J.K. Greye Software

 16 Park Street, Bath, Avon, BA1

I don't think I believed my friend when he said he had a computer at home. In fact, I don't think I really knew what a computer was at the time. We're taking late 1982, early 1983 at the most, and my friend was telling me about this scary game he played which was "not suitable for those of a nervous disposition." It had a dinosaur in it and you had to escape a maze, and that was pretty much all I knew. It sounded terrifying. By the time I actually sat down to play the game I was all wound up. Not suitable for those of a nervous disposition. They wouldn't be able to say that if it wasn't true. And how did you know if you were of a nervous disposition, anyway?

Artic

396 James Reckitt Avenue, Hull, HU8 0JA

Artic Computing is a classic success story. It was founded in 1981 with £20 of pocket money by an 18-year-old schoolboy called Richard Turner. Since then it has developed into a software company with an annual turnover of around £750,000, and plans for worldwide expansion.

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.   

The Untracables

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 postal address. This then is my own personal Room 101; developers and publishers who cannot be located because they never made their address public or because 35+ years of urban redevelopment have been unkind to the history of UK software houses. These are the Untraceables. Presented in alphabetical order because there must be structure even in an Orwellian nightmare.