Distinctive Software

Distinctive Software
Founded	1985-??-??
Headquarters	Burnaby, BC, CA
Other Names	Unlimited Software

Distinctive Software was a Canadian development company located in Burnaby, Vancouver BC in Canada. The company was known for making computer ports of arcade games, and is best known for making the Test Drive games. Occasionally, they went by the alias "Unlimited Software". The company was sold to Electronic Arts in 1991 and became "Electronic Arts Canada". It is now known today as "EA Vancouver".

Some staff would form Radical Entertainment, Relic Entertainment, Next Level Games and Black Box Games.

Games

• Games developed by Distinctive Software.
• Games published by Distinctive Software.

Music Development

Amiga

The sound team used a custom sound driver by Kris Hatlelid.

Genesis

For Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego, Steve Hayes used his own driver.

For The Duel: Test Drive II, Alistair Hirst composed music using Accolade's sound driver by Russell Shiffer.

DOS

The sound team used Kris Hatlelid's KSM format. According to various game credits, the driver was created with Brian Plank.

NES

The sound team used KSM (Kris' Music System, referring to Kris Hatlelid) in which they wrote in assembler macros.

Audio Personnel

These composers worked at Distinctive Software:

• Alistair Hirst
• Brian Plank
• Ivan Allan
• J. Daniel Scott
• Kris Hatlelid
• Mike Sokyrka
• Patrick Payne
• Traz Damji

These people were sub-contracted via Electronic Arts:

• Steve Hayes

Links

• mobygames.com/company/distinctive-software-inc - MobyGames.