Editing Acorn Electron (section)

===Games===
{{See also|List of Acorn Electron games}}

Of the twelve software titles announced by Acornsoft for the Electron at the machine's launch, six were games titles: ''[[Snapper (video game)|Snapper]]'', ''Monsters'' (a clone of [[Space Panic]]), ''Meteors'' (a clone of [[Asteroids (video game)|Asteroids]]), ''[[Starship Command]]'', ''Chess'', and the combined title ''Draughts and Reversi''.<ref name="acornuser198308_acornsoft">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser013-Aug83/page/n7/mode/1up | title=Acornsoft will release 12 tapes for Electron | magazine=Acorn User | date=August 1983 | access-date=18 October 2021 | pages=6 }}</ref> When the Plus 1 expansion was launched in 1984, three of these titles{{snd}}''Hopper'', ''Snapper'' and ''Starship Command''{{snd}}were among the six ROM cartridge titles available at launch, together with the adventure ''Countdown to Doom''.<ref name="acornuser198406a" /> Acornsoft would continue to release games including those based on existing arcade games such as ''[[Arcadians (video game)|Arcadians]]'' (based on [[Galaxian]]) and ''Hopper'' (based on [[Frogger]]), as well as original titles such as ''Free Fall''<ref name="acorn_amp18">{{ cite book | url=http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Acorn/Brochures/Acornsoft_AMP18_MasterpiecesForTheElectron.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Acorn/Brochures/Acornsoft_AMP18_MasterpiecesForTheElectron.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live | title=Masterpieces of Software from Acornsoft for the Electron | publisher=Acornsoft Limited | access-date=18 October 2021 }}</ref> and ''[[Elite (video game)|Elite]]''.<ref name="electronuser198411_elite">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/ElectronUserVolume2/Electron-User-02-02/page/n6/mode/1up | title=Acornsoft launches new cult adventure | magazine=Electron User | date=November 1984 | access-date=18 October 2021 | pages=7 }}</ref>

[[Micro Power]], already an established BBC Micro games publisher, also entered the Electron market at a relatively early stage, offering ten initial titles either converted from the BBC Micro, in the case of ''Escape from Moonbase Alpha'' and ''Killer Gorilla'', or "completely re-written", in the case of ''Moonraider'' (due to differences in the screen handling between the machines).<ref name="electronuser198402_topten">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/ElectronUserVolume1/Electron_User_01-05/page/n7/mode/1up | title='Top ten' take the lead | magazine=Electron User | date=February 1984 | access-date=18 October 2021 | volume=1 | issue=5 | pages=8 }}</ref> [[Superior Software]], also a significant publisher for the BBC Micro, routinely released games for both machines, notably a licensed version of Atari's [[Tempest (video game)|Tempest]] in 1985,<ref name="electronuser198505_tempest">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/ElectronUserVolume2/Electron-User-02-08/page/n5/mode/1up | title=Electron Tempest hits new high spot | magazine=Electron User | date=May 1985 | access-date=18 October 2021 | volume=2 | issue=8 | pages=6 }}</ref> but also successful original titles such as the ''[[Repton (video game)|Repton]]'' series of games, ''Citadel'', ''[[Thrust (video game)|Thrust]]'' and ''[[Galaforce]]''. Superior's role in games publishing for the Acorn machines expanded in 1986 when the company acquired the right to use the Acornsoft brand, leading to the co-branding of games and compilations released by the company and the re-release of existing Acornsoft titles with this branding, Elite among them.<ref name="electronuser198609_superior_acornsoft">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/ElectronUserVolume3/Electron-User-03-12/page/n5/mode/1up | title=Acorn-Superior software deal | magazine=Electron User | volume=3 | issue=12 | date=September 1986 | access-date=17 January 2021 | pages=6 }}</ref> The company would subsequently release another "masterpiece" with bundled novella{{snd}}the 1988 game ''[[Exile (1988 video game)|Exile]]''<ref name="electronuser198904_exile">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/ElectronUserVolume6/Electron-User-06-07/page/n16/mode/1up | title=The new masterpiece | magazine=Electron User | last1=Revis | first1=Jon | date=April 1989 | access-date=18 October 2021 | volume=6 | issue=7 | pages=17–18 }}</ref>{{snd}}as well as numerous conversions and compilations.<ref name="electronuser199006_scott" />

By 1988, the "big three" full-price games publishers for the Acorn 8-bit market were identified as Superior Software, Audiogenic (ASL) and Tynesoft, with Top Ten and Alternative Software being the significant budget publishers, and other "strong contenders" being Godax, Mandarin and Bug Byte, this assessment made from the perspective of an established games author evaluating trustworthy publishers for aspiring authors. Commercial considerations motivated authors to make their games available for the Electron due to its importance in sales terms, representing "around half of the Acorn market", with it being regarded as "almost compulsory for any mainstream game" to have an Electron version "unless your game is a state-of-the-art masterpiece", with ''Revs'', ''Cholo'' and ''Sentinel'' cited as such BBC Micro exclusives.<ref name="diskuser198810_gameplan">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/DiskUser/Disk-User-12/page/n8/mode/1up | title=Game Plan | magazine=Disk User | last1=Scott | first1=Peter | date=October 1988 | access-date=21 October 2021 | pages=9–11 }}</ref> Although the Electron imposed additional technical constraints on authors accustomed to the BBC Micro, some authors were able to use this to their creative advantage. For instance, of ''Frak!'' it was noted that the "Electron version is more popular, and considered better than the BBC version because it has a screen designer included".<ref name="acornuser198812_allthebest">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser077-Dec88/page/n144/mode/1up | title=All The Best | magazine=Acorn User | date=December 1988 | access-date=4 December 2021 | pages=143–145, 147–148 }}</ref>

[[File:CrystalCastles Electron.gif|thumb|''[[Crystal Castles (video game)|Crystal Castles]]'' is an example of an arcade game officially ported to the Electron by US Gold.]]

Although not as well supported by the biggest software publishers as rivals like the [[Commodore 64]] and Sinclair [[ZX Spectrum]], a good range of games were available for the Electron including popular multi-format games such as ''[[Chuckie Egg]]''. There were also many popular games officially converted to the Electron from arcade machines (including ''[[Crystal Castles (video game)|Crystal Castles]]'', ''[[Tempest (arcade game)|Tempest]]'', ''[[Commando (arcade game)|Commando]]'', ''[[Paperboy (video game)|Paperboy]]'', and ''[[Yie Ar Kung-Fu]]'') and other home computer systems (including ''[[Impossible Mission]]'', ''[[Jet Set Willy]]'', ''[[The Way of the Exploding Fist]]'', ''[[Tetris]]'', ''[[The Last Ninja]]'', ''[[Barbarian (computer game)|Barbarian]]'', ''[[Ballistix]]'', ''[[Predator (video game)|Predator]]'', ''[[Hostages (video game)|Hostages]]'' and ''[[SimCity (1989 video game)|SimCity]]'').<ref name="electronuser199006_scott" /><ref name="abcomputing198708_johnson">{{ cite news | url=https://archive.org/details/AB_Computing_1987-08_OCR/page/n34/mode/1up | title=Programmer Profile: Peter Johnson | work=A&B Computing | date=August 1987 | access-date=22 September 2021 | pages=35–36 }}</ref>

Despite Acorn themselves effectively shelving the Electron in 1985, games continued to be developed and released by professional software houses until the early 1990s.<ref name="electronuser199007a" /> There were around 1,400 games released for the Acorn Electron, several thousand extra public domain titles were released on disc through Public Domain libraries. Notable enterprises which produced discs of such software are BBC PD, EUG (Electron User Group) and [[HeadFirst PD]].{{citation needed|date=October 2021|reason=These figures and enterprises probably feature on a Web site somewhere, so it would be nice to see the source of such information.}}