What is "alligata"

Alligata Software Ltd. was a computer games developer and publisher based in Sheffield in the UK in the 1980s.

The company was founded by brothers Mike and Tim Mahony and their father J.R. Mahony in 1983. They produced games for a number of home computers including the Commodore 64, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, ZX Spectrum and Dragon 32. The company published many of Tony Crowther's early Commodore 64 games, including Aztec Tomb, Blagger and Loco. The company also published budget priced software under the Budgie label.

Tim Mahony took over the day-to-day running of the company in 1987 and closed the company nine months later. The name and back catalogue were sold to Superior Software. Two titles were released under the joint Superior/Alligata label for ports of Superior's BBC/Electron games to other systems. Superior also included some old Alligata games on their Play It Again Sam compilations.