Rainbird software
| Rainbird software | |
|---|---|
| legal form | unlisted corporation |
| founding | 1986 |
| resolution | 1990 |
| Reason for dissolution | Handling by new owner |
| Seat | London |
| management | Tony Rainbird |
| Branch | Computer games, application software |
Rainbird Software was a British computer games publisher founded as a sub-label of Telecomsoft, the software division of British Telecom . The main focus was the publication of text adventures in the premium sector.
history
Rainbird was founded by Tony Rainbird, a former employee of Micro-Gold, who was previously involved in the creation of the Firebird label for Telecomsoft . Originally the label was called Bluebird, but the name had to be changed after a short time for legal reasons, and the name Rainbird was chosen while keeping the old logo. The label should focus on the publication of high-quality, complex computer games, primarily for the new 16-bit Amiga and Atari ST computers. As a next step, contracts were signed with suitable development studios such as Magnetic Scrolls or Argonaut Software . All games subsequently published were published using boxes that were uniformly blue.
In early 1986, Paula Byrne was poached by competitor Melbourne House as marketing manager. Tony Rainbird left the company in July 1986 and was succeeded by Byrne. After a year she moved to the parent company Telecomsoft as managing director. The new Rainbird managing director was Paul Hibbard, who moved to Microprose at the end of 1988 . In May 1989 Telecomsoft including Rainbird was sold to Microprose after a failed management buy-out. After the sale, some finished or in development Rainbird titles such as Simulcra and Starlord were transferred to Microprose sublabels, other Rainbird projects in development were stopped. A few years later, Rainbird was wound up.
Products (extract)
| title | genre | year | Platforms | developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Betrayal | strategy | 1990 | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS | Floppy Electronic Services |
| Carrier Command | strategy | 1988 | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Macintosh, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum | Realtime games |
| Corruption | Adventure | 1988 | Acorn, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari ST, C64, Macintosh, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum | Magnetic scrolls |
| First contact | strategy | 1990 | Amiga, Atari ST | Rainbird |
| Fish! | Adventure | 1988 | Acorn Archimedes, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum | Magnetic scrolls |
| The Guild of Thieves | Adventure | 1987 | Acorn, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, C64, MS-DOS, Mac, ZX Spectrum | Magnetic scrolls |
| Ingrid's Back | Adventure | 1988 | Amiga, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, BBC Micro, C64, CPC, MS-DOS, Mac, ZX Spectrum | Level 9 |
| Jewels of Darkness | Adventure | 1986 | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, C64, MS-DOS, Mac, MSX, ZX Spectrum | Level 9 |
| Jinxter | Adventure | 1987 | Acorn, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, C64, MS-DOS, Mac, ZX Spectrum | Magnetic scrolls |
| Knight Orc | Adventure | 1987 | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, C64, MS-DOS, Mac, MSX, ZX Spectrum | Level 9 |
| The OCP Art Studio | application | 1986 | Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | Oxford Computer Publishing |
| The pawn | Adventure | 1985 | Acorn, Amiga, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, C64, CPC, MS-DOS, Mac, Sinclair QL, ZX Spectrum | Magnetic scrolls |
| Red moon | Adventure | 1985 | Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-bit, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum | Level 9 |
| Silicon Dreams | Adventure | 1986 | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, C64, MS-DOS, Macintosh, MSX, ZX Spectrum | Level 9 |
| Starglider | simulation | 1986 | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, Macintosh, ZX Spectrum | Argonaut software |
| The Universal Military Simulator | strategy | 1987 | Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, Macintosh | Intergalactic Development |
| Weird Dreams | Action | 1988 | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS | Best Games Ever |
Web links
- Rainbird at MobyGames (English)
- Rainbird History on Birdsanctuary.co.uk
Individual evidence
- ↑ Computer Trade Weekly Edition 225 of February 27, 1989, available online ( Memento of the original of July 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
