| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 1980 |
| Founder | Nick Lambert |
| Defunct | 1990 |
| Headquarters |
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| Products |
Quicksilva was a British games software publisher active during the early 1980s.
They were founded by Nick Lambert in 1980 [1] , with the name Quicksilva inspired by a particular guitar solo in a track on the album Happy Trails by Quicksilver Messenger Service. [2] Quicksilva mainly released games for the ZX81, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, but also did conversions and some original games for the VIC-20, Dragon 32/64, Oric-1/Atmos, BBC Micro and Acorn Electron home computers.
One of their earliest titles was QS Defenda (originally QS Defender), a clone of the Defender arcade game for the ZX80 and ZX81 home computers. [2] Greater success followed with later releases, including a Star Raiders -style game entitled Time-Gate which reached the top of the ZX Spectrum charts in December 1982. [3] Amongst the company's other successes were Jeff Minter's Gridrunner (1983), [4] Bugaboo (1983, a.k.a. La Pulga) and Fred (1983, titled "Roland on the Ropes" on the Amstrad CPC), the latter two titles licensed from Indescomp S.A., a Spanish software house. They were also responsible for the hugely innovative Ant Attack (1983), written by Sandy White for the ZX Spectrum which featured revolutionary 3-D graphics (which a patent application was made for). [5]
In early 1984, they published their first licensed title, an adaptation of the 1978 book The Snowman by Raymond Briggs, [6] [7] although Software Manager Paul Cooper ruled out an adaption of Briggs' When The Wind Blows stating "nuclear war can upset a lot of people". [6]
In May 1984, the company was bought by Argus Press Software [8] [2] [9] which later became Grandslam Entertainment. Paul Cooper and Managing Director Rod Cousens left to establish Electric Dreams Software in 1985, when Argus moved the company from Southampton to London. [10] [11]
The company continued to publish licensed products, including the first official home computer conversion of Atari's Battlezone , Eric Bristow's Pro Darts, [12] two different games based on Strontium Dog from the 2000 AD comic [12] and Fantastic Voyage (an official licence from the 1966 film). [13]
In late 1984 they developed The Thompson Twins Adventure (an adaptation of the Thompson Twins single Doctor! Doctor! ) which was published by Computer and Video Games magazine on a flexi-disc, [14] and published Sandy White's follow-up to Ant Attack, Zombie Zombie . [15]
The following years brought further tie-ins including games featuring Rupert Bear in Rupert and the Toymaker's Party , [16] The Flintstones in Yabba Dabba Doo! [16] and Max Headroom. [17] It also produced popular original titles such as Glider Rider and two more arcade ports, Taito's Elevator Action in 1987 [18] and the final[ citation needed ] Quicksilva game, Namco's Pac-Land in 1989. [19]