Access Software
 |
|
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Computer and video game industry |
| Fate | Closed |
| Founded | 1982 |
| Defunct | 2006 |
| Headquarters | Salt Lake City, Utah, USA |
|
Key people
|
Bruce Carver, Chris Jones |
| Products | Video games |
| Parent |
Microsoft Game Studios (1999-2004) Take-Two Interactive (2004-2006) |
Indie Built, Inc. was a Salt Lake City, Utah based video game developer founded in 1982 by Bruce Carver as Access Software.
After buying a Commodore 64 in 1982 from computers salesman and later Access Software employee Steve Witzel, Bruce Carver wrote a sprite editor called "Spritemaster" which became commercially successful. He next wrote an arcade game, Neutral Zone, and formed Access Software.
Access Software released Beach Head in 1983 which would be their first hit.
In 1987, Access announced The Robotic Workshop, a toy kit that allowed users to build and program robots using a home computer. The kit was a precursor to the much more popular Lego Mindstorms kits released in the late 1990s. The Robotic Workshop included over 50 Capsela parts, including two motors, gears, wheels, and sensors.
In 1988, World Class Leader Board, the first game utilizing RealSound, was released. Created by Steve Witzel, the technology allowed players to hear life-like sounds and speech with no additional sound hardware, just a standard PC speaker.
In 1989 with the release of Mean Streets, the Tex Murphy series was born. Being one of the first games to implement 256-color VGA graphics and the first to combine both RealSound and 256-color VGA graphics, Mean Streets impressed reviewers and in 1996 was recognized by Computer Gaming World as having set a new standard for 286 games.
Access Software was acquired by Microsoft in 1999, became part of Microsoft Game Studios and was renamed to "Salt Lake Games Studio". In 2003 it was renamed again to "Indie Games".
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