The Software Toolworks (commonly abbreviated as Toolworks) was an American software and
video game developer
A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...
based in
Novato, California
Novato (Spanish for "Novatus") is a city in Marin County, California, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area. At the 2020 census, Novato had a population of 53,225.
History
What is now Novato was originally the site of several Coast Miwok ...
. The company was founded by Walt Bilofsky in 1980 out of his
Sherman Oaks
Sherman Oaks is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California located in the San Fernando Valley, founded in 1927. The neighborhood includes a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, which gives Sherman Oaks a lower population density than ...
garage, which he converted into an office, to develop software for the
Heathkit H89
The Z-89 is a personal computer produced by Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) in the early 1980s.
Description
The Zenith Z-89 is based on the Zilog Z80 microprocessor running at 2.048 MHz, and supports the HDOS and CP/M operating systems. The ...
microcomputer
A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PC ...
. It quickly expanded into video games, releasing ''Airport'' and ''MyChess'' in 1980; other notable games include ''
Chessmaster 2000
''The Chessmaster 2000'' is a computer chess game by The Software Toolworks. It was the first in the ''Chessmaster'' series and published in 1986. It was released for Amiga, Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Ams ...
'', ''
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing
''Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing'' is an application software program designed to teach touch typing.
History
The typing program was initially released in late 1987 by The Software Toolworks and has been published regularly ever since. The first ...
'', and ''
Mario Is Missing!
''Mario Is Missing!'' is a 1993 educational game developed and published by The Software Toolworks for MS-DOS, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System, later released on Macintosh in 1994. The player controls Luig ...
''. Toolworks merged with its distributor, Software Country, in 1986 and, after
going public in 1988, acquired
IntelliCreations, DS Technologies, and
Mindscape. By 1994, Toolworks employed 600 people and had a revenue of . In May that year, it was acquired by
Pearson plc
Pearson plc is a British multinational corporation, multinational publishing and education company headquartered in London, England.
It was founded as a construction business in the 1840s but switched to publishing in the 1920s.J. A. Spende ...
for , which converted it to bear the Mindscape identity by November.
History
Early years (1979–1982)
The Software Toolworks was founded by
programmer
A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software.
A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...
Walt Bilofsky, who, after studying at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
(MIT), had worked for the
Institute for Defense Analyses
The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) is an American non-profit corporation that administers three federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) – the Systems and Analyses Center (SAC), the Science and Technology Policy Institute ...
, as a programmer for
RAND Corporation
The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financed ...
, and as a consultant.
In 1979, he acquired and assembled a
Heathkit H89
The Z-89 is a personal computer produced by Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) in the early 1980s.
Description
The Zenith Z-89 is based on the Zilog Z80 microprocessor running at 2.048 MHz, and supports the HDOS and CP/M operating systems. The ...
microcomputer
A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PC ...
; he found that the microcomputer lacked important software and thus began developing new software and
ports
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...
of his own, including a fullscreen editor and a
compiler
In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that ...
for the
C programming language
''The C Programming Language'' (sometimes termed ''K&R'', after its authors' initials) is a computer programming book written by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, the latter of whom originally designed and implemented the language, as well as ...
entitled C/80, the latter based on Ron Cain's
public-domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...
compiler
Small-C
Small-C is both a subset of the C programming language, suitable for resource-limited microcomputers and embedded systems, and an implementation of that subset. Originally valuable as an early compiler for microcomputer systems available during t ...
.
Bilofsky subsequently contacted the Heath Company, which made the
Heathkit
Heathkit is the brand name of kits and other electronic products produced and marketed by the Heath Company. The products over the decades have included electronic test equipment, high fidelity home audio equipment, television receivers, amateu ...
series of microcomputers, to have it market his software and, in response, was told that the
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...
and the
BASIC
BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...
programming language Heathkit microcomputers came with were sufficient.
He instead turned to advertise his software in ''BUSS'', a Heathkit hobbyist
newsletter
A newsletter is a printed or electronic report containing news concerning the activities of a business or an organization that is sent to its members, customers, employees or other subscribers. Newsletters generally contain one main topic of int ...
, starting in 1980, quickly receiving orders for his software.
Bilofsky eventually adopted the name "The Software Toolworks", using it publicly for the first time with an advertisement submitted to the magazine ''
Byte
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...
'' in June 1980.
He converted his garage in
Sherman Oaks, California
Sherman Oaks is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California located in the San Fernando Valley, founded in 1927. The neighborhood includes a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, which gives Sherman Oaks a lower population density than ...
, to a two-room office, outfitting it with a
disk
Disk or disc may refer to:
* Disk (mathematics), a geometric shape
* Disk storage
Music
* Disc (band), an American experimental music band
* ''Disk'' (album), a 1995 EP by Moby
Other uses
* Disk (functional analysis), a subset of a vector sp ...
duplicator, shelving, and a shipping area.
This office was later relocated into a garden shed.
By the end of the year, Toolworks had entered the video game business, having published ''Airport'', an
air traffic control
Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...
game by
Jim Gillogly
James J. Gillogly (born 5 March 1946) is an American computer scientist and cryptographer.
Biography Early life
His interest in cryptography stems from his boyhood, as did his interest in mathematics. By junior high he was inventing his own ciphe ...
, and ''MyChess'', a
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
game by Dave Kittinger.
This continued in 1981, with Robert Wesson developing a
clone of ''
Pac-Man
originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
'', the game ''Munchkin'', and a port of ''Invaders'' for the H89, and Bilofksy adapting the
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
psychiatrist
ELIZA
ELIZA is an early natural language processing computer program created from 1964 to 1966 at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by Joseph Weizenbaum. Created to demonstrate the superficiality of communication between humans and machines, E ...
.
Other early non-game software included the
spreadsheet
A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in cel ...
editor Zencalc (later replaced by MyCalc), the
text editor
A text editor is a type of computer program that edits plain text. Such programs are sometimes known as "notepad" software (e.g. Windows Notepad). Text editors are provided with operating systems and software development packages, and can be us ...
PIE, the text formatting application TEXT, and the spelling checker SPELL.
One of Toolworks' major releases was a port of ''
Adventure
An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...
'', a
text adventure game
''
Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...
developed by
William Crowther in 1975 and later expanded by
Don Woods Donald Woods (1933–2001) was a South African journalist and activist.
Donald or Don Woods may also refer to:
* Donald Woods (actor) (1906–1998), Canadian-born American film and television actor
* Donald Devereux Woods (1912–1964), British m ...
.
Gillogly made Bilofsky aware of the game and, by 1982, was able to get the game running on an H89 using Bilofsky's C/80 compiler.
Although the game was in the public domain, Bilofsky decided to release an official version with the approval of Crowther and Woods.
This version was expanded so that, at the end of the game, the player is admitted into a fictional "Wizards' Guild" and given a password that could be posted to Toolworks in return for a "Certificate of Wizardness", underwritten by Crowther and Woods, and signed with the Toolworks corporate
seal
Seal may refer to any of the following:
Common uses
* Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly:
** Earless seal, or "true seal"
** Fur seal
* Seal (emblem), a device to impr ...
, the only time this seal was used.
The game was released in 1982 and came with a manual packaged in a
Ziploc
Ziploc is a brand of reusable, re-sealable sliding channel storage bags and containers originally developed and test marketed by The Dow Chemical Company in 1968 and now produced by S. C. Johnson & Son.
The plastic bags and containers come in ...
bag.
Expansion (1983–1987)
In 1983, Toolworks was joined by Joe Abrams, Bilofsky's cousin.
That same year, the company moved into a proper, three-room office on the 11th floor of a Sherman Oaks bank building, opposite of the
Sherman Oaks Galleria
Sherman Oaks Galleria is an open-air shopping mall and business center located in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States, at the corner of Ventura Boulevard, Ventura and Sepulveda Boulevards in the San Fernando Val ...
.
This move was made possible by Toolworks' growing sales, and by this time, its products were sold through more than 50 Heathkit stores, and it had released a total of 40 products by 1984.
That year,
distributor
A distributor is an enclosed rotating switch used in spark-ignition internal combustion engines that have mechanically timed ignition. The distributor's main function is to route high voltage current from the ignition coil to the spark plugs ...
Software Country and its manager,
Les Crane
Les Crane (born Lesley Stein; December 3, 1933 – July 13, 2008) was a radio announcer and television talk show host, a pioneer in interactive broadcasting who also scored a spoken word hit with his 1971 recording of the poem ''Desiderata'', w ...
, licensed Toolworks' versions of ''Adventure'' and ELIZA for a software compilation disk titled Golden Oldies Vol I, which was released the following year.
Subsequently, Crane agreed with Abrams that Software Country would market a chess game developed by Toolworks; for this project, Toolworks brought on Mike Duffy, who had ported ''MyChess'' to
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 ...
and
PCjr
The IBM PCjr (pronounced "PC junior") was a home computer produced and marketed by IBM from March 1984 to May 1985, intended as a lower-cost variant of the IBM PC with hardware capabilities better suited for video games, in order to compete mor ...
, and the team developed ''
Chessmaster 2000
''The Chessmaster 2000'' is a computer chess game by The Software Toolworks. It was the first in the ''Chessmaster'' series and published in 1986. It was released for Amiga, Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Ams ...
''.
Crane stepped up the marketing efforts for the game, paying for the cover photo.
Bilofsky described this change as the "emphatic end of the Ziploc bag era".
''Chessmaster 2000'' was released in 1986 and sold 100,000 copies within seven months.
Building from this success, Toolworks and Software Country merged in October 1986, with Toolworks as the surviving entity.
The merged company then bought Priority Software Packaging, a disk duplication and software packaging company, the following November.
Following the merger, Crane conceived a
typing
Typing is the process of writing or inputting text by pressing keys on a typewriter, computer keyboard, mobile phone or calculator. It can be distinguished from other means of text input, such as handwriting and speech recognition. Text can b ...
application in which the user would be guided by
Mavis Beacon
Mavis is a female given name, derived from a name for the common Old World song thrush. Its first modern usage was in Marie Corelli's 1895 novel ''The Sorrows of Satan'', which featured a character named Mavis Clare (whose name was said to be "rat ...
, a fictional typing instructor who would correct the user's mistakes.
The product, ''
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing
''Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing'' is an application software program designed to teach touch typing.
History
The typing program was initially released in late 1987 by The Software Toolworks and has been published regularly ever since. The first ...
'', was developed by Bilofsky, Duffy and Norman Worthington from Bilofsky's home in six months, with Duffy often working more than 140 hours per week.
The team aimed at making the application more fun to keep users engaged, thus it incorporated large quantities of text it deemed interesting, generated mistake analyses, and made it visually appealing.
Renée L'Espérance, a Haitian woman whom Crane and Abrams had met at a
Saks Fifth Avenue
Saks Fifth Avenue (originally Saks & Company; Colloquialism, colloquially Saks) is an American Luxury goods, luxury department store chain headquartered in New York City and founded by Andrew Saks. The original store opened in the F Street and ...
store, was contracted to represent Mavis Beacon.
Due to her darker skin, several stores initially refused to sell the application when it was released in 1987.
This changed when a positive review of the application published in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' generated much demand, restoring all of Toolworks' usual distribution channels within two weeks.
As a public company and under Pearson (1987–1994)
In February 1987, Toolworks signed a distribution deal with
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
(expanded for distribution in Europe in July), which required Toolworks to port each new game to
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 ...
,
Apple III
The Apple III (styled as apple ///) is a business-oriented personal computer produced by Apple Computer and released in 1980. Running the Apple SOS operating system, it was intended as the successor to the Apple II series, but was largely consi ...
,
Apple IIGS
The Apple IIGS (styled as II), the fifth and most powerful of the Apple II family, is a 16-bit personal computer produced by Apple Computer. While featuring the Macintosh look and feel, and resolution and color similar to the Amiga and Atari ST ...
,
Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...
, PCjr,
Atari 8-bit
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...
,
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...
,
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 ...
,
Amiga
Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...
and IBM PC computers, of which in colored and
monochrome
A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, monochrom ...
versions for the latter.
Each team member at the company was tasked with developing one of the ports but the undertaking eventually proved a financial strain and Toolworks ran out of funds by the end of 1987.
To raise new capital, the company became a
public company
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...
in January 1988, through a
reverse merger
A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public compan ...
with Deseret-Western Venture Capital, an existing public
shell corporation
A shell corporation is a company or corporation that exists only on paper and has no office and no employees, but may have a bank account or may hold passive investments or be the registered owner of assets, such as intellectual property, or s ...
registered in
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
.
By June 1988, Toolworks had 45 employees.
Shortly thereafter, the company acquired developers
IntelliCreations (of
Chatsworth, California
Chatsworth is a suburban neighborhood in the City of Los Angeles, California, in the San Fernando Valley.
The area was home to Native Americans, some of whom left caves containing rock art. Chatsworth was explored and colonized by the Spanish be ...
) in August 1988 and DS Technologies (of
West Chicago, Illinois
West Chicago is a city in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. The population was 27,086 at the 2010 census. It was formerly named Junction and later Turner, after its founder, John B. Turner, president of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroa ...
) in February 1989.
With the acquisition of IntelliCreations, Toolworks announced that it would move its headquarters to Chatsworth.
Toolworks also agreed with manufacturer
Vendex
Maxeda is a Dutch retail company owned by American investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Activities
Maxeda DIY Group is the market leader in the DIY segment and has 345 stores in the Benelux and more than 7,000 employees. Most stores h ...
to have Toolworks' games included with Vendex's machines.
''
Life & Death'', a surgery simulation game was released in 1988. In 1989, the company released ''
Beyond the Black Hole'', a stereoscopic 3-D arcade game that came with 3-D glasses.
By 1989, ''Chessmaster'' games and ''Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing'' had collectively sold 750,000 through retail and licensing deals.
Looking to get a hold of a development license for
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
platforms, which were difficult to obtain, Toolworks acquired
Mindscape, an existing license holder based in
Northbrook, Illinois
Northbrook is a suburb of Chicago, located at the northern edge of Cook County, Illinois, United States, on the border of Lake County, Illinois, Lake County. Per the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 35,222.
When incorpo ...
, in March 1990.
Using Mindscape's license, Toolworks released a follow-up to ''Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing'' focused on
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
teaching: ''
Miracle Piano Teaching System
''The Miracle Piano Teaching System'' is educational software which uses a MIDI keyboard to teach how to play the piano. It was published in 1990 by The Software Toolworks for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES, Macintosh, Amiga, Seg ...
''.
The application came with a physical pressure-sensitive
keyboard
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
, which Toolworks had ordered 100,000 of.
The required quantity was overestimated and many keyboards were damaged in transit, causing high financial losses for Toolworks.
In April 1990, Elizabeth Barker became the
president
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
and
chief operating officer
A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the "C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...
(COO) of Toolworks, succeeding Crane (who remained
chairman
The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...
and
chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
) in the president role, and was succeeded herself in both roles by Robert Lloyd in November 1990. In September 1990, Toolworks moved from Chatsworth to
Novato
Novato (Spanish for "Novatus") is a city in Marin County, California, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area. At the 2020 census, Novato had a population of 53,225.
History
What is now Novato was originally the site of several Coast Miwok ...
.
While in talks with Japanese
original equipment manufacturer
An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...
s (OEMs) in Japan, the
chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
of
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
introduced Abrams to
CD-ROM drive
A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced ...
s; CD-ROM discs could store high capacities of data but drives for them were uncommon in households at the time.
Developer
LucasArts
Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as ...
had completed three CD-ROM games but struggled to sell them.
In 1992, Toolworks licensed the games from LucasArts and had them distributed with new PCs by the Japanese OEMs.
Within one month, this led to more sales of these games than LucasArts had achieved in the two years prior.
The period from 1992-1993 saw the release of several titles: ''
Star Wars Chess'',
''
Mario's Time Machine
''Mario's Time Machine'' is an educational video game originally released for MS-DOS and then for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES consoles. The Software Toolworks both developed and published the MS-DOS and Super NES versions in 1 ...
'', ''
Mario's Early Years!
The ''Mario's Early Years!'' series is a trilogy of point-and-click educational games released on MS-DOS and Super Nintendo Entertainment System by The Software Toolworks. The three games consist of ''Fun with Letters'', ''Fun with Numbers'' and ' ...
'', ''
Legend
A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human valu ...
'',
''
San Diego Zoo Presents: The Animals!'',
and the PC version of ''
Ultimate Domain
''Ultimate Domain'', known as ''Genesia'' in Europe, is a computer game developed by Microïds and published by Mindscape initially on the Commodore Amiga in 1993 and then ported for the IBM PC in 1994. The original Amiga version is known to be ...
''.
Toolworks continued to grow further, to 600 employees by 1994, when it was generating annual
revenue
In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business.
Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive reven ...
s of .
That May, the company was acquired by British media company
Pearson plc
Pearson plc is a British multinational corporation, multinational publishing and education company headquartered in London, England.
It was founded as a construction business in the 1840s but switched to publishing in the 1920s.J. A. Spende ...
for .
Shortly thereafter, by November, Toolworks had assumed the Mindscape moniker for all of its operations, which is considered the end of Toolworks.
Games
* ''Airport'' (1980)
* ''Mychess'' (1980)
* ''
ELIZA
ELIZA is an early natural language processing computer program created from 1964 to 1966 at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by Joseph Weizenbaum. Created to demonstrate the superficiality of communication between humans and machines, E ...
'' (1981)
* ''Munchkin'' (1981)
* ''
Adventure
An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...
'' (1982)
* ''
Golden Oldies: Volume 1 - Computer Software Classics'' (1985)
* ''
Chessmaster 2000
''The Chessmaster 2000'' is a computer chess game by The Software Toolworks. It was the first in the ''Chessmaster'' series and published in 1986. It was released for Amiga, Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Ams ...
'' (1986)
* ''
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing!'' (1987)
* ''
The Fidelity Chessmaster 2100
''The Fidelity Chessmaster 2100'' is a 1988 video game published by The Software Toolworks.
Gameplay
''The Fidelity Chessmaster 2100'' is a game in which 110 classic chess games from 1834 to 1988 are included.
Reception
Roy Wagner reviewed the g ...
'' (1988)
* ''
Life & Death'' (1988)
* ''
The Hunt for Red October
''The Hunt for Red October'' is the debut novel by American author Tom Clancy, first published on October 1, 1984, by the Naval Institute Press. It depicts Soviet submarine captain Marko Ramius as he seemingly goes rogue with his country's cutt ...
'' (1988)
* ''
Cribbage King / Gin King
''Cribbage King / Gin King'' is a 1989 video game published by The Software Toolworks.
Gameplay
''Cribbage King / Gin King'' is a game in which the computer card game package can be either keyboard or mouse driven and can be customized.
Recepti ...
'' (1989)
* ''
Beyond the Black Hole'' (1989)
* ''
The Chessmaster
''Chessmaster'' is a chess-playing computer game series, which is owned and developed by Ubisoft. It is the best-selling chess franchise in history, with more than five million units sold .
Timeline
*1986: '' The Chessmaster 2000''. First pub ...
'' (1989)
* ''
Bruce Lee Lives'' (1989)
* ''Orb-3D'' (1990)
* ''The Games People Play: Gin ∙ Cribbage ∙ Checkers ∙ Backgammon'' (1990)
* ''
Life & Death II: The Brain'' (1990)
* ''
Miracle Piano Teaching System
''The Miracle Piano Teaching System'' is educational software which uses a MIDI keyboard to teach how to play the piano. It was published in 1990 by The Software Toolworks for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES, Macintosh, Amiga, Seg ...
'' (1990)
* ''The Big Deal'' (1991)
* ''
The Chessmaster 3000'' (1991)
* ''
Legend
A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human valu ...
'' (1992)
* ''
Mario is Missing!
''Mario Is Missing!'' is a 1993 educational game developed and published by The Software Toolworks for MS-DOS, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System, later released on Macintosh in 1994. The player controls Luig ...
'' (1992)
* ''
Mario's Early Years: Fun With Letters'' (1993)
* ''
Capitol Hill
Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...
'' (1993)
* ''
The Chessmaster 4000 Turbo'' (1993)
* ''
Star Wars Chess'' (1993)
* ''
Mario's Time Machine
''Mario's Time Machine'' is an educational video game originally released for MS-DOS and then for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES consoles. The Software Toolworks both developed and published the MS-DOS and Super NES versions in 1 ...
'' (1993)
* ''
MegaRace'' (1993)
* ''
Mario's Early Years: Fun with Numbers'' (1994)
* ''
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing! for Kids'' (1994)
* ''
Mario's Early Years: Preschool Fun'' (1994)
* ''
Ultimate Domain
''Ultimate Domain'', known as ''Genesia'' in Europe, is a computer game developed by Microïds and published by Mindscape initially on the Commodore Amiga in 1993 and then ported for the IBM PC in 1994. The original Amiga version is known to be ...
'' (1994)
* ''Evasive Action'' (1994)
* ''Maniac Sports'' (1994)
* ''Space Shuttle'' (1994)
* ''
Al Unser Jr.'s Road to the Top'' (1994)
* ''
NCAA Football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most o ...
'' (1994)
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Software Toolworks, The
1980 establishments in California
1994 disestablishments in California
Video game companies based in California
Video game companies disestablished in 1994
Video game companies established in 1980
Video game development companies