Two software companies, R&R Software and Abbex, saw in the New Year by going bust.

Robert Brenchley, managing director of R&R, blamed large sums of money owed to it by a South African company, allied to a bleak Christmas period, for the downfall of the business.

He said: "It was a quiet summer, but we were keeping our head above water. Then came Christmas and we thought we'd have good sales - but it didn't happen."

R&R's best-known game for the Spectrum was appropriately called Titanic, and the company was in the process of making a C64 version. However, on December 12 things ground to a halt, and the receiver was brought in on January 8, 1985.

Mr. Brenchley, who will find refuge in the industry doing freelance work, had no immediate plans to start all over again. "It would be unwise to jump into a similar venture as a lot of medium-sized companies are having a hard time at the moment," he said.

Abbex also hit the dust. The last game that the company produced was All Or Nothing for the Spectrum. Numerous attempts to contact the company last week failed.

Further signs of trouble and strife in the computer games market come from K-tel. It has withdrawn financial backing from its software subsidiary Front Runner "for the first time being".

A spokesman for K-tel said that Front Runner is continuing to trade and will continue to fill orders for existing products, but it is not planning to bring out any new titles.