Editing Telecomsoft (section)

=== Rainbird ===
[[File:Telecomsoft-rainbird-software-fair-use-220px.png|thumb|right|220px]]
The Rainbird label was established in November 1985<ref name='pcw141185'>{{cite magazine |title=BT forms Rainbird to attack US|magazine=Popular Computing Weekly |volume=4|issue=45 |publisher=Sunshine Publications |date=14 November 1985|page=4|url=https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.php?issue_id=2883&page=4|access-date=25 April 2020}}</ref>  by Tony Rainbird. For legal reasons, the label's original name, Bluebird, had to be changed, although it still retained Tony Rainbird's original idea of releasing all its games in striking blue packaging.<ref name=onlykidding />

The 16-bit home computer market, largely represented by the Atari ST and Amiga, was just beginning to take off in 1986 and the Rainbird label was an ideal opportunity to capitalise on it. Rather than concentrate on the more simplistic arcade action games that had dominated the 8-bit era, Rainbird aimed to introduce cutting edge simulators, adventure games and utilities to the full-price market.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://birdsanctuary.co.uk/history-rainbird-software/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151110060543/http://birdsanctuary.co.uk/history-rainbird-software/ |archive-date=10 November 2015 |title=The History of Rainbird Software - The Bird Sanctuary}}</ref>

Rainbird formed partnerships with a number of developers who would produce their next range of games. [[Magnetic Scrolls]] and [[Argonaut Software]] were amongst the first developers to benefit from a publishing deal with the label. [[Realtime Games]], a successful ZX Spectrum developer who specialised in fast 3D action games, converted ''[[Starglider]]'' to the ZX Spectrum and developed ''[[Carrier Command]]''.

The company republished enhanced versions of adventure games by [[Level 9 Computing]], beginning with their ''[[Middle-earth]]'' trilogy: ''[[Colossal Cave Adventure|Colossal Adventure]]'' (itself an enhanced conversion of ''Adventure'' by Will Crowther and Don Woods), ''Adventure Quest'' and ''Dungeon Adventure'', these last two featuring the Demon Lord [[Agaliarept]]. Rainbird published this sequence as ''Jewels of Darkness''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.crashonline.org.uk/36/jewels.htm |title = CRASH 36 - Jewels of Darkness}}</ref> and references to [[Middle-earth]] were expunged. Rainbird also published Level 9's ''[[Silicon Dreams trilogy|Silicon Dreams]]'' trilogy: ''Snowball'' was followed by ''Return to Eden'' and ''The Worm in Paradise''.

MicroProse continued to use the Rainbird label for a number of years, after its acquisition of Telecomsoft.