Founded in February 1983, Locomotive Software was the software house which developed the CPC'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' for Amstrad's first computer.
Locomotive's association with Amstrad continued with the next range of computers to be launched by the firm - the [[PCW]] word-processors.
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 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 fact very much PCW-specific). The original version was followed by a greatly improved LocoScript 2 and a set of add-on programs (LocoMail, LocoSpell etc.). The program continued to be improved up to LocoScript 4, with better printed output as the main focus of the revisions.
* [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]
[[Category:CPC related companies]] [[Category:CPC History]]