Tynesoft

Tynesoft Computer Software was a software developer and publisher in the 1980s and early 1990s.

"Microvalue" and "Micro Value" redirect here. It is not to be confused with Microvalue, a descendant of Flair Software.
Tynesoft Computer Software
IndustryVideo games
Founded1983
Defunct1990
Headquarters
Blaydon
,
United Kingdom
ProductsComputer games

History

The company was originally set up in 1983 to release educational software but soon moved into the video games market on which it concentrated for most of its time. It developed numerous games for a wide variety of 8-bit micros, particularly those less well catered for by other publishers such as the Commodore 16, BBC Micro and Atari 8-bit. They also had a budget label, Micro Value, that issued compilations, reissues and some original games.

They had most success with their multi-load games such as Summer Olympiad, Circus Games and Rodeo Games. They also released licensed ports to smaller systems such as Software Projects' Jet Set Willy (Atari 8-bit, Commodore 16/Plus/4, BBC Micro and Acorn Electron), First Star Software's Boulder Dash (BBC, Electron) and Spy vs. Spy (C16/+4, BBC, Electron) and Mindscape's Indoor Sports (C16/+4, BBC, Electron). From the late 1980s, they released games for the 16-bit computers Amiga and Atari ST as well as PC but failed to capture a large share of this new market and with the demise of the 8-bit games scene, their sales fell. The company went bankrupt in 1990 when its sister printing business incurred massive debts, before it could publish its game based on the Games Workshop boardgame Blood Bowl.[1] The name continues to this day in a completely unrelated business.

Select titles
  • 1984 Auf Wiedersehen Pet (Acorn Electron, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum)
  • 1984 Bingo (C64, Spectrum)
  • 1984 Rig Attack (Electron, BBC, Commodore 16, Commodore Plus/4)
  • 1984 Olympiad (C16/+4)
  • 1984 US Drag Racing (Electron, BBC, C16/+4)
  • 1985 Ian Botham's Test Match (Electron, BBC, C64, Spectrum, C16/+4, Amstrad CPC)
  • 1985 Super Gran (C64, Spectrum, C16/+4, CPC)
  • 1985 Super Gran: The Adventure (Electron, BBC, C64, Spectrum, C16/+4)
  • 1985 Mouse Trap (Electron, BBC, C64, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Amiga)
  • 1986 Future Shock (Electron, BBC, C16/+4)
  • 1986 Commonwealth Games aka European Games (Electron, BBC, C64, C16/+4, MSX)
  • 1986 Winter Olympics (Electron, BBC, C16/+4, Atari 8-bit, MSX)
  • 1986 The Big KO (Electron, BBC, C64)
  • 1987 Phantom (Electron, BBC, C64, C16/+4, Atari 8-bit)
  • 1987 Mirax Force (Atari 8-bit)
  • 1987 Who Dares Wins II (Atari 8-bit)
  • 1988 Summer Olympiad (Electron, BBC, C64, Spectrum, ST, Amiga)
  • 1988 Winter Olympiad '88 (Electron, BBC, C64, Spectrum, Atari 8-bit, ST, Amiga)
  • 1989 Circus Games (Electron, BBC, C64, Spectrum, CPC, ST, Amiga, Apple II, PC)
  • 1989 Superman: The Man of Steel (Electron, BBC, C64, Spectrum, CPC, ST, Amiga, MSX, Apple II, PC)
  • 1989 Buffalo Bill's Rodeo Games aka Buffalo Bill's Wild West Rodeo Show (Electron, BBC, C64, Spectrum, CPC, ST, Amiga, Apple II, PC)
  • 1989 Roller Coaster Rumbler (C64, ST, Amiga, PC)
  • 1989 Mayday Squad (C64, ST, Amiga, PC)
  • 1990 Beverly Hills Cop (BBC, C64, Spectrum, CPC, ST, Amiga, PC)
gollark: <@356209633313947648> ```- Fortunes/Dwarf Fortress output/Chuck Norris jokes on boot (wait, IS this a feature?)- (other) viruses (how do you get them in the first place? running random files like this?) cannot do anything particularly awful to your computer - uninterceptable (except by crashing the keyboard shortcut daemon, I guess) keyboard shortcuts allow easy wiping of the non-potatOS data so you can get back to whatever nonsense you do fast- Skynet (rednet-ish stuff over websocket to my server) and Lolcrypt (encoding data as lols and punctuation) built in for easy access!- Convenient OS-y APIs - add keyboard shortcuts, spawn background processes & do "multithreading"-ish stuff.- Great features for other idio- OS designers, like passwords and fake loading (est potatOS.stupidity.loading [time], est potatOS.stupidity.password [password]).- Digits of Tau available via a convenient command ("tau")- Potatoplex and Loading built in ("potatoplex"/"loading") (potatoplex has many undocumented options)!- Stack traces (yes, I did steal them from MBS)- Backdoors- er, remote debugging access (it's secured, via ECC signing on disks and websocket-only access requiring a key for the other one)- All this useless random junk can autoupdate (this is probably a backdoor)!- EZCopy allows you to easily install potatOS on another device, just by sticking it in the disk drive of any potatOS device!- fs.load and fs.dump - probably helpful somehow.- Blocks bad programs (like the "Webicity" browser).- Fully-featured process manager.- Can run in "hidden mode" where it's at least not obvious at a glance that potatOS is installed.- Convenient, simple uninstall with the "uninstall" command.- Turns on any networked potatOS computers!- Edits connected signs to use as ad displays.- A recycle bin.- An exorcise command, which is like delete but better.- Support for a wide variety of Lorem Ipsum.```
gollark: Okay, that is... probably a better idea, yes.
gollark: Anyway, <@178948413851697152>, please do rewrite that query if you have *better* ideas.
gollark: Oh, probably, but this I can actually understand.
gollark: I have ended up writing this slightly ridiculous query: `SELECT * FROM pages WHERE updated = (SELECT MAX (updated) FROM pages WHERE name = ${req.params.name}) AND name = ${req.params.name}`(no SQL injection there, I use `sql-template-strings`)

References
  1. Retro Gamer magazine issue75, pages 36-41: "From the archives ... Tynesoft"
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