Handic Software AB

Commodore International

Founded	1978
Closed	1986
Headquarters	Stockholm, Sweden
Manager
Employees
Key People (choice)
Turnover
Sector	Hardware, Software
Website	http://www.pcmuseum.ca/companyprofile.asp?id=197
Information	Viewing until the year 1995!

Handic Software Logo.

The Swedish state-owned electronics import company Handic Computers AB cooperated with the Commodore distributor Datatronic Commodore in the early 1980s. This was necessary for Datatronic to get the needed infrastructure for the production of the home computers VIC-20. During the first years of cooperation (roughly between 1980 to 1984), the company was renamed Handic Electronic AB.

Besides hardware and accessories, software was also developed or rewritten for the Swedish market and since 1984 marketed under the name Handic Software AB, while Handic's hardware division moved to Datatronic. After Commodore became the leading home computer brand in Sweden, Commodore opened its own distribution in Sweden in 1986, so Handic and Datatronic were forced out of the market.

The company Handic Software AB' distributed Swedish versions of well-known Commodore software for the CBM/PET,VIC-20, C64 and C128 on datasette, floppy disk and plug-in module, as well as their own games and applications. Furthermore also corresponding hardware, like the adapter switches Super Box 64 (expansion port switch with 3 connectors) and PET-Switch.

In 1983, Handic Software AB had quite a big success with the first Swedish computer game, developed by programmer Arne Fernlund for the C64. The side-scrolling shooter was distributed exclusively as a plug-in module version and sold more than 10,000 copies worldwide. This shooter game was very popular in Italy and Australia.

Furthermore, between 1982 and 1985, Handic published the VIC-rapport (formerly VIC-news and VIC-klubben), which later continued to exist as Commodore rapport.