Creative Sparks was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 video games software house

Software house

A software house is a company whose primary products are software.- Types :There are a number of different types of software houses:*Large and well-known companies such as Microsoft, SAP AG, Oracle Corporation, HP, Adobe Systems, Apple Inc...

 in existence during the 1980s. The company started out as Thorn EMI Computer Software, a division of the now-defunct British conglomerate

Conglomerate (company)

A conglomerate is a combination of two or more corporations engaged in entirely different businesses that fall under one corporate structure , usually involving a parent company and several subsidiaries. Often, a conglomerate is a multi-industry company...

 Thorn EMI

Thorn EMI

Thorn EMI was a major British company involved in consumer electronics, music, defence and retail. Created in October 1979 when Thorn Electrical Industries merged with EMI, it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but it demerged again in...

, and later changed its name.

Creative Sparks also used the Sparklers label for budget-priced reissue

Reissue

A reissue is the repeated issue of a published work. In common usage, it refers to an album which has been released at least once before and is released again, sometimes with alterations or additions....

s of their old software.

Later, the low-cost software label Alternative Software acquired the distribution rights to several Creative Sparks titles.

As a result, many games were issued on more than one label, sometimes appearing on all four at various stages. An example of this is River Rescue

River Rescue (VIC-20 game)

River Rescue was a 1982 game for the Commodore VIC-20, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and the Atari 400 and 800 computers. It was one of a number of game titles which were produced by Thorn EMI Video Programmes during 1982 and 1983.-Description:...

; this first appeared on the Thorn EMI label, then later reappeared in Creative Sparks packaging. It was next reissued on the budget Sparklers label, before finally being distributed in new packaging (also at a budget price) by Alternative.