Ariolasoft

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Ariolasoft was a German computer game developer, publisher and distributor. They released approximately ten games for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Amiga systems, and also were notable for being the distributor for the Sega Master System in Germany between at least 1987 and 1988, but possibly longer.

Ariolasoft was also the publisher for Electronic Arts and Brøderbund in Europe before those companies set up their own European offices. Apart from releasing these titles, Ariolasoft also made the cassette conversions of them, and also developed original titles. Some of the better received original games were Deactivators, Golf Construction Set, Out of This World, Starfox (no relation to the Nintendo franchise of the same name) and They Stole a Million.

Ariolasoft UK was run by Ashley Gray and Frank Brunger, although closer to the demise of the UK office Ashley Gray was replaced by Willie Carminke. Ariolasoft was also the publisher for the developer Starlight Software run by former Beyond Software publisher Francis Lee. Ariolasoft also released a couple of games by the team of Antony Crowther and Ben Daglish: Challenge of the Gobots and Killer Ring.

The company was later (1990) renamed United Software. It started as the software subsidiary of Ariola Records, a German record label belonging to BMG. In 1993 United Software was taken over by Microprose Germany.