Penguin Software

Penguin Software was a video game publisher from Geneva, Illinois founded in 1978 by Mark Pelczarski, adopting the name of "Penguin Software" in 1981. However, the company was confronted by Penguin Books in regard of infringement of their name, and fearing that the legal costs of a lawsuit could destroy the company, Pelczarski renamed the company Polarware in 1986. However, Polarware was acquired by another company in 1987 and then disbanded in 1988.

As Penguin Software, the company produced games for the Apple II, Macintosh, Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers, and were mostly known for their Transylvania series.

Like many other home computer publishers at the time, Penguin Software credited the developers of their games on boxes and title screen; these developers were often not direct employees of Penguin Software but rather independent designers contracted by Penguin Software to make games for them.

One of the widely-publicised aspects of Penguin Software's titles was that they did not use copy protection, which made it easier to back up their programs. Pelczarski took out advertisements in computer magazines to describe this position, and asked that owners of their software not abuse their trust.