Imagine Software
Computer games | |
Number of employees | 80[3] |
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Imagine Software was a British
Following Imagine's high-profile demise under mounting debts in 1984, the name was bought and used as a label by Ocean Software until the late 1980s.
History
Founding and early success
Imagine Software was founded in 1982 by former members of
Financial troubles and demise
Rumours of Imagine's financial situation began to circulate in December 1983 following the revelations that an estimated £50,000 of its advertising bills had not been paid.[7] The following year the debts mounted, with further advertising and tape duplication bills going unpaid, and Imagine was forced to sell the rights to its games to Beau Jolly in order to raise money. The company then achieved nationwide notoriety when it was filmed the following year by a BBC documentary crew while in the process of going spectacularly bust.[4] Mark Butler also made an appearance on Thames Television's Daytime programme in 1984, talking about his experience of having been a millionaire who lost his money at a young age.
On 28 June 1984 a
Legacy
Former programmers went on to establish
In other media
The Black Mirror interactive film Bandersnatch, released in 2018, alludes to Imagine Software and the failed work to produce Bandersnatch. The film starts on 9 July 1984, the date of Imagine's closure, and includes a shot of the cover of Crash reporting on the closure. Within the film, the fictional software company Tuckersoft, which had developed both Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum games, places its financial future on the attempt to produce Bandersnatch, and in some scenarios falls into bankruptcy after the game fails to appear.[8][9]
Megagames
Imagine had intended to develop six so-called "Megagames", the most well-known of which were Psyclapse and Bandersnatch. These games were designed to push the boundaries of the hardware of the time, even to the extent that they were intended to be released with a hardware add-on which would have increased the capabilities of the computer, as well as guarding against
During the BBC documentary it was revealed that Psyclapse was little more than a paper sketch,
Games
- Arcadia, 1982
- Wacky Waiters, 1982
- Frantic, 1982
- Catcha Snatcha, 1983
- Schizoids, 1983
- Ah Diddums, 1983
- Molar Maul, 1983
- Jumping Jackaka Leggit!, 1983
- Zip Zap, 1983
- Zzoom, 1983
- Bewitched, 1983
- Stonkers, 1983
- Alchemist, 1983
- Pedro, 1984
- Cosmic Cruiser, 1984
- BC Bill, 1984[14]
References
- ^ a b "Imagine in hands of receiver". Popular Computing Weekly. 19 July 1984. Archived from the original on 28 October 2008. Retrieved 17 December 2008.
- ^ "Trivia for Imagine". Archived from the original on 11 July 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
- ^ a b "Bitter split breaks Imagine". Popular Computing Weekly. 5 July 1984. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 17 December 2008.
- ^ Newsfield Publications Ltd. Archived from the originalon 5 January 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2008.
- ^ "Bruce Everiss". Retro Gamer. Future Publishing. 22 August 2014. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
- ^ "» imagine The Digital Antiquarian". Retrieved 9 October 2020.
- Newsfield Publications Ltd. August 1984. Retrieved 18 December 2008.
- ^ Rowney, Jo-Anne (28 December 2018). "Black Mirror's Bandersnatch game was real - and truth about Jerome F. Davies". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
- ^ Vincent, Alice (20 December 2018). "What is Bandersnatch? Solving the riddle of Black Mirror's secret Christmas episode". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 25 December 2018.
- ^ Walton, Paul (5 June 1984). "The Ascent of Everiss". Your Spectrum. Retrieved 17 December 2008.
- ^ Gasking, Frank; Dawson, Marc; Weighill, Peter. "Mega Games". GTW64. Archived from the original on 7 December 2008. Retrieved 17 December 2008.
- ^ "Psygnosis History". Archived from the original on 10 March 2016. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
Psyclapse was actually the name of a Commodore 64 game that was never released [but] was to live on as a division of Psygnosis.
- ^ "The Making Of: Bandersnatch". Edge. 4 September 2009. Archived from the original on 2 January 2015.
- ^ "Your Spectrum 09 - Joystick Jury".
External links
- The Bubble Bursts - article from CRASHdocumenting the fall of Imagine Software
- Imagine Software profile on MobyGames