Electric Transit (software company)

Electric Transit was an entertainment software publisher in the mid-1980s specializing in first-person 3D games for Apple II and IBM PC computers.

The company was formed by four Edu-Ware alumni—general manager Jeff Ford, marketing director Pamela Pollack, game producer David Mullich and game developer Wesley Huntress—after EduWare was acquired by Management Sciences America. The four bought back the rights to Huntress' Wilderness: A Survival Adventure game as well as another EduWare game, Tranquility Base, from MSA and used the two products to launch their new company.

Both games were repackaged featuring colorful, illustrated manuals that were as educational as they were informative. Additional game content was added to both Wilderness and Tranquility Base, the latter of which was rechristened Lunar Explorer: A Spaceflight Simulator. The games were distributed through Electronic Arts' new affiliated label program. Although both games were well-reviewed—especially Wilderness—neither sold well enough to make much profit. Electric Transit later switched to a new distributor, Spectrum Holobyte, but the products were near the end of their life cycle. With two of the principles, Ford and Huntress, having full-time careers elsewhere, and no profits to fund new development, the company folded after two years of operation.

List of titles

 * Wilderness: A Survival Adventure (1985)
 * Lunar Explorer: A Spaceflight Simulator (1986)

Trivia

 * Electric Transit pursued alternate retail channels by attempting to sell Wilderness through The Boy Scouts as a possible wilderness survival merit badge requirement, and Lunar Explorer through The Planetary Society. Some twenty years later, Wilderness developer Huntress went on to become president of The Planetary Society.