"Acornsoft was incorporated to develop software for the Acorn Atom, soon after the first machine was shipped in 1980, with David Johnson-Davies as Managing Director. Its focus was on games software but it also developed programming languages and some business applications. "On my first day at Market Hill, Acornsoft had six employees: David his secretary Nikki, Phillipa in charge of product distribution, Chris Jordan as publications editor, with Tim Dobson and Jonathon Griffiths writing games. The rest of us were independent contractors. We were paid royalties or outright for the software we delivered. I wrote a few educational programs; the first was for chemistry. I also wrote a game called Sohinx Adventure and then wrote Database.
"The mainframe computer system at the University of Cambridge was fertile ground for finding software developers. Mathematicians Jonathan Mestel and Peter Killworth wrote groundbreaking text adventure games which Acornsoft released. To this day, interactive fiction enthusiasts believe Philosopher's Quest and Countdown to Doom are among the best text adventure games ever produced.“
📖 Earlier I read a fabulous chapter in “Voices from a Future Passed” focused on Acornsoft. The chap mentions ”Sphinx Adventure” which I remember has not been highly regarded recently by some on @thisweekinretro.bsky.social 😆
👨🏫 #NonFictionBooks 💡📚💙 #BookSky 🦋
⌨️ #TextAdventures #InteractiveFiction 🗺️
