Rowan Software was a British

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 ...

company focused on the development of

computer game 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 ...

s. The company was founded by Rod Hyde in 1987 and based in

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region, with Liverpool to the northwest across the River Mersey. ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

. Rowan was best known as a publisher of

flight simulator A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and the environment in which it flies, for pilot training, design, or other purposes. It includes replicating the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they rea ...

s for the PC. The company was involved with a number of publishers including

Mirrorsoft Mirrorsoft was a British video game publisher founded by Jim Mackonochie as a division of Mirror Group Newspapers. The company was active between 1983 and 1991, and shut down completely in early 1992. History In the early 1980s, Jim Mackono ...

, Mindscape, Spectrum Holobyte,

Virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

, and

Empire Interactive Empire Interactive was a British video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in London. Founded in 1987 by Ian Higgins and Simon Jeffrey, it was acquired by Silverstar Holdings in 2006 and went out of business in 2009. His ...

. Rowan's involvement with Mirrorsoft included development of the strategy/role-playing title Duster which collapsed when Mirrorsoft was declared bankrupt. In 1989,

Martin Kenwright Martin Kenwright is the founder of British-based virtual and augmented reality innovation company vTime Limited, digital media, entertainment and technology company Starship, and video game development studios Digital Image Design (DID) and Ev ...

left with several members of Rowan's staff to form

Digital Image Design Digital Image Design (DID) was a British video game developer founded by Martin Kenwright and Phillip Allsopp in 1989. It was originally based in Runcorn, Cheshire in England. The company specialized in aircraft simulator games, mostly published ...

. Rowan itself was acquired by

in December 2000.Empire Interactive Acquires Rowan
IGN.

Games

* '' Air Power: Battle in the Skies'' * '' Dawn Patrol'' * '' Falcon Operation: Firefight'' * '' Falcon Operation: Counterstrike'' * ''

Flight of the Intruder ''Flight of the Intruder'' is a 1991 war film directed by John Milius, and starring Danny Glover, Willem Dafoe, and Brad Johnson. It is based on the novel of the same name by former Grumman A-6 Intruder pilot Stephen Coonts. The film received n ...

'' * '' Flying Corps'' * ''

Harrier Combat Simulator ''Harrier Combat Simulator'' is a combat flight simulation game developed in 1986 by Mindscape (software publisher), Mindscape for the Commodore 64. Ports for Amiga, Atari ST and IBM PC (as a self-booting disk) followed in 1988. Plot The player ...

'' * ''

MiG Alley "MiG Alley" was the name given by United Nations (UN) pilots during the Korean War to the northwestern portion of North Korea, where the Yalu River empties into the Yellow Sea. It was the site of numerous dogfights between UN fighter pilots and ...

'' * ''

Navy Strike A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

'' * ''

Overlord An overlord in the English feudal system was a lord of a manor who had subinfeudated a particular manor, estate or fee, to a tenant. The tenant thenceforth owed to the overlord one of a variety of services, usually military service or serje ...

'' * ''

Reach for the Skies ''Reach For The Skies'' (Chinese: 不平凡的平凡) is a 150-episode drama series produced by Mediacorp Channel 8. It stars Bryan Wong, Kym Ng, Pan Lingling, Yao Wenlong, Joey Swee, Zhang Zhenhuan and He Yingying as the cast of this series. ...

'' * ''

Rowan's Battle of Britain ''Rowan's Battle of Britain'', sometimes known simply as ''Battle of Britain'', is a World War II era combat flight simulation game set during the Battle of Britain in 1940. Gameplay The combat flight simulation has both RAF and opposing Luf ...

'' * ''

Strike Force Harrier Strike may refer to: People * Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

References

External links

Official website
(archived 2000)
Rowan Software
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

Video game companies established in 2002 Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom 2002 establishments in the United Kingdom {{UK-videogame-company-stub

Games

See also

References

External links