Acornsoft

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Probably the original BBC Software company, this was a software arm of Acorn itself. In my mind, and many others, it is recognised as one of the best. It was particularly good at converting the arcade games of the time (Asteroids, Space Invaders, etc) and it also did a few text adventures which were also good. It is probably best known for the discovery of Elite, and Revs, Geoff Crammonds' first in a long line of succesful racing games.

Superior Software eventually came in and bought the whole of Acornsoft's back catalogue in 1986 and from then on some of the games were re-released on the Play It Again Sam, and Acornsoft Hits collections. After five years in the ring it was still the unbeaten champion, and you can imagine why, Acorn had all the knowledge about the beeb, everything which it was capable of, and how to do it in the best way possible, which is why most of their games are extremely well programmed.

Acornsoft also produced a lot of software on ROM, not to mention business and educational packages.

Please contact me if you have any additional information about the company or its games!

Super Invaders

Released: 1982

Author: Unknown

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Space invaders to you and me, and probably one of the best versions on the beeb. It has high resolution graphics, in colour and the aliens are looking much better than when they made their first arcade appearance. It is a good, fluid game, and as usual you just have to keep playing, it suffers from the old lack of longterm playability syndrome a bit though.

Tetrapod

Released: 1984

Author: Unknown

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A highly original, and extremely addictive game, you are in control of a sort of star ship, and there are many pods on the screen, amongst these pods are a number of other ships, which keep bouncing the pods around. You have to destroy the star ships by shooting them, but you have to be accurate because if you shoot a pod it produces a monster which follows you and kills on contact, shooting it turns it back into a pod. It is fun, and well programmed, another one of their classics - but this time a wholly original idea.

The Seventh Star

Released: 1984

Author: Unknown

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A text adventure, though one more in the Gateway to Karos league than Philosohers Quest. You crash land on a planet in your spaceship and have to escape. Its got a better parser than Gateway and Sphinx, though laking the sophistication of the Peter Kilworth adventures for Acornsoft. Worth playing.

Volcano

Released: 1983

Author: Unknown

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One of my favourite Acornsoft Games, this just always keeps me coming back for more. You are the rescue helicopter pilot, and have to get the four stranded people off of the erupting volcano, before the lava runs down and kills them. You have to negotiate through the flying debris from the volcano to reach the people, then bring them back safely. If you don't, and a person dies, then he turns into a cost, and follows you, killing you on contact. It has good graphics, and is great fun to play, requiring skill and good judgement as you progress through harder levels.