Golden Software History
Great Software Since 1983!
Golden Software has been located in Golden, Colorado since its founding in March, 1983. It was the brainchild of Dan Smith, who was at that time a graduate student in the Mining Department at the Colorado School of Mines, and of Patrick Madison, a CSM Computer Science Instructor. At that time, personal computers were new and their applications were limited. Mapping applications required mainframe computers and pen plotters.
Together, Dan and Pat developed a printer language that operated on a PC and required only a dot matrix printer. Their program (PlotCall) also offered a dramatic improvement on the level of resolution available in a computer-generated map: most graphics programs of the time produced printouts that were based on "screen dumps." This limited the resolution to about 24 dpi. PlotCall, on the other hand, offered the full resolution of the installed printer—usually 200 dpi resolution (a breakthrough for the time).