Merit Software

Merit Studios, Inc. (also known as Merit Software) was a U.S. video game publisher active mainly in the early to mid-1990s. Based in Texas, it published and occasionally developed games for MS-DOS, Amiga, and Macintosh, often mid-budget or niche titles spanning strategy, adventure, and action genres.

Some of its best-known releases include the quirky horror-FPS hybrid Isle of the Dead (1993), the football sim Tom Landry Strategy Football (1992–93), the wargame Operation Combat II: By Land, Sea & Air, and the sci-fi action title Universal Warrior. Merit often licensed or localized European titles for the U.S. market, giving smaller developers distribution access in North America.

In 1994, Merit acquired Zeppelin Games, a UK developer, rebranding it as Merit Studios Europe. That branch eventually became Eutechnyx Ltd. after a management buyout in 1996, later known for racing games like Big Mutha Truckers and Nascar: The Game.

By the late 1990s, Merit Studios had largely disappeared from the market, leaving behind a library of obscure but memorable DOS-era games—many of which survive today as abandonware curiosities.