Gilsoft was a British developer of

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

and related utilities. The company was best known for developing the

text adventure '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...

authoring tool '' The Quill'' and its successor, ''

Professional Adventure Writer Professional Adventure Writer or PAW (sometimes called PAWS for Professional Adventure Writing System) is a program that allows the user to write textual adventure games with graphic illustrations. It was written by Tim Gilberts, Graeme Yeandle a ...

''.Sinclair User 37
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History

Gilsoft was set up by Tim Gilberts, at the time aged 17, in the early 1980s, using money from his father, who ran an electronics store. Gilberts had been writing

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

for the

ZX81 The ZX81 is a home computer that was produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and designed to be a low-cost ...

prior to founding Gilsoft, but with the release of the

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 ...

, he was convinced that he could make money by satisfying the demand for games for the new platform. Many early titles developed by Gilberts for the Spectrum were

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arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

s, among a few original titles. Gilsoft was initially run as a family business, with Gilberts acting as

technical director A technical director (TD) is usually a senior technical person within e.g. a software company, engineering firm, film studio, theatre company or television studio. This person usually has the highest level of skill within a specific technical f ...

, his father as

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

, his mother as company secretary, and his cousin as

accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certifi ...

. Other employees were mostly made up of friends and neighbours of the Gilberts family. In 1982, Gilsoft was joined by Graeme Yeandle, who sought to write

games for the company. To simplify these games' development process, Yeandle created a proprietary authoring tool that would eventually become available commercially as ''The Quill''. While the tool was released for a price of , Gilsoft expected no royalties from sales made with games developed using it. According to Yeandle, he treated his creation the same as he would a

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, which is usually royalty-free. Following onto ''The Quill'' success, Gilsoft also released ''Illustrator'', an add-on for ''The Quill'' that allowed users to add

graphics Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture ...

to their games, as well as a stand-alone follow-up, ''Professional Adventure Writer''. Eventually, Gilsoft as a

limited company In a limited company, the liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by Share (finance), shares or by guarantee. In a company limited by ...

folded, and the team parted ways, including Gilberts' father, who started selling homebrew products.

References

{{Reflist Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom