Silicon Beach Software
Encyclopedia
Silicon Beach Software was an early developer of software products for the Macintosh personal computer. It was founded in San Diego, California
by Charlie Jackson
and his wife Hallie. Jackson later co-founded FutureWave Software
with Jonathan Gay
, the company that produced the first version of what is now Adobe Flash
. Although it began as a publisher of game software, it also published what was called "productivity software" at the time.
Silicon Beach's best known "productivity software" product was SuperPaint
, a graphics program which combined features of Apple's MacDraw
and MacPaint
with several innovations of its own. SuperPaint2 and Digital Darkroom were the first programs on the Macintosh to offer a Plug-in Architecture, allowing outside software developers to extend both programs' capabilities.
Silicon Beach was a pioneer in graphic tools for Desktop Publishing
. Not only was SuperPaint
a tool that had advanced graphic editing capabilities for its day, but also Digital Darkroom
was a pioneering photo editor. It was grayscale only, not color (like the early Macintosh computers), but had a number of interface innovations, including the Magic Wand tool, which also appeared later in Photoshop. It also had a proprietary option for printing grayscale content on dot matrix printer
s. Digital Darkroom
was used professionally to clean up scanned images for clip art
libraries.
Another innovative Silicon Beach product was SuperCard
which, like SuperPaint
, superseded the capabilities of an Apple-branded product (in this case, HyperCard
). SuperCard used a superset of the HyperTalk
programming language and addressed common complaints about HyperCard by adding native support for color, multiple windows, support for vector images, menus and other features.
Silicon Beach Software produced a number of innovative computer games for the Macintosh. The most well known is Dark Castle
released in 1986
. Unlike many games of the era, outside of simple rocks, the hero is largely empty-handed in the battle against his foes. It was ported
to several other operating system
s by other companies.
Silicon Beach Software is credited with coining the term Silicon Beach to refer to San Diego in the same way that Silicon Valley refers to the Santa Clara Valley
and San Jose, CA area.
Silicon Beach was acquired by Aldus
in 1990, and in turn by Adobe Systems
in 1994. Some former employees have reunited as Back to the Beach Software.
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
by Charlie Jackson
Charlie Jackson (software)
Charlie Jackson is a computer software entrepreneur who founded Silicon Beach Software in 1984 and co-founded FutureWave Software in 1993. FutureWave created the first version of what is now Adobe Flash. He was an early investor in Wired magazine, Outpost.com, Streamload and Angelic...
and his wife Hallie. Jackson later co-founded FutureWave Software
FutureWave Software
FutureWave Software was a software developer and publisher based in San Diego, California. The company was founded by Charlie Jackson and Jonathan Gay in early 1993. VP of Marketing was Michelle Welsh who also came from Silicon Beach Software, then Aldus....
with Jonathan Gay
Jonathan Gay
Jonathan Gay is a computer programmer and software entrepreneur based in Northern California. Gay was a co-founder of FutureWave Software in 1993. For a decade, he was the main programmer and visionary of Flash, an animation editor for web pages...
, the company that produced the first version of what is now Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
. Although it began as a publisher of game software, it also published what was called "productivity software" at the time.
Silicon Beach's best known "productivity software" product was SuperPaint
SuperPaint (Macintosh)
SuperPaint was a graphics program capable of both bitmap painting and vector drawing simultaneously. It was originally written by William Snyder, published by Silicon Beach Software and originally released in 1986 for the Apple Macintosh. William Snyder wrote and designed the program from his house...
, a graphics program which combined features of Apple's MacDraw
MacDraw
MacDraw was a vector based drawing application released along with the first Apple Macintosh systems in 1984. MacDraw was one of the first WYSIWYG drawing programs that could be used in collaboration with MacWrite. MacDraw was useful for drawing technical diagrams and floorplans...
and MacPaint
MacPaint
MacPaint was a bitmap-based graphics painting software program developed by Apple Computer and released with the original Macintosh personal computer on January 22, 1984. It was sold separately for US$195 with its word processor counterpart, MacWrite. MacPaint was notable because it could generate...
with several innovations of its own. SuperPaint2 and Digital Darkroom were the first programs on the Macintosh to offer a Plug-in Architecture, allowing outside software developers to extend both programs' capabilities.
Silicon Beach was a pioneer in graphic tools for Desktop Publishing
Desktop publishing
Desktop publishing is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal computer.The term has been used for publishing at all levels, from small-circulation documents such as local newsletters to books, magazines and newspapers...
. Not only was SuperPaint
SuperPaint (Macintosh)
SuperPaint was a graphics program capable of both bitmap painting and vector drawing simultaneously. It was originally written by William Snyder, published by Silicon Beach Software and originally released in 1986 for the Apple Macintosh. William Snyder wrote and designed the program from his house...
a tool that had advanced graphic editing capabilities for its day, but also Digital Darkroom
Digital Darkroom
Digital Darkroom was an innovative, award-winning Apple Macintosh graphics program for editing gray-scale photos. It was published by Silicon Beach Software in 1987. It was programmed by Ed Bomke and Don Cone....
was a pioneering photo editor. It was grayscale only, not color (like the early Macintosh computers), but had a number of interface innovations, including the Magic Wand tool, which also appeared later in Photoshop. It also had a proprietary option for printing grayscale content on dot matrix printer
Dot matrix printer
A dot matrix printer or impact matrix printer is a type of computer printer with a print head that runs back and forth, or in an up and down motion, on the page and prints by impact, striking an ink-soaked cloth ribbon against the paper, much like the print mechanism on a typewriter...
s. Digital Darkroom
Digital Darkroom
Digital Darkroom was an innovative, award-winning Apple Macintosh graphics program for editing gray-scale photos. It was published by Silicon Beach Software in 1987. It was programmed by Ed Bomke and Don Cone....
was used professionally to clean up scanned images for clip art
Clip art
Clip art, in the graphic arts, refers to pre-made images used to illustrate any medium. Today, clip art is used extensively in both personal and commercial projects, ranging from home-printed greeting cards to commercial candles. Clip art comes in many forms, both electronic and printed. However,...
libraries.
Another innovative Silicon Beach product was SuperCard
SuperCard
SuperCard is a high-level development environment that runs on Macintosh computers, under OS 8 and 9, and OS X. It is inspired by HyperCard, but includes a richer language, a full GUI toolkit, and native color .The programming language used by SuperCard is called SuperTalk, and is largely based on...
which, like SuperPaint
SuperPaint (Macintosh)
SuperPaint was a graphics program capable of both bitmap painting and vector drawing simultaneously. It was originally written by William Snyder, published by Silicon Beach Software and originally released in 1986 for the Apple Macintosh. William Snyder wrote and designed the program from his house...
, superseded the capabilities of an Apple-branded product (in this case, HyperCard
HyperCard
HyperCard is an application program created by Bill Atkinson for Apple Computer, Inc. that was among the first successful hypermedia systems before the World Wide Web. It combines database capabilities with a graphical, flexible, user-modifiable interface. HyperCard also features HyperTalk, written...
). SuperCard used a superset of the HyperTalk
HyperTalk
HyperTalk is a high-level, procedural programming language created in 1987 by Dan Winkler and used in conjunction with Apple Computer's HyperCard hypermedia program by Bill Atkinson. The main target audience of HyperTalk was beginning programmers, hence HyperTalk programmers were usually called...
programming language and addressed common complaints about HyperCard by adding native support for color, multiple windows, support for vector images, menus and other features.
Silicon Beach Software produced a number of innovative computer games for the Macintosh. The most well known is Dark Castle
Dark Castle
Dark Castle is a 1986 computer game for the Macintosh published by Silicon Beach Software, later ported to various platforms, where it was published by Three-Sixty Pacific...
released in 1986
1986 in video gaming
-Events:-Notable releases:*Namco releases Sky Kid Deluxe, Hopping Mappy, Toy Pop, The Return of Ishtar, which is the sequel to Tower of Druaga, Genpei Tōma Den, and Rolling Thunder....
. Unlike many games of the era, outside of simple rocks, the hero is largely empty-handed in the battle against his foes. It was ported
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
to several other operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s by other companies.
Silicon Beach Software is credited with coining the term Silicon Beach to refer to San Diego in the same way that Silicon Valley refers to the Santa Clara Valley
Santa Clara Valley
The Santa Clara Valley is a valley just south of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California in the United States. Much of Santa Clara County and its county seat, San José, are in the Santa Clara Valley. The valley was originally known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight for its high concentration...
and San Jose, CA area.
Silicon Beach was acquired by Aldus
Aldus
Aldus Corporation, named after the 15th-century Venetian printer Aldus Manutius, was the inventor of the groundbreaking PageMaker software, a program that is generally credited with creating the desktop publishing field. The company was founded by Jeremy Jaech, Mark Sundstrom, Mike Templeman,...
in 1990, and in turn by Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...
in 1994. Some former employees have reunited as Back to the Beach Software.
Other products
- Airborne! (1985) combat game.
- Banzai! (1985) teaser demo for Airborne!
- Enchanted SceptersEnchanted SceptersEnchanted Scepters is an early point-and-click adventure game, released in 1984.It was created with the World Builder adventure authoring system released to consumers in 1986. The player must find the four fire, earth, air and water scepters hidden across the Kingdom, and return them to the Wizard...
(1985) Point-and-click adventure game made with the engine that later became World Builder. - World BuilderWorld BuilderWorld Builder is an authoring system for point-and-click adventure games. It was released in 1986 by Silicon Beach Software and had already been used for creating Enchanted Scepters in 1984. In 1994 World Builder along with Course Builder, SuperCard and HyperDA was cited as the reason Appleton was...
(1986) graphical adventure game authoring package. - Apache StrikeApache StrikeApache Strike is a 3D helicopter game first developed for the Apple Macintosh in 1987. Its objective is flying an Apache helicopter through a rudimentary hidden line-rendered cityscape in order to destroy the enemy's strategic defense computer. Enemy helicopters and tanks are encountered and must...
(1987) 3D helicopter game. - Beyond Dark CastleBeyond Dark CastleBeyond Dark Castle is a computer game, released for the Macintosh in 1987 by Silicon Beach Software. It was designed by Mark Pierce and programmed by Jonathan Gay. It is the sequel to Dark Castle, with more levels, monsters and items, as well as a larger game map and longer levels...
(1988) Sequel to Dark CastleDark CastleDark Castle is a 1986 computer game for the Macintosh published by Silicon Beach Software, later ported to various platforms, where it was published by Three-Sixty Pacific...
. - Super 3D (1988) 3D modeling application.
- Silicon Press (1986) card and label printing software
- Personal Press (1988) easy to use desktop publishing software, later renamed Adobe Home Publisher
External links
- Coverage of MacWorld Boston 1988 including SuperPaint and Digital Darkroom with founder Charlie Jackson from The Computer Chronicles
- Video review of Beyond Dark Castle and Apache Strike with Silicon Beach development V.P. Eric Zocher from The Computer Chronicles