The story
Founded by Mel Croucher in 1977, in Portsmouth.1
Automata was established by Mel Croucher on November 19, 1977. In 1979 he was joined by Christian Penfold. The two had previously worked together in radio, producing a show for Independent Radio Authority, which led them to publishing travel guides and produce multimedia entertainments.
Croucher had purchased a ZX-81 and, whilst the two were on location creating a guide for Sealink to the Channel Islands, began to plan out their first mainstream software releases. Automata's first commercial successes were Can of Worms and The Bible. For Pimania (1982), one of Automata's first ZX Spectrum releases, Penfold was highlighted as C&VG's "Designer of the Month".
Automata became known for its support of non-violent game concepts, cartoon-strip adverts and appearances at ZX Microfairs. Penfold and Croucher perceived the effects of middlemen, distributors and retailers on the software industry as damaging. Automata itself was largely a mail-order business, and charged wholesalers the same rate as individual customers.
By June 1985, Automata had ceased publishing after Croucher sold his stake in Automata to Penfold.
The Automata game rights were later sold to Subvert.
In November 2012, Croucher reformed Automata as Automata Source, with leading figures from the video games, online marketing and music industries. He has written a history of the company as an insider's story of the foundation of the video game industry, titled Deus Ex Machina: The Best Game You Never Played In Your Life.
From Wikipedia’s article on Automata UK, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3