Alternative Software

{{Short description|British software developer and publisher}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox company

| name = Alternative Software Ltd.

| logo = Alternative Software logo 2012.png

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| traded_as = Alternative Software

| genre = Software industry

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| foundation = {{Start date and age|df=yes|1985}}

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| industry = Software industry

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| homepage = [http://alternativesoft.co.uk alternativesoft.co.uk]

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}}

Alternative Software is a British software developer and publisher founded in 1985.{{Cite web|url=http://www.alternativesoft.co.uk/about.html|title = Alternative Software Ltd - Our Studio}}

From the mid 1980s to the early 1990s, the company published well over a hundred games,{{cite magazine |title=Win 169 Alternative Games|magazine=Your Sinclair |issue=85 |publisher=Future Publishing|date=January 1993|page=10|url=https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.php?issue_id=306&page=10|access-date=8 July 2021}} primarily for the 8-bit computer formats in the budget (£1.99 to £3.99) market. These included both original titles (e.g. MC Lothlorien's Pro Mountain Bike Simulator{{Cite web|url=https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.php?cat=96&id=3888|title = Pro Mountain Bike Simulator at Spectrum Computing - Sinclair ZX Spectrum games, software and hardware}}) as well as reissues of other developers' and publishers' software such as River Rescue which it acquired from the liquidation of Creative Sparks Distribution.{{cite magazine|title=Equinox may see the light of day|magazine=Popular Computing Weekly|volume=6|issue=38|publisher=Focus Magazines|date=25 September – 1 October 1987|page=11|url=https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php?issue_id=2977&page=11|access-date=11 February 2020}} In 1988, the company's catalogue expanded rapidly when it obtained the rights to re-release games from Piranha Software, Audiogenic, Incentive and Bubble Bus.{{cite magazine |title=The Alternative Reality|magazine=The Games Machine|issue=3|publisher=Newsfield |date=February 1988|page=10|url=https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.php?issue_id=1791&page=10|access-date=8 July 2021}}

By late 1988, Commodore Computing International were noting Alternative's success, observing that they had topped Gallup's market share charts almost every week since June of that year, been the number one software house in 7 out of 8 Gallup charts and averaged a market share of 11.2% versus their nearest rival Mastertronic with 10.5%.

In 1989, the company began to produce titles centred around popular children's television characters. Beginning with Postman Pat, which the company claimed was the first time a licence had been acquired by a budget software house,{{cite magazine |title=New Job For Pat|magazine=Crash |issue=33 |publisher=Newsfield|date=January 1989|page=9|url=https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.php?issue_id=1027&page=9|access-date=8 July 2021}} later games would feature Count Duckula, Fireman Sam, Sooty, Thomas the Tank Engine, The Wombles and many others.

In a 2015 interview, founder Roger Hulley claimed that by 1990 the company had a 17 percent share of the budget games sector.{{cite web|title=Alternative history: Three decades of the publisher|url=http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/alternative-history-three-decades-of-the-publisher/0158343|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151031133702/http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/alternative-history-three-decades-of-the-publisher/0158343|archive-date=2015-10-31|access-date=2016-07-05|publisher=Newbay Media 2016.|website=MCV|date=30 October 2015}}

During the late 1990s, the company diversified into development of "paint studio", "print studio" and similar-type software. {{asof|2018}}, the company is still active, with publication Retro Gamer noting in their 30-year retrospective of Alternative that they had "constantly evolved in order to stay afloat in an increasingly tough industry".