| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Fate | Sold to Argus Press Software, Dissolved |
| Products | Gridrunner, Bugaboo, Ant Attack, Zombie Zombie |
Quicksilva was a British games software publisher active during the early 1980s.
Amongst the company's successes were Jeff Minter's Gridrunner (1983) and Bugaboo (1983, aka La Pulga), a title licenced from Spanish software house Indescomp S.A.. Sandy White's Ant Attack (1983) and Zombie Zombie (1984) for the ZX Spectrum featured revolutionary 3-D graphics for which a patent had been applied.[1]
The company was most successful during 1983-1984, during which time it released a Star Raiders-style game entitled Time-Gate (1983) and the first official home computer conversion of Atari Games' Battlezone (1984). Also in 1984 they released Fantastic Voyage, which was an official licence from the film.
In 1984 the company was bought by Argus Press Software[2] which later became Grandslam Entertainment. Managing Director Rod Cousens and Software Manager Paul Cooper left to establish Electric Dreams Software.[3]
The company's release schedule slowed down after that point although it went on to produce popular games such as Glider Rider and the home computer versions of Elevator Action, both in 1986. In 1985 and 1986 it released two games based on the Rupert Bear's franchise; Rupert and the Toymaker's Party and Rupert and the Ice Castle respectively. Both with outstanding graphics, animation, music and sound effects for the time.
The Quicksilva name last appeared on the home computer version of Pac-Land (1989).
Quicksilva mainly released games for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, but also did conversions and some original games for the Vic-20, Dragon 32/64, Oric-1/Atmos, BBC Micro and Acorn Electron home computers.