Broderbund
Broderbund Software, Inc. (stylized as Brøderbund) was an American maker of video games, educational software, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits Choplifter, Lode Runner, Karateka, and Prince of Persia (all of which originated on the Apple II), as well as The Print Shop—originally for printing signs and banners on dot matrix printers—and the Myst and Carmen Sandiego games. The company was founded in Eugene, Oregon, and moved to San Rafael, California, then later to Novato, California. Brøderbund was purchased by SoftKey in 1998.
| Industry | Software |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1980 San Rafael, California, US |
| Founder |
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| Defunct | 1998 |
| Fate | Acquired by SoftKey and dissolved. Education brands went under The Learning Company brand. Productivity, reference and entertainment brands given to Mindscape division. |
| Successor | SoftKey |
| Headquarters |
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Key people |
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| Revenue | 172,000,000 ±1000000 United States dollar (1995) |
| Parent | The Learning Company |
| Website | broderbund |
Many of Broderbund's software titles, such as The Print Shop, PrintMaster, and Mavis Beacon, are still published under the name "Brøderbund". Games released by the revived Broderbund are distributed by Encore, Inc. Brøderbund is now the brand name for Riverdeep's graphic design, productivity, and edutainment titles such as The Print Shop, Carmen Sandiego, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, the Living Books series, and Reader Rabbit titles, in addition to publishing software for other companies, notably Zone Labs' ZoneAlarm.
The company would often release school editions of their games, which contained extra features to allow teachers to use the software to facilitate students' learning.