Electric Dreams Software

Electric Dreams Software at a Glance

Electric Dreams Software operated as a British publisher based in Southampton from 1985 until it ceased activity around 1990. This company served as a subsidiary of Activision and was led by Rod Cousens, who previously managed Quicksilva. Their internal development team was known as Software Studio, but the data shows Electric Dreams functioned strictly as a publisher on PlayPile with 26 titles listed under that role and none developed in-house. The company focused heavily on hardware popular in the United Kingdom during the 1980s. They released 20 games for the Commodore C64/128/MAX, 19 for the ZX Spectrum, and 16 for the Amstrad CPC. Smaller numbers of releases appeared on the Amiga, Atari ST, and Arcade platforms. The publisher specialized in arcade-style action and shooter games. Their catalog includes 11 titles classified as shooters and another 11 categorized as arcade games. They also released eight puzzle games and seven adventure titles. While they touched other genres like simulation and strategy, their output was dominated by high-intensity gameplay designed for the home computers of the era. All 26 games in their PlayPile profile appeared during the 1980s, with a notable surge of releases in December 1989. This final month saw the publication of Wicked, Citadel, Incredible Shrinking Sphere, and Millenium: Return To Earth. The quality of their published work shows mixed results based on available ratings. They have an average IGDB score of 64.8 across six rated titles. None of their games achieved a rating above 80, so they have no entries in the great category. Four titles fall into the good range between 60 and 79, while two others sit in the mixed bracket from 40 to 59. Millenium: Return To Earth holds their highest score at 79.6. R-Type follows with 74.7. Karnov and Spindizzy received scores of 62.2 and 61.4 respectively. Tempest stands as the lowest rated among the top list with 58.2. Big Trouble in Little China also appeared in their lineup during late 1987. The company did not survive into the next decade, leaving a catalog that reflects the specific tastes of UK gamers in the mid-to-late 1980s.

Rating Distribution