superior software
superior software started in autumn 1982. its first four products were: galaxy birds, space fighter, centibug and invaders. the first three were written by richard hanson, the founder of superior software .
at superior software logic, we realize that your success is our success... and we will succeed .
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superior software was a publisher of games and utilities for the bbc micro and other home computers, based in leeds, england, owned and run by richard hanson .
after working at superior software for 18 months, the same length of time i was at micro power, i was offered a job at europress, and took it… .
next: working at europress / database software / mandarin software previous: working at micro power / program power, leeds you can contact me about this page here .
the most popular individual title was, surprisingly, overdrive - now on our superior collection compilations .
superior has always placed the bbc microlelectron market first and hence has been successful in this niche .
on the superior software side, one day we received a game in the post called repton from a 15 - year - old teenager called tim tyler, which he had written in a month .
any custom software development: if you need to computerize your applications, we can do it .
the following is a list of bbc master games published by superior software in the centre for computing history collection. it is not an exhaustive list of and other games may have been published. if you have any games or software that you would like to donate to our collection, please view our donations page .
the following is a list of acorn archimedes games published by superior software in the centre for computing history collection. it is not an exhaustive list of and other games may have been published. if you have any games or software that you would like to donate to our collection, please view our donations page .
the following is a list of acorn electron games published by superior software ltd in the centre for computing history collection. it is not an exhaustive list of and other games may have been published. if you have any games or software that you would like to donate to our collection, please view our donations page .
the following is a list of bbc micro games published by superior software ltd, acornsoft in the centre for computing history collection. it is not an exhaustive list of and other games may have been published. if you have any games or software that you would like to donate to our collection, please view our donations page .
i said i also might be able to help him with superior software. he didn’t think i’d be able to do much as he showed me a graph showing how he predicted sales would go down and down over the coming months .
so he was contacting me at superior to see if we were interested. i said we could do well with it if we simply sold it as a software program that people loaded from tape and floppy disc into ram, as i knew the popular program for the atari 400 / 800 called s. a. m. : software automatic mouth .
( around september 1991, a few years after i left superior, speech was launched for the acorn archimedes computer. )
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superior has been publishing games for the bbc micro from the start and has built up a reputation for good quality and original games .
this was recognised by acorn computers who, in 1986, agreed to superior taking over acomsoft releases. other software houses who published over the full range of computers tended to neglect the bbc micro market or produced second - rate products, almost as an afterthought .
“chris payne worked with me as a marketing manager, and his knowledge of marketing – he has a degree in the subject – assisted superior software to grow rapidly from a small company to a much larger one. in terms of the company’s financial progress, his knowledge was an enormous contribution. ”
i think it is well known that he programmed such brilliant games as the last ninja, superior soccer and barbarian ii. he is now working on hostages .
when you buy a record it' s the artist and title that are important - many people couldn' t even tell you who the publisher is. however with software it' s the software house whose name is promoted rather than the author' s. in fact, many games in the past were released without a mention of the author. do you think this is fair and what is superior' s policy on promoting the author' s name ?
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ricochet - detailed colourful graphics and animation; many characters, adversaries and puzzles !
superior interactive' s best game yet
... ian rees click here for full game details
© copyright - superior srl - sede legale largo lanciani, 24 - 00162 – roma - ph. : + 39 06. 976. 18. 381 - vat it11387151001 - all rights reserved .
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“speech! from superior software was such a ground - breaking piece of software, that it is difficult to overestimate the impression that it made. it was featured on television programs – for instance micro live presenter fred harris demonstrated it on the bbc 1 saturday morning children’s show “saturday superstore”. and it also starred on records – most famously on roger water’s (ex - pink floyd) solo lp “radio chaos”. “radio chaos” was a concept album about someone that creates a computerised voice (a person receives a credit for operating a master 128 on the sleeve !). ”
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i knew the teenage author of the game ghouls for the bbc micro: david hoskins. he rang me one day as he had created a software - based speech synthesiser for the bbc micro .
however, unreasonably high prices tend to promote piracy, as has happened to a large extent with the atari st and amiga markets, and may happen with the archimedes market if software houses are not careful .
i left micro power, joined richard in his superior offices, he provided me with a company car, i came up with the name cryptic records. richard and i became co - directors. more about cryptic records here .
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some people feel that they can make all the money for themselves if they think of a good name for a software house and publish their own games. what are the pitfalls they could meet by adopting this approach ?
we will also be publishing a few very high quality games for the archimedes, such as hostages and superior golf, but we don' t intend to jump on an archimedes bandwagon to the detriment of bbc micro / electron computer owners .
beyond the need for well written and developed systems lies the ever growing need for easily understood and usable applications. our highly talented team provides the information architecture, visual design, and front end development required in order to deliver a superior experience to your users .
licensing is now very popular throughout the software leisure market. the advantage to the publisher is that much of the marketing has already been done, hence costs can be much reduced and quality does not need to be reduced to offset licensing costs .
there must be a lot of people who' ve written a game and don' t know what to do with it. how should they go about submitting it to a company like superior, and how much could they expect to earn it it was expected ?
computer labs have adobe reader, microsoft office suite, microsoft visual studio, quick time player, spss statistical package, and winzip. instructors who have specialty software they want their students to have access to in computer labs need to contact the technology helpdesk .
at superior software logic, we are dedicated to meeting the information challenges that face most small businesses today. we have developed long - standing relationships with all of our clientele that allow us the ability to truly understand their needs, and to develop solutions that solve their problems and help their companies prosper. we are not a one - stop shop specializing in one thing, and we are not looking for the
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one of the latest trends in games software is to license the name of a film or use a famous person to promote a product. this obviously costs a lot of money, so why is it done? doesn' t it lead to a more expensive product or one of lower quality ?
i didn’t like superior’s packaging designs and artwork at all, so i brought in graphic designer mike ellis who i’d used at micro power, and i sketched out my ideas for the inlay card. the idea was to show very clearly the similarity to boulder dash so it would be picked up quickly in computer shops and purchased. this what mike came up with…
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repton 1 is a fascinating, strategical puzzle game, described as
the best game ever invented
. can you complete repton 1? click here for full game details
repton 2 - our most eagerly awaited game so far! more game characters, features and puzzles !
best ever computer game .
... patricia wilmut click here for full game details
ravenskull - a magical quest full of puzzles and mystery, as reality blends with fantasy. now includes two large adventures! click here for full game details
pipeline plus - a cleverly designed adventure game, based around an intriguing futuristic setting. features two massive adventures! click here for full game details
repton 1 and repton 3 for android phones and tablets are ready to play now at the google play store quote from 5 - star review :
really enjoyable reboot of the best rock - and - diamond puzzler out there. the kids are always wanting their turn at it too. highly recommended .
frederic friedel, who runs chessbase, is a great fan of the repton games, and even produced a television programme showing his young son playing repton. frederic told us that some of the world' s leading chess players, including chess grandmaster dr john nunn, are also very enthusiastic repton players .
what is the sum of 2 + 2? (this is just a human / robot check. )
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steve giller remarked :
i' m delighted with the quality and level of support for your products - and you can quote me on that .
to sum up our games, tim wye kindly commented with these words :
great production values and pure gameplay goodness always .
phil cole, who has purchased all of our games to date, enthused :
i' m continually impressed by the high quality of your products .
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back in about 1984, when i was 24, i was working as marketing assistant at a rival publisher called micro power / program power, based in the same town, and less than half a mile away. i had been there 18 months and was ready to move on .
i chatted a few times with richard, then bumped into him one day while out shopping. sales weren’t going well. we were both into music, so he suggested we set up a shop in leeds selling lps and singles (this was before the days of cds !). i wasn’t interested, but i was interested in setting up a record label to promote local bands. richard thought that sounded great, so we discussed setting that up .
( micro power had turned the game down as it was so similar to boulder dash and didn’t want to have copyright issues i guess, so tim then sent it to us as the second most prominent games publisher for the bbc micro. )
i suggested that the game needed a password system so players could skip earlier levels of the game as they progressed through the levels, rather than starting from the very beginning each time they played. this feature was incorporated .
the game was a terrific success. later i tweaked the company logo, rounding out the harsh edges to the ss, and giving it a little depth, without altering it too much…
repton 2, released in november 1985, was a great success too. here’s the full - page ad i created for it. i used to sit in bed at night browsing through books of typefaces (!) and advert designs – and came across a newish typeface called dave, so i asked mike ellis to use it for the strap line at the top of this ad…
as i had my atari 400, i had some games which had level designers built in. this was a new idea at the time. so when richard and i talked about creating repton 3, i encouraged him to include a level designer. repton 3 was released a year after repton 2 in november 1986 .
eventually the repton range sold 125, 000 units which was an amazing success for that time in the early days of the computer games industry .
( early in 2010 richard hanson sent me a development copy of irepton for the iphone to get my feedback, and i really enjoyed writing up my comments for that. )
he saw it being sold on a chip which would be slotting inside the computer once you’d unscrewed the lid. he had offered the speech synthesiser to micro power, but they had turned it down .
speech! took up 7k (!) of memory, so on a 32k bbc micro there was plenty of room left for a program that would use it .
i came up with some ideas for simple programs which would show off what you could do with it, such as a simple spelling program for children .
i decided to keep the name of the package simple: speech! with an exclamation mark on the end .
for the packaging i drew a sketch of a genie coming out of the computer with a jaggedy speech bubble saying “speech! ”, gave this to mike ellis and he came up with some great artwork .
in hindsight it probably would have been more successful if i’d come up with a cleverer name .
we sold speech! for £9. 95 on tape and £11. 95 on disc, far far less than if we had sold it on rom .
i had the idea to create a advert to encourage programmers to send their games to us – and make us their first choice, rather than micro power which was our biggest competitor .
so i wrote a full - page colour ad headed can you write games? and explained how much money repton and other games had made for their young programmers .
i really enjoyed working with richard: he ran a solid business very prudently and wisely .
that’s very kind, though i was less than 2 years out of college, so i was very green marketing - wise at the time .
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these games were produced only for the bbc micro and only in cassette form. although relatively simple, they are still fun to play .
a few years ago it was common to hear tales of programmers getting rich very quickly. photographs of them standing next to their newly - acquired sports cars were a common sight in the press. is it still a rewarding occupation ?
only a very few highly talented programmers are getting a good income out of producing computer games. nowadays they are much more complex than those released a few years ago and take much, much longer to write .
games produced by teams of two or more programmers are now quite common. for example, ricochet had two game authors, two graphics designers and a loading screen designer .
a good game by a new author can, if it is carefully marketed, earn the author a few thousand pounds .
we are always looking for new games for the bbc / electron and archimedes micros, and several by previously unknown authors are at present under development .
they may be released as individual titles, as occurred with ricochet and perplexity, or be included in compilations, as with qwak (on play it again sam 10) and baron (on play it again sam 11) .
we are interested in receiving games for evaluation for the bbc micro, the electron and the archimedes. they can be submitted on either disc or cassette .
it is very important that sufficient documentation is provided so that the game can be played in full. if a cheat version is available, this should also be submitted, as it can save a lot of time in checking the higher levels .
unfortunately it' s not quite so easy. the game code is only the first step. you then need to check compatability with all the different types of bbc micros and various add - ons, and apply some protection to prevent piracy .
you then need the cassettes and discs, the printed labels, the printed inlays and instructions and the cassette / disc cases .
for most of these items bulk purchase is much cheaper than buying just a few items - so you need capital. having sorted out the duplication, you will have your product. you' ve then got to sell it .
games are released in many forms - full price, budget, compilation, in a big box with a detailed manual or in a plastic case with brief instructions. how do you decide what sort of packaging to use and how to price the product ?
we try to keep to a standard size packaging for cassettes and discs, as this is preferred by retail outlets such as w. h. smiths. it also makes for attractive collections of games in people' s homes .
we also try to stick to standard prices. our prices of £9. 95 for cassette, £11. 95 for 5. 25in disc and £14. 95 for master compact discs have remained the same for several years, which in practice means that our prices have been reduced .
the exceptions to our standard packaging and prices are our mega - games such as elite, revs + revs 4 tracks, exile and repton infinity .
each of these include a large booklet (for exile there are two booklets, a novella and an instruction manual), which requires the larger video type case. the higher prices relate to the extra costs of the booklets and the higher development and royalty costs .
at present you sell games for all acorn micros from the electron to the archimedes series. what is the present split between the various micros and how do you see this changing in the future ?
the market split has not changed appreciably over the past two or three years, with the bbc micro sales being highest, followed by electron sales, with archimedes being a long way behind .
we are very committed to the bbc micro and electron market and will continue to produce new and original games for these computers for several years to come .
there are so many hundreds of thousands of bbc micro and electron micro in schools and homes, with a very strong second - hand market, that we expect the bbc micro and electron markets to remain buoyant for several years to come .
a good game on the bbc micro requires the same attributes as a good game on any computer, that is playability, good use of graphics and sound and originality .
the bbc micro owner is probably more keen on strategy type games than other computer users, which helps to explain the massive success of the repton games and arcade adventures like citadel, and ricochet .
the most popular series of games was, and continues to be, repton games, which have now sold well over 100, 000 units on the bbc micro and electron .
one of the biggest groups of repton addicts are housewives. once their husbands and children are safely out of way, on goes the life of repton and another couple of screens are sorted out. the highest selling games at present are the play it again sam compilations, now up to number 12 .
all these compilations, from number 1 through to number 12 are almost equally popular. it' s not surprising since the collection includes, at affordable prices, nearly all the best games ever produced for bbc micro and electron, such as thrust, stryker' s run, galaforce, killer gorilla, frak! , imogen, the sentinel, firetrack, snapper, winter olympiad 88, zalaga, skirmish and the last ninja .
you might expect me to choose one of the mega - games such as elite or exile, but i don' t get too much time for game - playing so i prefer the sort where you can get enjoyment from a short playing time, but which exercise the mind .
at present i find both ricochet and perplexity provide very enjoyable relaxation. occasionally i' ll have another stab at trying to complete repton 2 .
such products would not be successful if the consumer did not want them. although we have licensed film rights, as with predator, and bbc television game rights, as with a question of sport, most of our licensing deals are for products previously released on other computer formats, such as barbarian and the last ninja. again, reduced marketing costs can offset the cost of the licence .
our recent licensing agreement with infogrames opens up a whole range of new games for acorn computers, including some of the most original titles ever produced for micros, starting with hostages and sim city in the summer. other possibilities for the future include captain blood, north & south and drakkhen .
games can usually be categorised - adventure, shoot - em - up or simulation for example. would you consider releasing any type of game or are there some that you would avoid... and why ?
we try to release a full range of games, although we find that arcade adventures and strategy games are particularly popular in the bbc micro / electron market. very good shoot - em - ups, such as galaforce and firetrack, also do well .
on each play it again sam compilation we try to give a mix of the various types of game to keep everyone in the family happy .
we always acknowledge the authors on our game inlays or instructions and we encourage authors to get in touch with magazines and discuss their games and give hints .
one problem with promoting the author' s names is that many write one game, sometimes very successfully, and that' s it. with authors who consistently produce top quality games, such as the very talented peter scott, we freely and very happily acknowledge his authorship .
the main problem associated with converting games to the bbc micro and electron from 16 and 32 bit micros is that players (and reviewers) will inevitably compare the result with the original games, and may then be disappointed .
however ballistix was a very successful conversion of the atari st and amiga release by psygnosis, and our version of sim city, to be released later this year, will be based more on the amiga version of the game (which was selected as the top game of 1989 in america) than the commodore 64 one .
we will continue our present a mix of totally new releases, such as ricochet and perplexity, licensed games such as predator and last ninja 2 and play it again sam compilations .
licensing deals with companies such as infogrames should also bring to acorn computers the very best of products from the american and european markets, such as sim city .
this article appeared in the may 1990 edition of the
micro user
, published by database publications.
superior software ltd ( also known as superior interactive ) is a video game publisher . it was one of the main publishers for the bbc micro and acorn electron computers in the 1980s and early 1990s . it currently releases games for microsoft windows ; mostly updates of its original games . 
superior software ltd (also known as superior interactive) is a video game publisher. it was one of the main publishers for the bbc micro and acorn electron computers in the 1980s and early 1990s. it currently releases games for microsoft windows; mostly updates of its original games.
superior software ltd (also known as superior interactive) is a video game publisher. it was one of the main publishers for the bbc micro and acorn electron computers in the 1980s and early 1990s. it currently releases games for microsoft windows; mostly updates of its original games.