Simon Rush wrote his first economic sim in 1987. ESP Software has been quietly building games ever since. The big one is finally being made.
Every ESP title started as a blank screen and a stubborn idea. No templates, no shortcuts. Just deep mechanical design and years of iteration.
Run a mining company in a live, persistent world. Find deposits. Corner markets. Take over rivals. Trade shares on an in-game exchange that moves with real supply, demand and politics. Not a designer-scripted curve.
See MYOB →Britain's most ambitious football management sim of the 1990s. Thirteen years across Atari ST, Amiga and PC. Ten staff. Ten languages. Dutch fans still organise sessions on emulator, thirty years on.
Open the Football Masters file →Horse racing management born on the Atari ST. The legacy lives on today through Starter Orders by Mark Loveday.
See Starter Orders →Run a mining company in a live, persistent world. Find deposits. Corner markets. Take over rivals. Trade shares on an in-game exchange that moves with real supply, demand and politics. Not a designer-scripted curve.
Real economic mechanics: price elasticity, supply shocks, market manipulation. Built mobile-first for multiplayer. The concept began life as TYCOON, a licenceware game Simon Rush wrote on the Atari ST in 1987. It's now being built properly.
Each deposit has an extraction difficulty of 1 to 99. Your company's tech rating must match before you can build. Upgrade over time or partner with a rival who already has the edge.
Uncover deposits by solving geo-puzzle mechanics tied to aerial and ground survey data. Finding the vein is just the beginning.
Store mined resources and sell at peak prices. Stockpile to corner the market, then flood supply to crash a rival's commodity. Timing and intel are everything.
Every company is a listed PLC on the in-game exchange. Your share price climbs with discoveries and falls with absence or mismanagement. Invest in rivals. Short underperformers.
Cannot extract what you found? Auction the mining rights. Receive a signing bonus, ongoing commission, and tech transfers. Every deal reshapes the alliances around you.
Build a bankroll, identify a vulnerable rival, and launch a bid. Success gives you all their assets. Neglected companies are always the easiest targets.
Form OPEC-style alliances transparently or operate covert cartels. Coordinate output to keep prices high. Members can defect, leak prices, or undercut the deal — trust costs you when it fails.
World events shift mineral valuations in real time. Political instability, new discoveries, and supply shocks all move the market.
Built on real economics and resource geography. Players pick up supply-and-demand, corporate finance, and market behaviour by playing, not by reading tutorials.
What started as a one-person project on the newest home computer of 1989 grew into a 10-person studio, three international releases, and a fanbase still playing three decades on.
Development begins on Atari ST. At the time the most advanced football management game on any home computer. A Commodore Amiga version follows quickly.
Rebranded Football Masters with major improvements. A new version ships every season for the next six years.
Moves to PC retail. Ten fully translated languages. Localised releases in Germany as Club Manager, Italy as Campioni, and the Netherlands.
Development team rewrites the match engine entirely. International management added. MMOG architecture built in from the start. Studio peaks at 10 employees.
The 2002/03 season version ships. Simon pivots to a new successful business. Football Masters enters hibernation but is never forgotten.
Football Masters pioneered localisation for budget games at a time when most developers never considered translation. The game shipped in ten languages including Dutch, German, Italian and French. Few independent British studios of the era translated at all.
A group of Dutch fans still organise regular Football Masters sessions via emulator. Three decades after the final release, they still book sessions and run tournaments.
Simon Rush wrote Football Crazy alone on an Atari ST in 1989. It became Football Masters. He shipped a new version every season for thirteen years.
Football Masters grew into a proper operation. A dedicated team rewrote the match engine. International management was added. The game was translated into ten languages. Localised editions launched in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Most UK indies of the era never translated past English.
Other ESP titles followed: sports management games covering cricket, Formula 1, wrestling and boxing. Simon also shipped Stable Masters, a horse racing simulation whose legacy continues today through Mark Loveday's Starter Orders.
When a separate business venture took off in the early 2000s, Football Masters entered hibernation. But the ideas never stopped. In 1987, two years before ESP was incorporated, Simon wrote a licenceware game on the Atari ST called TYCOON. The mining and trading mechanics never left him. TYCOON is the seed MYOB grew from, and that game is finally being built.
Three decades on, the setup hasn't changed: one person, one obsession, built properly.
Quick answers to what people ask most.
Pick the one you care about. Both buttons open your email app with the message half-written. Simon reads and answers every one himself.
Be one of the first into MYOB. No list, no funnel — just email Simon. You'll hear back when early access opens.
Email Simon →A fan of the original? Plans are in motion for an MMOG revival. Let Simon know you're interested and what you'd want from a new version.
Email Simon →Opens your email client ● [email protected]