Red Shift was a video game publisher

Video game publisher

A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....

 active between 1983

1983 in video gaming

-Events:* A major shakeout of the video game industry begins. By 1986, total video games sales will decrease from US$3.2 billion to US$0.1 billion.* MCA Universal files suit against Nintendo, claiming that the latter company's video arcade hit Donkey Kong violated Universal's copyright on King Kong...

 and 1985

1984 in video gaming

-Notable releases:* May 10, King's Quest , the first animated adventure game, the first in the King's Quest series, and the first to use the AGI engine.* June 4, Nintendo releases Donkey Kong 3...

. They were well known for their strategy games and had a close working relationship with Julian Gollop

Julian Gollop

Julian Gollop is a British designer of strategy video games and founder of the defunct game studios Mythos Games and Codo Technologies.Gollop's career spans over 25 years, during which he has designed games for numerous systems over the years, from the early 8-bit home computers to 32-bit PCs...

 and Games Workshop

Games Workshop

Games Workshop Group plc is a British game production and retailing company. Games Workshop has published the tabletop wargames Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000...

.

History

Red Shift's two initial releases were designed, but not coded, by Gollop just after he left school (Time Lords and Islandia). Subsequently, Gollop learnt to program himself, designing and coding Nebula and Rebelstar Raiders for Red Shift.

Apocalypse and its two expansion packs were produced under license from Games Workshop, being based on of their board game, Apocalypse

Apocalypse (board game)

Apocalypse is a board game released by Games Workshop in 1980. The game is a re-release of the earlier Gibsons Games publication, Warlord....

.

In 1984, a group of Harlow

Harlow

Harlow is a new town and local government district in Essex, England. It is located in the west of the county and on the border with Hertfordshire, on the Stort Valley, The town is near the M11 motorway and forms part of the London commuter belt.The district has a current population of 78,889...

-based Red Shift programmers split off to form SLUG. They continued to program under license from Games Workshop (producing Spectrum versions of their board games Battlecars

Battlecars

Battlecars is a simple wargame based upon the Mad Max genre of a post-apocalyptic world dominated by aggressive, warring gangs. It was first published by Games Workshop in the early 1980s and the game designers were Gary Chalk and Ian Livingstone...

and Talisman

Talisman (board game)

Talisman: The Magical Quest Game is a fantasy themed adventure board game for two to six players, originally designed and produced by Games Workshop and now published by Fantasy Flight Games. The game was first released in 1983 and has gone through several revisions...

.)

By 1985 Red Shift had a range of different strategy titles that appealed to fans of that genre turning to more intelligent and demanding games.

Red Shift closed after their main investor stopped supporting the team. Some staff moved on to Games Workshop.

List of games

Red Shift produced nine games between 1983 and 1985 for the ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro.

• Apocalypse
  Apocalypse (board game)
  Apocalypse is a board game released by Games Workshop in 1980. The game is a re-release of the earlier Gibsons Games publication, Warlord....
  
  (1983), ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro – based on the Games Workshop board game.
• Time Lords (1983), BBC Micro – based on a paper and dice game.
• Islandia (1984), BBC Micro - a Risk
  Risk (game)
  Risk is a strategic board game, produced by Parker Brothers . It was invented by French film director Albert Lamorisse and originally released in 1957 as La Conquête du Monde in France. Risk is a turn-based game for two to six players...
  
  -style game.
• Murkwood (1984), ZX Spectrum
• Nebula (1984), ZX Spectrum
• Rebelstar Raiders (1984), ZX Spectrum
• First Empire (1984), ZX Spectrum – a table-top computer-moderated war game.
• City of Death (1985), ZX Spectrum – a graphic adventure game by Peter and George Carmpouloni.
• The Tripods (1985), ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro and Amstrad CPC – a graphic adventure designed by Watermill Productions and licenced by BBC Enterprises
  BBC
  The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
  
  , based on the BBC TV series of the same name.

In addition, three expansion packs for Apocalypse were released in 1984.