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Amsoft

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Amsoft
Company typeSubsidiary
Industrysoftware and services for users of Amstrad's range of home computers
Founded1984; 40 years ago (1984)
Defunct1989; 35 years ago (1989)
HeadquartersBrentwood House,
Brentwood, Essex
,
United Kingdom
Key people
Roland Perry, William Poel

Amsoft was a wholly owned subsidiary of Amstrad, PLC, founded in 1984 and re-integrated with its parent company in 1989. Its purpose was to provide an initial infrastructure of software and services for users of Amstrad's range of home computers, the Amstrad CPC and, from 1986, the ZX Spectrum.[1][2][3] Many people's first contact with software on an Amstrad home computer would have been an Amsoft title, as several titles were included in the sales bundles.

History

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While developing its first home computer, the Amstrad CPC 464, Amstrad assessed that part of the success of its competitors' machines was the backing of a grown infrastructure of software and services. Being a newcomer to the computer market, Amstrad decided to artificially create this infrastructure for the launch of their own computers. In February 1984, Amstrad founded its Amsoft division headed by Roland Perry and William Poel who at the time were also overseeing the development of the Amstrad CPC 464 itself.

Most prominently, Amsoft acted as the first-party game and business software publisher for Amstrad computers.[1][2] Most of its software products were licensed from various third-party developers and published under the Amsoft label.[3] This also provided a risk-free means for established software studios to try out their products in the emerging Amstrad CPC market. In addition to publishing software, Amsoft was tasked with press relations and consumer promotion, most notably creating and maintaining the Amstrad User Club and publishing its periodical, the CPC 464 User (later Amstrad Computer User).

When a reliable third-party support had been established, Amsoft gradually faded out the publishing of software and sold the Amstrad User Club as well as the user magazine. By 1989, Amsoft was fully integrated with the main Amstrad corporation and ceased to exist as a separate entity.[4]

Games

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Amsoft published many software titles for Amstrad's range of home computers, the Amstrad CPC and the ZX Spectrum.[1][2]

1984

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1985

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1986

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1987–1989

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Amstrad CPC464 Games published by Amsoft at the Centre for Computing History". www.computinghistory.org.uk. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
  2. ^ a b c "Amsoft". MobyGames. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
  3. ^ a b "Amsoft". Universal Videogame List. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
  4. ^ David Thomas (26 July 1991). Alan Sugar: the Amstrad story. Pan. ISBN 978-0-330-31900-3. Retrieved 14 October 2010.
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