nigel Preston.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem Merlin Enterprises was registered (at least I couldn’t find it in the California records). A brief search for Nigel Preston doesn’t reveal much either. Some people with this name live in the eastern part of the country but I couldn’t locate anyone in California. Maybe some more detective work is needed…
FRANK: “Thanks to Andrew Fisher, it seems Nigel Preston may have later went on to work on DK Interactive Multimedia titles, but then it trails off again. Seems it could be the same person? They may likely not, as DK Interactive was based in the UK.
In April 2026, Nicol Walder got in touch after finding what seems to be the Arthur Davis Detective game series #3 for the Commodore 64. It is written in BASIC, but may not be finished or at least doesn’t run correctly. Nicol wasn’t able to access the Police report or play the game (Perhaps its actually the VIC 20 version? It seems to display in 20 column mode?). It suggests that Merlin did indeed exist, and at minimum had worked on the games promoted. A great start and find! Can more be found?”
If you know more, please get in touch!
With thanks to Archive.org for the scans, Nicol Walder for the recovery of one of the games and Andrew Fisher for additional leads.
Downloads
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The discovered game is not for the C64, it runs just fine on a Vic20. Just thought I’d let you know.
Thanks for confirming Luc777! Strange how it ended up on a random C64 disk.
Given the nature of the advertisement listed, what I’m about to write may not be the situation, however…
I know that with tabletop RPGs in the 1980s to early 1990s, there have been instances where publishers would put out advertisements for games “coming soon” as a means to gauge interest from merchants if a title/concept was viable. For instance, “Hey! I saw your advertisement about an RPG based upon the ‘Squishy the Octopus’ TV show. Can you tell me more about it? Kid RPGs sell great in my area!” or “Hey, that new horror RPG looks cool but I was wondering if you did other horror RPGs, such as a Lovecraftian RPG…”
If there was a lot of interest in a particular ad, the publisher would know that they were on the right track and continue to develop (or even begin to develop) the title. If not, then it would die a quiet death for any number of reasons.
The logic was that it was better to spend $1,000 or so up front (with speculative ads) to see if a title would or wouldn’t sell as opposed to spending $10-20,000 in order to fully develop a title only to find out that no one really wanted it in the first place.
Again, probably not this case but I’m sure that tabletop RPG business strategy may have spilled over to early computer game business strategy as well.
Mobygames lists a Nigel Preston working on later DK Interactive multimedia titles
https://www.mobygames.com/person/562630/nigel-preston/
Thanks Andrew – just updated the page :) Seems likely its the same person.
Seems a bit far-fetched to me. DK Interactive is a UK publisher and Nigel Preston is about the most English name ever. We seem to be looking for an American programmer. Granted, he may have moved to the UK but I’m not really convinced. Unless Nigel “Merlin Enterprises” Preston never existed in the first place and is just an alias, that feels plausible as well. Mind you, I’d love to be proven wrong on all accounts!
Ah apologies – I hadn’t realised. Yeah, if that is the case – it would be a bit of a stretch. Interesting story there potentially if they did move to the UK or something.
It is possible all games by Merlin were lost and possibly unreleased. Was this possibly something to do with the 1983 video game crash?
Very possible! Just hope that if this is the case, there’s a folder/box somewhere with the games sitting there waiting to be saved.
11 games on 4 platforms and no one ever surfaced?? really? that’s impossible!
If you ask me: its a pre-paid-order fraud (but I hope I’m wrong…)
I hear you… Weird that none of the titles even hit the pirate circuit at the very least. Also, that would be a crap ton of games and conversions for a one-man operation. Finally, the publisher ran ads for six months then seems to have disappeared entirely.
On the other hand, it seems a lot of imagination went into the creation of the ads. OK, maybe that would make it an absolutely great scam then… What I don’t get is that such fraud is usually exposed. I find it strange that there are no records of people complaining or writing to magazines / newsletters about the company not fulfilling orders.
Reading the ads, I tend to agree that something seems a little sus, particularly given that no games have surfaced on any of the platforms as far as we are aware. Maybe it was an outright con… I mean come on Parking Lot Fever and Wet Cement as game titles – someone is having a laugh surely.