Telarium
Telarium Corporation (formerly Trillium) was a brand owned by Spinnaker Software. The brand was launched in 1984 and Spinnaker was sold in 1994. The headquarters were located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The President of Telarium was C. David Seuss, the founder and CEO of Spinnaker Software.
Also recorded as Telarium Corp.
Telarium
- Name
- Telarium
- Founded
- 1984.
- Headquarters
- Cambridge.
- Activity
- video game industry.
- Products
- adventure video game.
- Dissolved
- 1987.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Telarium Corporation (formerly Trillium) was a brand owned by Spinnaker Software. The brand was launched in 1984 and Spinnaker was sold in 1994. The headquarters were located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The President of Telarium was C. David Seuss, the founder and CEO of Spinnaker Software.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Telarium. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q2401222 · wikipedia · Telarium
In this article
Overview
Overview
It is associated with United States. The record gives 1984 as its date of establishment or first appearance. Activity is recorded as ending in 1987. Its recorded seat is Cambridge. The recorded field of activity is video game industry. Recorded products are adventure video game.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Telarium • Former Name — Trillium • Industry — Video game industry • Founded — 1984 • Founder — C. David Seuss • Defunct — 1987 • Hq Location City — Cambridge, Massachusetts • Hq Location Country — USA • Products — Adventure games • Parent — Spinnaker Software
History
History
C. David Seuss founded Trillium Corporation as a subsidiary of Spinnaker Software, which he had also founded and of which he was the CEO. Within the first year of its founding, Trillium's name was changed to Telarium due to legal issues presented by a book publisher. Telarium primarily released adventure games, with the exception of Shadowkeep, a role-playing game. The games were based on books, and the development of each game led to cooperation between the software developers and the authors. The first author who was consulted was the science fiction novelist Michael Crichton. Crichton collaborated on the development of Telarium's game Amazon, which was loosely based on his book Congo.
Adventure games
Adventure games
Telarium published eight adventure games. The games belonged to the genre of interactive fiction with graphics. One game (Shadowkeep) was also a role-playing video game. They were based on works of literature in the literary genres of science fiction, fantasy, crime fiction and legal drama. Often they were developed in cooperation with established writers. The game development was a part of Spinnakers marketing strategy in the adventure game market in the 1980s: Adventure games by Telarium were targeted at grown-up players, while those by Windham Classics–another Spinnaker subsidiary–were targeted at children. The development was managed by Seth Godin. • Amazon, 1984 (written by Michael Crichton, partly based upon his novel Congo) • Fahrenheit 451, 1984 (developed in cooperation with Ray Bradbury and based upon his science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury contributed a sequel to the game) • Rendezvous with Rama, 1984 (developed in cooperation with Arthur C. Clarke and based upon his science fiction novel Rendezvous with Rama. Clarke contributed a different ending to the game) • Dragonworld, 1984 (written by Byron Preiss and Michael Reaves, based upon their fantasy novel Dragonworld) • Shadowkeep, 1984 (first video game to be novelised: Shadowkeep, Warner Books 1984 by Alan Dean Foster). • Perry Mason: The Case of the Mandarin Murder, 1985 (based upon the fictional defense attorney Perry Mason, authored by Erle Stanley Gardner) • Nine Princes in Amber (based upon the fantasy novels Nine Princes in Amber and The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny) • The Scoop, written 1986 and rerelased by Spinnaker Software 1989 (based upon the detective serials The Scoop and Behind the Screen by Agatha Christie et al.) Two more adventure games were announced, but not published (Starman Jones, based on a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, and The Great Adventure, based on a science fiction novel by Philip Jose Farmer).
Identity and overview
Identity and overview
The following is established of the heading itself. Recorded from 1984. It is also recorded that telarium is associated with United States.
Reception
The Telarium adventures received critical acclaim. They were praised for the prime quality text, the detailed graphics and the interactive opportunities. The cooperation with famous writers like Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke and Michael Crichton was accentuated as a special feature of Telarium.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.History for SoftKey International, Inc.
- 2.C. David Seuss: Welcome to Telarium, Fall 1984 (Telarium-Newsletter) at The Interactive Fiction Collector´s Guide – Telarium by Manuel Schulz .
- 3.Maher, Jimmy. Michael Crichton. The Digital Antiquarian.
- 4.Moby Games. Telarium Corp.
- 5.Selby Bateman: Is A Picture Worth A Thousand Words?, Compute!, Issue 53, October 1984, p. 32.
- 6.Marguerite Zientara: Inside Spinnaker Software, InfoWorld volume 6, issue 33, August 1984, , p.43-48
- 7.Shay Addams: if yr cmptr cn rd ths..., Computer Entertainment, August 1985, p. 24-27, 76–77; Selby Bateman: Is a Picture worth a thousand words?, Compute!, Issue 53, October 1984, , p. 32
- 8.Telarium at Adventureland by Hans Persson and Stefan Meier
- 9.Telarium at Adventureland by Hans Persson and Stefan Meier
- 10.e.g. Gil Merciez: Fahrenheit 451, Antic Amiga Magazine, Vol. 5 Nr.1, 05/1985, p.81; David Cuciz: Gamespy Interviews – Alan Dean Foster. The Writing Game, August 2000
- 11.William V. Costanzo: The electronic Text: Learning to write, read and reason with computers. Educational Technology Publications 1989, Chapter A brief History of Interactive Fiction, p.67f.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Publishers and printers
5,459 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- TecMagikOrganisation
- Teikoku ShoinOrganisation
- Tekno ComixOrganisation
- Tel Aviv UniversityOrganisation
- TelegamesOrganisation
- TeleverketOrganisation
- Telkom UniversityOrganisation
- Telltale GamesOrganisation
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own an object connected with Telarium?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.