Softdisk was a software and Internet company based in

Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population of 393,406 in 2020, is t ...

. Founded in 1981, its original products were disk magazines (which they termed "magazettes", for "magazine on diskette"). It was affiliated and partly owned by paper magazine '' Softalk'' at founding, but survived its demise. The company has been known by a variety of names, including ''Softdisk Magazette'', ''Softdisk Publishing'', ''Softdisk, Inc.'', ''Softdisk Internet Services'', ''Softdisk, L.L.C.'', and ''Magazines On Disk''. Softdisk is most well known for being the former workplace of several of the founders of id Software.

Publications

Publications included '' Softdisk'' for the

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 ...

; '' Loadstar'' for 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 ...

; ''Big Blue Disk'', ''The Gamer’s Edge'', and ''PC Business Disk'' for 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 ...

; '' Diskworld'' (later ''Softdisk for Mac'') and ''DTPublisher'' (specializing in desktop publishing) for the Apple Macintosh; '' Softdisk G-S'' for the Apple IIGS; ''Softdisk for Windows'' for the Windows platform, published from 1994-1999; and ''Shareware Spotlight'', a short-lived publication featuring the best Shareware offerings for the PC. By the late 1990s, these publications were discontinued, although ''Loadstar'' had a continued life as an independent company catering to a

cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

of Commodore buffs.

''Big Blue Disk''

''Big Blue Disk'' was a monthly disk magazine that was published by Softdisk for

and compatibles that began publication in 1986. It required 256k of memory. Softdisk was sued by IBM for trademark infringement over the use of the name "Big Blue" in 1989.

Standalone programs and Gamer's Edge

Softdisk is most famous for being the former workplace of several of the founders of id Software, who worked on a short-lived game subscription product, ''Gamer's Edge''. ''Gamer's Edge'' was a monthly PC game disk started in 1990 by John Romero. The disk's developers were

John Carmack John D. Carmack II (born August 20, 1970) is an American computer programmer and video game developer. He co-founded the video game company id Software and was the lead programmer of its 1990s games ''Commander Keen'', ''Wolfenstein 3D'', ''Doo ...

, John Romero, and Adrian Carmack. Tom Hall, then a programmer who worked in the Apple II department of Softdisk, would come in at night to help with the game design. Lane Roathe was the editor. These developers later left Softdisk to found id Software. To complete their contractual obligation to Softdisk, the developers built several more games for Softdisk, including ''

Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion ''Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion'' (also known as ''Dangerous Dave 2'' and under the Froggman title, ''Rooms of Doom'') is a 1991 sequel of the computer game ''Dangerous Dave''. It was created by John Romero, John Carmack, Adrian Carma ...

'', '' Rescue Rover'', '' Hovertank 3D'', '' Rescue Rover 2'', '' Tiles of the Dragon'', '' Catacomb 3D'' and ''Keen Dreams'' (the "lost" episode of the '' Commander Keen'' series). Softdisk later hired a new team to create new titles using the

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software i ...

s of the earlier games, including the later founders of

JAM Productions JAM Creative Productions, Inc., is an American company that produces radio jingles, promo music for television, and commercial jingles for advertisers. It has made more radio jingles than any other jingle company and has become part of American ...

. This connection led to Softdisk being mentioned extensively in the earlier parts of the id chronicling book '' Masters of Doom''. Also, some of the earliest employees of Origin Systems worked there before moving on: Greg Malone ''(

Moebius Moebius, Möbius or Mobius may refer to: People * August Ferdinand Möbius (1790–1868), German mathematician and astronomer * Theodor Möbius (1821–1890), German philologist * Karl Möbius (1825–1908), German zoologist and ecologist * Paul ...

, Windwalker)'', Dallas Snell (''The Quest'' and ''Ring Quest''), Joel Rea (''The Quest'' and ''Ring Quest''), and Alan Gardner ''(Windwalker, Ultima VI)''. Malone also later worked as a producer for

3D Realms 3D Realms Entertainment ApS is a video game publisher based in Aalborg, Denmark. Scott Miller (entrepreneur), Scott Miller founded the company in his parents' home in Garland, Texas, in 1987 as Apogee Software Productions to release his game ' ...

. Softdisk continued to publish video games into the mid-1990s, most notably '' In Pursuit of Greed'', based on an alpha version of the Doom engine derived from '' Shadowcaster'', and '' Alien Rampage'', based on the original ''Ravager'' side-scroller once being developed by Apogee.

Current state

Since 1995, Softdisk had been an Internet service provider, Web hosting service, and Internet developer as well, and this eventually became their primary area of business. They have offered local dialup service in the

Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population o ...

area, and Web hosting and development services. As of 2006, their Web site redirected to that of Bayou Internet, which had taken over their Internet operations. The downloadstore.com site formerly owned and operated by Softdisk was later run by Flat Rock Software, which also published former Softdisk product Screen Saver Studio and most of the Gamer's Edge titles (as well as on GOG.com). The source code for ''

Catacomb Catacombs are man-made subterranean passageways for religious practice. Any chamber used as a burial place is a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman Empire. Etymology and history The first place to be referred ...

'', '' Catacomb 3D'' and '' Hovertank 3D'' was released by Flat Rock in June 2014 under the GNU General Public License in a manner similar to those done by id and partners.

References

External links

*
Softdisk Legacy Software Information (Official Site Archive)

Licensed collection of the Apple versions: Softdisk Magazine; Softdisk G-S and UpTime (includes Mac)

''Softdisk''
at

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