Editing Imagine Software

{{Short description|Former British video games developer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Imagine Software
| logo = Imagine.jpeg
| type = 
| genre = 
| fate = Bankrupt
| predecessor = 
| successor = {{Unbulleted list|Beau Jolly|[[Ocean Software]]|[[Psygnosis Limited]]}}
| foundation = {{Start date and age|df=yes|1982|9|17}}
| founders = {{Unbulleted list|Mark Butler|David Lawson}}
| defunct = {{End date and age|df=yes|1984|7|9}}<ref name=PCW19Jul84>{{cite news| title=Imagine in hands of receiver| date=19 July 1984| url=http://www.zxsoftware.co.uk/8bitgamer/?cat=39| work=[[Popular Computing Weekly]]| access-date=17 December 2008| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081028125837/http://www.zxsoftware.co.uk/8bitgamer/?cat=39| archive-date=28 October 2008}}</ref>
| location_city = [[Merseyside]]
| location_country = [[United Kingdom]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mobygames.com/company/imagine/trivia|title=Trivia for Imagine|access-date=4 May 2018|archive-date=11 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711092732/https://www.mobygames.com/company/imagine/trivia|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| location = 
| locations = 
| area_served = United Kingdom
| key_people = {{Unbulleted list|Ian Hetherington|David Lawson|Mark Butler|Bruce Everiss}}
| industry = [[Video game industry|Video games]]
| products = [[Personal computer game|Computer games]]
| services = 
| market cap = 
| revenue = 
| operating_income = 
| net_income = 
| aum = 
| assets = 
| equity = 
| owner = 
| num_employees = 80<ref name=PCW5Jul84>{{cite news| title=Bitter split breaks Imagine| date=5 July 1984| url=http://www.zxsoftware.co.uk/8bitgamer/?p=50| work=[[Popular Computing Weekly]]| access-date=17 December 2008| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717100651/http://www.zxsoftware.co.uk/8bitgamer/?p=50| archive-date=17 July 2011}}</ref>
| parent = 
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| subsid = 
| homepage = 
| footnotes = 
| intl = 
}}

'''Imagine Software''' was a British [[video games developer]] based in [[Liverpool]] which existed briefly in the early 1980s, initially producing software for the [[ZX Spectrum]] and [[VIC-20]]. The company rose quickly to prominence and was noted for its polished, high-budget approach to packaging and advertising (at a time when this was not commonplace in the British software industry), as well as its self-promotion and ambition.

Following Imagine's high-profile demise under mounting debts in 1984, the name was bought and used as a label by [[Ocean Software]] until the late 1980s.

==History==

===Founding and early success===
Imagine Software was founded in 1982 by former members of [[Bug-Byte]] Mark Butler and David Lawson. Butler and programmer Eugene Evans had previously worked at Microdigital, one of the first computer stores in the UK.<ref name='bbc_crash' /> The owner of Microdigital, Bruce Everiss, was invited to join the company to run the company day-to-day and run the PR department.<ref>{{Cite web |author=<!-- Staff writer (s); no by-line --> |title=Bruce Everiss |url=https://www.retrogamer.net/profiles/developer/bruce-everiss/ |date=2014-08-22 |access-date=2021-09-02 |website=Retro Gamer |publisher=Future Publishing}}</ref> Imagine Software produced several very successful games, including ''[[Arcadia (video game)|Arcadia]]''<ref name='bbc_crash' /> for the [[Vic 20]] and [[ZX Spectrum]], throughout 1982 and 1983, but some games shipped with serious, game-breaking bugs. The company grew in size through this period, at one point employing upwards of 80 people, a large number for its time, and splashed out large sums of money on company cars and the founding of a racing team to race in the Isle of Man TT race.<ref>{{Cite web|title=» imagine The Digital Antiquarian|url=https://www.filfre.net/tag/imagine/|access-date=2020-10-09|language=en-US}}</ref>

===Financial troubles and demise===
Rumours of Imagine's financial situation began to circulate in December 1983 following the revelations that an estimated £50,000 of its advertising bills had not been paid.<ref name=Crash7.84>{{cite news | title=The Bubble Bursts | date=August 1984 | publisher=[[Newsfield Publications Ltd]] | url =http://www.crashonline.org.uk/07/news.htm | work =[[Crash (magazine)|Crash]] | access-date =18 December 2008 }}</ref> The following year the debts mounted, with further advertising and [[magnetic tape|tape]] duplication bills going unpaid, and Imagine was forced to sell the rights to its games to Beau Jolly in order to raise money. The company then achieved nationwide notoriety when it was filmed by a [[BBC]] [[documentary film|documentary]] crew while in the process of going spectacularly [[bankruptcy|bust]].<ref name=bbc_crash>{{cite news | first=Roger | last=Kean | title=The Biggest Commercial Break of Them All | date=December 1984 | publisher=[[Newsfield Publications Ltd]] | url=http://www.crashonline.org.uk/12/imagine.htm | work=[[Crash (magazine)|Crash]] | access-date=17 December 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190105132126/http://www.crashonline.org.uk/12/imagine.htm | archive-date=5 January 2019 | url-status=dead }}</ref> Mark Butler also made an appearance on [[Thames Television]]'s ''Daytime'' programme in 1984, talking about his experience of having been a millionaire who lost his money at a young age.

On 28 June 1984 a [[writ]] was issued against Imagine by [[VNU Business Press]] for money owed for advertising in ''[[Personal Computer Games]]'' magazine, and the company was wound up on 9 July 1984 at the [[High Court of Justice|High Court]] in [[London]] after it was unable to raise the £10,000 required to pay this debt (though by this time its total debts ran to hundreds of thousands of pounds).<ref name=PCW19Jul84 /><ref name=PCW5Jul84 />

===Legacy===
Former programmers went on to establish [[Psygnosis]] and [[Denton Designs]].<ref name='bbc_crash' /> The company's back catalogue was owned by Beau Jolly, who in turn later sold those rights to Subvert, while rights to the Imagine label were acquired by [[Ocean Software]], which primarily used it to publish [[home computer]] conversions of popular [[arcade games]].

===In other media===
The ''[[Black Mirror]]'' [[interactive film]] ''[[Black Mirror: Bandersnatch|Bandersnatch]]'', released in 2018, alludes to Imagine Software and the failed work to produce ''Bandersnatch''. The film starts on 9 July 1984, the date of Imagine's closure, and includes a shot of the cover of ''[[Crash (magazine)|Crash]]'' reporting on the closure. Within the film, the fictional software company Tuckersoft, which had developed both [[Commodore 64]] and ZX Spectrum games, places its financial future on the attempt to produce ''Bandersnatch'', and in some scenarios falls into bankruptcy after the game fails to appear.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/film/black-mirrors-bandersnatch-game-real-13785695|title=Black Mirror's Bandersnatch game was real - and truth about Jerome F. Davies|work=[[Daily Mirror]]|last=Rowney|first=Jo-Anne|date=28 December 2018|access-date=28 December 2018}}</ref><ref name="telegraph speculation">{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/bandersnatch-solving-riddle-black-mirrors-secret-christmas-episode/ |title=What is Bandersnatch? Solving the riddle of Black Mirror's secret Christmas episode |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|last=Vincent |first=Alice |date=20 December 2018 |access-date=25 December 2018}}</ref>

==Megagames==

Imagine had intended to develop six so-called "Megagames", the most well-known of which were ''Psyclapse'' and ''Bandersnatch''. These games were designed to push the boundaries of the hardware of the time, even to the extent that they were intended to be released with a hardware add-on which would have increased the capabilities of the computer, as well as guarding against [[software piracy|piracy]]. The games were advertised heavily and would have retailed at around £30 – an expensive price tag when the average price of a game at the time was £7.20 – but Imagine's collapse meant that they remained [[vaporware]] and never saw the light of day.<ref name='bbc_crash' /><ref name=YSJun84>{{cite news | first=Paul | last=Walton | title=The Ascent of Everiss | date=5 June 1984 | url =http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jg27paw4/yr04/yr04_88.htm | work =[[Your Sinclair|Your Spectrum]] | access-date =17 December 2008 }}</ref><ref name=GTW64>{{cite web |url=http://gtw64.retro-net.de/Pages/m/Review_Megagames.php |title=Mega Games |access-date=17 December 2008 |last1=Gasking |first1=Frank |first2=Marc |last2=Dawson |first3=Peter |last3=Weighill |work=GTW64 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207150015/http://gtw64.retro-net.de/Pages/m/Review_Megagames.php |archive-date=7 December 2008}}</ref>

During the BBC documentary it was revealed that ''Psyclapse'' was little more than a paper sketch,<ref name='bbc_crash' /> though the name was later used for a sub-label of [[Psygnosis]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://home.iprimus.com.au/danmcpharlin/purpleowl/psygnosis-history.html|title=Psygnosis History|quote=Psyclapse was actually the name of a Commodore 64 game that was never released [but] was to live on as a division of Psygnosis.|access-date=2015-01-01|archive-date=10 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310163033/http://home.iprimus.com.au/danmcpharlin/purpleowl/psygnosis-history.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Most of the concepts originally intended for ''Bandersnatch'' eventually appeared in another Psygnosis game, ''[[Brataccas]]'', for the [[16-bit]] [[Atari ST]], [[Amiga]] and [[Apple Macintosh|Macintosh]] computers.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Making Of: Bandersnatch|website=Edge|date=4 September 2009|url=http://www.edge-online.com/features/making-bandersnatch?page=2|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150102002140/http://www.edge-online.com/features/making-bandersnatch/2/|archive-date=2 January 2015}}</ref>

==Games==

*''[[Arcadia (video game)|Arcadia]]'', 1982
*''[[Wacky Waiters]]'', 1982
*''[[Frantic (video game)|Frantic]]'', 1982
*''Catcha Snatcha'', 1983
*''Schizoids'', 1983
*''[[Ah Diddums]]'', 1983
*''[[Molar Maul]]'', 1983
*''[[Jumping Jack (game)|Jumping Jack]]'' aka ''Leggit!'', 1983
*''[[Zip Zap]]'', 1983
*''[[Zzoom]]'', 1983
*''Bewitched'', 1983
*''[[Stonkers]]'', 1983
*''[[Alchemist (video game)|Alchemist]]'', 1983
*''[[Pedro (video game)|Pedro]]'', 1984
*''[[Cosmic Cruiser]]'', 1984
*''[[BC Bill]]'', 1984<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jg27paw4/yr09/yr09_59.htm|title = Your Spectrum 09 - Joystick Jury}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/industry/publishers/imagine_crash0185.htm The Bubble Bursts] - article from ''[[CRASH (magazine)|CRASH]]'' documenting the fall of Imagine Software
* [http://www.mobygames.com/company/imagine Imagine Software] profile on [[MobyGames]]

[[Category:Defunct companies based in Liverpool]]
[[Category:Video game companies established in 1982]]
[[Category:Video game companies disestablished in 1984]]
[[Category:Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Video game development companies]]
[[Category:1982 establishments in England]]
[[Category:1984 disestablishments in England]]
[[Category:British companies disestablished in 1984]]
[[Category:British companies established in 1982]]