History
From a fourteen-year-old building Amiga software in 1988 to a studio running two product lines off one engineering core.
1988
01
The studio is founded in 1988 by 14-year-old Michael Kramer, primarily to develop software for the Amiga computer, with PC development alongside it. The first catalogue opens with educational titles, among them Chemistry and Mappy the Map Master, and expands into business applications such as International Flow Charter and NRS Accounting, the latter never released, before the company moves into role-playing games for the rapidly growing home-computer market.
1990
02
Work begins on the NRS Developer’s Book, written to encourage more development in Blitz Basic and to make it easier to find software developers who could help build NRS applications.
1990
03
The studio releases Sword of Folklore.
1991
04
The studio receives a contract to build out Sword of Folklore II.
1994
05
The studio founds INTAMA, the International Amiga Marketing Association, to show businesses how large the international software market for the Amiga already was, and how much peripheral hardware worked straight out of the box. With tools like the Video Toaster and LightWave 3D, and later the Amiga CD32, the platform had carved out serious niches that much of the community believed could be pushed further, far enough to compete with Apple and Windows. INTAMA places its first advertisements in Amiga periodicals that year.
1995
06
In February 1995, Escom’s retail presence in the United Kingdom expands massively when it takes over branches of the Rumbelows electrical chain. In April 1995, Escom buys Commodore International for US$14 million, primarily to get the Commodore and Amiga brand names.
2000
07
The studio produces Final Core, or RADS: a rapid application development system for building applications on the PC, complete with a custom integrated development environment developed entirely in-house by NRS.
2003
08
The studio closes its shop to software development. The Amiga is not being promoted and a proper restart of the platform looks unlikely, leaving no clear future for the business built around it.
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09
The catalogue expands to console, and the engine work becomes the studio’s defining asset.
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10
Always-on titles create a recurring revenue base and a permanent operations team.
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11
Simulation and data technology from the games is licensed to business customers, then packaged as software products.
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12
Games and enterprise software operate as separate businesses on a shared engineering core.
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13
An announced slate across both lines, with new platforms and financial products in development.
The archive
Our released games, from the first Amiga role-playing title to whatever we are building now.
In developmentNext generation · Open worldA new open-world engine built from the ground up, targeting a simultaneous global launch.
In developmentLive service · Multi-platformA persistent online world that connects the catalogue into a single service platform.
Amiga · PC · Role-playing gameThe sequel on Amiga, with a limited PC release alongside it.
Amiga · Role-playing gameA role-playing game developed for the Amiga, and the first game to render real-time rain, snow and sleet in a 3D environment.
Historical references
Reference books we published for our own development tools. Both volumes have been out of print since 1998.
Book one · Novel
The first book in the Sword of Folklore series, carrying the world of the original game into a new novel line.
Beginner's guide
An introduction to AI, data engineering and programming for readers new to the field, written to take a complete beginner from first principles to working code.
Volume two · Beginner’s guide
The second volume covers the basics of using AI to create games, apps and integrations, and traces how Blitz Basic on the Amiga influenced GuteJob by shaping a similar approach to the production run trace.
Reference book · Vol II
Volume II of the studio's Blitz Basic developer reference.
Reference book · Vol I
Volume I of the studio's Blitz Basic developer reference.
