Alligata Software Ltd. was a computer games developer and publisher based in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

in the UK in the 1980s. The company was founded by brothers Mike and Tim Mahony and their father J.R. Mahony in 1983. They produced games for a number of home computers including the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...

Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron (nicknamed the Elk inside Acorn and beyond) was a lower-cost alternative to the BBC Micro educational/ home computer, also developed by Acorn Computers Ltd, to provide many of the features of that more expensive machine at a ...

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...

and

Dragon 32 The Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 are home computers that were built in the 1980s. The Dragons are very similar to the TRS-80 Color Computer, and were produced for the European market by Dragon Data, Ltd., initially in Swansea, Wales before mov ...

. The company published many of

Tony Crowther Antony Crowther is a former designer, programmer, and musician of Commodore 64 games. During the 1980s he worked for Alligata, Gremlin Graphics and later his own company, Wizard Development. Career The first computer game he created was a versio ...

's early

games, including Aztec Tomb, Blagger and Loco. Chris Butler was another programmer whose earlier games were released by Alligata. The company also published budget priced software under the Budgie label. Tim Mahony took over the day-to-day running of the company in 1987 and closed the company nine months later. The name and back catalogue were sold to

Superior Software Superior Software Ltd (also known as Superior Interactive) is a video game publisher. It was one of the main publishers for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers in the 1980s and early 1990s. It currently releases games for Microsoft Windows ...

. Two titles were released under the joint Superior/Alligata label for ports of Superior's BBC/Electron games to other systems. Superior also included some old Alligata games on their ''Play It Again Sam'' compilations.

Games

* 1983 ''Aztec Tomb'' ( C64) * 1983 ''Here Comes The Sun'' (

) * 1983 ''Bug Blaster'' (C64,

) * 1983 ''Lunar Rescue'' (BBC Micro, Acorn Electron) * 1983 '' Blagger'' (C64, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, MSX,

Commodore 16 The Commodore 16 is a home computer made by Commodore International with a 6502-compatible 7501 or 8501 CPU, released in 1984 and intended to be an entry-level computer to replace the VIC-20. A cost-reduced version, the Commodore 116, was ...

) A version was also released through Amsoft for the

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') 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 Sin ...

* 1984 ''

Loco Loco or El Loco may refer to: Places United States * Loco, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Loco, Oklahoma, a village * Loco, Texas, an unincorporated community * Loco Mountain (Labinero, Montana), a mountain peak of the Crazy Mountains i ...

'' (C64, ZX Spectrum,

Atari 8-bit The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

) * 1984 ''

Son of Blagger ''Son of Blagger'', the sequel to '' Blagger'', is a scrolling platform game created by Tony Crowther and released by Alligata for the Commodore 64 computer in 1983. A ZX Spectrum port by Elliot Gay and a BBC Micro port were released in 1984. Le ...

'' (C64, ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro) * 1985 ''Who Dares Wins'' (C64) * 1985 ''Jack Charlton's Match Fishing'' (C64, ZX Spectrum) * 1985 ''Blagger Goes to Hollywood'' (C64) * 1986 ''Who Dares Wins II'' (C64, ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, MSX, Amstrad CPC) * 1986 ''Night World'' (BBC Micro, Acorn Electron) * 1987 ''Kettle'' (C64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC) * 1987 ''Livingstone, I Presume?'' (C64, ZX Spectrum, MSX, Amstrad CPC) UK release of Spanish

Opera Soft Opera Soft was a Spanish computer game developer of the Golden Era of Spanish Software of the 1980s. It released many games for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and similar computers in the mid-1980s, but its games were not as popular on the PC. Fo ...

game ''Livingstone, Supongo'' * 1987 ''Addicta Ball'' (C64, MSX,

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...

) * 1988 ''

By Fair Means or Foul ''By Fair Means or Foul'' (later also released as ''Pro Boxing Simulator'') is a boxing video game first published for a range of 8-bit home computers in 1988 by Superior Software. It was later reissued with the new title by Codemasters who also p ...

'' (C64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC) A Superior/Alligata release * 1989 ''Repton Mania'' (ZX Spectrum) Ports of the first 2 ''

Repton Repton is a village and civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England, located on the edge of the River Trent floodplain, about north of Swadlincote. The population taken at the 2001 Census was 2,707, increasing to 2,8 ...

'' games - A Superior/Alligata release

Budgie label

Alligata published budget games under the Budgie label from 1985. When a typical Alligata game would cost around £6.95, Budgie games sold for only £1.99 in order to compete with the likes of budget software pioneer

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 one of the largest software publishers in the UK, achieved b ...

, already selling games at that level. Almost all titles were original rather than re-issues of Alligata games. Probably the most well known game is space shoot 'em up ''Video's Revenge'' (BBC Micro, Acorn Electron) with others including ''Convoy'' (ZX Spectrum), ''Super Sam'' (ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC), ''Raskel'' (C64) and ''Shuffle'' (BBC Micro, Acorn Electron).

References

{{Reflist

External links

''Alligata'' at ''World of Spectrum''''Alligata'' at the ''BBC Games Archive''''Budgie'' at ''World of Spectrum''Who Dares Wins game ending by Alligata Software
Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game companies established in 1983 1983 establishments in England