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Incentive Software

British video game developer

Incentive Software Ltd. was a British video game developer and publisher founded by Ian Andrew in 1983. Programmers included Sean Ellis, Stephen Northcott and Ian's brother Chris Andrew.

Later games were based on the company's Freescape rendering engine. Developed in-house, Freescape is considered to be one of the first proprietary 3D engines to be used in video games, although the engine was not used commercially outside of Incentive's own titles. The project was originally thought to be so ambitious that according to Ian Andrew, the company struggled to recruit programmers for the project, with many believing that it could not be achieved.

According to Paul Gregory (graphics artist for Major Developments, Incentive's in-house design team), Freescape was developed by Chris Andrew starting in September 1986 on an Amstrad CPC, as it was the most suitable development system with 128K memory and had adequate power to run 3D environments. Due to the engine's success, it was later ported to all the dominant systems of the era: ZX Spectrum, IBM PC, Commodore 64, Amiga, and Atari ST. Freescape development ended in 1992 with the release of 3D Construction Kit II.

The company was renamed Dimension International as it moved into the VR field in 1995 with its next-generation Superscape VRT engine, then later changed name again to Superscape.

01List of titles

The following games were published and/or developed by Incentive Software:

Year Title Platform
1983Splat!Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
Mountains of KetZX Spectrum
1984BBC/Electron, ZX Spectrum
1984MillionaireAmstrad CPC, BBC/Electron, ZX Spectrum
Temple of VranZX Spectrum
The Final MissionZX Spectrum
ConfuzionAmstrad CPC, BBC/Electron, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
Back TrackDragon 32
1985Moon CrestaAmstrad CPC, BBC, Commodore 64, Dragon 32, ZX Spectrum
Eddie Steady Go!Dragon 32
1986The Graphic Adventure CreatorAmstrad CPC, BBC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
The Ket TrilogyAmstrad CPC, BBC/Electron, Commodore 64, Dragon 32,
Winter WonderlandAmstrad CPC, BBC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
Dragon's ToothBBC
The Legend of the Apache GoldAmstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
1987The Adventure CreatorElectron
DrillerAmiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC, ZX Spectrum
Karyssia: Queen of DiamondsZX Spectrum
1988The ST Adventure CreatorAtari ST
Dark SideAmiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC, ZX Spectrum
Total EclipseAmiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC, ZX Spectrum
1990Castle MasterAmiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC, ZX Spectrum
Castle Master II: The CryptAmiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC, ZX Spectrum
Total Eclipse II: The Sphinx JinxAmstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
19913D Construction KitAmiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC, ZX Spectrum
19923D Construction Kit IIAmiga, Atari ST, IBM PC
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Sources and credits

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