Creative Sparks

Creative Sparks was a British video games software house in existence during the 1980s. The company started out as Thorn EMI Computer Software, a division of the now-defunct British conglomerate Thorn EMI, and later changed its name. Creative Sparks also used the Sparklers label for budget-priced reissues of their old software. Later, the low-cost software label Alternative Software acquired the distribution rights to several Creative Sparks titles. As a result, many games were issued on more than one label, sometimes appearing on all four at various stages. An example of this is River Rescue; this first appeared on the Thorn EMI label, then later reappeared in Creative Sparks packaging. It was next reissued on the budget Sparklers label, before finally being distributed in new packaging by Alternative.