MicroProse

I don't normally struggle to pick three covers for the picture to the left. I prefer to choose games that mean a lot to me but sometimes I'll go for ones I know will be eye-catching. Yes Civilisation. Yes, UFO: Enemy Unknown. Yes RollerCoaster Tycoon. But what about Silent Service. What about Railroad Tycoon. What about Civilisation II. What about Transport Tycoon. Man, MicroProse released a lot of good games. Is it possible they are one of my favourite software houses and I never realised?

Adventure International (UK)/ Calisto Software/ Adventure Soft UK / Horror Soft / Adventure Soft Publishing / Headfirst Productions

119 John Bright Street, Birmingham

I really blundered in to this one. This company, sorry, group of companies, turned out to be way more complicated than I expected, I mean, just look at that title. What a nightmare! To increase the potential jeopardy, I'm writing this introduction before I've got the whole of the article sorted out. Can I complete it? Can I make any sense of the whole thing? Let's find out, shall we?

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.   

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.