Original games on copied disks

[Macc]

A friend of mine recently bought an Amstrad job lot, after the 200 mile journey he discovered that a lot of the original, boxed software was on Amsoft disks with the original label stuck over the top, was this common practice back then or has he bought a load of backups?

[TotO]

This was a commun practice.
Some editors buy floppies to Amstrad and glue the labels on top.

[Gryzor]

Not *that* common, but still not that uncommon. Since, as TotO said, some publishers bought their disks from Amsoft (reminds me of Nintendo... ), at least at the beginning there was short supply of label-less floppies.

[ralferoo]

That reminds me of the Amiga coverdisks... Almost invariably, if you pulled off the label there was a silkscreen "label" for a game underneath from where they'd done an overrun.

This was most common around the time the ST/Amiga "magazines" started that only contained 2 pages plus a disk and were only sold as magazines to avoid VAT.

[Cholo]

Id go with "fairly common" in the early days. Even Amsoft did it on their own games sometimes.

[Xyphoe]

Yea fairly common, I know it sounds daft but it puts me off buying disk games on Ebay for reasonable prices if I can see it's an Amsoft disk with the label stuck on. Well ... not that daft, I could just get the disk dump from CPC-Power website and make my own label.

Anyway I think (pure guess) a lot of this occurred because during one year in the run up to Xmas there was a massive shortage of 3" disks .. 1987 or 1988 maybe? I just vaguely remember reading that in an Amstrad Action magazine as people were writing in complaining they couldn't find much disk software. Perhaps software houses purchases batches off Amsoft direct from some of their unsold stock.

[Axelay]

Well it seemed pretty common to me.  I just thought it was a sign of how 'professional' things were at the time! 


Just had a look through my disks and apart from Ocean (games from '87 onwards I think) there doesnt seem to be a single publisher that consistently used professional looking labels on otherwise blank disks, with at least half of the others looking to be a label stuck over the Amsoft label.  I remembered there were even a couple with labels over the top of a label from a different game.  The one I just found was Living Daylights over Blockbusters Gold Run over the Amsoft label!

[Bryce]

I have a few originals with "double labels" too. What really confused me, was that if I bought a blank disc, the label wasn't on the disk, it was just in the sleeve and I had to put it on myself. Which makes me wonder why a software house would go to the bother of putting the first one on, when they know that it's going to be covered by a second one?

Bryce.

[Axelay]

I have a few originals with "double labels" too. What really confused me, was that if I bought a blank disc, the label wasn't on the disk, it was just in the sleeve and I had to put it on myself. Which makes me wonder why a software house would go to the bother of putting the first one on, when they know that it's going to be covered by a second one?

Bryce.

Even Amsoft blanks?  I think all the Amsoft blanks I bought came labelled already.

[Cholo]

One way to check if you discs are genuine is to check them on cpc-power. Like if you have a Doors of doom+ game you can check the disc scans in the "package" tab:
http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&onglet=jaquette&num=745

Also the quality of the labels usually reveal if they are genuine or not. Home based printers just couldnt make that high quality prints or even printing in colour was uncommon. Today its a different story and everyone and their cat has a 3in1 printer(scanner/copy/printer) that can make copies of the latest dvd movie label.

So pirated software excisted back then but didnt have labels as it would be cheaper buying original games than actually attempt to copy their artwork/labels.

Also do take into account that this was the early days so it wasnt just "big biz" companies like it is today. Small "family" productions (especially programs and pd) had homemade "crude" artwork/label. So if you have discs like that it dosnt mean that they are fake.

Of cause the main question you can ask is "why would anyone make fake/pirated labels" back in the day .. and why would they make them today? Simply was too expensive back then and today its simply not worth it.

You should be a bit carefull buying used games on ebay tho .. and not only amstrad games, as ive seen the noughty auction from time to time like where they try to sell a original big box game and even tho the box is the genuine big box one, the displayed tape/disc is a "kixx" budget re-release or similar mix-up.

Oh, and do watch out for the odd fake GX 4000 cartridge .. these are usually very easy to spot tho.

[Gryzor]

Were there any games with no label but an actual print on the plastic, or do I remember this from my ST days?

(OT: heh, the other day I was cleaning out some old house stuff and I found an ST Format disk that had been overwritten with R-Type Blast from the past...)

[Terje_Norway]

Hi,


YES, there were a 'lot' (several) of companies that didn't use labels, and instead printed the title directly on the discs. I have had a quick lock amongst all my discs, and I have found 18 discs where the title is printed on the plastic. I bet I have a lot more, but that's another story 


The titles I have found is as following :
7 x HeroQuest(TM)          Amstrad (1.ENG/2.FRE)     (C) 1991 Gremlin
1 x Monopoly(R)              Amstrad                            (C) 1989 Virgin
1 x New York Warriors    Amstrad                            (C) xxxx Virgin
2 x Super Cars(TM)         Amstrad                            (C) 1990 Gremlin 
1 x Bonanza Bros(TM)     Amstrad/SPECTRUM          (C) 1991 US GOLD/Sega 
2 x Super Cars(TM)         SPECTRUM                        (C) 1990 Gremlin
3 x HeroQuest(TM)         SPECTRUM                         (C) 1991 Gremlin 
1 x HeroQuest2(TM)       SPECTRUM                         (C) 1991 Gremlin


I could have made a picture of it IF my digital camera was working 
IF there is any interest in it, I could make a nice scan of the discs ? ?


Yours


Terje Grind
NORWAY

[Gryzor]

Why not? It's a mildly interesting topic

I remember Ocean games being on disks with no labels but direct prints (and, specifically, blue-coloured prints), but again this might have been on my ST.

[woody.cool]

Were there any games with no label but an actual print on the plastic, or do I remember this from my ST days?

My Batman The Movie, Total Recall and Rainbow Islands 3" discs are all printed directly on (no labels) with white writing.
Most of my original games are double-labelled - I got a big job lot of 3" disc games from a mate of mine and most of them, although complete in boxes with instructions, are double labelled (and can just about make out the Amsoft logo behind the label)

[Xyphoe]

My Batman The Movie, Total Recall and Rainbow Islands 3" discs are all printed directly on (no labels) with white writing.
Most of my original games are double-labelled - I got a big job lot of 3" disc games from a mate of mine and most of them, although complete in boxes with instructions, are double labelled (and can just about make out the Amsoft logo behind the label)

Yea they're all Ocean games, along with US Gold and Domark they all had disks with the text printed directly onto the plastic at the factory.