The Microbee was an Australian computer designed, built, and marketed by Applied Technology, in Gosford, N.S.W. Originally released in February 1982, it was intended for the schools market but also had a wide and deep following amongst home users. A considerable amount of software was published locally for the Microbee, through Honeysoft. Many titles were games.
Ron Harris was a Brisbane-based engineer. According to Vaughan Clarkson, he worked shift work on ABC TV transmission. Outside the hours of his ABC roster, he apparently ran (?) Microbee’s national publishing arm, Honeysoft. Harris’ contribution to “Hoards of the Deep Realm” was as a mentor on microcomputer programming and the industry in general.
Vaughan Clarkson started writing games when he was a schoolboy. Clarkson got a Microbee, which is the system he wrote “Gridfire” and “Hoards of the Deep Realm”. “Gridfire” sold somewhere in the vicinity of 1,700 copies. Clarkson recalls to make things work in “Hoards of the Deep Realm” he pushed the capabilities of the Microbree to its limit.
Honeysoft was the Publishing division of Applied Technology/Microbee Systems and known as Honeysoft Publishing Company, Waitara, N.S.W. They issued all manuals and software for the Microbee. This was the original office that Applied Technology started from until Applied Technology moved to bigger premises at Gosford.