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| Founded By: | Pat Ketchum |
| Location: | 19808 Nordhoff Place, Chatsworth, California, 91311. USA |
| Year Started: | 1980 |
| Year Wound Up: | 1988 |
| Titles in Database: | 15 |
| Rights Now With: | IntelliCreations (1988) |
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| Datasoft, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher founded in 1980 by Pat Ketchum. Based out of Chatsworth, California, Datasoft ported games from arcade systems to personal computers and acquired licenses for games from famous movies and TV shows.
Datasoft developed and published video games for Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64, PC, and Tandy Color Computer systems. The company went into bankruptcy and its name and assets were purchased by two Datasoft executives, Samuel L. Poole and Ted Hoffman. They renamed the company IntelliCreations which distributed Datasoft games until it closed. |
Titles per Year
Breakdown by Genre
Breakdown by Platform
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Added: 14 Nov 2011
When the company first started, there were about 15 in-house programmers. Ketchum was in his late 20's at the time. Ketchum acquired as many trademark licenses as possible. As a result, they published many games from famous tv shows, cartoons and movies. They also ported some games from arcades and other computer systems (Mr. Do and Pooyan).
Sometime after 1987, Samuel L. Poole and Ted Hoffman were some sort of business execs at Datasoft when the company was beginning to fold. These two men bought the left over assets and the name Datasoft and renamed the company Intellicreations. One of Datasofts HUGE investors was Gilette...the razor company. For some reason they pulled out right before the company went under. During its lifetime, Datasoft published some games for the C-64, Tandy, Atari and Apple ][. |
The Retro Isle team
Added: 8 Oct 2025
Click here to view a list of titles we have in the database here at Retro Isle. |
Antic
Added: 21 Mar 2012
Pat Ketchum
Riverboat gambler at DataSoft
By Tay Vaughan
In less than three years of hard work, 29-year-old Pat Ketchum and his team of creative programmers and marketing wizards have built DataSoft into one of the most successful software companies in the home computer industry. ANTIC wanted to find out how they did it and what kind of people they are.
I visited the DataSoft headquarters in Chatsworth, California, a few days before the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which is held every June in Chicago. I knew that DataSoft was a major CES exhibitor, so I expected to have a rushed and straightforward interview with Ketchum, to meet and talk with some of the other DataSoft team members, and to be politely sent on my way to write another of the success stories which are becoming so common in the home computer and electronics industry. It turned out instead to be one of the most interesting interviews I have undertaken.
Meeting me at the Burbank airport, Bridget Hardt brought the first ray of sunshine into this Southern California day. On the DataSoft team for only three months, she is Pat Ketchum's secretary. Bridget drove me through the freeway maze for the twenty minutes to the office.
Pat Ketchum's office is on the outside facing west, and has tinted windows for days when the Los Angeles sun really shines. Bridget introduces us and I settle into an easy chair on the other side of a modestly-large desk. Pat Ketchum and I begin to get acquainted.
ANTIC: You certainly have an impressive operation. How did DataSoft start?
KETCHUM: Actually, I was involved with a very successful distribution company called Unidata Investments. In 1980 Terry Koosed, Bill Morgan, and I tried to buy a software company, but Hayden Publishing ended up with it. We got so excited about what we learned, however, that we knew we wanted to be in this business. We were already into computer hardware with California Computer Systems. We were already into retailing and mail order with H.W. Computers. And we were already into integrated circuits. So at Unidata we had all the ingredients to diversify, and it was my task to organize the new software company DataSoft. We incorporated on June 12, 1980.
Scott Llewellyn, the young Vice President of Marketing, popped his head around the office door and asked "What time do we have to be at the costume studio in Hollywood?" "Everyone should be there at one o'clock," Pat answered, looking at me and asking "You want to come?" I was curious.
ANTIC: I know that Clowns and Balloons is one of DataSoft's popular games, but what's happening?
KETCHUM: [Smiling and with a glint in his brown eyes] We have chartered a big paddle wheeler out of San Pedro for a DataSoft party in two weeks. The company is paying for Mark Twain era costumes, food, and drink. We will be celebrating that we met our quarterly sales goal, that CES is over, and that DataSoft is three years old.
Thinking that a trip to the costume studio might be a chance to gain insight into the "real people" aspects of the company, I ventured that, of course, I'd love to go. It was already becoming clear that these people operated as a team and that they not only worked hard together, they also (importantly) enjoyed each other's company outside of the business environment.
ANTIC: How big is DataSoft?
KETCHUM: We don't release financial figures, but presently we have fifty people on staff and occupy about 22,000 square feet. And we have opened a new office in Milpitas [northern California] headed up by Gary Furr. We have grown 400% over last year's sales. Three years ago there was a "window" for microcomputer software start-up companies and we were there, but for the first six months, I would add, we lost a lot of money until we grew to understand the market. Since then we have been growing very fast.
ANTIC: Did you personally bring all these people together?
KETCHUM: Yes. We're like a big family, and it's something I really enjoy doing. I think that's why it has turned out so well, because it is a lot o |
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