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Founded in February 1983, Locomotive Software was the software house which developed the CPC''(Copied from Wikipedia)''s BASIC and operating system, and played a pivotal role in other Amstrad home computers of the time. The company was founded by [[Richard Clayton]] and Chris Hall.
Their first contract was to write a Z80 BASIC for Acorn's abortive ABC business computer project. This BASIC would prove pivotal in their future history, gaining them the 'in'Locomotive Software''' was a small British software house which did most of its development for Amstrad's home and small business computers of the 1980sfirst computer.
Here, as well as porting CP/M, Locomotive was to write LocoScript - a powerful and (generally) user-friendly word-processing package that would be the sole user experience for 90% of the unit's purchasers. The company still exists vast success of the PCW can therefore largely be attributed to Locomotive. Locomotive BASIC, meanwhile, made a reappearance on the PCW, this time as Mallard BASIC. Mallard had no graphics or sound functionality, but the excellent file handling from Locomotive's original Acorn BASIC made a reappearance. LocoScript was the only program for the PCW that did not have to be booted from CP/M, as it contained its own firmware (though many supposedly 'CP/M' programs, such as Flipper and RoutePlanner, were in partial formfact very much PCW-specific). The original version was followed by a greatly improved LocoScript 2 and a set of add-on programs (LocoMail, continuing LocoSpell etc.). The program continued to sell be improved up to LocoScript 4, with better printed output as the main focus of the revisions. Other Locomotive projects of the time included firmware for Amstrad's Spectrum models (after the company had acquired Sinclair), the +2, +2A and +3; BASIC 2, for the Digital Research GEM windowing system used by Amstrad's PCs; and LocoScript softwarePC, a PC port of the word-processor which found great favour with PCW upgraders but failed to make much headway elsewhere. One interesting thing is Locomotive was invited to pitch to write the software for the [[PCW16]], that Amstrad's last 8-bit machine, but declined because they didnthought the deadline was unachievable. (Creative Technology't change their company logo s failure to complete by the specified date only proved that Locomotive had been correct.) == Internet products and later == In 1993, Locomotive began work on an Internet client for more than 20 yearsWindows, called Turnpike. This was principally used by the UK ISP Demon. The program launched in 1995: later that year, Demon bought the Turnpike business, while the still profitable PCW side was bought out by Locomotive's Howard Fisher and renamed LocoScript Software. LocoScript Software is now owned by [[SD Microsystems]], which itself was once a CPC software publisher. Richard Clayton has become a well-respected, and often quoted, security expert at Cambridge University.
== Web links ==
* [http://www.locomotive.com/ old Locomotive Software domain]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locomotive_Software Information at Wikipedia]
* [http://www.old-computers.com/magazine/view.asp?r=1&a=16 Interview with Richard Clayton]
* [http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rnc1/talks/040309-TwentyYears.pdf History of Locomotive presentation] (PDF)
* [http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rnc1/index.html Richard Clayton's homepage]
