Penguin Software was a computer software and video game publisher from Geneva, Illinois that produced graphics and application software and games for the Apple II, Mac, IBM PC compatibles, Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari 8-bit computers, and Atari ST. It produced the graphics programs Graphics Magician and Complete Graphics System, graphic adventure games such as the Transylvania series, action games like Spy's Demise, and role-playing video games such as Xyphus.
History The company was founded in 1978 by Mark Pelczarski as "MP Software" with its first product, a graphics program called Magic Paintbrush. It evolved to "Co-op Software" as part of a sister company, Micro Co-op, then adopted the name "Penguin Software" in 1981 when software publishing became the primary focus. Like many other home computer publishers at the time, Penguin Software openly credited the developers of their games on boxes and title screens; developers that were often not direct employees of Penguin Software but rather independent designers that were paid royalties by Penguin Software for the games that sold.
Penguin Software's core products were its graphics programs that were among the industry best-sellers of the early 1980s. The Complete Graphics System, first published in 1981, was a set of drawing and 3D graphics editing programs for the Apple II by founder Mark Pelczarski. Special Effects, co-written by Pelczarski and David Lubar later the same year, helped establish the company's slogan, "the graphics people". In early 1982, Pelczarski, Lubar, and Chris Jochumson created The Graphics Magician, which would define the next several years of the company's evolution. Graphics Magician was aimed toward developers or anyone wanting to be a developer, allowing any programmer to create animations for arcade-style games and compact graphic images for adventure games and educational software.
Developers began submitting their own creations written in part with Graphics Magician to Penguin Software for publication. Those that were accepted were polished and published and the authors were paid royalties on sales. These included the first two games published by Penguin Software, the animated game Pie Man by Eagle Berns and Michael Kosaka, and the adventure game Transylvania written by Antonia Antiochia. Many other publishers of software for the Apple II also licensed The Graphics Magician for their products, as there was no fee for the license; the only requirement was a credit line that Graphics Magician software was used in the product, which served as advertising for more sales of the Penguin Software graphics tools.
One of the other widely touted aspects of Penguin Software's titles was that they deliberately stopped using copy protection, thus making it easier to back up their programs. Pelczarski sent a letter to many computer magazines to describe his position, which asked that users of their software not abuse their trust.
As software sales expanded into book stores, Penguin Software was confronted by Penguin Books in regard to infringement of their name. Fearing that the legal costs of a lawsuit could have decimated his company, even in the case of an eventual victory, Pelczarski phased in a new name "Polarware" in 1986, eventually ending the "Penguin Software" brand.
Since the Apple II, Macintosh, IBM, Commodore, and Atari computers all had varying graphics capabilities and different processors, releasing a software title for each different brand of computer usually involved programming it again from scratch for each platform. Penguin Software/Polarware began focusing on cross-platform ideas that would allow them to release games simultaneously on different systems without the lengthy re-programming process. The compact images from Graphics Magician could be used across platforms, and an adventure game development and deployment language called Comprehend was created to be system independent and was used for several releases. Also using Graphics Magician across platforms and with a portable design, the first three titles in the Adventures Around the World geography game series were released. However a similar idea called Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego reached the market a few months sooner and doomed the Penguin Software series.
In 1987, Polarware was purchased by four employees, Jeffrey (JJ) Jay, Steve Greene, Peg Smith, and Trish Glenn. This new team produced the children's software series written by Brian A. Rice, The Electric Crayon, a simple electronic coloring book. In 1988, Polarware was acquired by Merit Software and the Polarware name soon disappeared.
Legacy As Merit Software moved on to newer products, rights to the old software titles were bought back from the remains of Polarware, and many of those titles were subsequently released as freeware.
Also after end of official support of their products, an enthusiast reconstructed a source code variant of the Comprehend engine to port these games to modern platforms.recomprehend by Ryan Mallon on github.com
Software titles TitleAuthorPublishedMagic PaintbrushMark Pelczarski 1978/1981/1984The Complete Graphics SystemMark Pelczarski1981Special EffectsMark Pelczarski and David Lubar1981The Complete Graphics System IIMark Pelczarski1982The Graphics MagicianMark Pelczarski, David Lubar, and Chris Jochumson1982Pie ManEagle Berns and Michael Kosaka1982Cover of the game "Pie-Man" from Penguin Software from the Scott Schram website. Schram programmed the conversion of this game to the Atari 800.Spy's DemiseAlan Zeldin1982TransylvaniaAntonio Antiochia1982/1985Crime WaveScott Schram1983Cover of the game "Crime Wave" from Penguin Software from the Scott Schram website.ThunderbombsTom Becklund1983The QuestDallas Snell, Joe Toler, and Joel Ellis Rea1983The Coveted MirrorEagle Berns and Holly Thomason1983/1986Expedition AmazonWillard Phillips1983Bouncing KamungasTom Becklund1983PensateJohn Besnard1983TransitionsAndre Schklowsky1983Paper GraphicsRobert Rennard1983Cat GraphicsDavid Shapiro1983Short CutsKelly Puckett1983Minit ManGreg Malone1983Stellar 7Damon Slye / Dynamix1984The Spy Strikes BackRobert Hardy and Mark Pelczarski1984Ring QuestDallas Snell, Joel Ellis Rea, Joe Toler, and Ron Goebel1984XyphusRobert Waller and Dave Albert1984Arcade Boot CampJohn Besnard1984Sword Of KadashChris Cole / Dynamix1984Disk Repair KitDavid Winzler1984Disk ArrangerWilliam Swanson1984Transylvania II: The Crimson CrownAntonio Antiochia1985Oo-ToposMichael Berlyn, Muffy Berlyn, Raimund Redlich, and Brian Poff1985Home ConnectionWilliam Shaw1985Home Data ManagerMark Pelczarski1985The Spy's Adventures in EuropeMark Pelczarski, Marsha Meuse, Elizabeth Redlich, and Brian Poff1986The Spy's Adventures in North AmericaMark Pelczarski, Mark Glenn, Brian Poff, and Elizabeth Redlich1986The Spy's Adventures in South AmericaMark Pelczarski, Brian Poff, and Elizabeth Redlich1986Electric Crayon: Fun on the FarmBrian Rice1986Electric Crayon: This Land Is Your LandBrian Rice1986Electric Crayon: ABC'sBrian Rice1986Talisman: Challenging the Sands of TimeBruce Hoffman, Raimund Redlich, and Brian Poff1987Sesame Street Crayon: Letters For YouBrian Rice1987Sesame Street Crayon: Numbers CountBrian Rice1987Sesame Street Crayon: Opposites AttractBrian Rice1987The Spy's Adventures in Europe1987Electric Crayon Deluxe: Dinosaurs Are ForeverBrian Rice1988All Dogs Go to HeavenMichael Robert Hausman1989Electric Crayon Deluxe: At the ZooBrian Rice1989Transylvania III: Vanquish the NightAntonio Antiochia1990
References
General References
More Apple II games from Penguin Software from the Apple II World site (Japanese website, archived)