- For an American company, see Imagine Software (US)
Imagine Software was a Liverpool-based video game developer based in Liverpool in the early 1980s, initially producing software for the ZX Spectrum and VIC-20. The company rose quickly to become famous and famous for its high and polished approach to packaging and advertising (currently unusual in the UK software industry), as well as its own promotions and ambitions.
After the death of the famous Imagine under debt increased in 1984, the name was bought and used as a label by Ocean Software until the late 1980s.
Video Imagine Software
History
Establishment and initial success
Imagine Software was founded in 1982 by former Bug-Byte members including Mark Butler, David Lawson and Eugene Evans. Butler and Evans previously worked at Microdigital, one of the first computer stores in the UK. Imagine Software produced some very successful games, including Arcadia for Vic 20 and ZX Spectrum, before experiencing financial problems in late 1983.
The financial and death issues
Rumors about the financial situation Imagine began to circulate in December 1983 following the disclosure that the estimated Ã, Â £ 50,000 of its advertising bill has not been paid. The next year, the debt soared, with further advertising and duplicate recording bills unpaid, and Imagine was forced to sell the rights to his game to Beau Jolly to raise money. The company became known worldwide when it was filmed the following year by the BBC documentary crew while on the way to spectacular Mark Weler, also seen on Thames Television's Daytime in 1984, talking about a millionaire who lost money at a young age.
On June 28, 1984, a warrant was issued by Imagine by VNU Business Press for money owed for advertising in Personal Computer Games magazine, and the company ended on July 9, 1984 at the High Court in London after being unable to raise tariffs. It takes 10,000 pounds to repay this debt (although currently the total debt reaches hundreds of thousands of pounds).
Legacy
Former programmers later founded Psygnosis and Denton Designs. The company's back catalog is owned by Beau Jolly, while the rights to the Imagine label are obtained by Ocean Software, which primarily uses it to publish home computer conversions from popular arcade games under the name Imagine Studios. The last game by the name Imagine was released in 1989.
Maps Imagine Software
Megagames
Imagine having intend to develop six so-called "Megagames", the most famous being Psyclapse and Bandersnatch . These games are designed to push the limits of hardware at the time, even as far as intended to be released with hardware add-ons that will enhance the capabilities of the computer, as well as guard against piracy. The games were advertised heavily and will sell for around £ 30 - the price is expensive when the average price of a game at that time is  £ 7.20 - but the Imagine collapse means that they keep the vaporware and never see the light of day.
During the BBC documentary it was revealed that the game Psyclapse was little more than a paper sketch, though the name was later used for the Psygnosis sub-label.
Bandersnatch was later acquired and completed by another company, Finchspeed . It was finally released under a different name, Brataccas , for the 16-bit Atari ST, Amiga and Macintosh formats by Psygnosis.
Games
References
External links
- The Bubble Bursts - an article from CRASH documenting the fall of Imagine Software
- Think of the Software profile in MobyGames
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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