The F1 licenceware scheme was created in 1994 by Steve Bye and since then as grown into the UK's leading non-commercial software developer and retail outlet. Way back in '94 I was starting my own Amiga company called SaddleTramps PD selling Public Domain and asked Steve if I could sell his range of cool titles. Guess what, he said yes :)
F1 was placed firmly on the map with the release of it's best seller RELICS OF DELDRONEYE which still sells extremely well and got fantastic reviews in all the magazines.
Then the crowning glory, GRac, the Graphic Adventure Creator which also got stunning reviews and is still selling well. Grac was the first program of its type on any computer and is nothing short of stunning. GRac allows non-programmers to create Monkey Island style adventure games easily. The programming and over a years work by Edmund Clay was a feat of which many a professional programmer would find hard to match using any language.
The fact that GRac is written with Amos Pro is nothing short of unbelievable, as writing a good graphic adventure in its own right in Amos is no mean feat. Writing an adventure creation system in Amos takes nothing short of genius. I take my hat off to Edmund and reckon he must be one of the top Amos coders in Europe.
These are the type of people F1 need and welcome, pioneers.
Today (August 1997) F1 is still going strong and enjoying an excellent reputation of trust with its programmers and customers. There are however a few changes being made even as you read this.
Steve as decided to call it a day and sold the company to little old me (Phil Wilkinson). Almost from the start of F1 I have distributed the entire range of exclusive titles and always firmly believed in the ideas behind the scheme, giving it my full support. I have also ran my own licenceware scheme 5th Dimension in friendly competition and this as driven the software quality of both schemes to new heights. Most new customers are genuinely shocked when they receive the goods which they ordered from us less than 48 hours before hand, drop on the their doormat.
The merging of the F1Licenceware and 5th Dimension schemes is a landmark in Amiga history. It puts the new company (F1 SOFTWARE) in a very strong position in the marketplace. If it's Amiga, this are the place to be.
For the immediate future we plan to push ahead in the direction we are going, with plenty more F1 & 5D titles in development (we have over 200 exclusive titles at the time of writing).
In the not too distant future, but dependant on how the Amiga market bares up to the strain of yet another new owner, we would like to start releasing full blown commercial software.
Call back here soon for more details.