Amsoft
Amsoft was a wholly owned subsidiary of Amstrad, PLC, founded in 1984 and re-integrated with its parent company in 1989. Its purpose was to provide an initial infrastructure of software and services for users of Amstrad's range of home computers, the Amstrad CPC and, from 1986, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Many people's first contact with software on an Amstrad home computer would have been an Amsoft title, as several titles were included in the sales bundles.
History
While developing its first home computer, the Amstrad CPC464, Amstrad assessed that part of the success of its competitors' machines was the backing of a grown infrastructure of software and services. Being a newcomer to the computer market, Amstrad decided to artificially create this infrastructure for the launch of their own computers. In February 1984, Amstrad founded its Amsoft division headed by Roland Perry and William Poel who at the time were also overseeing the development of the Amstrad CPC464 itself.
Most prominently, Amsoft acted as the first-party game and business software publisher for Amstrad computers. Most of its software products were licensed from various third-party developers and published under the Amsoft label. This also provided a risk-free means for established software studios to try out their products in the emerging Amstrad CPC market. In addition to publishing software, Amsoft was tasked with press relations and consumer promotion, most notably creating and maintaining the Amstrad User Club and publishing its periodical, the CPC464 User (later Amstrad Computer User).
When a reliable third-party support had been established, Amsoft gradually faded out the publishing of software and sold the Amstrad User Club as well as the user magazine. By 1989, Amsoft was fully integrated with the main Amstrad corporation and ceased to exist as a separate entity.[1]
List of games
1984
- American Football
- Astro Attack
- Blagger
- Bridge-It
- Electro Freddy
- Fruit Machine
- The Galactic Plague
- Harrier Attack
- Haunted Hedges
- Hunchback
- Laserwarp
- Mr Wong's Loopy Laundry
- Mutant Monty
- Oh Mummy
- Punchy
- Quack-a-Jack
- Roland Ahoy
- Roland on the Ropes
- Roland in the Caves
- Roland Goes Digging
- Roland Goes Square Bashing
- Roland on the Run
- Spannerman
- Space Hawks
- Sultan's Maze
- Pyjamarama
- Detective
- Xanagrams
- Animal Vegetable Mineral
- Happy Letters
- Map Rally
- Timeman One / L'Horloger 1
- Wordhang
- Fruit Machine
- Amsgolf
- Codename MAT
- Hunter Killer
- Snooker
- L'Ardoise Magique
- Les Chiffres Magiques
- Le Géographe - France
- Le Géographe - Monde
- L'Horloger 2 / Timeman Two
- Les Lettres Magiques
- Osprey!
- Star Watcher
- Admiral Graf Spee
1985
- 3D Grand Prix
- Jet-Boot Jack
- Airwolf
- Assault on Port Stanley
- Doors of Doom
- Dragon's Gold
- Frank 'n' Stein
- Friss Man
- Fu-Kung in Las Vegas
- The Game of Dragons
- The Key Factor
- Manic Miner
- The Prize
- Roland in Time
- Roland in Space
- Seesaw
- Super Pipeline 2
- Supertripper
- Sorcery Plus
- Cyrus 2 Chess
- Masterchess
- Happy Numbers
- Stockmarket
- Traffic
- 3D Boxing
- 3D Stunt Rider
- Alex Higgins World Pool
- Alex Higgins' World Snooker
- Glen Hoddle Soccer
- Rock Hopper
- Strangeloop Plus
- Subterranean Stryker
- Tombstowne
- Kingdoms
- Braxx Bluff
- Overlord 2
- Campeones
- Classic Racing
- L'Apprenti Sorcier
- Satellite Warrior
1986
- Qabbalah
- Happy Writing
- Nuclear Defence
- Golden Path
- 6128 Games Collection
1987–1989
- Scalextric (1987)
- Tank Command (1988)
- Fantastic Voyage (1989)
Notes and references
- David Thomas (26 July 1991). Alan Sugar: the Amstrad story. Pan. ISBN 978-0-330-31900-3. Retrieved 14 October 2010.