Red Shift was a

video game publisher A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer ...

active between

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

and

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

. They were well known for their

strategy games A strategy game or strategic game is a game in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous, decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome. Almost all strategy games require internal decision tree-style thinki ...

"From Tin Soldiers to Computer Games"
''CRASH'' issue 9, October 1984; retrieved from CRASH The Online Edition and had a close working relationship with

Julian Gollop Julian Gollop is a British video game designer Video game design is the process of designing the rules and content of video games in the Video game development#Pre-production, pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, st ...

and

Games Workshop Games Workshop Group (often abbreviated as GW) is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are ''Warhammer (game), Warhammer'' and ''Warhammer 40,000''. Founded in 1975 by John Peake ...

History

Red Shift's two initial releases were designed, but not coded, by Gollop just after he left school (''Time Lords'' and ''Islandia''). Subsequently, Gollop learnt to program himself, designing and coding ''Nebula'' and ''Rebelstar Raiders'' for Red Shift. ''Apocalypse'' and its two expansion packs were produced under license from Games Workshop, being based on their board game ''

Apocalypse Apocalypse () is a literary genre originating in Judaism in the centuries following the Babylonian exile (597–587 BCE) but persisting in Christianity and Islam. In apocalypse, a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a ...

''. In 1984, a group of

Harlow Harlow is a town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a Planned community, new town in 1947, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire, and occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the ...

-based Red Shift programmers split off to form SLUG. They continued to program under license from Games Workshop (producing Spectrum versions of their board games ''

Battlecars ''Battlecars'' is a simple Wargame (video games), wargame based upon the ''Mad Max'' genre of a post-apocalyptic world dominated by aggressive, warring gangs. It was first published by Games Workshop in 1983 and the game designers were Gary Chalk ( ...

'' and ''

Talisman A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...

''). By 1985 Red Shift had a range of different strategy titles that appealed to fans of that genre turning to more intelligent and demanding games. Red Shift closed after their main investor stopped supporting the team. Some staff moved on to Games Workshop.

List of games

Red Shift produced ten games between 1983 and 1985 for the ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro. * ''

'' (1983), ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro – based on the Games Workshop board game. * ''Time Lords'' (1983), BBC Micro – based on a paper and dice game. * ''English Civil War'' (1984), BBC Micro. * ''Islandia'' (1984), BBC Micro - a ''

Risk In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environ ...

''-style game. * ''Murkwood'' (1984), ZX Spectrum * ''

Nebula A nebula (; or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral, or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regions, such as in the Pillars of Creation in ...

'' (1984), ZX Spectrum * '' Rebelstar Raiders'' (1984), ZX Spectrum * ''First Empire'' (1984), ZX Spectrum – a table-top computer-moderated war game. * ''City of Death'' (1985), ZX Spectrum – a graphic adventure game by Peter and George Carmpouloni. * ''

The Tripods ''The Tripods'' is a series of young adult science fiction novels by John Christopher. The series takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity is enslaved by "Tripods"—gigantic three-legged walking machines piloted by an alien rac ...

'' (1985), ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro and Amstrad CPC – a graphic adventure designed by Watermill Productions and licensed by

BBC Enterprises The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, based on the BBC TV series of the same name. In addition, three expansion packs for ''Apocalypse'' were released in 1984.

References

{{Reflist Video game publishers Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom