The British software company Psygnosis was founded in Liverpool, England, in 1984 by Jonathan Ellis and Ian Hetherington (former financial director at the original Imagine before they collapsed earlier that year. Primarily developed for the Amiga and Atari ST, most 8-bit conversions of their games were published by Melbourne House. Noted for high-concept technically-advanced 16-bit games with elaborate cover art, such as Shadow of the Beast and Barbarian. The company was bought by Sony in 1993, developing several early Playstation hits, but dropped the brand Psygnosis in 2000.