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Magnetic Scrolls, was a British company that developed games between 1984 and 1990. It was a pioneer in conversational adventure games and audiovisually developed games and one of the largest and most acclaimed companies in the development of interactive fiction in the 1980s. , after Infocom.
Information
Company template:
- Anita Sinclair (Co-Founder)
- Ken Gordon (Director)
- Hugh Steers (Programmer)
The story begins when Ken Gordon meets Anita Sinclair through an Apple user group. Anita was a fan of Infocom adventures, and she was interested in creating her own video game company. In 1983 they decide to create the company and finance it with Anita's savings.
In the 1984s, she began the creation of the company in London. She was dedicated to making games for the Sinclair QL computers, before her decision to enter the world of Atari and Amiga computers. After securing a deal with “Rainbird” company, another British company, they start work and produce an ambitious text adventure game that would become the famous “The Pawn”.
Rainbird likes the new game, but wants to add graphics to it, but Magnetic Scrolls was reluctant to create them, but after Rainbird shows them Geoff Quill's works, they decide to create the images, helping to make the game “The Pawn” a success in its history. launch. This is when they decide to port the game to various 8 and 16 bit computer systems. The graphic designs of their games were inspired by realistic landscapes.
One of the biggest sales of their games was in addition to the advanced text parser, gripping scripts, and exquisite packaging, the high-resolution artwork that accompanied many of the game's locations.
Magnetic Scrolls, closes in an ambitious project called “Wonderland”, was based on the work of Lewis Carroll, where the team of programmers begins to write a new interpreter called Magnetic Windows for the Amiga, Atari ST and Microsoft Windows. Instead of using off-the-shelf products or routine they did what they had always done before: write their own system. It was an expensive decision, but they managed to finish their project, and Virgin Mastertronic published it in 1990, but it was the last original Magnetic Scrolls game.
In 1991 Virgin published a reissue of all the games including a collection designated Volume 1. The rereleases were updated to take advantage of the windows magnetic interpreter.
In 1992 Magnetic Scrolls went bankrupt and was bought by Microprose, who did very little with the rights they had bought.
Not all the games were equally successful since their sale was more expensive due to the great team between designers, writers and programmers.
In 1985 they released The Pawn (Rainbird), in 1987 The Guild of Thieves (Rainbird), in 1987 Jinxter (Rainbird), in 1988 Corruption (Rainbird), in 1988 Fish! (Rainbird), in 1989 Myth (Rainbird), in 1990 Wonderland (Virgin Interactive).
Anita Sinclair Co-Founder of the company
Software
Among his famous games for the PCW, we find the following:
- Corruption
- Jinxter
- Myth
- The Guild of Thieves
- The Pawn
- Wonderland