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| Founded By: | Acorn Computers Ltd |
| Location: | 4a Market Hall Cambridge CB2 3NI England |
| Year Started: | 1983 |
| Year Wound Up: | 1986 |
| Titles in Database: | 73 |
| Rights Now With: | Superior Software/Superior Interactive (1986-) |
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| Acornsoft was the software arm of Acorn Computers, and a major publisher of software for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron. As well as games, they also produced a large number of educational titles, extra computer languages and business and utility packages - these included ROM-based word processor VIEW and the spreadsheet ViewSheet which Acorn supplied on ROM chips/cartridges for the BBC Micro/Acorn Electron and included as standard in the BBC Master and Acorn Business Computer.
While many of their games were clones or remakes of popular arcade games (e.g. Hopper is a clone of Sega's Frogger, Snapper is Namco's Pac-Man, Arcadians is Namco's Galaxian), they also published a number of original, innovative titles (such as Revs and Elite) that went on to spawn entire genres that live on to this day. |
Titles per Year
Breakdown by Genre
Breakdown by Platform
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Added: 21 May 2013
Acornsoft was the software arm of Acorn Computers, and a major publisher of software for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron. As well as games, they also produced a large number of educational titles, extra computer languages and business and utility packages - these included ROM-based word processor VIEW and the spreadsheet ViewSheet which Acorn supplied on ROM chips/cartridges for the BBC Micro/Acorn Electron and included as standard in the BBC Master and Acorn Business Computer.
While many of their games were clones or remakes of popular arcade games (e.g. Hopper is a clone of Sega's Frogger, Snapper is Namco's Pac-Man, Arcadians is Namco's Galaxian), they also published a number of original, innovative titles (such as Revs and Elite) that went on to spawn entire genres that live on to this day.
Acornsoft also published a number of text adventure games by authors such as Peter Killworth, including Philosopher's Quest and Countdown to Doom, that remain highly regarded within the interactive fiction community.
Although Acorn continued releasing office software in the VIEW family under the Acornsoft name for the BBC Master series, Superior Software obtained some publication rights for some of the Acornsoft games in 1986. Several Acornsoft games were re-released by Superior, often as part of compilations such as the Play It Again Sam and Acornsoft Hits series. By agreement, the Acornsoft brand was also used on the packaging of some of the subsequent Superior games. Superior chose not to take on Acornsoft's text adventure games, most of which were released in updated versions by Topologika along with some sequels from the same authors. |
Added: 21 May 2013
Acheton - A text adventure
Arcadians - A Galaxian clone
Aviator - A Spitfire flight simulator. With aliens...
Bouncer - A Q*Bert clone
Business Games - An educational package
Carousel - A Carnival clone
Castle of Riddles - A text adventure
Countdown to Doom - A text adventure; first in a trilogy (although sequels Return to Doom and Last Days of Doom were not published by Acornsoft)
Crazy Tracer - An Amidar clone
Drogna - Strategy game based on a section of the BBC TV game show The Adventure Game.
Elite - A 3D space battle and trading game
Firebug - A platform and ladders game
Free Fall - Survival game set in an out of control space station
Gateway to Karos - A text adventure
Hopper - A Frogger clone
JCB Digger - A scrolling 2D dig-em-up
Kingdom of Hamil - A text adventure
Labyrinth - A 2D maze based shoot-em-up
Magic Mushrooms - A platform and ladders game with built-in level editor
Meteor Mission - A Lunar Rescue clone
Meteors - An Asteroids clone
Missile Base - A Missile Command clone
Monsters - A Space Panic clone
Philosopher's Quest - A text adventure
Planetoid - A Defender clone originally released as Defender
Revs - A Formula Three racing car simulation
Rocket Raid - A Scramble clone
Snapper - A Pac-Man clone
Sphinx Adventure - A text adventure
Starship Command - A 2D space battle game
Super Invaders - A Space Invaders clone
Volcano - A game in which you rescue people from the other side of an active volcano with a helicopter | The Retro Isle team
Added: 2 Feb 2026
Click here to view a list of titles we have in the database here at Retro Isle. | |
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