The Big Red Software Company Limited,

doing business as A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...

Big Red Software, was a British

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

based in

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...

, England, that was founded by Paul Ranson in October 1989.

History

Big Red Software was incorporated on 16 October 1989 by Paul Ranson, and was based in

, England. In their early years, they focused on the 8-bit home computer game market, especially for

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

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 ...

. During this time, they formed a close relationship with

Codemasters The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts. Founded by brothers Richard and David Darling in Octo ...

, who published many of their games. This relationship was sufficiently close that Codemasters turned to them to develop the next '' Dizzy'' game after the series' creators, the

Oliver Twins Andrew Nicholas Oliver and Philip Edward Oliver, together known as the Oliver Twins, are British twin brothers and video game designers. They began to professionally develop computer games while they were still at school, contributing their fir ...

, moved onto other projects. The resulting game, '' Magicland Dizzy'', was a critical and commercial success. When ''

Retro Gamer ''Retro Gamer'' is a British magazine, published worldwide, covering retro video games. It was the first commercial magazine to be devoted entirely to the subject. Launched in January 2004 as a quarterly publication, ''Retro Gamer'' soon became ...

'' released a special retrospective edition of ''

Your Sinclair ''Your Sinclair'', or ''YS'' as it was commonly abbreviated, was a commercially published and printed British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum. It was in circulation between 1984 and 1993. History The ...

'' in 2004, they rated it the 12th best game for ZX Spectrum of all time. Other games released in collaboration with Codemasters include further ''Dizzy'' games, the ''Seymour'' series, and the PC port of ''

Micro Machines Micro Machines are a line of toys originally made by Galoob (now part of Hasbro) in the mid-1980s and throughout the 1990s. Micro Machines are tiny scale component style "playsets" and vehicles that are slightly larger than N scale. The toys Ma ...

''. In the mid-1990s, as the industry moved away from the older 8-bit computers, Big Red Software started developing games such as ''Tank Commander'' and ''

Big Red Racing ''Big Red Racing'' is a racing video game released for MS-DOS in 1995. It was developed by Big Red Software and published by Domark. Versions were planned for Nintendo 64, PlayStation (console), PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Saturn, 3DO Interactive Mu ...

'' for

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

, with both these titles being published by

Domark Square Enix Limited (formerly Domark Limited and Eidos Interactive Limited) is a British subsidiary of the Japanese video game company Square Enix, acting as their European publishing arm. The company formerly owned ''Tomb Raider'', which was in ...

. On 25 September 1995, publicly traded Eidos Public Limited Company acquired Domark and Big Red Software, alongside

Simis Kuju Entertainment Ltd. is a British video game developer. The original company was Simis, formed in 1989 and purchased by Eidos Interactive in 1995. Kuju was formed in 1998 in Shalford, Surrey, England, after a management buyout of Simis from ...

, for a total of . The latter two were merged into Domark to create

Eidos Interactive Square Enix Limited (formerly Domark Limited and Eidos Interactive Limited) is a British subsidiary of the Japanese video game company Square Enix, acting as their European publishing arm. The company formerly owned ''Tomb Raider'', which was in ...

on 31 May 1996.

Games developed

References

{{Authority control Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game companies established in 1989 Video game companies disestablished in 1996 Video game development companies