A pioneer of audiovisually elaborate text adventure games, it was one of the largest and most acclaimed interactive fiction developers of the 1980s, and one of the "Big Two" with Infocom according to some.
Having secured a publication deal with Rainbird, a British software label owned by Telecomsoft, they began work producing an ambitious text adventure game that would become The Pawn.
Steggles returned to write The Guild of Thieves, a traditional treasure hunt, while Georgina Sinclair and Michael Bywater wrote the contemporary fantasy of Jinxter.
Myth was released in 1989 through Official Secrets, an adventure gaming club set up by Tony Rainbird after he (and Magnetic Scrolls) parted ways with Telecomsoft.
The gaming club didn't last long, however, and was quickly assimilated into Tony Rainbird's new Special Reserve company, specialising in mail order computer hardware and software.
However, by the time the new interface was ready the traditional text-based genre had already begun to die out as gamers craved more visually elaborate gaming experiences.
In 1988, Magnetic Scrolls began to collaborate with Infocom, Douglas Adams and Michael Bywater on a sequel to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
A playable draft of an early part of the game, along with the personal and commercial circumstances behind its ill-fated development, came briefly to public attention twenty years later.
[4] In 1991, Virgin Interactive released The Magnetic Scrolls Collection Vol 1, containing new versions of The Guild of Thieves, Corruption and Fish!
Two programmers from Magnetic Scrolls, Doug Rabson and Servan Keondjian later formed the company RenderMorphics which produced the highly acclaimed 3D Graphics API Reality Lab.
In January 1995 another Magnetic Scrolls programmer, Steve Lacey joined RenderMorphics and in February of the same year Microsoft acquired the company.
It is supported by several members of the original Magnetic Scrolls team, including Anita Sinclair, Ken Gordon, Rob Steggles and Servan Keondjian.
The non-profit initiative aims both to preserve the original works of Magnetic Scrolls and to remaster the games for modern devices.