Sirius Software: Difference between revisions
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[[Category:Video game companies established in 1980]] |
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Revision as of 03:47, 21 February 2016
Sirius Software was a video game publisher of Apple II, Commodore 64 and Atari computer games in the early 1980s.
History
The company was founded in the early 1980s by Jerry Jewell and Terry Bradley. It gained attention for its dramatically quick rise to prominence and its equally quick collapse in 1984 after 20th Century Fox (Fox Video Games) failed to pay over USD$18 Million in owed royalties.[1] Sirius Software designed and marketed more than 160 computer video games, software products and hardware devices worldwide. Jewell was profiled by author Steven Levy in his book Hackers.
Sirius' quick rise was due in part to a chain of hits by programmer Nasir Gebelli.[1] Gebelli's breakthrough game was Gorgon, which brought the gameplay of the arcade's Defender to the Apple II. His creativity and Jewell's sales and marketing skills combined to create in a single year a multimillion-dollar enterprise operating out of a rented apartment.[citation needed] Within a year, by June 1982, the game had sold 23,000 copies, making it one of the best-selling computer games at the time.[2] By early 1984 InfoWorld estimated that Sirius was the world's 15th-largest microcomputer-software company, with $11 million in 1983 sales.[3]
Sirius also published a line of graphical adventure games in an attempt to compete with Sierra On-Line, but without much success.[citation needed] Most of the company's games were launched on the Apple II line of computers, but they also released some titles for other platforms, notably the Atari 400/800 machines and Commodore 64.[1]
The Smithsonian Museum produced a "living history" video of Jewell's role in the early personal computer industry.[4]
Games
Arcade-style games
- Both Barrels (1980)
- Cyber Strike (1980)
- Star Cruiser (1980)
- Phantoms Five (1980)
- Autobahn (1981)
- Gorgon (1981)
- Outpost (1981)
- Pulsar II (1981)
- Sneakers (1981)
- Space Eggs (1981)
- Beany Bopper (1982)
- Deadly Duck (1982)
- Fantastic Voyage (1982)
- Fast Eddie (1982)
- Free Fall (1982)
- Bandits (1982)
- Turmoil (1982)
- Type Attack (1982)
- Worm War I (1982)
- Snake Byte (1982)
- Bandits (1983)
- Flash Gordon (1983)
- Plasmania (1983)
- The Earth Dies Screaming (1983)
- Repton (1983)
- SpaceMaster X-7 (1983)
- Squish 'em (1983)
Adventure games
- Blade of Blackpoole (1982)
- Critical Mass (1982)
- Escape from Rungistan (1982)
- Kabul Spy (1982)
- Gruds in Space (1983)
Strategy games
- Dark Forest (1981)
- Call to Arms (1982)
- Cyclod (1982)
References
- ^ a b c S. Levy, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, Doubleday, Garden City, 1984
- ^ "List of Top Sellers". Computer Gaming World. 2 (5): 2. September–October 1982.
- ^ Caruso, Denise (1984-04-02). "Company Strategies Boomerang". InfoWorld. pp. 80–83. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
- ^ Smithsonian Institution Archives