Amsoft was a wholly owned subsidiary of Amstrad, PLC

Amstrad

Amstrad is a British electronics company, now wholly owned by BSkyB. As of 2006, Amstrad's main business is manufacturing Sky Digital interactive boxes....

, founded in 1984 and re-integrated with its parent company in 1989. Its purpose was to provide an initial infrastructure of software and services for users of Amstrad

Amstrad

Amstrad is a British electronics company, now wholly owned by BSkyB. As of 2006, Amstrad's main business is manufacturing Sky Digital interactive boxes....

's range of home computers, the Amstrad CPC

Amstrad CPC

The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...

 and, from 1986, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum

ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...

. Many people's first contact with software on an Amstrad home computer would have been an Amsoft title, as several titles were included in the sales bundles.

History

While developing its first home computer, the Amstrad CPC464, Amstrad assessed that part of the success of its competitors' machines was the backing of a grown infrastructure of software and services. Being a newcomer to the computer market, Amstrad decided to artificially create this infrastructure for the launch of their own computers. In February 1984, Amstrad founded its Amsoft division headed by Roland Perry and William Poel who at the time were also overseeing the development of the Amstrad CPC464 itself.

Most prominently, Amsoft acted as the first-party game and business software publisher for Amstrad computers. Most of its software products were licensed from various third-party developers and published under the Amsoft label. This also provided a risk-free means for established software studios to try out their products in the emerging Amstrad CPC market. In addition to publishing software, Amsoft was tasked with press relations and consumer promotion, most notably creating and maintaining the Amstrad User Club and publishing its periodical, the CPC464 User (later Amstrad Computer User

Amstrad Computer User

Amstrad Computer User was the official magazine for the Amstrad CPC series of 8-bit home computers. This monthly publication, usually referred to as ACU by its readers, concentrated more on the hardware and technical side of the Amstrad range, although it had a small dedicated games section as...

).

When a reliable third-party support had been established, Amsoft gradually faded out the publishing of software and sold the Amstrad User Club as well as the user magazine. By 1989, Amsoft was fully integrated with the main Amstrad corporation and ceased to exist as a separate entity.

1984

• Astro Attack
• Blagger
  Blagger
  Blagger is a platform game created by Antony Crowther and released by Alligata for the Commodore 64 and BBC Micro computers in 1983, Acorn Electron, Amstrad CPC and MSX in 1984 and Commodore 16/Commodore Plus/4 in 1985. In some countries this game was released under the name Gangster. The gameplay...
  
  
• Bridge-It
  Bridge-It
  Bridge-It was one of the first games produced for the Amstrad CPC to coincide with the system's release in 1984. Published by Amsoft, it was one of 50 launch titles produced to be sold at the same time as the CPC464....
  
  
• Electro Freddy
• The Galactic Plague
• Harrier Attack
  Harrier Attack
  Harrier Attack is a computer game for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Oric 1 and ZX Spectrum initially released in 1983 by Durell Software.-Summary:...
  
  
• Haunted Hedges
• Hunchback
  Hunchback (video game)
  Hunchback is an arcade game developed by Century Electronics in 1983. The player controls Quasimodo from the Victor Hugo novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame....
  
  
• Laserwarp
• Mr Wong's Loopy Laundry
• Mutant Monty
• Oh Mummy
  Oh Mummy
  Oh Mummy is a computer game for the Amstrad CPC models of home computer. It was developed by Gem Software and published by Amsoft in 1984. It was often included in the free bundles of software that came with the computer.- Gameplay :...
  
  
• Punchy
• Quack-a-Jack
• Roland Ahoy
• Roland on the Ropes
• Roland in Time
• Roland in the Caves
  Bugaboo (The Flea)
  Bugaboo , originally released in Spain as La Pulga, is a computer game released in for the Sinclair Spectrum, Commodore 64 and MSX. It was the first computer game ever made in Spain. It was ported to the Amstrad CPC under the name Roland in the Caves, to exploit the CPC's recurring Roland character...
  
  
• Roland goes Digging
• Roland on the Run
• Spannerman
• Space Hawks
• Sultan's Maze
• Pyjamarama
  Pyjamarama
  Pyjamarama is a computer game for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64. It features Wally Week as the central character and is the second of a series of games featuring Wally and/or members of his family. It was published by Mikro-Gen...
  
  
• Detective
• Xanagrams
• Animal Vegetable Mineral
• Happy Letters
• Map Rally
• Timeman One / L'Horloger 1
• Wordhang
• Fruit Machine
• Amsgolf
• Codename MAT
  Codename MAT
  Codename MAT II, also written by Brewster, was published later in 1984 by Domark for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC. It featured a new ship, the Centurion II, which had two different weapons and a more complex damage system – on-board droids could be assigned repair tasks by the player...
  
  
• Hunter Killer
• Snooker
• L'Ardoise Magique
• Les Chiffres Magiques
• Le Géographe - France
• Le Géographe - Monde
• L'Horloger 2 / Timeman Two
• Les Lettres Magiques
• Osprey!
• Star Watcher
• Admiral Graf Spee

1985

• Jet-Boot Jack
  Jet-Boot Jack
  Jet-Boot Jack is a platforming video game first published for the Atari 8-bit home computers by English Software in 1983. It was later ported to a number of other platforms and spawned a sequel, Legend of the Knucker-Hole.-Gameplay:...
  
  
• Airwolf
• Assault on Port Stanley
• Doors of Doom
• Dragon's Gold
• Frank 'n' Stein
• Friss Man
• Fu-Kung in Las Vegas
• The Game of Dragons
• The Key Factor (video game)The Key Factor
• Manic Miner
  Manic Miner
  Manic Miner is a platform game originally written for the ZX Spectrum by Matthew Smith and released by Bug-Byte in 1983 . It is the first game in the Miner Willy series and among the pioneers of the platform game genre. The game itself was inspired by the Atari 800 game Miner 2049er...
  
  
• The Prize
• Roland in Space
• Seesaw
• Super Pipeline 2
• Supertripper
• Sorcery Plus
• Cyrus 2 Chess
• Masterchess
• Happy Numbers
• Stockmarket
• Traffic
• 3D Boxing
• 3D Stunt Rider
• Alex Higgins World Pool
• Alex Higgins' World Snooker
• Glen Hoddle Soccer
• Rock Hopper
• Strangeloop Plus
• Subterranean Stryker
• Tombstone
• Kingdoms
• Braxx Bluff
• Overlord 2
• Campeones
• Classic Racing
• L'Apprenti Sorcier
• Satellite Warrior

1986

• Qabbalah
• Happy Writing
• Nuclear Defence
• Golden Path
• 6128 Games Collection

1987-1989

• Scalextric (1987)
• Tank Command (1988)
• Fantastic Voyage (1989)