Draft:Top Star Computer Services, Inc.
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Top Star Computer Services (also known as TSCS or simply Top Star) was a third-party quality assurance (QA) company mainly serving the computer video game industry[5] from 1983-1996.
History
[edit]Top Star was founded in 1983 by entrepreneur Rich Heimlich.
Growth and Success
[edit]When Top Star started in 1983, it was the only third-party QA company in the industry. By 1988 the segment grew to over 20 different companies worldwide. Top Star provided services to dozens of publishers throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
Decline and Closure
[edit]In 1994, a major shift in the industry loomed on the horizon, threatening to upend the entire argument for third-party QA services. The change was the latest in operating systems from Microsoft then code-named Chicago and soon to receive its final moniker, Windows 95.
Windows 95 was the first Windows product that was an operating system in its own right. Previous versions of Windows ran on top of Microsoft DOS, Microsoft's venerable text-based operating system. Windows 95's design meant that the entire model for QA testing would need to be rethought. As an example, in a computer running DOS, a tester wanting to test two different video cards would only need to turn off the system, remove the current video card, plug in the second one and turn the computer back on -- a process that took less a minute. In Windows 95 the same task could take upwards of an hour. The tester would not only need to remove the first video card, but also all traces of its software drivers -- a process, at the time, that was so problematic that the only reliable option was to erase Windows 95 completely and reinstall it from scratch along with the drivers for the new video card to be tested.
The additional time spent on testing ballooned overhead dramatically. Overall testing times went up exponentially. Software publishers, hit with new invoices for the additional time, often decided to cut those new costs by hiring, or adding to, their own QA departments. This impact resulted in the closure of all but a few third-party QA companies.
By 1996 Top Star found itself back to where it started as the only company still providing these services. By late 1996 Top Star signed an agreement to sell off its remaining assets to Actionworld, LLC.
See Also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ published, Matt Porter (2015-11-03). "Author of Sound Blaster: The Official Book talks about the early days of PC audio". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2025-09-18.
- ↑ "Another Video About the Early Days of PC Audio".
- ↑ "OS/2 Museum | OS/2, vintage PC computing, and random musings | Page 26". Retrieved 2025-09-18.
- ↑ Heimlich, Rich. "Top Star". IMdB.
- ↑ "Top Star". YouTube.com.
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