The Software Toolworks

Name: The Software Toolworks Established: 1980 Status: Renamed to Mindscape Links: Official site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Software_Too... Submitter: Okku Score: 10 points Added: Feb 28 2006

he Software Toolworks was a computer game publisher, active from 1980 until 2001. Its name was changed to Mindscape in 1994. The company's two most popular products were the very long-lived series Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing and the Chessmaster series of computer games.

In 1990 it debuted the Miracle Piano, a critically acclaimed music-teaching product which almost sank the company after it over-ordered the piano hardware, was not able to sell through copies of the product very quickly, and was stuck with a large amount of inventory.

In 1994, the company purchased RPG publisher SSI and changed its name to Mindscape. The lot was purchased by The Learning Company in 1995, which was then purchased by Broderbund, and then the whole thing was sold to Mattel in 1999 for some US$3.6 billion, causing a strong impact to Mattel's stock price and the ouster of its CEO. Mattel subsequently sold it all to Gores Technology Group for nothing but a share of the profits that Gores could obtain by selling the properties.

As a result, Ubisoft continues to publish Chessmaster titles, and Riverdeep continues to publish new versions of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. New versions of these products no longer use the Software Toolworks brand.

Name	System	Genre
Life and Death	PC	Simulation
Mario is Missing!	SNES	Education
Star Wars Chess	PC	Board

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