Art Software was founded by Paul Andrews, Rodney Smith, Mark Sibly and Cameron McKechnie in 1989. They got a publishing contract with Actual Screenshots/CRL, and released two games, Sirius 7 and Sorcerors Apprentice, but CRL never paid them for their work. They later managed to get the rights to the games reverted and released them to the public domain.
After this less than stellar experience with a major commercial publisher, they changed their name to Vision and self-published their next game, Cybernetix, as shareware in 1991, and after they this they got a few games published as coverdisc games for various magazines, but once again found themselves not getting paid. After several other publishers running away with their money they finally established a publishing deal with Mindscape and Acid Software, and later Epic Megagames, and for once they started getting royalties for their games.
They were sometimes credited as Vision Software, not to be confused with the South African publisher of the same name. The studio closed down shortly after the release of the commercially unsuccessful 7th Legion in 1997.
A more comprehensive history of the company is available at Back 2 the Roots.
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