''Soft Aid'' is a software compilation, released by

Quicksilva Quicksilva was a British games software publisher active during the early 1980s. Quicksilva was founded by Nick Lambert in 1979. The name Quicksilva was inspired by a particular guitar solo in a track on the album Happy Trails by Quicksilver Mess ...

in March 1985 to support the Famine Relief in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. The software was released on

tape Tape or Tapes may refer to: Material A long, narrow, thin strip of material (see also Ribbon (disambiguation): Adhesive tapes * Adhesive tape, any of many varieties of backing materials coated with an adhesive *Athletic tape, pressure-sensitiv ...

for 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 ...

and

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 ...

home computers. An audio recording of the

charity single A charity record or charity single is a song released by musicians with most or all proceeds raised going to a dedicated foundation or charity. George Harrison's " Bangla Desh" single in 1971 is commonly acknowledged as the first ever purpose-mad ...

Do They Know It's Christmas? "Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a charity song written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. It was first recorded by Band Aid, a supergroup assembled by Geldof and Ure consisting of pop ...

by Band Aid also featured on one side of the tape. The tape was unusual in that it was released to help support a charity (possibly unique in computer gaming at the time). The cover featured artwork by British artist David Rowe,CRASH magazine: The Online Edition
- Features - ON THE COVER - DAVID ROWE, cover artist talks about how he got started illustrating computer games (Issue No. 15 APRIL 1985). The tape sold in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

for £4.99.

Games included

ZX Spectrum

*'' Spellbound'' *''Starbike'' *'' Kokotoni Wilf'' *''The Pyramid'' *''

Horace Goes Skiing The Horace video game series was created in the 1980s by William Tang for Beam Software. The series comprised ''Hungry Horace'', ''Horace Goes Skiing'' and ''Horace and the Spiders''. ''Hungry Horace'' and ''Horace and the Spiders'' were two o ...

'' *''

Gilligan's Gold ''Bagman'' is a platform game released in arcades by Valadon Automation in 1982. It was licensed to Stern for U.S. distribution in 1983 and to Taito in Japan the same year. In France, the game is titled ''Le Bagnard'' (English: ''The Convict''). ...

'' *''

Ant Attack ''Ant Attack'' is a ZX Spectrum computer game by Sandy White, published by Quicksilva in 1983. It was converted to the Commodore 64 in 1984. While ''Zaxxon'' and ''Q*bert'' previously used isometric projection, ''Ant Attack'' added an extra degre ...

'' *''3D Tank Duel'' *''Jack and the Beanstalk'' *''Sorcery''

Commodore 64

*''Gumshoe'' *''

Beamrider ''Beamrider'' is a fixed shooter written for the Intellivision by David Rolfe and published by Activision in 1983. The game was ported to the Atari 2600 (with a slightly reduced feature set), Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit family, ColecoVision, Commodor ...

'' *''

Star Trader ''Star Trader'' is a 1974 video game and an early example of the space trading genre. The game involves players moving from star to star on a map of the galaxy, buying and selling quantities of six types of merchandise in a competition to make th ...

'' *'' Kokotoni Wilf'' *''China Miner'' *''

'' *''

Fred Fred may refer to: People * Fred (name), including a list of people and characters with the name Mononym * Fred (cartoonist) (1931–2013), pen name of Fred Othon Aristidès, French * Fred (footballer, born 1949) (1949–2022), Frederico Ro ...

'' *''Gyropod'' *''Falcon Patrol'' *''

Flak Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

Reception

''Soft Aid'' topped the UK software sales charts for seventeen weeks in

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 ...

, setting a record for the longest number of consecutive weeks at number one. The record was eventually broken by

Robocop ''RoboCop'' is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The film stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Daniel O'Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, and Miguel Ferre ...

in 1989.

References

External links

* *{{WoS game, id=0011356, name=Soft Aid 1985 video games Commodore 64 games Video games developed in the United Kingdom ZX Spectrum games Charity singles Quicksilva games