Alternative Software is a British software developer and publisher founded in 1985.
From the mid 1980s to the early 1990s, the company published well over a hundred games,
primarily for the 8-bit computer formats in the budget (£1.99 to £3.99) market. These included both original titles (e.g.
MC Lothlorien's ''Pro Mountain Bike Simulator'') as well as reissues of other developers' and publishers' software such as ''
River Rescue
River Rescue is an action game for the VIC-20 published by Thorn EMI Computer Software in 1982. It was designed by Jeremy Smith and programmed by Will Kemp. Ports were released for the Atari 8-bit family and ZX Spectrum in 1983 and the Commodore ...
'' which it acquired from the liquidation of
Creative Sparks Distribution.
In 1988, the company's catalogue expanded rapidly when it obtained the rights to re-release games from
Piranha Software
Piranha Software was a short-lived video game publishing label created by Macmillan Publishers in 1986 and closed eighteen months later. In that time it gained a reputation for its unusual output from well known developers such as Don Priestley ...
,
Audiogenic
Audiogenic Software was a British video game development company. It was established in 1985 following an earlier Audiogenic company that had been founded in the late 1970s. It published its last new title in 1997, after the core of the developme ...
,
Incentive and
Bubble Bus.
By late 1988,
Commodore Computing International were noting Alternative's success, observing that they had topped
Gallup
Gallup may refer to:
*Gallup, Inc., a firm founded by George Gallup, well known for its opinion poll
*Gallup (surname), a surname
*Gallup, New Mexico, a city in New Mexico, United States
**Gallup station, an Amtrak train in downtown Gallup, New Me ...
's market share charts almost every week since June of that year, been the number one software house in 7 out of 8 Gallup charts and averaged a market share of 11.2% versus their nearest rival
Mastertronic with 10.5%.
In 1989, the company began to produce titles centred around popular children's television characters. Beginning with
Postman Pat, which the company claimed was the first time a licence had been acquired by a budget software house,
later games would feature
Count Duckula,
Fireman Sam,
Sooty and
The Wombles among many others.
In a 2015 interview, founder Roger Hulley claimed that by 1990 the company had a 17 percent share of the budget games sector.
During the late 1990s, the company diversified into development of "paint studio", "print studio" and similar-type software. , the company is still active,
with publication
Retro Gamer noting in their 30-year retrospective of Alternative that they had "constantly evolved in order to stay afloat in an increasingly tough industry".
References
* http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/alternative-history-three-decades-of-the-publisher/0158343
Video game companies of the United Kingdom
British companies established in 1985
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