Softdisk

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Softdisk
Founded1981
Defunct2016
HeadquartersShreveport, Louisiana, U.S.
Key people
Jim Mangham, Founder
Judi Mangham, Founder
Al Vekovius, Founder, Past CEO
John Beaird, Past CEO
John Carmack, Former Game Programmer
John Romero, Former Game Programmer & Designer
Tom Hall, Former Game Designer
Adrian Carmack, Former Artist
Kevin Cloud, Former Artist and Manager
Jay Wilbur, Former Manager
ProductsDisk magazines, video games

Softdisk was a software and Internet company based in Shreveport, Louisiana. Founded in 1981, its original products were disk magazines (which they termed "magazettes", for "magazine on diskette"). It was affiliated and partly owned by paper magazine Softalk at founding, but survived its demise.

The company has been known by a variety of names, including Softdisk Magazette, Softdisk Publishing, Softdisk, Inc., Softdisk Internet Services, Softdisk, L.L.C., and Magazines On Disk.

Softdisk is most well known for being the former workplace of several of the founders of id Software.

Publications

See also: List of Softdisk games

Publications included

Softdisk G-S for the Apple IIGS; Softdisk for Windows for the Windows platform, published from 1994–1999; and Shareware Spotlight, a short-lived publication featuring the best Shareware offerings for the PC. By the late 1990s, these publications were discontinued, although Loadstar had a continued life as an independent company catering to a cult following
of Commodore buffs.

Big Blue Disk

Big Blue Disk was a monthly

IBM PC and compatibles that began publication in 1986.[1] It required 256k of memory.[1] Softdisk was sued by IBM for trademark infringement over the use of the name "Big Blue" in 1989.[2]

Standalone programs and Gamer's Edge

Softdisk is most famous for being the former workplace of several of the founders of

John Carmack, John Romero, and Adrian Carmack. Tom Hall
, then a programmer who worked in the Apple II department of Softdisk, would come in at night to help with the game design. Lane Roathe was the editor.

These developers later left Softdisk to found id Software. To complete their contractual obligation to Softdisk, the developers built several more games for Softdisk, including

JAM Productions. This connection led to Softdisk being mentioned extensively in the earlier parts of the id chronicling book Masters of Doom
.

Also, some of the earliest employees of

Ultima VI). Malone also later worked as a producer for 3D Realms
.

Softdisk continued to publish video games into the mid-1990s, most notably

Shadowcaster, and Alien Rampage, based on the original Ravager side-scroller once being developed by Apogee
.

Current state

Since 1995, Softdisk had been an

dialup service in the Shreveport
area, and Web hosting and development services.

As of 2006, their website redirected to that of Bayou Internet, which had taken over their Internet operations. The downloadstore.com site formerly owned and operated by Softdisk was later run by Flat Rock Software, which also published former Softdisk product Screen Saver Studio and most of the Gamer's Edge titles (as well as on GOG.com). The source code for

Catacomb 3D and Hovertank 3D was released by Flat Rock in June 2014 under the GNU General Public License in a manner similar to those done by id and partners.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b Shannon, L. R. (October 27, 1987). "Peripherals; New Look of Magazines". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 26, 2018.
  2. ISSN 0888-8507
    . Retrieved September 29, 2018.
  3. ^ Romero, John. "Dangerous Dave II: The Haunted Mansion - ROME.RO Photos -- John Romero", n.d. Retrieved on May 20, 2015.
  4. Phoronix
    . Retrieved June 6, 2014.

Further reading

External links
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