Rage Software

I got an email from Jake Smith in December 2024. He'd gone for a casual interview with the Rage managing director Paul Finnegan, back in 1993/94. They chatted about design and using Photoshop, and what skills they were looking for from people who wanted to start a career in games development. Jake even included an address and a scan of Paul Finnegan's business card. "This is great", I thought, "I wonder who Rage Software were?"

Beyond Software

Competition House, Farndon Road, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, LE19

Lords of Midnight. Lords of Midnight. Lords of Midnight, Lords of Midnight. Lords. Of. Midnight. Lords of. Midnight. Lords of Midnight. Lords of Midnight. Lords; of Midnight. Lords, of, Midnight. Lords of Midnight -Lords of Midnight. Lords of Midnight.

Lords of Midnight.

Lords of Midnight.

Lords of Midnight.

Lords of Midnight. 

Lords of Midnight. Lords of Midnight Lords of Midnight. Lords of Midnight.

Doomdark's Revenge.

Ariolasoft

Carl-Bertelsmann-Str 161, 4830 Gütersloh

In 1983 Ariola Records, the music division of German conglomerate Bertelsmann, set up a software company. This company was named, unsurprisingly, Ariolasoft and went to become the German distributor for Activision, Electronic Arts, and the Sega Master System. The company also published original games including Vermeer, Kaiser, and Ooze: Als die Geister mürbe wurden. Ariolasoft renamed itself United Software in 1990 and was taken over by the German division of MicroProse in 1993. Which is all very interesting but this blog is about the UK software industry and Britain hasn't been a part of Germany since Doggerland was submerged by the rising North Sea.

Mirrorsoft / Image Works

Maxwell House, Worship Street, London, EC2A

This post frequently felt like a house of cards spinning out of control. I'd started covering Mirrorsoft back in June 2021 (day one, the same day I made a spur of the moment trip to Stratford for CRL) but it quickly became clear this wasn't going to be a simple one-and-done job. One trip down to London became two, and then a third, and then... well you can read about my inability to understand basic street numbers further down the page, along with my flimsy, whinging justification. Oh, look, here's another  address, and it's outside of London, and don't forget Mirrorsoft's spin-off label Image Works. And of course Mirrorsoft is wrapped ivy-like in the complicated corporate structure of Robert Maxwell. At 3000 words this post is so stupidly long I did consider cutting it into two parts but that felt too self-indulgent event for me.

State Soft

Business & Technology Centre, Bessemer Drive, Stevenage, SG1

This is where I rectify a mistake made in the planning stages of this blog. I wanted an early entry to cover a company responsible for a notable Commodore 64 game, and Boulder Dash was always an unmistakably C64 title for me; probably because of trips to a friend's house where the game was always on the menu. However because my background is the C64's bitter rival the ZX Spectrum I defaulted to the World of Spectrum entry for my research and concluded Front Runner was solely responsible for all UK versions of Boulder Dash. It wasn't. It turns out Boulder Dash in the UK has the most convoluted licencing history possible with every version released by a different company; C64 (State Soft), Spectrum (Front Runner), Amstrad (Mirrorsoft), BBC (Tynesoft), MSX (Orpheus). It's tempting to wonder what First Star (the original USA publishers) were thinking but I suspect they were thinking, "cor, aren't we making a lot of money licencing this game."

K-tel / Front Runner

620 Western Avenue, London, W3

I was a ZX Spectrum kid, and I don't want this blog to over-focus on Sir Clive Sinclair's rubber-keyed wonder. I should make a gesture to potential readers out there who chose a different path; but what? Back in the eighties my knowledge of other home computers was limited to: 

• a friend with a ZX81, whose parents refused to upgrade. 
• my aunt who brought a Dragon 32.
• a weird Superman comic in which he teamed up with some kids who owned a computer*.
• a couple of kids in my class with Commodore 64s.