Superscape Plc, the Aldermaston, Berkshire-based virtual reality company which last week changed its name from Dimension International Ltd, under which it had become known as Britain’s second professional virtual reality company after Division Group Plc, is planning to come to market in the middle of next month. The company, which this week ships its Superscape VRT virtual world design product, is hoping to raise between UKP3m and UKP4m through the issue and placing for product development and for international expansion. Superscape was started in the early 1980s as a computer games manufacturer, but evolved into a provider of development tools for virtual reality applications. Ian Andrew, the founder and managing director who owns 56% of the company, is promising that his investment will drop to under 50% after the flotation. He is hoping to establish a sales and marketing office in California’s Silicon Valley as part of a grand strategy to make its virtual reality operating system a world standard. Superscape needs a 50MHz 80486 machine with high resolution graphics and consists of development and run-time systems. The board of Superscape has strong links with Micro Focus Plc, another UK company that made it in the US; chairman Martin Hornby was responsible for floating Micro Focus, and another director, Alan Wood, was a founding investor in the venerable Newbury-baed Coboller.
