Beagle Bros
Beagle Bros was an American software company that specialized in creating personal computing products. Their primary focus was on the Apple II family of computers. Although they ceased business in 1991, owner Mark Simonsen permitted the Beagle Bros name and logo to be included on the 30th anniversary reboot of I. O. Silver, released on December 12, 2014 by former Beagle programmer Randy Brandt.
 | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Founded | October 1, 1980 |
| Founder | Bert Kersey |
| Defunct | 1991 |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Bert Kersey, Alan Bird, Jack Cassidy, Mark Simonsen, Rob Renstrom, Randy Brandt, Dan Verkade, Matt Reimer, Mark Munz |
History
Beagle Bros was founded in 1980 by Bert Kersey and expanded over the years to include a wide variety of staff members, programmers, and designers. Whereas most software companies focused on professional users and business systems, Kersey founded the company with the intention of capitalizing on the "hobbyist" market that had formed when affordable personal computers became more readily available. Apple Mechanic allowed users to create their own shape tables (an early form of sprites) to create their own games, DOS Boss let users patch the disk operating system, and Beagle Bag had a number of games written in BASIC that people could utilize. Beagle Bros' catalog and print advertisements featured many playful programming tips about the Apple II system, many in the form of short Applesoft BASIC programs that took advantage of undocumented or unexpected behavior. Beagle Bros used woodcut and other 19th century artwork in its printed designs.
When the Apple IIgs was released, Beagle Bros was among the first companies to release content for the platform. Both Platinum Paint and BeagleWrite GS (acquired and repackaged) are still regarded as being among the high points of commercial IIgs software.
Beagle Bros began producing add-ons for the AppleWorks, its first being the MacroWorks keyboard shortcut utility by Randy Brandt.[1] Beagle Bros programmer Alan Bird later devised an API for creating AppleWorks add-ons, which they dubbed TimeOut. TimeOut programmers Alan Bird, Randy Brandt and Rob Renstrom were tapped by Claris to develop AppleWorks 3.0, and the TimeOut API itself became a part of AppleWorks with version 4.0. Eventually the TimeOut API was made public and a number of non-Beagle TimeOut applications were released.
In 1991, Mark Simonsen licensed the Beagle Bros Apple II line to Quality Computers. Quality Computers subsequently went through several acquisitions and no longer exists. Multiple Beagle Bros products were released as freeware in the mid-1990s, including most of the company's early utilities and games.[2] Today, their programs are available on the Internet.[3]
BeagleWorks, the company's main Macintosh product, was licensed to WordPerfect Corporation in 1992, where it became WordPerfect Works. This product was later discontinued after WordPerfect was acquired by Novell. The company also produced a few small Macintosh and PC utilities.
Many former employees have continued to be involved in the software industry, such as Joe Holt who co-authored iMovie, and Alan Bird who worked on Eudora and the OneClick shortcut utility for Macintosh. Randy Brandt created Online Army Knife, an award-winning Macintosh spell checker, and continued publishing AppleWorks products through his JEM Software spin-off. Mark Munz created Deja ][, which allows AppleWorks to run under Mac OS X. The company's founder, Bert Kersey, started a model train company after selling Beagle Bros, and is now retired.
Beagle Bros used woodcut art in its print material and 19th century artwork in its designs.
Software
| Title | Author(s) | Published | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Printer | Lo-res graphics and titling program | ||
| Alpha Plot | Bert Kersey and Jack Cassidy | 1980 | Hi-res graphics program |
| Apple Mechanic/Shape Mechanic | Bert Kersey | 1982 | Hi-res shape/font editor; multiple other utilities |
| Apple Mechanic Typefaces | Bert Kersey | Twenty-six fonts for use with Apple Mechanic | |
| AppleWorks 3.0 Companion | Patches for various AppleWorks 3.0 modules | ||
| Bag of Tricks | Don Worth and Pieter Lechner | Examine, edit, reformat and repair disk data (published by Quality Software) | |
| Beagle Bag | Bert Kersey and the Beagle Bros staff | A collection of games including Buzzword!, Elevators, Hang Person, Magic Pack, Oink!, Pick-A-Pair, Quick-Draw!, Slippery Digits, Sub Search, TextTrain, Triple Digits and Wowzo, plus the Beagle Menu utility | |
| Beagle BASIC | Mark Simonsen | 1983 | An expanded version of Applesoft BASIC with various new commands |
| The Beagle Compiler | Alan Bird | 1986 | AppleSoft BASIC program compiler |
| BeagleDraw | Robert A. Hearn and Jeff G. Erickson | 1989 | Apple IIGS graphic application, formerly TopDraw |
| Beagle Graphics | Mark Simonsen | Graphics editor in 16-color double hi-res | |
| Beagle Screens | Fred & Sara Crone, Matt Reimer, Bert Kersey and Robert Renstrom | 1986 | Full-screen captionable clip art |
| BeagleWorks | 1992 | Later renamed WordPerfect Works, then PerfectWorks | |
| BeagleWrite, BeagleWrite GS | ProDOS-based GUI word processor, acquired from Styleware where it had been named MultiScribe | ||
| BeagleWrite Desk Accessories | Adds a clock, calendar and calculator | ||
| BeagleWrite Picture Manager | Allows import of Print Shop (8-bit) and Newsroom images | ||
| Big U | Randy Brandt | 1986 | ProDOS utilities including CRT.WRITER, FILE.MOVER and KEYCAT.80 |
| D Code | Alan Bird | AppleSoft program optimizer and debugger | |
| DiskQuik | Harry Bruce and Gene Hite | Creates a virtual disk in RAM | |
| DOS Boss | Bert Kersey and Jack Cassidy | DOS 3.3 enhancer and command editor | |
| Double-Take | Mark Simonsen | Various small utilities including two-way text scrolling | |
| Extra K | Alan Bird and Mark Simonsen | 1985 | An extended memory utility allowing AppleSoft to use a second 64K bank of memory in an upgraded IIe or IIc |
| FatCat | Alan Bird | Disk library cataloguer | |
| Flash | Joe Holt | 1989 | Tool to copy files over AppleTalk, integrated into the Finder. Beagle's first Macintosh program |
| Flex Text | Mark Simonsen | 1982 | Variable-width hi-res text utility |
| Font Mechanic | Mark & Jon Simonsen | 1985 | Thirty fonts for use with Shape Mechanic |
| Frame-Up | Tom Weishaar | 1982 | Apple presentation program |
| GPLE | Neil Konzen | 1983 | Global Program Line Editor for AppleSoft BASIC programs. Originally published by Synergistic Software, 1982. |
| GS Font Editor | Font editor for AppleWorks | ||
| I.O. Silver | Brad Wilhelmsen | 1984 | Popular strategy/action game rebooted in 2014 as a 30th anniversary mobile app: I. O. Silver |
| MacroWorks | Randy Brandt | 1986 | Macros (keyboard shortcuts)for AppleWorks 1.3 |
| Master Find | Master Mind-style game | ||
| Minipix | Fred & Sara Crone | A three-disk series of clipart collections | |
| Outliner | Randy Brandt | 1990 | AppleWorks 3.0 Word Processor outlining |
| Platinum Paint | Matt Reimer | Apple IIGS paint program | |
| Point-to-Point | Gary Little | 1988 | Telecommunications program |
| Power Print | Robert Renstrom | Dot matrix printer utility | |
| Pro-Byter | 1985 | Disk editor and ProDOS utilities | |
| Program Writer | Alan Bird | 1987 | AppleSoft program editor |
| ProntoDOS | Tom Weishaar | Accelerated version of DOS 3.3 with other additional features | |
| Resource Disk | Sample file disk for SuperFonts Activity Guide | ||
| Shape Mechanic | Bert Kersey and Mark Simonsen | Shape animation and screen fonts | |
| Silicon Salad | Bert Kersey and Mark Simonsen | Various tips, tricks and utilities from Beagle Bros Tip Books 5, 6 and 7 | |
| Super MacroWorks | Randy Brandt | 1986 | Macros (keyboard shortcuts) for AppleWorks 2.0 |
| TimeOut series | Various add-ons for AppleWorks 2.0 and newer built on the TimeOut core technology created by Alan Bird. Includes products detailed below, plus MacroEase, MacroTools, Paint, TeleComm and Utilities | ||
| TimeOut DeskTools | Howard Bangerter, Alan Bird, Glenn Clawson, Mark de Jong & Dan Verkade | 1987 | Calculator, Calendar, Case Converter, Clock, Data Converter, Dialer, Envelope Addresser, File Encrypter, Note Pad, Page Preview, Puzzle, Word Count |
| TimeOut DeskTools II | Dan Verkade, Glenn Clawson & Randy Brandt | 1988 | Area Codes, Calculator+, Clipboard Viewer, DirecTree, Disk Tester, File Search, Measurements, Printer Manager, Screen Out, Screen Printer, Stop Watches |
| TimeOut FileMaster | Randy Brandt | 1987 | File and disk utilities |
| TimeOut Grammar | Dan Verkade | Grammar checking for the AppleWorks Word Processor | |
| TimeOut Graph | Robert Renstrom | 1987 | Graphing for the AppleWorks Spreadsheet |
| TimeOut MacroEase | Randy Brandt & Mark Munz | 1990 | Macro-related Timeout apps and sample macros |
| TimeOut MacroTools | Randy Brandt | 1988 | Macro-related Timeout apps and sample macros |
| TimeOut MacroTools II | Randy Brandt | 1988 | Macro-related Timeout apps and sample macros |
| TimeOut PowerPack | Randy Brandt | 1988 | ASCII Values, AWP to TXT, Category Search, Desktop Sorter, File Librarian, Help Screens, Line Sorter, Program Selector, Triple Clipboard, Triple Desktop |
| TimeOut QuickSpell | Alan Bird | 1987 | Spell checking for the AppleWorks Word Processor |
| TimeOut ReportWriter | Dan Verkade | 1989 | Relational reports for the Data Base and Spreadsheet |
| TimeOut SpreadTools | Alan Bird, Randy Brandt and Dan Verkade | 1988 | CelLink, Block Copy, Error Analyzer, Bird's Eye View, AutoZoom, Data Converter, Cross Reference, Formula/Value Switcher, Quick Widths, Row Column Converter |
| TimeOut SideSpread | Mark Simonsen | 1987 | Wide paper printing for the AppleWorks Spreadsheet |
| TimeOut SuperFonts | Mark Simonsen | 1987 | Graphical fonts for the AppleWorks Word Processor |
| TimeOut SuperForms | Dan Verkade | Form generation | |
| TimeOut TextTools | Mark Munz, Randy Brandt and Howard Bangerter | assorted tools | |
| TimeOut Thesaurus | Alan Bird | Synonyms in the AppleWorks Word Processor | |
| TimeOut UltraMacros | Randy Brandt | 1987 | Keystroke recorder and macro programming language |
| Tip Disk#1 | Bert Kersey | One hundred tips from the Beagle Bros Tip Books | |
| Triple-Dump | Mark Simonsen and Robert Renstrom | "Print anything" utility for dot matrix printers | |
| Utility City | Bert Kersey | 1982 | Twenty-one separate Apple utilities |
| Zoom Graphix | Sends hi-res images to any graphics-compatible printer |
References
- "Randy Brandt and AppleWorks". Apple II History. 2012-07-19. Retrieved 2018-02-17.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on January 16, 2003. Retrieved January 28, 2005.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on June 17, 2002. Retrieved January 28, 2005.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
External links
- The Beagle Bros Online Museum
- The Beagle Brothers Software repository
- Beagle Bros' software at the Lost Classics Project
- Backyard Barn Owls — Beagle Bros' founder's current Web site about barn owls (includes contact link)