Telecomsoft
Encyclopedia
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
division of British telecommunications company British Telecom (now BT). It was the owner of the well-known Firebird and Rainbird labels, under which it sold video games at a variety of price-points.
Overview
Telecomsoft was founded in 1984 when Ederyn WilliamsEderyn Williams
Dr Ederyn Williams is the CEO of Warwick Ventures Limited, University of Warwick, Coventry, West Midlands. He is the son of Raymond Williams and co-developer of Social presence theory...
, the General Manager of British Telecom's Information Services division, proposed a forward-thinking software publishing strategy that would take advantage of future developments in the telecommunications industry. Computer games
Computer Games
"Computer Games" is a single by New Zealand group, Mi-Sex released in 1979 in Australia and New Zealand and in 1981 throughout Europe. It was the single that launched the band, and was hugely popular, particularly in Australia and New Zealand...
were the fastest growing sector within the computer software market at the time, thus Telecomsoft was set up specifically to publish games on a wide variety of 8-bit
8-bit
The first widely adopted 8-bit microprocessor was the Intel 8080, being used in many hobbyist computers of the late 1970s and early 1980s, often running the CP/M operating system. The Zilog Z80 and the Motorola 6800 were also used in similar computers...
and 16-bit
16-bit
-16-bit architecture:The HP BPC, introduced in 1975, was the world's first 16-bit microprocessor. Prominent 16-bit processors include the PDP-11, Intel 8086, Intel 80286 and the WDC 65C816. The Intel 8088 was program-compatible with the Intel 8086, and was 16-bit in that its registers were 16...
platforms.
Three publishing labels were initially established within Telecomsoft, each with its own specific marketing strategy, although some of them would later fragment to form a number of sub-labels. The Firebird label would be Telecomsoft's primary identity. Although initially set up to publish a range of budget titles, Firebird later evolved into a full price label. As a consequence the Silverbird label was formed to continue publishing the budget range. As the Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
and Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
home computers grew in popularity, the Rainbird label was established to give the more complex 16-bit titles a unique brand identity, although it was also used to publish a number of high-profile 8-bit games and application software.
Telecomsoft continued to enjoy five years of success with their various labels, until they were acquired by Microprose
MicroProse
MicroProse was a video game publisher and developer, founded by Wild Bill Stealey and Sid Meier in 1982 as Microprose Software. In 1993, the company became a subsidiary of Spectrum HoloByte and has remained a subsidiary or brand name under several other corporations since...
in 1989. The US-based publisher sold off the Silverbird label soon after the acquisition, but continued to use the Rainbird and Firebird labels for a short while before phasing them out.
Firebird
Firebird was the first computer game label to be set up at Telecomsoft. It had earlier been christened Firefly Software, but was then renamed by James LeaveyJames Leavey
James Leavey is a British writer and broadcaster who has gained some notoriety as a champion of smokers’ rights. His appearance on the BBC Horizon programme ‘We love cigarettes’ attracted criticism in the press most notably from the Independent and The Times...
, shortly after he arrived from mainstream BT to take over as the label's marketing and PR manager. Leavey did this because he found that the original name was not fully protected.
Two price points were initially established: Firebird Silver would release budget titles priced at £2.50
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
whereas Firebird Gold would release more prestigious titles at £5.95. The Firebird label was aimed squarely at a teenage market, hoping to entice young spenders to invest their pocket money in good quality, low-priced games rather than records and comics.
Although there were doubts as to whether or not the market could afford to sustain a range of budget titles, the Firebird Silver releases proved to be an instant success. The budget software market grew rapidly from that moment on as other publishers, such as Mastertronic
Mastertronic
Mastertronic was originally a publisher and distributor of low-cost computer game software founded in 1983. Their first games were distributed in mid-1984. At its peak the label was the dominant software publisher in the UK, a position achieved by selling cassette-based software at the £1.99...
and Codemasters
Codemasters
The Codemasters Software Company Limited, or Codemasters is a British video game developer founded by Richard and David Darling in 1986...
, decided to capitalise on the successful price points established by Firebird.
Firebird Gold established itself just as well as its budget counterpart. Although the price point rose to £9.95, the label became synonymous with many classic 8-bit titles, such as Elite, Revs
Geoff Crammond
Geoff Crammond is a computer game designer and programmer who specialises in motor racing games. A former defense industry systems engineer, he claims to have had little interest in motor racing before programming his first racing game back in 1984, but he holds a physics degree, which may explain...
, Druid
Druid (computer game)
Druid is a series of computer games for the Atari 8-bit family and Commodore 64, also ported to Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum, published by Firebird in 1986. Graphics and design by Dene Carter. Code by Andrew E. Bailey. Music by David M...
and The Sentinel
The Sentinel (computer game)
The Sentinel is a computer game created by Geoff Crammond, published by Firebird in 1986 for the BBC Micro and converted to the C64 , Amstrad CPC , ZX Spectrum , Atari ST, Amiga and PC . It was released in the US as The Sentry...
.
Firebird's success allowed them to acquire a number of third party developers (see Telecomsoft acquisitions below) and they also established a deal with Ultimate Play The Game
Ultimate Play the Game
Ultimate Play The Game was a critically acclaimed video game developer of the early home computer era. "Ultimate Play The Game" was the trading name of Ashby Computers & Graphics Ltd. , a software company founded in 1982 by two ex-arcade game developers Tim and Chris Stamper...
, whereby they would convert and publish a number of their successful 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...
games to the Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
.
Firebird Silver briefly spawned a new Firebird Super Silver range in 1986. The following titles were sold at a price of £3.95 each:
| Game | For computer brand | Firebird catalog number |
|---|---|---|
| Cylu | Amstrad | 301 |
| Don't Panic | Amstrad | 302 |
| Booty | Amstrad | 303 |
| Chimera | Amstrad | 306 |
| Willow Pattern | Amstrad | 310 |
| Thunderbirds | Amstrad | 313 |
| Chimera | Commodore 64 | 305 |
| Willow Pattern | Commodore 64 | 309 |
| Thunderbirds | Commodore 64 | 312 |
| Chickin Chase | Commodore 64 | 316 |
| Microcosm | Commodore 64 | 318 |
| Chimera | Spectrum | 304 |
| Willow Pattern | Spectrum | 308 |
| Thunderbirds | Spectrum | 311 |
| Chickin Chase | Spectrum | 315 |
| Microcosm | BBC | 317 |
| Star Drifter | BBC | 319 |
| Fat Man Sam | BBC | 321 |
| Chimera | Atari | 307 |
| Thunderbirds | Atari | 314 |
| Star Drifter | Electron | 320 |
Later, the entire budget range was given an overhaul and relaunched as the single Firebird Silver £1.99 Range. Likewise, a new Firebird Hot label was established to reintroduce mid-price games back into the market. A final overhaul of the Firebird brand was conducted in late 1987 as the budget titles became rebranded as Silverbird and the mid to full-price games as Firebird. These brands remained in effect until Microprose's acquisition of Telecomsoft in 1989.
Silverbird
Rather than attempt to juggle a number of potentially confusing budget labels with the same branding as their full price software, Telecomsoft decided to consolidate and rebrand their budget labels as a single Silverbird range. Two price points were established for 8-bit software (£1.99 and £2.99) while a few budget 16-bit titles were priced at £9.99. These various price points were differentiated between by their own particular style of packaging.Rather than simply republish their existing range of budget software, Silverbird published a range of titles that hadn't previously been released at a budget price point. This included many original new titles as well older full-price titles acquired from other publishers.
Following Microprose's acquisition of Telecomsoft, the US publisher sold off the Silverbird label to a Tudor Enterprises, a British publisher. They published a compilation pack of old Silverbird titles and a small number of original titles before closing down their software publishing operations.
Rainbird
The Rainbird label was established by Tony Rainbird, a former Micro-Gold employee who joined Telecomsoft to help set up the Firebird label. For legal reasons, the label's original name, Bluebird, had to be changed, although it still retained Tony Rainbird's original idea of releasing all its games in striking blue packaging.The 16-bit home computer market, largely represented by the Atari ST and Amiga, was just beginning to take off in 1986 and the Rainbird label was an ideal opportunity to capitalise on it. Rather than concentrate on the more simplistic arcade action games that had dominated the 8-bit era, Rainbird aimed to introduce cutting edge simulators, adventure games and utilities to the full-price market.
Rainbird quickly forged a strong partnership with a number of developers who would produce their next range of high profile games. Magnetic Scrolls and Argonaut Software were amongst the first developers to benefit from a publishing deal with the label. Titles such as The Pawn
The Pawn
The Pawn is an interactive fiction game by Magnetic Scrolls which was first published by Rainbird in 1986. It is remembered for its excellent graphics and the opening music available in some game versions. Also the game itself - story and parser - got mostly positive reviews...
and Starglider
Starglider
Starglider is a 3D video game released in 1986 by Rainbird. It was developed by Argonaut Software, led by programmer Jez San. The game was inspired by Jez San's love of the 1983 Atari coin-op Star Wars, It was a fast-moving, first-person combat flight simulator, rendered with colourful wireframe...
received unprecedented levels of critical acclaim and much attention outside the popular gaming media (a special version of the latter made it onto Get Fresh, a popular Saturday morning children's show in the UK
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...
, in a regular competition slot). Realtime Games, a successful ZX Spectrum developer who specialised in fast 3D action games, came on board to convert Starglider to the ZX Spectrum and would go on to develop the critically acclaimed Carrier Command
Carrier Command
Carrier Command is a landmark 1980s computer game available on Amiga, Atari ST, PC, ZX Spectrum, Apple Macintosh, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC computers....
for Rainbird.
The company republished enhanced versions of adventure games by Level 9 Computing
Level 9 Computing
Level 9 was a British computer text adventure game company which produced some of the most advanced games of the 1980s. Founded in 1981 by Mike Austin, Nicholas Austin and Pete Austin, the company produced about 20 games for BBC Micro, Nascom, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Oric, Atari, Lynx 48k, RML...
, beginning with their Middle-earth
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
trilogy: Colossal Adventure
Colossal Cave Adventure
Colossal Cave Adventure gave its name to the computer adventure game genre . It was originally designed by Will Crowther, a programmer and caving enthusiast who based the layout on part of the Mammoth Cave system in Kentucky...
(itself an enhanced conversion of Adventure by Will Crowther and Don Woods), Adventure Quest and Dungeon Adventure, these last two featuring the Demon Lord Agaliarept
Agaliarept
In the Grimoirium Verum, Agaliarept is purported to be one of two demons directly under Lucifer; Satanachia being the other. The Grimoirium Verum also states that Agalierept and Tarihimal are the rulers of Elelogap, who in turn governs matters connected with water...
. Rainbird published this sequence as Jewels of Darkness and references to Middle-earth
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
were expunged. Rainbird also published Level 9's Silicon Dreams
Silicon Dreams trilogy
Silicon Dreams is a trilogy of interactive fiction games developed by Level 9 Computing during the 1980s. The first game was Snowball, released in 1983, followed a year later by Return to Eden, and then by The Worm in Paradise in 1985. The following year they appeared together in a bundle as the...
trilogy: Snowball was followed by Return to Eden and The Worm in Paradise.
Microprose continued to use the Rainbird label for a number of years, after its acquisition of Telecomsoft, before gradually phasing it out. Tony Rainbird left the company a short while earlier to set up a new company, Intermediates Ltd, which would go on to set up the popular Special Reserve mail order club.
Beyond Software
One of Telecomsoft's earliest acquisitions was Beyond SoftwareBeyond Software
Beyond Software was a video game publisher in the UK in the 1980s. It was set up by the EMAP publishing group in 1983 and published numerous titles on the Commodore 64, Dragon 32, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC, but met with very little success until the release of Mike Singleton's Lords of Midnight...
. Originally set up by the EMAP
EMAP
Emap Limited is a British media company, specialising in the production of business-to-business magazines, and the organisation of business events and conferences...
publishing group in 1983, Beyond published numerous titles on the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and 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,...
, but met with very little success until the release of Mike Singleton's
Mike Singleton
Mike Singleton is a British author and video game developer who wrote various well-regarded titles for the ZX Spectrum during the 1980s. His titles include The Lords of Midnight, Doomdark's Revenge, Throne of Fire, Dark Sceptre and War In Middle Earth. He also wrote a novel, The Eternal Empire,...
Lords of Midnight in 1984. The Tolkien-esque strategy game became an instant success and allowed Beyond to establish a distribution deal with American developers First Star, as well as a publishing deal with C64 developer Denton Designs
Denton Designs
Denton Designs was a British video games developer based in Liverpool. The company was founded in 1984 and initially specialised in developing software for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum home computer...
.
After being acquired by Telecomsoft in late 1985 for a six figure sum, Beyond continued to operate as a unique label, mostly releasing games that had already been in development for some time, as well as a number of conversions of existing titles. Telecomsoft did very little with the Beyond label beyond these releases. A number of high profile titles, such as Star Trek: The Rebel Universe
Star Trek: The Rebel Universe
Star Trek: The Rebel Universe is an action-adventure computer game written by Firebird Software and published by Simon & Schuster Interactive...
ended up on the Firebird label, while a highly anticipated Mike Singleton project, Eye of the Moon, failed to materialise.