Fate Dissolved Subsidiaries Currah Founded 1981 Ceased operations May 24, 1993 | Defunct 24 May 1993 Founder David Heelas Number of employees 50 | |
Industry Video games and computer peripherals Key people David Heelas (director), Roger Barnard (PR/Advertising), Neil Rawlingson (finance director) Headquarters Saffron Walden, United Kingdom | ||
dk'tronics was a British software and hardware company active during the 1980s. It primarily made peripherals for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC but also released video games for the Spectrum, Commodore 64, Commodore Vic 20, BBC Micro, Memotech, MSX and Amstrad platforms.
Contents
History
The company's first product was a 16Kb expansion pack for the ZX80, released just prior to the launch of the ZX81. At this time the company consisted only of David Heelas, working part-time through his interest in electronics. When the ZX81 was launched, he went full-time – manufacturing, packaging and posting from his home – and by the end of 1981 he had four employees. Hardware production expanded to include new keyboards for the ZX81 and for the newly released ZX Spectrum.
By 1984, dk'tronics had around 50 personnel, with Heelas as managing director. He was also looking into the possibility of becoming a computer manufacturer, specifically with a low-cost processor for the leisure market. It was planned to have an integrated screen and music keyboard.
Due to the company's success and good press coverage, in 1985 dk'tronics were approached by management from Currah (most noted for their Microspeech speech synthesis peripheral.) After talks, dk'tronics acquired Currah for a "substantial five-figure sum". Technology acquired from Currah included the microSource, an Assembler/Forth 'on-board' ROM.
Software
David Heelas was known to be critical of the hype attempted by other software companies in the gaming press and took pride in the professional position adopted by dk'tronics.
Software was published between 1982 and 1985, and included works from regular programmers such as Don Priestley.