About the site

Welcome to The Bird Sanctuary, a refuge for memories of Telecomsoft, better known in the UK and Europe during the 1980s by the publishing labels Firebird, Rainbird and Silverbird. In its heyday, Telecomsoft published some classic computer games, including Carrier Command, Elite, The Jewels of Darkness, The Pawn, Starglider, Thrust and Virus.

The Bird Sanctuary web site has been compiled, written and contributed to by ex-Telecomsoft staff and developers, along with some help from Joe public. Its existence comes from a desire to try and accurately document all of my own memories of working for the company in the late 1980s. I worked for Telecomsoft during the last twelve months of its ownership by British Telecom, before Rainbird and Firebird were sold to fellow rival games publisher, Microprose UK Limited. I then transferred employment to the new owners and worked for them for another five months or so before they finally closed the London office.

Legal and moral complications aside, it is now possible to find a large number of old Telecomsoft titles on the Internet if you know where to look. This site tries to tell the stories of some of those games from a unique 'behind-the-scenes' perspective.

As most of this site is from personal memories that are now over 18 years old, there is a chance that some of the information here might not be 100% accurate. I'm more than willing to correct inaccuracies, and give others the chance to offer their own memories or opinions on what went on during the development of the games covered here. So, if any ex-colleagues or developers of Rainbird or Firebird software wish to contribute, please get in contact with me via email (rainbirdrich at birdsanctuary dot co dot uk). The more the merrier!

Some info found on this site has been sourced from the Internet and credit and thanks is made where appropriate. All other images, files, etc. have been scanned and/or created specifically for this website. The copyright on the Rainbird, Firebird and Silverbird logos shown here certainly used to reside with British Telecom and subsequently Microprose UK Limited. Who owns them now is currently unknown.

I hope that some of you find this site interesting and maybe even a little nostalgic. Please pop back once in a while, as more information will be added on a semi-regular basis. Please sign the Guestbook, as this gives all visitors the chance to pass comment on this site and on their own memories of the various games that were published by Telecomsoft.

Finally, the Bird Sanctuary is a non-profit web site which is not affiliated with British Telecom (BT) in any way, other than the fact that my former colleagues and I used to work for BT in the 1980s when we were employed to work for Telecomsoft.

Richard Hewison