Controversy marked the 'Golden Joystick' awards last week when the award for the Best Arcade Style Game went to Bug-Byte for its top-selling Spectrum game of 1983, Manic Miner.

Manic Miner is now also produced by Software Projects, another Liverpool company and the contract which Matthew Smith (author of Manic Miner) signed last year with Bug-Byte is now under scrutiny because of an alleged missing comma and because in law he is still a junior.

Bug-Byte told PCN that an amicable agreement had been reached. It would stop production of the games and sell its stock.

But Matthew Smith claims that Bug-Byte still owes him money from its sales of Manic Miner.

He will be 18 in February and will then be able to take a managerial position in Software Projects, which is producing the game for the Spectrum and which has just released a Commodore 64 version. This was translated by Chris Lancaster.

Though little mention was made of authors at the award ceremony, John Philips, Bug-Byte's sales manager, did call on Matthew to share a moment's glory as he accepted the award.

The awards were presented by Dave Lee Travis and the winners were: