Red Shift was a

video game publisher A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer ( ...

active between

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

and

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

. They were well known for their strategy games"From Tin Soldiers to Computer Games"
''CRASH'' issue 9, October 1984; retrieved from CRASH The Online Edition and had a close working relationship with

Julian Gollop Julian Gollop is a British computer game designer and producer specialising in strategy games, who has founded and led Mythos Games, Codo Technologies and Snapshot Games. He is known best as the "man who gave birth to the '' X-COM'' franchise." ...

and

Games Workshop Games Workshop Group (often abbreviated as GW) is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are ''Warhammer Age of Sigmar'' and ''Warhammer 40,000''. Founded in 1975 by John Peake (gam ...

History

Red Shift's two initial releases were designed, but not coded, by Gollop just after he left school (''Time Lords'' and ''Islandia''). Subsequently, Gollop learnt to program himself, designing and coding ''Nebula'' and ''Rebelstar Raiders'' for Red Shift. ''Apocalypse'' and its two expansion packs were produced under license from Games Workshop, being based on their board game ''

Apocalypse Apocalypse () is a literary genre in which a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a human intermediary. The means of mediation include dreams, visions and heavenly journeys, and they typically feature symbolic imager ...

''. In 1984, a group of

Harlow Harlow is a large town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a new town, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire and London, Harlow occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the upp ...

-based Red Shift programmers split off to form SLUG. They continued to program under license from Games Workshop (producing Spectrum versions of their board games '' Battlecars'' and '' Talisman''). By 1985 Red Shift had a range of different strategy titles that appealed to fans of that genre turning to more intelligent and demanding games. Red Shift closed after their main investor stopped supporting the team. Some staff moved on to Games Workshop.

List of games

Red Shift produced ten games between 1983 and 1985 for the ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro. *''

'' (1983), ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro – based on the Games Workshop board game. *''Time Lords'' (1983), BBC Micro – based on a paper and dice game. *''English Civil War'' (1984), BBC Micro. *''Islandia'' (1984), BBC Micro - a ''

Risk In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environme ...

''-style game. *''Murkwood'' (1984), ZX Spectrum *''

Nebula A nebula ('cloud' or 'fog' in Latin; pl. nebulae, nebulæ or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regio ...

'' (1984), ZX Spectrum *'' Rebelstar Raiders'' (1984), ZX Spectrum *''First Empire'' (1984), ZX Spectrum – a table-top computer-moderated war game. *''City of Death'' (1985), ZX Spectrum – a graphic adventure game by Peter and George Carmpouloni. *'' The Tripods'' (1985), ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro and Amstrad CPC – a graphic adventure designed by Watermill Productions and licensed by BBC Enterprises, based on the BBC TV series of the same name. In addition, three expansion packs for ''Apocalypse'' were released in 1984.

References

{{Reflist Video game publishers Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom