Incentive Software

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"Ian Andrew" redirects here. Not to be confused with Ian Andrews.

Incentive Software
IndustryVideo games
Founded1983
FounderIan Andrew
SuccessorSuperscape
Headquarters
Reading, Berkshire
,
United Kingdom

Incentive Software Ltd. was a British video game developer and publisher founded by Ian Andrew in 1983.[1] Programmers included Sean Ellis, Stephen Northcott and Ian's brother Chris Andrew.

Later games were based on the company's Freescape rendering engine. Developed in-house, Freescape is considered to be one of the first proprietary 3D engines to be used in computer games, although the engine was not used commercially outside of Incentive's own titles.[2] The project was originally thought to be so ambitious that according to Ian Andrew, the company struggled to recruit programmers for the project, with many believing that it could not be achieved.

Paul Gregory (graphics artist for Major Developments, Incentive's in-house design team) mentions [3] that Freescape was developed by Chris Andrew starting in September 1986 on an Amstrad CPC, as it was the most suitable development system with 128K memory and had adequate power to run 3D environments. Due to the engine's success, it was later ported to all the dominant systems of the era: the ZX Spectrum, the IBM PC, the Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga and Atari ST. Freescape development ended in 1992 with the release of 3D Construction Kit II.

The company was renamed Dimension International as it moved into the VR field in 1995 with its next-generation Superscape VRT engine,[4][5][6] then later changed name again to Superscape.[7]

List of titles[edit]

The following games were published and/or developed by Incentive Software:

Year Title Platform
Amiga Atari ST Amstrad CPC Commodore 64 IBM PC compatible ZX Spectrum BBC/Electron Dragon 32
1983 Splat! No No Yes Yes No Yes[8] No No
1984 Millionaire[9] No No Yes No No Yes Yes No
1984 Confuzion No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
1984 Back Track No No No No No No No Yes
1985 Moon Cresta No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes[10] Yes
1985 Eddie Steady Go! No No No No No No No Yes
1986 The Ket Trilogy [11] No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
1986 The Graphic Adventure Creator[12] No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes[13] No
1986 Winter Wonderland No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes[10] No
1986 Dragon's Tooth No No No No No No Yes[10] No
1986 The Legend of the Apache Gold No No Yes Yes No Yes No No
1987 Driller [14] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
1987 Karyssia: Queen of Diamonds No No No No No Yes No No
1988 The ST Adventure Creator No Yes No No No No No No
1988 Dark Side Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
1988 Total Eclipse Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
1990 Castle Master Yes [15] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
1990 Castle Master II: The Crypt Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
1990 Total Eclipse II: The Sphinx Jinx No No Yes Yes No Yes No No
1991 3D Construction Kit[16][17] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
1992 3D Construction Kit II[18] Yes Yes No No Yes No No No

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Incentive Software's first game Splat was released in 1983, and reviewed in Crash Magazine Issue 1, 1984, page 89-90.
  2. ^ "Exploring the Freescape". IGN. 22 October 2008. Retrieved 4 July 2009.
  3. ^ Retro Gamer 22, Incentive article, page 26
  4. ^ "Virtual Reality (1995 Archive) - "VR - Virtually Here" - by Linda Von Schweber & Erick Von Schweber - Infomaniacs". www.infomaniacs.com.
  5. ^ "A Star-Studded Site | Computer Graphics World". www.cgw.com.
  6. ^ Inc, Ziff Davis (14 March 1995). "PC Mag". Ziff Davis, Inc. – via Google Books.
  7. ^ "The Westin Tokyo's Web Site Traffic Increases by 45% With Interactive 3D From Superscape(R) / March 1999".
  8. ^ This version was later ported to the Sam Coupe with enhanced graphics and sound.
  9. ^ "The Glasgow Herald". The Glasgow Herald – via Google Books.
  10. ^ a b c There is a version for the BBC Micro but not the Acorn Electron
  11. ^ Contained Mountains of Ket, Temple of Vran and The Final Mission
  12. ^ Dillon, Roberto (3 December 2014). Ready: A Commodore 64 Retrospective. Springer. ISBN 9789812873415 – via Google Books.
  13. ^ Released as text-only The Adventure Creator for the Acorn Electron
  14. ^ Released as Space Station Oblivion in the United States
  15. ^ Amiga version has some differences in maps and enigmas compared to the 8 bit version (C64, ZX Spectrum, CPC Amstrad)
  16. ^ Released as Virtual Reality Studio in the United States
  17. ^ Abend, Pablo; Beil, Benjamin; Ossa, Vanessa (28 April 2020). Playful Participatory Practices: Theoretical and Methodological Reflections. Springer Nature. ISBN 9783658286194 – via Google Books.
  18. ^ Released as Virtual Reality Studio II in the United States

External links[edit]


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