firebird from the ashes.

On another jaunt around the web, ran into the rather good Bird Sanctuary site, dedicated not to actual eagles and sparrows, but to the excellent '80s UK videogame labels Firebird and Rainbird. Firebird was the label which published great games like the non-BBC versions of 'Elite', the classic 'Druid II', and Geoff Crammond's genius 'Sentinel' (oh, and check out this amazing 'Sentinel' chess set.) Rainbird, the sister label, had similarly breakthrough stuff, especially on 16-bit platforms, such as the amazing (and somewhat 'Battle Engine Aquila'-inspiring) 'Carrier Command', golden-era text adventure genius with Magnetic Scrolls' 'The Pawn', and the classic proto-3D wireframe 'Starglider' (by Jez San of Argonaut fame.) Both labels were, bizarrely, owned by British Telecom, the UK's main phone company, until they were sold to Microprose and closed down in 1989-1990.