Sunday, April 28, 2024
Atarisoft
I'd like to go back to the Atari well one more time to talk about the short-lived Atarisoft UK range. I originally planned to make this part of the Atari article but it was just too long. In America, the label was a success, at least at first. Whatever plans Atari UK had for the range were disrupted at the end of July 1984 when Warner Communications sold the consumer division of Atari to Jack Tramiel. Atarisoft UK rapidly stalled and although a few games slip out across the remainder of 1984, its surprisingly difficult to make sense of what happens or why.
Sunday, April 14, 2024
Atari Corp (UK) Ltd
Atari House, Railway Terrace, Slough, SL2
Atari was founded in 1972, and it took 10 years for them to cross the Atlantic and set up their UK subsidiary. This was well after Commodore, who arrived in 1969 in their guise as a manufacturer of typewriters, and just before Activision, who set up their UK branch in the autumn of 1983. At least, that's the simple answer. I thought the story of Atari UK was going to be an easy one to write. I was wrong.
Labels:
A&F,
Aardvark,
Acorn,
Activision,
Atari,
Bug-Byte,
Centresoft,
Commodore,
DJL,
dk'tronics,
HAL Laboratory,
Hasbro,
Imagine,
Infogrames,
J.K. Greye,
Micro Power,
Quicksilva,
Silversoft,
Sinclair Research,
US Gold
Sunday, March 17, 2024
Infogrames
Mitre House, Abbey Road, Enfield, EN1
Infogrames, the company whose bloody fingerprints are all over the dagger in the back of the corpse of the UK software industry.
Labels:
Accolade,
Activision,
Atari,
Bandai Namco,
Domark,
Eidos,
Gremlin,
GT Interactive,
Hasbro,
Infogrames,
Mastertronic,
MicroProse,
Microsoft,
Mirrorsoft,
Ocean,
Piranha,
Silversoft,
Spirit Software
Sunday, March 3, 2024
Commodore Computing International vs ZZAP!64
Some time in April 1986, Anthony Jacobson, the publisher of COMMODORE COMPUTING INTERNATIONAL sat down and wrote a blistering editorial for COMPUTER TRADE WEEKLY which tore into rival Commodore 64 magazine ZZAP!64. The article presumably did what was intended, which was to generate some interest in CCI and provoke a response from ZZAP editor Roger Kean.
Monday, February 19, 2024
Thalamus
1 Saturn House, Calleva Park, Aldermaston, Berks, RG7
I'm pretty sure only four magazine publishers set up software houses; EMAP with Beyond, Argus Press with Argus Press Software, Mirror Group Newspapers with Mirrorsoft and, of course, Newsfield with Thalamus. The surprise is not so much that other publishers didn't dip their toe into the water, it's that Newsfield were so late to the party. Thalamus was founded in 1986, when smaller software houses were being squeezed out of the market and either making the decision to become developers rather than publishers, see Design Design and Realtime, or stepping back from the market completely like Durell and Microsphere.Sunday, February 4, 2024
Newsfield Ltd
1/2 King Street, Ludlow, Shropshire
So we're doing magazines now are we? Well yes, obviously. The tagline of this blog is "seeking out Britain's pioneering software houses," but I've covered Argus Specialist Press and assorted computer manufacturers under the fig leaf justification that those companies did occasionally chuck out a few games. I could have done the same for Newsfield because they spun off a software house called Thalamus but it seems unnecessary. Newsfield were an essential part of the UK software scene in their own right, as were other publishers like Future (AMSTRAD ACTION) or Sportscene/Dennis (YOUR SINCLAIR and YOUR 64), or hardware companies like Romantic Robot (the various Multiface machines) and joystick kings Konix. A whole support industry grew up around software companies like the ecology of a coral reef and to not talk about it is to not tell the whole story.
Sunday, January 21, 2024
Sunday, January 7, 2024
Commodore Business Machines (UK) Ltd
675 Ajax Avenue, Slough, SL1
I'm paddling in my ignorance here. I don't know much about Commodore and my usual sources aren't helping. Much of the information online is about the history of the US parent company, Commodore International, rather than their UK arm and the sheer popularity of the Commodore 64 tends to swamp any list of results I generate. Even the normally reliable Companies House is letting me down. Their register tells me this about Commodore Business Machines (UK) Ltd; company number 00956774.Company name COMMODORE BUSINESS MACHINES (U.K.) LIMITED
Company number 00956774
Incorporated on 24 Jun 1969
Dissolved on 05 Dec 2000
Registered office address at dissolution Not available
Download Report Not available
Company number 00956774
Incorporated on 24 Jun 1969
Dissolved on 05 Dec 2000
Registered office address at dissolution Not available
Download Report Not available
Six facts and two of those are "Not available". This is going to get worse before it gets better.
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The worst thing in the world for a blog dedicated to tracking down the offices of old software houses is an incomplete or non-existent post...
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Atari House, Railway Terrace, Slough, SL2 Atari was founded in 1972, and it took 10 years for them to cross the Atlantic and set up their UK...
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Mitre House, Abbey Road, Enfield, EN1 Infogrames, the company whose bloody fingerprints are all over the dagger in the back of the corpse of...
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56b Milton Trading Estate, Milton, Abingdon, OX14 4RX I like RETRO GAMER magazine a lot but sometimes they make life difficult for me. I wa...
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Maxwell House, Worship Street, London, EC2A This post frequently felt like a house of cards spinning out of control. I'd started coverin...
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Castle Lodge, Castle Green, Taunton, TA1 DURELL SOFTWARE ARE STILL IN BUSINESS! This is almost unreasonably exciting. Sure, there's quit...