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{{Short description|British video game developer}}
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'''Magnetic Scrolls''' was a British [[video game]] developer active between 1984 and 1990. A pioneer of audiovisually elaborate [[text adventure]] games, it was one of the
''Magnetic Scrolls'' was one of the first game developers to use [[Computer graphics|graphics]] and [[animation]] in its text adventure games, which set it apart from other companies in the genre. The company's games were known for their complex puzzles, intricate storylines, and immersive gameplay. Games developed by Magnetic Scrolls include [[The Pawn]], [[The Guild of Thieves]], and [[Jinxter]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bateman |first=Chris |title=Narrative Skills for Videogames |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |year=2021 |isbn=9781501348976 |pages=109}}</ref>
==History==
===Formation===
Formed by Anita Sinclair, Ken Gordon and Hugh Steers in 1984,<ref name="monfort">{{cite journal |last=Montfort |first=N. |author-link=Nick Montfort |year=2006 |title=Natural Language Generation and Narrative Variation in Interactive Fiction |
During the mid-1980s, the text adventure market was thriving, although only a very few developers exclusively specialised in the genre. The undisputed giants of the genre were [[Infocom]], based in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], who practically redefined the genre by ensuring the interface (or [[text parser]]) never provided a barrier between the player and the fictional elements of the game.
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===Later years and demise===
''Wonderland'' had been in development at Magnetic Scrolls for some time and was finally released by [[Virgin Interactive|Virgin Mastertronic]] in 1990. Magnetic Scrolls had devised a brand new interface, christened Magnetic Windows, to take advantage of the Amiga and Atari ST's advanced capabilities. Incorporating auto-mapping, icons, help functions and separate, resizable windows for graphics and text, ''Wonderland'', written by David Bishop and based on the works of [[Lewis Carroll]], was a deliberate attempt to push the text adventure in a new, hi-tech direction.
In 1988, Magnetic Scrolls began to collaborate with Infocom, [[Douglas Adams]] and [[Michael Bywater]] on a sequel to [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (video game)|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]. This project was never finished. A playable draft of an early part of the game, along with the personal and commercial circumstances behind its ill-fated development, came briefly to public attention twenty years later.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Baio |first1=Andy |title=Milliways: Infocom's Unreleased Sequel to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy |url=https://waxy.org/2008/04/milliways_infocoms_unreleased_sequel_to_hitchhikers_guide_to_the_galax/ |website=waxy.org|date=17 April 2008 }}</ref>
In 1991, Virgin Interactive released ''The Magnetic Scrolls Collection Vol 1'', containing new versions of ''The Guild of Thieves'', ''Corruption'' and ''Fish!'' that took advantage of the Magnetic Windows engine.<ref name="CGW100">{{cite magazine |last=Ardai |first=Charles |date=November 1992 |title=Three Runs, Two Hits, One Error: Virgin Software's Magnetic Scrolls Collection |magazine=Computer Gaming World |volume=1 |issue=100 |pages=64–65 |authorlink=Charles Ardai}}</ref> A second collection, containing their remaining games, was planned but never completed.
As a consequence of the dying text adventure market, Magnetic Scrolls ceased publishing in 1992.<ref name=monfort/> They were acquired by [[MicroProse]] later that year. A number of Magnetic Scrolls' staff went on to help develop a 3D [[role-playing video game]] entitled ''[[The Legacy: Realm of Terror]]'', which was released on the [[IBM PC compatible|PC]] to lukewarm reviews, but MicroProse did not capitalise on the Magnetic Scrolls name beyond that. In the late 1990s, Ken Gordon registered the ''magneticscrolls.com'' domain, which now redirects to the ''Strand Games'' website.
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Two programmers from Magnetic Scrolls, Doug Rabson and Servan Keondjian later formed the company [[RenderMorphics]] which produced the highly acclaimed 3D Graphics API [[Reality Lab]]. In January 1995 another Magnetic Scrolls programmer, Steve Lacey joined RenderMorphics and in February of the same year [[Microsoft]] acquired the company. Reality Lab became the basis for [[Direct3D]]. Rabson and Keondjian are now at [[Qube Software]], which they co-founded with Hugh Steers. Lacey remained at [[Microsoft]] as the graphics engine lead on [[Microsoft Flight Simulator]]. In October 2006, Lacey moved to [[Google]]. In 2011, he was killed in a car accident.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.geekwire.com/2011/google-engineer-steve-lacey-victim-car-wreck-kirkland/|title = Google engineer Steve Lacey victim of Kirkland car wreck|date = 25 July 2011 |first=Todd |last=Bishop |website=GeekWire}}</ref>
John Molloy moved to Florida, US, working on web-based applications, and died in 2018 following an illness.<ref>{{cite web |title=John Molloy's Twitter feed |url=https://twitter.com/jgpmolloy}}</ref> Phil South lives in
Anita Sinclair is now one of the UK's most successful [[Contract bridge|
=== Reappearance ===
In May 2017 the Strand games initiative emerged. Strand Games was started by Hugh Steers — co-founder and core developer of Magnetic Scrolls — and Stefan Meier of the Magnetic Scrolls Memorial fanpage. It is supported by several members of the original Magnetic Scrolls team, including Anita Sinclair, Ken Gordon, Rob Steggles and Servan Keondjian. The non-profit initiative aims both to preserve the original works of Magnetic Scrolls and to remaster the games for modern devices. With the public appearance of the initiative a first beta version of the remastered classic [[The Pawn]] was released. The official release followed in June 2017.
In June 2017 Strand games worked on recovering the [[source code]] of their classics from tapes to remaster and re-release them.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/300763/Dev_rescues_80s_text_adventure_source_code_by_baking_tapes_in_an_oven.php |title=Dev rescues '80s text adventure source code by baking tapes in an oven |website=Gamasutra.com |first=Alex |last=Wawro |date=June 28, 2017}}</ref> After the successful recovery of the original source
==List of games==
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*''[[Myth (1989 video game)|Myth]]'' (1989, Rainbird)
*''[[Wonderland (adventure game)|Wonderland]]'' (1990, Virgin Interactive)
*''[[The Magnetic Scrolls Collection]] Vol 1'' (1991, Virgin Interactive)
*''[[The Legacy: Realm of Terror]]'' (1992, MicroProse)
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==External links==
*[http://www.mobygames.com/company/magnetic-scrolls Magnetic Scrolls] at MobyGames
*[http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/magnetic-scrolls/info/msfact.txt Magnetic Scrolls Fact Sheet]
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