Sophocles Discontinued
The promising indie that vanished mid-beta in 2008.
At a glance
- Maker
- Sophocles Software, LLC (Tim Sheehan)
- First release
- 1999
- Discontinued
- 2008
- Status
- Discontinued — the app is dead
- Platforms
- Windows
- Pricing
- Was ~$120 shareware
- Native format
- Sophocles (.scp)
What it is
Sophocles was a well-liked Windows sharewriter (1999) whose 2007 version promised an integrated budgeting and scheduling suite. The company was bought out in spring 2008, the site vanished by May, and the creator was never heard from again.
What people are saying
The good
Remembered as outstanding value: a cheap one-time purchase packing story development, writing and production breakdown into one Windows program, with a sidebar outline view users specifically loved.
The bad
It was Windows-only, the developer went silent while the product was still liked, and no revival ever came. Its afterlife is about recovery, not writing: yearly forum threads of former users hunting installers just to open old scripts.
Paraphrased consensus from user reviews, forums and retrospective coverage across the web.
Where it came from
John August himself wrote “Whatever happened to Sophocles?” in 2009; stranded users are still hunting copies to recover old scripts — Reddit threads ask yearly.
Worth knowing
It died mid-beta with its most ambitious feature half-shipped.
Script stuck in Sophocles? That's our specialty.
Sophocles is gone, but its files aren't. We convert Sophocles (.scp) files to every modern format —open the converter and drag the file in.