Superior Software

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Superior Software is a software publisher whose titles are mainly computer and video games. It was established in 1982 by Richard Hanson and John Dyson, two graduates of the University of Leeds, England. They had previously programmed software published by Micro Power, and they wrote Superior's first four game releases: three were written by Hanson and one by Dyson.

Describing the early days, Hanson commented:

"We set up Superior Software with just £100 – John and I each put £50 into a company bank account; and we placed a small black-and-white advertisement in one of the early home computer magazines ... £100 was the most money that we would lose from the Superior Software venture if it had not worked out. Anyway we received a very good response to our first advertisement, and the software sales which it generated covered the cost of the advertisement several times over. We started to place larger advertisements in a few magazines, and invited other programmers to send their software to us for evaluation and possible marketing by us."

Superior initially focussed on the machines of Acorn Computers Ltd; and key management personnel have included Steve Botterill, Chris Payne and Steve Hanson.

Major software developers Peter Johnson, Tim Tyler, Martin Edmondson, Nicholas Chamberlain, Kevin Edwards, David Hoskins, Matthew Atkinson, Chris Roberts, Tony Oakden, Peter Scott, Gary Partis, Peter Irvin, Jeremy Smith, David Braben, Ian Bell, Geoff Crammond, Jonathan Griffiths and Nick Pelling have all produced software published by Superior, sometimes released under the joint Superior Software / Acornsoft brandname.

Superior Interactive logo

Superior, under the brandname Superior Interactive, now mainly develops and publishes software for computers running Microsoft Windows; and they have released several updated versions of their popular 1980s hits for that operating system.

Their most well-known games are the Repton series of games, which have sold over 125,000 units in total:

Repton (retitled Repton 1 for the Windows rerelease)
Repton 2
Repton 3 and its extra levels expansions (all included under the Repton 3 name in rereleases):
- Around the World in 40 Screens
- The Life of Repton
- Repton Thru Time
Repton Infinity (not (yet) re-released)

Other notable Superior Software games include Galaforce, Ravenskull, Pipeline, Citadel, Palace of Magic, Exile, Quest, Stryker's Run, Codename: Droid (sequel to Stryker's Run), Ricochet. Superior Interactive has published rereleases Galaforce Worlds, Ravenskull, Pipeline Plus, Ricochet and new game Solid Spheres Deluxe. They have also produced an additional expansion pack of levels for all three modern Repton versions, named Repton Spectacular.