Hewson Consultants

Hewson Consultants were one of the smaller software companies which produced games for home computers in the mid 1980s. They had a reputation for high quality games which continually pushed the boundaries of what the computers were capable of and can be compared favourably with other ground-breaking software houses like Ultimate Play the Game and Beyond. 14 of their games (58.33%) was awarded "Megagame" by Your Sinclair. [http://www.ysrnry.co.uk/bycompany/Hewson.htm]

Hewson was founded by Andrew Hewson in the early 1980s. He became interested in computers while working at the British Museum when their first machine arrived. After learning to program, Andrew wrote a programming guide book entitled "Hints and Tips for the ZX Spectrum". Following the publication, bedroom coders began to send Andrew the games they had programmed on cassette tape, giving Andrew the idea to publish the games. Hewson Consultants was born, and initially released games via mail order advertisements in computing magazines. Andrew was also a columnist in Sinclair User magazine throughout the 1980s.

Andrew and other members of the Hewson management team went on to form 21st Century Entertainment after Hewson shut down in the early 1990s, releasing several chart topping games such as Pinball Dreams, Pinball Fantasies and Pinball Illusions. Andrew was also the founder of ELSPA (European Leisure Software Publishers Assosiation) which continues to be the European regulating body for the video games industry.

Although Hewson Consultants has been closed down since 1991, their games are still covered in Retro gaming press, and the hit title Uridium, originally released for Commodore 64 in 1986, was recently launched on Nintendo's Virtual Console game download service.

Their address was 56B, Milton Trading Estate, Milton, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RX.

They were heavily involved with the design team Graftgold who produced many of their titles.

Notable Releases

* "Quest Adventure" - 1983.
* "3D Space-Wars" - 1983.
* "3D Seiddab Attack" - 1984.
* "3D Lunattack" - 1984. Reviewed in Crash issue 4 - 90%
* "Avalon" - 1984. Reviewed in Crash issue 10 - 91%
* "Technician Ted" - 1984. Reviewed in Crash issue 13 - 96%
* "Dragontorc" - 1985.
* "Astro Clone" - 1985.
* "Uridium" - 1985.
* "Paradroid" - 1985.
* "Pyracurse" - 1986.
* "Quazatron" - 1986.
* "Southern Belle" - 1986
* "Cybernoid" - 1987.
* "Exolon" - 1987.
* "Zynaps" - 1987.
* "Nebulus" - 1987.
* "Ranarama" - 1987.

External links

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