Bulls and Bears
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1970
Speakeasy Software Ltd
Brian Beninger
Trading
English
1
2001 (Some programs will work on multiple machines)
Speakeasy Software was founded at the dawn of the personal computer era, in 1978 by Brian and Toni Beninger. The company was based near Kemptville, Ontario, Canada. For nearly two years, Speakeasy released software on tape for the Apple II, TRS-80, and Commodore PET machines. Spekeasy also had the distinction of publishing Wheeler Dealers, game-design legend Dan Bunten's first title, and the first computer game to be packaged in a box.
Brian Beninger tells the story: "In 1970 I invented a financial board game called "Bulls and Bears" and actually self-published about 100 copies. A few dozen were sold in game stores in Ottawa and Montreal. In real life, I worked in the first Canadian computer timesharing firms, Dataline and IP Sharp. By 1977, I was employed by the Federal Government in Ottawa and was a manager at Statistics Canada.
It was there that I first became interested in the new microprocessors coming out in the States. I just had to find out more for myself and so took off to Pasadena, CA for what was billed as a "personal computer show". It was just a small bunch of guys and a few tables in a hotel, but it was all I needed to convince myself that this was the future.
So back home in Canada, I managed to buy one of the first 10 Apple II computers, followed a bit later by a Commodore PET computer with a whopping 8k of memory, and then a Radio Shack TRS-80.
We started on our dining room table in a little log house we built for ourselves out in the countryside near Kemptville, Ontario - some 30 miles south of Ottawa. The first title, not surprisingly, was "Bulls and Bears" based on my earlier board game. At first, as I wrote the games, a chap from work, Randy Pack, programmed them in Basic. Then my wife, Toni, became the main programmer.
By early 1978, we had four titles ready for the Apple II - "Bulls and Bears", "Warlords", "Microtrivia" and "Kidstuff". Trying to fit them into 16k and make them worth buying was certainly a challenge. This was before floppy disks! The only means of reproduction was audio tape. I found a company in Ottawa that produced educational audio tapes for doctors and talked them into replicating our tapes. The only problem was that only 50% of them worked and we didn't know which 50% they were! So our 8 and 10 year old kids would load them one at a time on our home machine and pick out the good ones. Talk about cheesy technology.
It was a cold winter day in early 1978 when I put everything to the acid test. I took a day off work. I had a list of some 30 computer stores across North America (basically all I could find from early Byte magazines) and I had my four titles ready. Of course, I needed a marketing name and "Speakeasy Software" was it. I suppose I was just fascinated by the old cars and gangster stuff from the 20's and 30's and I wanted a name that would stand out from the others. I sat down that day with my list and began cold calling every store on that short list. I told them I had packaged software for the new Apple II computers and asked them if they would like to buy a starter pack. Over 80% said yes and by the end of the day, we had our first $3,000 in orders.
Two days later I quit my high-paying and secure job with the Feds and became a full-time entrepreneur. By that summer, my wife Toni, quit her teaching job and Speakeasy had two full-timers and two kids who probably thought their parents were nuts. Our parents were absolutely certain that we had both taken leave of our senses. Our family St Bernards didn't care what we did as long as the food bowl got filled twice a day.
Speakeasy Software was open for business.
As 1978 got underway, we had our first products, our first customers, and a whopping $3,000 of working capital. Clearly, it was time to go international.