Broderbund Software, Inc. (stylized as Brøderbund) was an American maker of
video game
A video game or computer game is an electronic game 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 generate visual fe ...
s,
educational software
Educational software is a term used for any computer software that is made for an educational purpose. It encompasses different ranges from language learning software to classroom management software to reference software. The purpose of all th ...
, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits ''
Choplifter
''Choplifter'' (stylized as ''Choplifter!'') is a military-themed scrolling shooter developed by Dan Gorlin for the Apple II and published by Broderbund in 1982. It was ported to the Atari 8-bit computers the same year, and also to the VIC-20, C ...
'', ''
Lode Runner
''Lode Runner'' is a 2D puzzle-platform game, developed by Doug Smith and published by Broderbund in 1983. Its gameplay mechanics are similar to ''Space Panic'' from 1980. The player controls a character who must collect all the gold pieces in ...
'', ''
Karateka'', and ''
Prince of Persia
''Prince of Persia'' is a video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner. It is centered around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous Prince, set in ancient and medieval Persia.
The first two ga ...
'' (all of which originated on the
Apple II
Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...
), as well as ''
The Print Shop''—originally for printing signs and banners on Dot matrix printing, dot matrix printers—and the ''
Myst
''Myst'' is a 1993 adventure video game developed by Cyan and published by Broderbund for Mac OS. In the game, the player travels via a special book to a mysterious island called Myst. The player interacts with objects and traverses the ...
'' and ''
Carmen Sandiego
''Carmen Sandiego'' (sometimes referred to as ''Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?'') is a media franchise based on a Carmen Sandiego (video game series), series of computer video games created by the American software company Broderbund. Whi ...
'' games. The company was founded in
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lane County, Oregon, United States. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie River (Oregon), McKenzie and Willamette River, Willamette rivers, ...
, and moved to
San Rafael, California
San Rafael ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Raphael (archangel), St. Raphael", ) is a city in and the county seat of Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of th ...
, then later to
Novato, California
Novato (Spanish language, Spanish for "Novatus") is a city in Marin County, California, United States, situated in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 c ...
. Broderbund was purchased by
SoftKey
SoftKey International (originally SoftKey Software Products, Inc.) was a software company founded by Kevin O'Leary in 1986 in Toronto, Ontario. It was known as The Learning Company from 1995 to 1999 after acquiring The Learning Company an ...
in 1998.
Many of Broderbund's software titles, such as ''
The Print Shop'', ''
PrintMaster'', and ''
Mavis Beacon'', are still published under the name "Brøderbund". Games released by the revived Broderbund are distributed by
Encore, Inc. ''Brøderbund'' is now the brand name for
Riverdeep's graphic design, productivity, and
edutainment
Educational entertainment, also referred to by the portmanteau edutainment, is media designed to education, educate through entertainment. The term has been used as early as 1933. Most often it includes content intended to teach but has inciden ...
titles such as The Print Shop, ''Carmen Sandiego'', ''
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing'',
the Living Books series, and ''
Reader Rabbit
''Reader Rabbit'' is an educational video game franchise created in 1984 by The Learning Company. The series is aimed at children from infancy to the age of nine. In 1998, a spiritual successor series called ''The ClueFinders'' was released f ...
'' titles, in addition to publishing software for other companies, notably
Zone Labs
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. is an
Israeli multinational provider of software and combined hardware and software products for IT security, including network security, endpoint security, cloud security, mobile security, data security a ...
' ''
ZoneAlarm
ZoneAlarm is an internet security software company that provides consumer antivirus and firewall products. ZoneAlarm was developed by Zone Labs, whose CEOs were Kevin Nickel, Mouad Abid and Shahin and the Company was acquired in March 2004 by Ch ...
''.
The company would often release school editions of their games, which contained extra features to allow teachers to use the software to facilitate students' learning.
Etymology
The word "brøderbund" is not an actual word in any language and has never been used as a surname, but is a somewhat loose translation of "
band of brothers" into a mixture of
Danish,
Dutch,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
, and
Swedish. The "ø" in "brøderbund" was used partially as a play on the letter
ø from the
Dano-Norwegian alphabet; however, the letter was mainly referencing the
slashed zero
The slashed zero, , is a representation of the Arabic digit zero ("0") with a slash (punctuation), slash through it. This variant zero glyph is often used to distinguish the digit zero from the Latin script letter O anywhere that the distinctio ...
found in mainframes, terminals, and early personal computers. The three crowns above the logo are also a reference to the lesser national
coat of arms of Sweden
The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Sweden () is the arms of dominion of the Monarchy of Sweden, King of Sweden. It has a greater and a lesser version. The shield displays the "Three Crowns of Sweden" quartering the "Lion of Bjälbo", with an ine ...
.
The company's name is pronounced
instead of the popularly used .
History

Broderbund was founded by brothers
Doug and Gary Carlston in 1980
to market ''
Galactic Empire'', a strategy computer game that Doug Carlston had created in 1979. Before founding the company, Doug was a lawyer and Gary had held several jobs, including teaching Swedish at an American college. Their sister Cathy joined the company a year later from
Lord & Taylor
Lord & Taylor was an American department store chain founded in 1826 by Samuel Lord. It had 86 full-line stores in the Northeastern United States at its peak in the 2000s, and 38 locations at the time of its liquidation in 2021. The Lord & Tay ...
.
Besides Doug and Gary Carlston, their brother Don wrote an Apple II game and invested $500 in the company. ''Galactic Empire'' had many names taken from African languages; a group of merchants was named
Broederbond
The Afrikaner Broederbond (AB) or simply the Broederbond was an exclusively Afrikaner Calvinist and male secret society in South Africa dedicated to the advancement of the Afrikaner people. It was founded by H. J. Klopper, H. W. van der Merw ...
,
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...
for "association of brothers". To emphasize its family origin while avoiding a connection with the
ethnonationalist Afrikaner organization of the same name, the Carlstons altered the spelling when naming their company "Brøderbund".
Gary Carlston said "If we had known we were going to be successful we would not have
hosen that name as we endured a fair bit of criticism because of the South African connection".
The company's original intention was to market software for law offices, with games as a side business. By 1982, Broderbund produced action games which, the company told
Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Eugene Pournelle (; August 7, 1933 – September 8, 2017) was an American scientist in the area of operations research and ergonomics, human factors research, a science fiction writer, essayist, journalist, and one of the first bloggers. ...
, sold much better than strategy games.
Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. invested in the company that year. In 1983, the Carlstons publicly discussed their plans to emphasize home utility software (
Bank Street Writer and other "Bank Street" applications), computer literacy with
The Jim Henson Company
The Jim Henson Company, Inc., formerly known as Muppets, Inc., Henson Associates, Inc., and Jim Henson Productions, Inc. (commonly referred to as Henson), is an American entertainment company located in Los Angeles, California. The company is kn ...
, and
edutainment
Educational entertainment, also referred to by the portmanteau edutainment, is media designed to education, educate through entertainment. The term has been used as early as 1933. Most often it includes content intended to teach but has inciden ...
.
By early 1984 ''InfoWorld'' estimated that Brøderbund was tied with
Human Engineered Software as the world's tenth-largest microcomputer-software company and largest entertainment-software company, with $13 million in 1983 sales.
That year it took over the assets of the well-regarded but financially troubled
Synapse Software. Although intending to keep it running as a business, they were unable to make money from Synapse's products, and closed it down after a year.
Broderbund's
The Print Shop software produced signs and greeting cards. Broderbund started discussions with Unison World about creating an
MS-DOS
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...
version. The two companies could not agree on a contract, but Unison World developed a product with similar function and a similar
user interface
In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fro ...
. Broderbund sued for infringement of their copyright. ''Brøderbund v. Unison'' (1986) became a landmark case in establishing that the
look and feel
In software design, the look and feel of a graphical user interface comprises aspects of its design, including elements such as colors, shapes, layout, and typefaces (the "look"), as well as the behavior of dynamic elements such as buttons, boxes ...
of a software product could be subject to copyright protection.
The company turned down what Gary Carlston later described as "the worldwide rights to
Tetris
''Tetris'' () is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. In ''Tetris'', falling tetromino shapes must be neatly sorted into a pile; once a horizontal line of the game board is filled in, it disa ...
for $50,000".
Sierra On-Line and Broderbund ended merger discussions in March 1991.
By that year Brøderbund had about $50 million in revenue, and 25% share of the education market. ''Carmen Sandiego'' had been its first internally developed product, but the company now developed most of its software; Doug Carlston stated that Brøderbund needed "to control our own sources, to control our future". After an unsuccessful
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
in 1987, the company executed a
private placement
Private placement (or non-public offering) is a funding round of securities which are sold not through a public offering, but rather through a private offering, mostly to a small number of chosen investors. Generally, these investors include frien ...
for 20% of shares with
Jostens.
Broderbund became a public company in November 1991 with the NASDAQ symbol BROD. When it went public The Print Shop comprised 33% of total revenue, and the ''
Carmen Sandiego
''Carmen Sandiego'' (sometimes referred to as ''Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?'') is a media franchise based on a Carmen Sandiego (video game series), series of computer video games created by the American software company Broderbund. Whi ...
'' series 26%.
After considering another merger with
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...
in 1994,
Brøderbund stock price and market capitalization climbed to $72.50 per share by September 1995, and then fell steadily because of continued losses for several years.
The early and mid-1990s saw a video game industry trend of consolidation of development and publishing companies, as rising development costs and pressure from large retailers put pressure on smaller companies.
Brøderbund acquired
PC Globe in July 1992.
It attempted to purchase
The Learning Company
The Learning Company (TLC) was an American educational software company founded in 1980 in Palo Alto, California and headquartered in Fremont, California. The company produced a grade-based line of learning software, edutainment games, and ...
in 1995, but was outbid by
SoftKey
SoftKey International (originally SoftKey Software Products, Inc.) was a software company founded by Kevin O'Leary in 1986 in Toronto, Ontario. It was known as The Learning Company from 1995 to 1999 after acquiring The Learning Company an ...
, who purchased The Learning Company for US$606 million in cash and then adopted its name.
Acquisition
On June 22, 1998, The Learning Company bought Broderbund for about US$420 million in stock.
The acquisition was structured as a stock swap, with The Learning Company issuing 0.80 shares for each share of Brøderbund's, with the purchasing price set at about 21 percent higher than Broderbund's valuation according to its stock price.
The Learning Company then fired five hundred employees at Broderbund the same year, representing 42% of the company's workforce. Doug Carlston explained that in a bid to roll up Broderbund, SoftKey used their previous acquisitions to weaken the company's position in the industry. They allegedly gave a rebate to Mindscape's
PrintMaster, a direct competitor to Broderbund's
Print Shop, that was more than the product was worth.
In 1998, Broderbund agreed a deal with
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...
to develop CD-ROM games based on its
animated cartoons
Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...
, such as ''
Rugrats
''Rugrats'' is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon. The series focuses on a group of toddlers, most prominently Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, and Lil, and their day-to-d ...
''.
In 1999, the combined company was purchased by
Mattel
Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth Handler, ...
for $3.6 billion. Mattel reeled from the financial impact of this transaction, and
Jill E. Barad, the CEO, ended up being forced out in a climate of investor outrage. Mattel sold their game division
Mattel Interactive as well as all its assets in September 2000 to
Gores Technology Group, a private acquisitions firm, for a share of whatever Gores could obtain by selling the company. During this time, Broderbund products were owned by The Learning Company Deutschland GmbH, located in
Oberhaching
Oberhaching is a Municipalities in Germany, municipality in Bavaria, Germany, with 13,638 inhabitants (2020) on an area of . It is located south of Munich city centre and has a 1,250 year history.
Architecture
The most important buildings are ...
, Germany. Headed by Jean-Pierre Nordmann, the company was a subsidiary of The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey), which itself was a wholly owned subsidiary of Gores Technology Group. The company published games under two logos: Blue (Broderbund) and Red (The Learning Company). The "Brøderbund" label was used for "high-quality infotainment, design and lifestyle titles such as Cosmopolitan My Style 2 and PrintMaster", while "The Learning Company" label was used for children's software.
In 2001, Gores sold The Learning Company's entertainment holdings to
Ubi Soft
Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include ''Anno (video game series), Anno'', ' ...
, and most of the other holdings, including the Brøderbund name, to Irish company
Riverdeep. Many of Brøderbund's games, such as the ''
Myst
''Myst'' is a 1993 adventure video game developed by Cyan and published by Broderbund for Mac OS. In the game, the player travels via a special book to a mysterious island called Myst. The player interacts with objects and traverses the ...
'' series, are published by Ubisoft. The ''Brøderbund'' line of products is published by
Encore, Inc. under license from Riverdeep.
Under the terms of the agreement, Encore now manages the Broderbund family of products as well as Brøderbund's direct to consumer business. In May 2010, Encore acquired the assets of Punch! Software.
In 2014, Doug Carlston donated a collection of Brøderbund's business records, software, and a collection of games that includes ''Myst'', ''Prince of Persia'', and ''Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?'' to
The Strong National Museum of Play
The Strong National Museum of Play (also known as just The Strong Museum or simply the Strong) is part of The Strong in Rochester, New York, United States. Established in 1969 and initially based on the personal collection of Rochester native Ma ...
. The Strong National Museum of Play forwarded the collection to the
ICHEG museum for preservation.
In 2017,
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company ( ; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, and reference works. The company is based in the Financial District, Boston, Boston Financial District. It was fo ...
offered the Brøderbund, The Print Shop, Calendar Creator, and ClickArt brands for licensing.
Products
Broderbund scored an early hit with the game ''
Galactic Empire'', written by Doug Carlston for the
TRS-80
The TRS-80 Micro Computer System (TRS-80, later renamed the Model I to distinguish it from successors) is a desktop microcomputer developed by American company Tandy Corporation and sold through their Radio Shack stores. Launched in 1977, it is ...
. The company's first title for the
Apple II
Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...
, ''Tank Command'', was written by the third Carlston brother, Professor Donal Carlston.
The company became a powerhouse in the educational and entertainment software markets with titles like ''Fantavision'', ''
Choplifter
''Choplifter'' (stylized as ''Choplifter!'') is a military-themed scrolling shooter developed by Dan Gorlin for the Apple II and published by Broderbund in 1982. It was ported to the Atari 8-bit computers the same year, and also to the VIC-20, C ...
'', ''
Apple Panic'', ''
Lode Runner
''Lode Runner'' is a 2D puzzle-platform game, developed by Doug Smith and published by Broderbund in 1983. Its gameplay mechanics are similar to ''Space Panic'' from 1980. The player controls a character who must collect all the gold pieces in ...
'', ''
Karateka'', ''
Wings of Fury'', ''
Prince of Persia
''Prince of Persia'' is a video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner. It is centered around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous Prince, set in ancient and medieval Persia.
The first two ga ...
'', ''
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?'', ''
The Guardian Legend
''The Guardian Legend'' is a 1988 hybrid action-adventure/shoot 'em up video game developed by Compile for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It is the sequel to the 1986 MSX game ''Guardic'', and was published and released in Japan by ...
'', ''
Logical Journey of the Zoombinis'', and ''
Myst
''Myst'' is a 1993 adventure video game developed by Cyan and published by Broderbund for Mac OS. In the game, the player travels via a special book to a mysterious island called Myst. The player interacts with objects and traverses the ...
'', which stayed the highest grossing home video game for years.
Broderbund became one of the most dominant publishers in the computer market of the 1980s, releasing video games for virtually all major computer systems in the United States.
Like most early computer gaming developers, Broderbund began as an Apple II-focused company and began expanding to other platforms as time went along. They released IBM PC ports of a few games very early on, however, it was not until after 1985 that Broderbund would seriously develop for PC compatibles. Due to their strong focus on education titles, they were one of a few developers to actively support the
Apple IIGS
The Apple IIGS (styled as II) is a 16-bit personal computer produced by Apple Inc., Apple Computer beginning in September 1986. It is the fifth and most powerful model of the Apple II family. The "GS" in the name stands for "Graphics and Sound" ...
in the late 1980s. Some of the more popular Broderbund titles were licensed to Western European and Japanese developers and ported to systems in those regions. During the 1990s, Brøderbund mostly concentrated on educational titles for PCs and Macintoshes with a few forays into RPGs and strategy games.
Broderbund published the ''
Print Shop'' series of
desktop publishing
Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using dedicated software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online co ...
making programs;
Family Tree Maker (a genealogy program supported by hundreds of CDs of public genealogy data); 3D Home Architect, a program for designing and visualizing family homes; and
Banner Mania, a program for designing and printing multi-page banners. By the end of the 1980s, games represented only a few percent of Broderbund's annual sales, which by then were heavily focused in the productivity arena and early education and learning areas.
Just before being acquired by
The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey), Broderbund spun off its
''Living Books'' series by forming a joint venture with
Random House Publishing. Despite the success and quality of the Living Books series, the joint venture was only marginally successful and was dissolved with The Learning Company deal.
For a brief time, Broderbund was involved in the
video game console
A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can typically be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally ...
market when it published a few games for the
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...
(NES) through its New Ventures Division.
All of Broderbund's games for the NES, including the port of its own franchises ''
Lode Runner
''Lode Runner'' is a 2D puzzle-platform game, developed by Doug Smith and published by Broderbund in 1983. Its gameplay mechanics are similar to ''Space Panic'' from 1980. The player controls a character who must collect all the gold pieces in ...
'', ''
Spelunker'', and ''
Raid on Bungeling Bay'', were developed by
third-party
Third party may refer to:
Business
* Third-party source, a supplier company not owned by the buyer or seller
* Third-party beneficiary, a person who could sue on a contract, despite not being an active party
* Third-party insurance, such as a veh ...
Japanese companies. Broderbund published some titles that were produced by companies that didn't have a North American subsidiary, such as
Irem
is a Japanese video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher and manufacturer of pachinkos. The company has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo.
The full name of the company that uses the brand is Irem Software Enginee ...
's ''
Deadly Towers'',
Compile's ''
The Guardian Legend
''The Guardian Legend'' is a 1988 hybrid action-adventure/shoot 'em up video game developed by Compile for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It is the sequel to the 1986 MSX game ''Guardic'', and was published and released in Japan by ...
'',
Imagineer's ''
The Battle of Olympus'', and ''
Legacy of the Wizard'', the fourth installment in
Nihon Falcom
is a Japanese video game developer, best known for their '' Ys'', '' The Legend of Heroes'', and '' Trails'' series. They are credited with pioneering the action role-playing and Japanese role-playing game genres, as well as popularizing the u ...
's ''
Dragon Slayer'' series.
Broderbund also developed and marketed an ill-fated
motion sensitive NES controller device called the
U-Force, which was operated without direct physical contact between the player and the device. Broderbund also served as distributing agent of Irem's North American NES release of ''
Sqoon'', because Irem didn't yet have its own American operation.
In 1990, Broderbund sold its New Ventures Division, including manufacturing equipment, inventory, and assets, to then-fledgling company
THQ.
Broderbund released in the United States
Arsys Software
Arsys Software (アルシスソフトウェア), later known as Cyberhead (サイバーヘッド), was a Japanese video game software development company active from 1985 to 2001.
Overview
The company was founded as Arsys Software by former Tec ...
's 1986
third-person action RPG shooter ''
WiBArm''.
[ Reprinted from ]
Broderbund briefly had a board game division, which published Don Carlston's
Personal Preference, along with several board game versions of its video games.
See also
*
List of companies based in Oregon
This is a list of companies based in Oregon. Oregon is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, ninth largest by area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 27th most populous of the List of U.S. states, 50 United Stat ...
*
Red Orb Entertainment — Broderbund's game publishing division, later supported by
Mindscape
References
External links
*
Profile at
MobyGames
MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video game
A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...
{{Authority control
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Defunct video game companies of the United States
Video game development companies
Video game publishers
Software companies based in Oregon
Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Video game companies established in 1980
Video game companies disestablished in 1998
Mattel
Software companies established in 1980
Software companies disestablished in 1998
1980 establishments in California
1998 disestablishments in California
Companies based in San Rafael, California
Companies based in Marin County, California
Novato, California
Companies based in Eugene, Oregon
1998 mergers and acquisitions