[NewsPoster]

(Updated with correction of Dominic Feira's employment status)Ambrosia Software, a long-time maker of Mac software stretching back to System 7, is not going out of business -- at least according to its founder and president, Andrew Welch. He took to Twitter to dispel accusations that the company was closing up shop, following tweets to that effect from former coders who announced on Wednesday they had been let go. The company, currently best known for its screen capture tool Snapz Pro X and ringtone maker iToner, confirmed the layoffs but said the company is not folding.

Welch tweeted on Thursday "To paraphrase Mr Clemens, the rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated. We are still in business, and supporting our products!" in response to the tweets of former employees Rudy Richter, Jon Gary and Jeremy Knope. All three said they were out of a job (and quickly deluged with job offers), but Richter (in a follow-up tweet) said that Ambrosia had "closed up shop." Richter is also well-known for his development work on Growl.

Ambrosia is fondly remembered by Mac gamers and bloggers for its long-running Snapz Pro as well as a string of hit games in the OS 9 era, including its original game hit Maelstrom, Caterpillar clone Aperion, Mars Rising, Swoop, Escape Velocity and Ferazel's Wand. In the OS X era, the company has had hits with games such as pop-pop, Deimos Rising (a sequel to Mars Rising), Darwinia and EV Nova, the third instalment of the Escape Velocity series, along with its Wiretap Studio audio-capture application. Ambrosia also makes a variety of iOS software, mostly simple games such as solitaire and sudoku variations.

They layoffs could signal a refocusing for the company, or perhaps are a simple economic move. The laid-off coders are still listed on the company's staff page, and lead programmer Dominic Fiera is apparently still working for the company. Work on the Wiretap line of products is still ongoing, and the company's web page gives no indication of any closure or significant changes. Welch has not indicated any new plans or changes for the company as of yet.

Update: MacNN has been told that lead developer Dominic Feira was also laid off at the same time as the other programmers were laid off.

[Paradise Pete]

If Aperion was a Caterpillar clone, then Maelstrom was an Asteroids clone.

[bluedog]

Swoop was a Galaga clone, Mars Rising top down twitch shooter (take your pick clone). Yet they were all well done, polished and provided great gameplay. I think the author's description of their 'original hit' was meaning it was the first hit they had -- their beginning.

[Grendelmon]

Darwinia was a port from Introversion. They also did Defcon, one of my favorite strategy games that I still play to this day.

But I still have fond memories of playing Mars Rising and Escape Velocity back in the day on my PowerMac 7200. Ambrosia made very high quality games on the Mac. I wish they would update some of them to the Intel platform Macs :-)

[Rapscallion]

I spent hours rolling around on an office chair shooting water coolers with a staple gun. I would love to see some updates for the old software, bring it all up to the current OS please!

[awajikiwi]

Escape Velocity for the iPad please...

[mprince676]

We made the mistake of downloading the "free" trial of Snapz Pro X to my macbookpro.....

Can't make it go away! I have called and left voicemails on what seems to be every remaining extension at Ambrosia, I have emailed, I have searched their web site to death....

If they AREN'T out of business, they have a funny way of acting like they are history - or at least not the least bit interested in continuing business.

Why would they bother claiming that they are still in business if, over a couple of weeks worth of my time, they have not responded to any of my efforts to reach them. Imagine how full the voicemail files must be by this point if nobody is clearing them.....

[andi*pandi]

I had to uninstall snapz when I upgraded to 10.7, and the company didn't want to pay for the newest upgrade. It wasn't that hard to get rid of.

here, download the uninstaller:

How do I uninstall Snapz Pro X 2? | Ambrosia Software, Inc.