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Durell Software was founded in the early 1980s by Robert James Durell White. Originally trained as a teacher, then as a quantity surveyor, Robert decided to write programs of his own in February 1983. His first projects were for the Oric computer and included an assembler/disassembler and Moonlander and Asteroids games, all written in BASIC. The games were heavily commented and designed to be educational, teaching how to program a game in BASIC.
Advertising his cassette tapes in magazines, Robert sold his own creation by mail order. Realising it would be much more cost effective to do this if he had more products to offer, he advertised for programmers in the local paper. He soon recruited a small group of enthusiasts, including Ron Jeffs, Mike Richardson and later Clive Townsend and Nick Wilson. The group went on to write many classic titles during the eighties for Oric, Spectrum, Amstrad, BBC, Commodore 64, Atari ST and PC computers including Harrier Attack!, Starfighter, Chain Reaction, Critical Mass, Turbo Esprit, Thanatos, Saboteur and Saboteur 2, Sigma 7 and Operation Hormuz.
In 1987, due to the volatile nature of the games market, Robert decided to sell Durell's catalogue to Elite Systems, at which point Durell's name disappeared from the games industry. Durell Software Ltd, however, is still a going concern and develops administration and accounts packages for the insurance industry under the name of Durell Solutions.
20 years on, Mike Richardson, creator of Harrier Attack!, has brought the Durell name back to the games arena. Having founded Durell Gaming Ltd., the company's debut release is Harrier Attack II,a downloadable title for PC.
Software Highlights from Credited Titles
Durell Software's first work that SPOnG is aware of is the 1983 title, "Scuba Dive" (C64).
The company has been involved titles released on the Oric, C64, Spectrum 48K, Sinclair Spectrum 128K and Amstrad CPC.
The company's most recent involvement was on the 1987 release "Sigma Seven" (Spectrum 48K).
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