However, while some of the games that resulted from this scattershot approach to licensing were well regarded - Ocean's Batman, for example - there were plenty that should never have been released.
Here are ten such properties that should never have become games.
This thoroughly unwanted game required you - as an anonymous resident of Albert Square (the ghost of Reg Cox, perhaps?) - to help out your neighbours by successfully completing a series of mini games. Thrilling tasks included doing the laundry in Dot's launderette, managing Arthur Fowler's allotment, ordering stock on Pete Beale's fruit and veg stall, and pulling pints in the Queen Vic.
As is traditional in such epic adventures, Betty's famous hotpot recipe had been torn into pieces and hidden around The Street. Your task was to interrogate the residents, and find the missing pieces, while trying not to break your ankle on the cobbles.
You know: because there were always kangaroos in Neighbours.
It's hard to know whether their inclusion constitutes racism. At least the characters weren't wearing those hats with corks hanging from them, and singing a song about being descended from criminals.
The show had moved on from the drug years by the time the game was released, which was why you played as the unlovable character Gonch, rather than that iconic heroin-gobbling goblin Zammo.
Minder was a show that I never watched, but was always somehow tangentially aware of. Whether they'd seen it or not, everyone knew more or less what it was about, was familiar with the theme tune, and knew the catchphrases: "'Er indoors'", "The world is my lobster", and "Luvverly jubbly, Rodneyplonker, I've just fallen through the bar".
The game had you assuming role of conman Arthur Daley, where the aim was to make as much money as possible selling dodgy goods, without being caught by Sergeant Chisholme. Tasks could be assigned to your minder, Terry, who - if you were really lucky - might have sung you a snippet of the theme tune.
Unlike all the other games on this list, Dallas Quest was created with the assistance of the show's makers - and was based upon a script written by two of its writers. Hence having a plot that could've come straight from the series, sort of.
Unfortunately, there was no Easter egg whereby you get to the end and find out it was all a dream you had while Bobby Ewing was pooing in the shower.
A graphic adventure given away on a flexidisc by Computer & Video Games magazine, The Thompson Twins Adventure was based upon the musical trio's 1984 hit Doctor! Doctor! For some reason, the group had become stranded on a desert island, and were tasked with finding the ingredients of a magic potion.
Just like the song, then.
I saw you there, just standing there
And I thought I was only dreaming yeah
I kissed you then, then once again
You said you would come and dance with me
Dance with me across the sea
And we could feel the motion of a thousand dreams
Oh, Doctor, doctor, can't you see I'm burning, burning
Oh, Doctor, doctor, is this love I'm feeling?
Ships at night give such delight
We all leave before the morning light
Please don't go no please don't go
Cause I don't want to stay here on my own
Based upon Adrian Edmondson's cheap and cheerful cash-in book of the same name, the game required you to crash a yuppie party, and convince the guests that you were - yes - a bastard. Cutting off someone's hair, setting fire to the furniture, and stabbing a guest with a pen were all socially acceptable forms of bastardy, while slicing them to death with a razor blade would get you arrested. You could also fill your fartometer by eating curry.
It caused something of a minor controversy when it was later released as a cover tape on Amstrad Action and Your Sinclair.
The tie-in game took the form of a beat 'em up featuring six world leaders; Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pope John Paul II, Ayatollah Khomeini, and South Africa's PW Botha. Each had a special move - Khomeini could whip his opponents with his beard of course - while one level took place entirely in the dark at one of Prince Philip's famous "mud-wrestling parties".
Satire, kids. Satire.