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Human Engineered Software
open-in-new
<h2 id="history">History</h2> <p>The company was located in <a href="/facts/Brisbane,_California/7LGPUzcQ">Brisbane, California</a>. Published titles included games, educational and productivity programs. Among them were <i><a href="/facts/Project_Space_Station/bxK0RGCP">Project Space Station</a></i>, <i>Mr. TNT</i>, <a href="/facts/Turtle_Graphics/3UBFgoIE">Turtle Graphics</a> by David Malmberg, several <a href="/facts/Jeff_Minter/SMyyKtja">Jeff Minter</a> games (Llamasoft), such as <i><a href="/facts/Attack_of_the_Mutant_Camels/F8qA5yq6">Attack of the Mutant Camels</a></i>, <i><a href="/facts/Gridrunner/cIFCXkCM">Gridrunner</a></i>, <i><a href="/facts/Hes_Games/AoWaTLHt">Hes Games</a></i>, and HesMon, Graphics BASIC, 64Forth (a <a href="/facts/ROM_cartridge/mWLcNez7">cartridge</a>-based <a href="/facts/Forth_(programming_language)/mYtWVNhF">Forth</a> implementation), and the HesModem and HesModem II. </p><p>The company was started by Jay Balakrishnan and Cy Shuster in 1980. The company was founded in Balakrishnan's apartment in <a href="/facts/Los_Angeles/pyXpYEX9">Los Angeles</a>, where he took down the door to his bedroom, put it across two file cabinets, and used that as a desk for his development (winding the cables around the doorknob). With research into the <a href="/facts/Commodore_PET/08R12Xk4">PET</a> ROM, Balakrishnan wrote the first 8K 6502 Assembler, HESbal (HES Basic Assembler Language) in <a href="/facts/BASIC/VYMl5TmA">BASIC</a>, and an accompanying text editor, HESedit. Having HESbal allowed numerous creative follow-on products, such as HEScom, software and a user <a href="/facts/Port_(computer_networking)/ygoHVKNC">port</a> cable that allowed <a href="/facts/VIC20/bLE8KkRE">VIC20</a> programs to be saved to a PET hard disk (since the first VIC20 didn't have a hard disk). Shuster soldered the HEScom cables in his garage and wrote HESlister, a print utility for BASIC programs, that he ported from a <a href="/facts/TRS-80_Model_I/zNfQKxnQ">TRS-80 Model I</a> to the PET, to the VIC, and later to the <a href="/facts/IBM/QszA7nwd">IBM</a> PC. HESware published <a href="/facts/OMNIWRITER/UDHkW1n7">OMNIWRITER</a>, a <a href="/facts/Word_processor/qAR7lagF">word processor</a> for the <a href="/facts/Commodore_64/3TPcKDbb">Commodore 64</a>. </p><p>Game writers <a href="/facts/Lawrence_Holland/SYVbaWo1">Lawrence Holland</a> and <a href="/facts/Ron_Gilbert/eA6MWbUs">Ron Gilbert</a>, who later worked for <a href="/facts/LucasArts/KpwJclUk">LucasArts</a>, started their careers at HES. </p> <h2 id="demise">Demise</h2> <p>By early 1984 <a href="/facts/InfoWorld/EJ0zA8FV">InfoWorld</a> reported that HES was tied with <a href="/facts/Broderbund/hqef1olm">Broderbund</a> as the world's tenth-largest microcomputer-software company and largest entertainment-software company, with $13 million in 1983 sales.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> In October 1984, HES filed for bankruptcy.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> It was reported that Avant Garde Publishing Corp would buy HES in a straight cash deal,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> but later detailed that the offer was blocked in bankruptcy court and HES shut down.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Carlston, Doug (1985). Software people: An insider's look at the personal computer software industry. Simon & Schuster. pp. 238–239. <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Caruso, Denise (April 2, 1984). "Company Strategies Boomerang". InfoWorld. pp. 80–83. Retrieved February 10, 2015. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=kC4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA80" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=kC4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA80</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Carlston, Doug (1985). Software people: An insider's look at the personal computer software industry. Simon & Schuster. pp. 238–239. <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Chin, Kathy (October 29, 1984). "HES Finds Financial Savior". Infoworld. <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Carlston, Doug (1985). Software people: An insider's look at the personal computer software industry. Simon & Schuster. pp. 238–239. <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>