Incentive Software


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, 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 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.

List of titles

The following games were published and/or developed by Incentive Software:
YearTitlePlatform
1983Splat!Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
1983Mountains of KetZX Spectrum
19831984BBC/Electron, ZX Spectrum
1984MillionaireAmstrad CPC, BBC/Electron, ZX Spectrum
1984Temple of VranZX Spectrum
1984The Final MissionZX Spectrum
1984ConfuzionAmstrad CPC, BBC/Electron, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
1984Back TrackDragon 32
1985Moon CrestaAmstrad CPC, BBC, Commodore 64, Dragon 32, ZX Spectrum
1985Eddie Steady Go!Dragon 32
1986The Graphic Adventure CreatorAmstrad CPC, BBC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
1986The Ket TrilogyAmstrad CPC, BBC/Electron, Commodore 64, Dragon 32,
1986Winter WonderlandAmstrad CPC, BBC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
1986Dragon's ToothBBC
1986The Legend of the Apache GoldAmstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
1987The Adventure CreatorElectron
1987DrillerAmiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC, ZX Spectrum
1987Karyssia: Queen of DiamondsZX Spectrum
1988The ST Adventure CreatorAtari ST
1988Dark SideAmiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC, ZX Spectrum
1988Total EclipseAmiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC, ZX Spectrum
1990Castle MasterAmiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC, ZX Spectrum
1990Castle Master II: The CryptAmiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC, ZX Spectrum
1990Total 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