Synapse Software

Synapse Software / SynSoft (UK)

Founded	1981
Closed	1984
Headquarters	Richmond, CA
Manager
Employees	35
Key People (choice)	Ihor Wolosenko, Ken Grant, Steve Hales, Mike Potter, William Mataga
Turnover
Sector	Computer games and applications
Website
Information	1984: Sold to Brøderbund

Synapse Software was an American software developer that published titles primarily for the Atari 8-bit computers, and eventually the VIC-20 and Commodore 64.

Popular Synapse titles were brought to the UK via U.S. Gold under the "Synsoft" imprint. In the process, some titles saw ports to other home computers, such as the ZX Spectrum.

Besides games, Synapse produced a series of application software for the Atari 8-bit series. They also created a 6502 development environment for the platform, that was much faster than other development options for the system at the time.

Towards the end of the company's life, they also developed a brief series of "electronic novels", based on the in-house BTZ ("Better Than Zork") parser. Only four were ever produced.

Sale to Brøderbund[edit | edit source]

By early 1984, Synapse was running into financial difficulty, being dealt a critical blow by a business dispute with Atari's Jack Tramiel. Later in the year, Brøderbund purchased the company. The Synapse/Brøderbund-branded electronic novels were intended to keep the company afloat, but market conditions made that difficult. The company was closed a year later.