Abacus Blog

We started Abacus in 1978 when most people hadn’t even heard about the personal computer. We founded our company to produce a few products for a very small but promising market. Developers such as ourselves formed a tight circle around a few brand names - Dec, Altair, Radio Shack, Apple, Commodore, to name a few - to write software to get the personal computers to do fun or useful activities.

At first, a corner of our kitchen and the basement formed the premises for Abacus which was a part-time operation while I continued a full-time job as a system analyst. In a short while, the Commodore Pet computer proved to be a market success which in turn pulled Abacus up by the bootstraps. It was then that I made the risky decision to leave my secure position with a large international corporation to venture out into the unknown world of self-employment … and out of the house too.

Like an amusement park ride, the 30 ensuing years have whipped us up and down and side to side. And while the Commodore Pet is just a footnote in the annals of personal computing, we have lived through the brutal personal computer wars. For reasons unknown to me, we haven’t fallen off of the wildly bucking bronco that characterizes the software and publishing industry. On the contrary, we’ve been rewarded as a leader in the retail channel.

We’ve been honored by a loyal and dedicated staff - among whom Scott Slaughter and Jim Oldfield are among the oldest (or should I say most senior?) - and who help us negotiate all of the mine fields in a very competive business. Some of our current staff includes: Adam, Isaiah, Brent, Sharon, Paul, Mike and Rachel. And we’ve been fortunate to have worked with many fine developers with whom which we have produced some very successful products.

Along the way, we’ve made our share of miscues (read: mistakes). But like most companies, we’ve learned from our mistakes. Today’s plan is to make only new mistakes from here on. Companies that are around for 30 years find themselves having to change focus slightly so as not to fall behind as technology progesses, as hardware prices fall or as consumer preferences dictate. We’re no different. Hopefully we’re focusing on the right changes.

Thirty years - so far, so good. We are thankful to our channel partners with whom we have worked for many years to bring our goods to the retail marketplace. We are thankful to our international partners with who we have closely coordinated our operations to bring our goods to their respective local markets overseas. And finally, we are thankful to our large customer base who form the end-user audience for our goods.

With a little luck, we’ll be around years to come.

Note: I owe a load of thanks to my understanding family - Kris, Jamie, Scott, Paul, Andrea, Kammy, Rachel, Denise, Mike, Jenny, Steve, Karla, Dad and Mom. I’d especially like to offer a personal thanks to these individuals by first name (they’ll know who I mean): Bill D, Chuck, Julie, Konstantin, Laemming, Louis, Peter, Rob and Roy. What a wonderful group that we’ve known through the years. A big thanks to my good friends: Fernand, Philippe and Robert.

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