Bug-Byte

Bug-Byte Software Ltd. was a company founded in 1980 by Tony Baden and Tony Milner,[2] two Oxford chemistry graduates. It was one of the first to develop a range of 8-bit computer games during the early 1980s, for Sinclair, Commodore and other home computer brands, particularly for the Spectrum. Among the better known titles are Manic Miner and Twin Kingdom Valley.[3]

Bug Byte Software Ltd
Typevideo game developer
IndustryVideo games
SuccessorGrandslam Interactive
FoundedMay 1980[1]
DefunctJune 1985
HeadquartersMulberry House, Canning Place Liverpool, England
Key people
Tony Baden, Tony Milner
ProductsComputer games

The company was based in Mulberry House,[4] Canning Place, Liverpool, England, and helped found a number of software houses in that region. In 1983, programmer Eugene Evans and two of the senior staff left to form Imagine Software. Later in the year Matthew Smith, a freelance developer who wrote Manic Miner, left to join Software Projects. In June 1985,[5] after a difficult trading season and a shake-out in the industry, the company went into voluntary liquidation, and the rights to their games and brand were purchased by Argus Press PLC. Argus continued to release both new games and budget versions of their own software under the Bug-Byte name via subsidiary Argus Press Software Ltd. Argus Press Software Ltd became Grandslam Entertainment in 1987 after a management buy-out.[6]

Software products
  • Aardvark (1986)
  • Another Vic in the Wall[7]
  • Aquarius
  • Asteroids[8]
  • Automan (1985)
  • Backgammon
  • Birds and the Bees
  • The Birds and the Bees II: Antics (1985)
  • Bomber Bob
  • BOP! (1986)
  • Break Out
  • Cavern Fighter
  • Chess
  • City Defence (1983)
  • Codename Mat 2
  • Cosmiads
  • Cricket (1985)
  • Diagon (1985)
  • Dictator (1982)[9]
  • Dragon Quest (1982)[10]
  • Droid Dreams (1988)
  • Dunjunz (1987)
  • Elevator Action
  • Flyer Fox (1986)
  • Fridge Frenzy (1985)
  • Galaga (1988)
  • Galaxy Wars (1983)[11]
  • Gladiator
  • Grange Hill
  • Head Start
  • Hoodoo Voodoo (1986)
  • Hunkidory (1986)[12]
  • I-Wizard (1988)
  • Ice Hockey (1985)
  • International Cricket
  • Invaders[13]
  • Jack Attack (1985)
  • Jeep Command (1986)
  • Kat Trap (1987)
  • Kung-Fu (1984)
  • Leaper
  • Little Green Man (1988)
  • Manic Miner (1983)
  • Mazogs
  • Megarok (1987)[14]
  • Miami Dice (1986)
  • Monkey Nuts (1988)[15]
  • Nick Faldo Plays The Open (1987)
  • Old Father Time[16]
  • Orbix The Terrorball[17]
  • Panic
  • Piggy (1988)
  • Pi-R Squared
  • Plan B (1986)[18]
  • Plan B2 (1987)
  • Pool (1983)
  • Rapscallion (1984)
  • Roboto (1986)
  • Rubicon (1987)
  • Savage Pond (1985)
  • Sea Lord[19]
  • Scramble
  • Sky Hawk (1986)
  • Space Invaders[20]
  • Space Pirates[21]
  • Spacewarp[22]
  • Spectres
  • Spellseeker (1987)
  • Split Personalities
  • Squeakaliser
  • Star Force Seven (1985)
  • Star Soldier (1987)
  • Star Trader (1984)
  • Stay Kool
  • Strangeloop[23]
  • STI (Search for Terrestrial Intelligence) (1988)
  • Styx
  • Templeton
  • Tennis (1985)
  • Terramex
  • The Castle (1983)
  • Time Trax (1986)[24]
  • The Damsel and the Beast
  • The Dogboy (1985)
  • The Pay-Off (1984)
  • Turmoil (1984)
  • Twin Kingdom Valley (1983)
  • Uranians (1986)[25]
  • Up up and away (1983)
  • Vic Men (1983)
  • Vic Panic (1983)[26]
  • Zoot (1985)

References
  1. http://www.mobygames.com/company/bug-byte-software-ltd/history
  2. https://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/people/ap7627/bug-byte-software-ltd
  3. https://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/people/ap7627/bug-byte-software-ltd
  4. "Bug-Byte Software Ltd". www.lysator.liu.se. Retrieved 2018-06-26.
  5. http://www.mobygames.com/company/bug-byte-software-ltd/history
  6. https://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/people/ap7627/bug-byte-software-ltd
  7. https://archive.org/stream/commodore-user-magazine-07/Commodore_User_Issue_07_1984_Apr#page/n19/mode/2up
  8. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/12677/Asteroids/
  9. https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.php?cat=96&id=31591
  10. http://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=1623
  11. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/17715/Galaxy-Wars/
  12. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/17723/Hunkidory/
  13. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/6655/Invaders/
  14. http://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=840
  15. http://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=640
  16. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/17718/Old-Father-Time/
  17. http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0003541
  18. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/18720/Plan-B/
  19. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/4285/Sea-Lord/
  20. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/21010/Space-Invaders/
  21. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/17716/Space-Pirates/
  22. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/20796/Spacewarp/
  23. https://worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/games-inlays/Rereleases/s/Strangeloop(Bug-ByteSoftwareLtd).jpg
  24. https://www.generation-msx.nl/software/bug-byte-software/time-trax/2871/
  25. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/17714/Uranians/
  26. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/52426/VIC%20Panic/
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