Micro Users Software Exchange, Inc.,

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 ...

Muse Software, was an American

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

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, focusing on the development of games for the first generation of home computers. The company began with developing games for

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

, and later expanded to 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 ...

Atari 8-bit family 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, ...

, and

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 ...

. They are best known for creating the ''

Wolfenstein ''Wolfenstein'' is a series of World War II video games originally developed by Muse Software. The majority of the games follow William "B.J." Blazkowicz, an American Army captain and his fight against the Axis powers. Earlier titles are center ...

'' series, having developed the first two installments: 1981's ''

Castle Wolfenstein ''Castle Wolfenstein'' is a 1981 action-adventure game that was developed by Muse Software for the Apple II home computer. It is one of the earliest games to be based on Stealth game, stealth mechanics. An Atari 8-bit family port was released ...

'' and its 1984 sequel, ''

Beyond Castle Wolfenstein ''Beyond Castle Wolfenstein'' is a 1984 List of World War II video games, World War II stealth game. A direct sequel to ''Castle Wolfenstein'', it is the second game in the ''Wolfenstein'' series, and the last installment to be released by origi ...

''. The brand name lapsed and was used by

id Software id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and ar ...

History

Muse Software was incorporated by Ed Zaron on August 1, 1978, with Silas S. Warner becoming the first employee. Initially publishing games, the team also sold non-game software such as '' Super-Text'', a

word processor A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Word processor (electronic device), Early word processors were stand-alone devices ded ...

written by Zaron, and '' Appilot'', a course-writing language written by Warner. Their original market was for the

, with their first programs sold on

cassettes Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in the ...

, and later on

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...

s. They expanded their software offerings for the

and

, plus ported both ''Castle Wolfenstein'' games to the

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

. The company also ran a retail store on the corner of Charles Street and Mulberry Street in Baltimore, called "Muse Software and Computer Center," which was closed down in 1982. At its peak, Muse was making more than per year in sales. According to Zaron, the growth of Muse's sales was "extremely slow" because of a slump in the home computer software market. The company, which had about 40 employees at its peak in 1983, had shrunk down to just six prior to filing for

Chapter 7 bankruptcy Chapter 7 of Title 11 of the United States Code (Bankruptcy Code) governs the process of liquidation under the bankruptcy laws of the United States, in contrast to Chapters 11 and 13, which govern the process of ''reorganization'' of a debtor. ...

protection in 1985. Warner, who was leaving Muse to join

MicroProse MicroProse is an American video game publisher and video game developer, developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the ''Civilization (series), Civilizatio ...

, said the company had difficulty setting up a sales program because of the long-term illness of a key sales employee. Muse Software was found to be in forfeiture on October 7, 1987. In 1992,

released ''

Wolfenstein 3D ''Wolfenstein 3D'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software and FormGen. Originally released on May 5, 1992, for DOS, it was inspired by the 1981 Muse Software video game ''Castle Wolfenstei ...

'', based on Muse Software's ''

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

. It brought the ''Wolfenstein'' brand to a much larger audience.

Games developed

References

{{Authority control Defunct companies based in Baltimore Video game companies established in 1978 Video game companies disestablished in 1987 Companies that have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game development companies Video game companies of Maryland