Armchair Entertainment were a group of Australian entrepreneurs who published sports simulation games in the 1980s.  Micro Forte’s “Arnie’s America Cups Challenge” (1986) and “Arnie’s Armchair Howzat! Cricket  Game”(1884)  that was later republished in the UK by Tynesoft as “Ian Botham’s […]  Read More »

Art Software was the name of a group of developers for the Amiga computer.  They were Rodney Smith, Cameron Mckechnie, and Blair  Zuppicich.  Mark Sibly joined them on “Sorceror’s Apprentice”.  Despite both their games getting a commercial release they received […]  Read More »

Alfred Milgrom and Naomi Besen established Melbourne House as the London distribution arm for their general book publishing company in 1977. In the early 1980s, Milgrom read an article in the Australian Financial Review that discussed publishing ‘How To’ books […]  Read More »

Brøderbund was an American software developer and publisher founded in 1980 by brothers Doug and Gary Carlston to market their own game “Galactic Empire” (1980) for the TRS-80.  Broderbund published some very important games of the 1980s including “Lode Runner” […]  Read More »

CRL Group plc is a defunct British video game development and publishing company. Originally CRL stood for “Computer Rentals Ltd.” – their full title reflects the fact that they started out renting computer equipment out. CRL was based in King’s […]  Read More »

The American publishers Electronic Arts (EA) was founded in 1982 by Trip Hawkins. Previously employed by Apple, Hawkins left – taking a number of other Apple employees – to establish an independent publisher supporting the many talented but unknown “software […]  Read More »

From 1984 to 1995 ERBE Software was the main distributor of entertainment software in Spain, owning more than the 50 percent of the market. The company had Spanish publishing rights for games from the big UK labels such as Ocean, […]  Read More »

Firebird Software was a label created by Telecomsoft, the former software division of British Telecom in 1984. During the 1980s it developed and published a wide variety of games for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and other systems. The labels […]  Read More »

This profile is yet to be completed.  Contribute what you know and help to complete the Archive.  Read More »

Grandstand was the New Zealand importer and distributor of the Sega SC3000 computer.  Company Director, Leslie Kenyon, had previously used the Grandstand name to sell electronic games in the U.K. through his Adam Imports business, putting the name on everything […]  Read More »

Grotnik Software was founded by Ross Williams. It was a one man team. Williams had previously been making software for the Exigy Sorcerer. Grotnik is known to have developed three games for the Microbee – “Grotnik Wars” (1984), “Bunyip Adventure” […]  Read More »

Honeysoft was the Publishing division of Applied Technology/Microbee Systems and known as Honeysoft Publishing Company, Waitara, N.S.W.  They issued all manuals and software for the Microbee. This was the original office that Applied Technology started from until Applied Technology moved to […]  Read More »

Jacaranda is the Australian imprint of U.S. publishing company, Wiley.  In the early 1980s, the company was run by an “inspirational leader”, John Collins.  Collins decided that there might be a place for materials for the computers that were then […]  Read More »

Keating Computer Software was Roger Keating‘s brand for self publishing his game “Conflict” (1980) into the local market.  Previously Keating had been writing games and giving them away through the Apple User Group.  When one of his students made the […]  Read More »

Melbourne House (Publishers) Ltd, founded by Alfred Milgrom and Naomi Besen in 1977, was a book publishing company with offices in both Melbourne and London.  Publishing laws at the time tied Australia to the UK market, meaning that it was […]  Read More »

Micro Forté  was founded in 1985 by university friends John De Margheriti, Steve Wang, Stephen Lewis, and John Reidy.  The studio’s first title, “Official America’s Cup Sailing Simulation”, was developed for Australian entrepreneurs Armchair Entertainment and picked up by Electronic Arts […]  Read More »

Mindscape was founded in 1983 by Roger M. Bouy, the former vice president of Scholastic Inc.  It was located in Northbrook, Illinois.  In the  1980s, it was a very successful publisher and distributor of games and educational software for the […]  Read More »

Panther Games was founded in 1985 by Dave O’Conner.  Based in Canberra, Panther originally designed hex-based strategic military simulation board games, releasing three titles in the 1980s: “Trail of Strength” (1985), “Shanghai Trader” (1986), and “Warlords: China in Disarray”, 1916-1950 […]  Read More »

Perspective Software is the name that Mark Sibly chose to publish “Dinky Kong” under.  Read More »

Poseidon Software was a New Zealand-based company that produced software for the Sega SC-3000.  The company published the games of developers such as Stephen Coupe and Michael Boyd.  Read More »