Delta 4

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This article is about the UK company. For the space launch vehicle, see Delta IV rocket.

DELTA 4 was a British software developer created by Fergus McNeill, writing and publishing interactive fiction.

Deliberate mischief or bizarre natural disaster, DELTA 4 came into being on or around 1984 as a result of certain events in the home computer industry and not, as some have unkindly suggested, as a punishment from the Gods. The events included the advent of Sir Clive Sinclair’s affordable ZX Spectrum home computer, the discovery of that classic game "The Hobbit" from Melbourne House, and Gilsoft’s text-adventure authoring system "The Quill". This lethal cocktail of hardware and software was the catalyst for a group of 16 year-olds at Swanmore Secondary School in the south of England to start their own software house (or software room, to be precise).

Held together by a school camerarderie and a series of wild parties, the early DELTA 4 team had no formal structure but included at various times Fergus McNeill, Judith Child, Colin Buckett, Ian Willis, Jason Somerville, Jonathan Walker, Andy "Zippy" Routledge, and Andrew "Spud" Sprunt. Operating secretly from Fergus’ bedroom, the young company experimented with a number of inconspicuous games before resorting to parody as a theme.

Poking fun at other Spectrum games, DELTA 4’s "Quest For The Holy Joystick" found favour with the UK computer press and generated almost enough revenue (£50!) to finance a sequel, "Return Of The Joystick" but it was the release of the multi-award-winning "Bored Of The Rings" that put the company in the spotlight.

A publishing deal with CRL / Silversoft saw "Bored", "Robin Of Sherlock" and "The Boggit" forced on many thousands of unsuspecting customers but worse was yet to come. Approached by Macmillan Publishers to produce a game for their new Piranha label, DELTA 4 hoodwinked author Terry Pratchett into letting them adapt his first Discworld book, "The Colour Of Magic". Fortunately, the experience didn’t prevent Terry from going on to become one of the most brilliant and successful comedy writers of all time.

The last game released under the DELTA 4 label was "The Big Sleaze", a Chandler-esque detective spoof published by Piranha. After this, a sister company Abstract Concepts was set up to develop more serious adventures. Several titles were developed although not all of them were released, due to the unexpected conclusion of Abstract Concepts’ relationship with publishers Activision (but that’s another story, and one that could easily be adapted into a steamy TV mini-series).

Although one last comedy game "The Smirking Horror" was developed, it was never released. The DELTA 4 name has all but faded into history but its spirit lives on in games like "Kingdom O' Magic", and the Star Wars parody novel Star Drawers.