Although some of the graphics software was published as early as 1978, the company named Penguin Software then Polarware existed from 1980 to 1987. It is probably best remembered by that flightless Antarctic bird, but we'll avoid that name as much as possible, lest we get nasty letters from Penguin Books once more.
Our first programs were for drawing, manipulating, and animating graphics on the Apple II, and they were quite popular. Since the Apple II was the first personal computer that had color graphics capabilities, you could accurately say we pioneered much of the field of computer graphics. For a while, a majority of educational software and games released for the Apple II opened with the "Graphics by Penguin Software" acknowledgement. Our software even resides in the archives of the Smithsonian's Museum of American History. We picture it as being in a crate like those depicted in the closing warehouse scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, but we're impressed anyway.
There's plenty of FREE stuff to follow. Mark bought back the rights to the old Penguin Software/Polarware library, and as much as we can make available is here for you to download and try, just for kicks, if you want to see what software was like back in the ancient times. Most of the files are archived in DSK format, which will run with Windows and Apple II emulator software. Some PC versions are available too, as well as a few for other systems.
How to use the archive files, and important instructions for some of the games
1979 - 1982 The beginning.... Computer Graphics!
1982 And they can make games with it!
1983 - 1987 A few utilities...
1984 - 1989 The Comprehend adventure series
1984 - 1987 Adventures Around the World
In the spirit of the original Apple II program that let people write cool graphics and
animation programs with plain old BASIC, you can now use
Graphics Magician Direct Express
to write C++ programs with graphics, animation, and sound for Windows computers.
The new version works with the free Microsoft Visual C++ Express Edition, but it hides all the DirectX and Windows complexities, making programming much easier. You can do some pretty neat stuff with some fairly short programs. Try it!
