Safari Software was a software developer and published founded circa 1989 in Houston, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. Patrick Aalto, prior to founding Safari, released a freeware game titled Line Wars in 1989 inspired by the original Elite video game engine. The first game released by Safari was Jason Storm in Space Chase in 1993. After developing several titles, Safari made a partnership with Epic MegaGames

Epic Games

Epic Games, Inc., also known as Epic and formerly Epic MegaGames, is an American video game development company based in Cary, North Carolina. Its most recent success has been the Gears of War series of games, although it is also known for its Unreal Engine technology. It is the parent company of...

 (now Epic Games) to distribute titles they would publish. The first game to be released under this arrangement was P-Squared Productions' Traffic Department 2192

Traffic Department 2192

Traffic Department 2192 is a top down shooter game for IBM PC, developed by P-Squared Productions and released in 1994 by Safari Software and distributed by Epic MegaGames. The full game contains three episodes , each with twenty missions, in which the player pilots a "hoverskid" about a war-torn...

, released in 1994. However in certain regions where Epic had limited distribution abilities, such as Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, Safari utilized other companies such as Manaccom

Manaccom

Manaccom was one of Australia's oldest software publishers, founded in 1986 and based out of Brisbane. It also published to New Zealand with distribution managed by Total Interactive....

.

1995 and 1996 were profitable years for Safari with the success of publishing such titles as Highway Hunter

Highway Hunter

Highway Hunter is a DOS-based video game created in 1994. It was developed by Omega Integral Systems, released by Safari Software, and distributed by Epic MegaGames .-Plot:...

and Seek and Destroy coupled with the shareware

Shareware

The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...

 model and advertising provided by Epic MegaGames. In 1997, Epic MegaGames bought out Safari entirely absorbing their publishing facilities into the company. Several more popular titles published by Safari continued to be sold via the rebranded Safari Software on the Epic Games

Epic Games

Epic Games, Inc., also known as Epic and formerly Epic MegaGames, is an American video game development company based in Cary, North Carolina. Its most recent success has been the Gears of War series of games, although it is also known for its Unreal Engine technology. It is the parent company of...

 website, however in 2001, due to limited demand, Epic stopped selling them directly. Epic Classics http://www.epicclassics.com, a division of Epic Games, still sells Seek and Destroy. All software copyrights of games published by Safari are still held by Epic Games.

Select list of titles by Safari Software

• Jason Storm in Space Chase (1993) (Developed by Safari Software)
• Heros: The Sanguine Seven (1994) (Developed by Jeffrey Fullerton)
• Traffic Department 2192 (1994) (Developed by P-Squared Productions)
• LineWars II
  Linewars II
  - Storyline :Recently receiving your Fighter Pilots License, you are assigned to guard a remote outpost in the obscure Deneb star system. The more seasoned pilots, those which you would normally have as comrades, have been assigned to locate the rebel pirate base, rumoured to be hidden near a...
  
  (1994) (Developed by Safari Software)
• Highway Hunter
  Highway Hunter
  Highway Hunter is a DOS-based video game created in 1994. It was developed by Omega Integral Systems, released by Safari Software, and distributed by Epic MegaGames .-Plot:...
  
  (1995) (Developed by Omega Integral Systems)
• Seek and Destroy (1996) (Developed by Vision Software
  Vision Software
  Vision Software is a computer and video game software distributor, headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, and founded in 1990. They were acquired by Electronic Arts on March 8, 1995. Vision was the leader of software sales in South Africa at the time of its purchase by EA...
  
  )

External links

• Closed Official Website at Archive.org
• Epic Classics
• Jeffrey Fullerton's homepage.
• Patrick Aalto's homepage, has been inactive since December 1999.