Artic Computing was a software development company based in Brandesburton,

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

from 1980 to 1986. The company's first games were for the

Sinclair ZX81 The ZX81 is a home computer that was produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and designed to be a low- ...

home computer, but they expanded and were also responsible for various

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 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 ...

BBC Micro The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a family of microcomputers developed and manufactured by Acorn Computers in the early 1980s as part of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project. Launched in December 1981, it was showcased across severa ...

Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron (nicknamed the Elk inside Acorn and beyond) was introduced as a lower-cost alternative to the BBC Micro educational/home computer, also developed by Acorn Computers, to provide many of the features of that more expensive mach ...

and

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for "Colour Personal Computer") is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spec ...

computer games. The company was set up by Richard Turner and Chris Thornton. Charles Cecil, who later founded Revolution Software, joined the company shortly after it was founded, writing Adventures B through D. Developer Jon Ritman produced a number of ZX81 and Spectrum games for Artic before moving to

Ocean Software Ocean Software Limited was a British software development company that became one of the biggest European video game developers and publishers of the 1980s and 1990s. The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods and was based in Manchest ...

. Usually packaging and distributing games themselves, some titles were picked up by Sinclair who repackaged them under the Sinclair brand, and

Amstrad Amstrad plc was a British consumer electronics company, founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar. During the 1980s, the company was known for its Home computer, home computers beginning with the Amstrad CPC and later also the ZX Spectrum range after the ...

who repackaged them under their Amsoft brand. Adventures A through D were written for the

ZX81 The ZX81 is a home computer that was produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and designed to be a low-c ...

but were quickly ported to the ZX Spectrum platform on its release (as well as other systems). By comparison with later Spectrum adventure games such as ''

The Hobbit ''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the ...

'', they are basic and short. However they are considered by many to be the start of the adventure game genre on the Spectrum in particular and thus were an important step in the growth of adventure games.

Games

*''Sword of Peace'' (1980): ZX80, ZX81 *'' Adventure A: Planet of Death'' (1981): ZX81, ZX Spectrum, C64, Amstrad CPC *''Adventure B: Inca Curse'' (1981): ZX81, ZX Spectrum, C64, Amstrad CPC *''Zombies'' (1981): ZX81 *''ZX Chess'' (1981): ZX81 *''

1K ZX Chess ''1K ZX Chess'' is a 1982 chess program for the unexpanded Sinclair ZX81. Description ''1K ZX Chesss code takes up only 672 bytes in memory, but implements chess rules except for castling, promotion (chess), promotion, and en passant, including ...

'' (1982): ZX81 *''Adventure C: Ship of Doom'' (1982): ZX81, ZX Spectrum, C64, Amstrad CPC *''Adventure D: Espionage Island'' (1982): ZX81, ZX Spectrum, C64, Amstrad CPC *''Invaders'' (1982): ZX Spectrum *''Namtir Raiders'' (1982): ZX81 *''ZX-Galaxians'' (1982): ZX81 *''3D Combat Zone'' (1983): ZX Spectrum *''Adventure E: The Golden Apple'' (1983): ZX Spectrum *'' Bear Bovver'' (1983): ZX Spectrum, C64 *''Cosmic Debris'' (1983): ZX Spectrum *''Dimension Destructors'' (1983): ZX Spectrum *''Adventure F: The Eye of Bain'' (1984): ZX Spectrum *''Adventure G: Ground Zero'' (1984): ZX Spectrum *''Engineer Humpty'' (1984): ZX Spectrum, C64 *''Humpty Dumpty in the Garden'' (1984): ZX Spectrum, C64 *''Humpty Dumpty Meets the Fuzzy Wuzzies'' (1984): ZX Spectrum, C64 *''Mothership'' (1984): ZX Spectrum, C64 *''Mr Wong's Loopy Laundry'' (1984): ZX Spectrum, C64, Amstrad CPC, MSX *''Mutant Monty'' (1984): ZX Spectrum, C64, Amstrad CPC *''World Cup Football'' (1984): ZX Spectrum, C64, Amstrad CPC (reworked as '' World Cup Carnival'' by U.S. Gold in 1986) *''Adventure H: Robin Hood'' (1985): ZX Spectrum (released only as part of the ''Assemblage'' compilation) *''Aladdin's Cave'' (1985): ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC *''International Rugby'' (1985): ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC *''Assemblage'' (1986): ZX Spectrum (compilation, includes four games) **''Harry Hare's Lair'' **''Mutant Monty and the Temple of Doom'' **'' Curse of the Seven Faces'' **''Robin Hood'' *''

Obsidian Obsidian ( ) is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Produced from felsic lava, obsidian is rich in the lighter element ...

'' (1986): Amstrad CPC *''Paws'' (1985): ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC *''Web War'' (1985): Acorn Electron, BBC Micro; similar to '' Tempest'' *''Rugby Manager'' (1986): ZX Spectrum *''The Great Wall '' (1986): Acorn Electron, BBC Micro; similar to ''

Hunchback Kyphosis () is an abnormally excessive convex curvature of the spine as it occurs in the thoracic and sacral regions. Abnormal inward concave ''lordotic'' curving of the cervical and lumbar regions of the spine is called lordosis. It can ...

'' *''Voodoo Rage'' (1986): Amstrad CPC *''Woks'' (1986): Acorn Electron, BBC Micro

Adventure Games Development

The

parser Parsing, syntax analysis, or syntactic analysis is a process of analyzing a string of symbols, either in natural language, computer languages or data structures, conforming to the rules of a formal grammar by breaking it into parts. The term '' ...

in their adventures is of a basic 2-word design, such as "Use Axe". However the programs from adventures A-F were built using a custom built design. Adventure G (Ground Zero) and later were built using The Quill, an Adventure Game Creator produced by Gilsoft.

Programming and utilities

* ''Artic Forth'' (1982) Forth programming language * ''ZX Assembler'' (1982) * ''Toolkit'' (1982)

References

* {{cite web , url=https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/list?label_id=1318 , title=Artic Computing Ltd , accessdate=2023-01-13 , work=SpectrumComputing.co.uk

External links

Artic Computing at Adventureland
Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom