A software and Internet company founded in 1981 in Shreveport, Louisiana. Probably of most interest is the fact that the founders of id Software, John Carmack, John Romero, and Tom Hall, were working there as game developers when they quit all at once to start their new company to sell their Commander Keen games which they had been developing in their spare time, unknown to their employer.
Softdisk began as a monthly diskmagazine for Apple II computers, branched out later with the launching of Loadstar for the Commodore 64, and eventually produced similar products for the PC (Big Blue Disk) and Macintosh (Diskworld). Some standalone software products followed later, of which screen saver creator program Screen Saver Studio remains in print and under further development. Since 1995, however, the company's primary thrust has been the Internet, where it operates an online software store at downloadstore.com, and acts as a dialup ISP for the Shreveport/Bossier City area and a web design, hosting, and e-commerce development firm.