Synapse Software Corporation (also known as SynSoft) was an American computer game development and publishing company active during the early-1980s.

They developed primarily for the Atari 400 and 800 computers, and (later on) the Commodore 64.

They released many highly-regarded arcade games including Fort Apocalypse, Drelbs, New York City, Blue Max, Alley Cat and Shamus.

Many of Synapse's games made their way to the UK as part of the initial wave of U.S. Gold-distributed imports; some were also converted to run on the more popular UK home computers, such as the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

Although it is for their success with arcade-style games that they will be primarily remembered, they latterly branched out into other areas of software. Some time before their demise, Synapse had started work on text adventures (or as they called them, "Electronic Novels".) They were also developing a series of applications including SynFile+, SynTrend and SynCalc.

Downfall

Synapse later got into financial difficulty. According to Steve Hales ^*, they had taken a calculated risk in developing the aforementioned series of applications, and had entered into a collaboration with Atari Corp. When Jack Tramiel purchased Atari Corp. from Warner Communications, he refused to pay for the 40,000 units of software that had been shipped, even though (as the new owner of Atari) the contract should have been binding upon him.

Having been thrown into a cash crisis, Synapse was purchased by Brøderbund Software in late 1984. Although the intention had been to keep Synapse going, the market had changed, and they were unable to make money from the electronic novels. Approximately one year after the takeover, Brøderbund closed Synapse down.

External links

• Scans and information on Synapse's Atari products
• Interviews with Synapse developer Steve Hales and co-founder Ihor Wolosenko
• "Eight new Synapse games" - Archive reviews and information on takeover at atarimagazines.com
• Moby Games' list of Synapse Software products

Home computer software companies | Defunct computer and video game companies

Synapse Software