Gaming Company Breakups
There's a great article at Next Generation called, "Five That Fell," chronicling the rise and fall of five great gaming companies of yesteryear. They now exist in name only.

Atari. Origin. Interplay (well, Black Isle - the author betrays his RPG / Adventure fandom here). Looking Glass. All of these have a tender place in my heart.

I'm one of about a dozen people who actually played Looking Glass's "Terra Nova." I actually liked it, too. I enjoyed Fly!, and Ultima Underworld I and the Thief games are among my all-time favorites. I liked all of Looking Glass's games (except their golf game - because I never played it). Since very few of them were commercially successful, that probably means I'm doomed as a game designer.

And Origin! Not only did they co-create the Ultima Underworld games with Looking Glass, and the Ultima games, and the Wing Commander games (all among my favorite games of all time), they also brought the "Janes" flight simulations. They weren't branded "Origin," but Origin was the development shop that brought us Longbow, ATF Gold, US Navy Fighters, and other great flight sims. (I guess they dropped the "Origin" branding from the games because of the lamentable Strike Commander and Pacific Strike).

I thought I'd add to the list provided in the article (with a bit more brevity) with a few more giants of the industry that have since passed into legend:

Microprose
This one is a bigger loss to me than Interplay, though they had almost no console presence. This is the company that started as a bet by "Wild Bill" Stealy and Sid Meier over a game of Red Baron. They went on to produce / publish some great computer games: Sid Meier's Pirates, F-15 Strike Eagle, Gunship, Master of Orion, F19 Stealth Fighter, Falcon 4.0, X-Com (AKA UFO: Enemy Unknown in Europe), Rollercoaster Tycoon, and of course a little-known game called Civilization.

Acclaim
Okay, I don't know if anybody really mourns Acclaim's passing. I don't remember really loving any of their games - even the one I worked on. Their strategy, starting in the late 80's I think, was to simply acquire licenses, slap them into an existing engine, and boot them out the door. In the early 90's, it seemed to be a winning strategy, and they were one of the big game publishers. As it turns out, if you don't control the license that you help make famous and successful, the license owner has the freedom and tendency to jack up the price on you and take his even stronger brand to the highest bidder. Not a good long-term strategy, IMO.

Commodore
The Commodore PET - second only to the Apple II as the most ubiquitous computer in educational institutions. The VIC-20: A mass-marketed computer aimed as an "upgrade" from videogame consoles to videogame-capable computers - and had Bill Shatner as a spokesperson! The Commodore 64: The most popular computer and gaming platform of all time. The Commodore 128: Ummm.... it sounded like a good idea at the time. The Amiga: Ahead of its time, mourned by legions of geek fans. The company has been gone for years, and made very few games, but its impact on gaming remains.

Infocom
West of House
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.
Ah, Zork. It's amazing how such vivid pictures can rise up in one's memory about a game which had no pictures whatsoever. Infocom's games totally rocked, though I think with the Internet's "walkthroughs" today these games could be played through in a single evening. I don't have the tolerance for frustration I once had, and these games caused plenty of that, but they were also beautiful games in their pure-text way. Some of their later games had pictures - I still have a copy of "Journey" enshrined in a manilla envelope in my collection, and they partnered up with Dynamix & Activision to create the first 3D Battletech game, "Crescent Hawk's Inception." And then they were gone.

Sir-Tech Software
Okay, so they really only came out with two game series (to my recollection): the Wizardry series, and Jagged Alliance. But hey, they rocked!

Westwood Associates
I first heard about these guys when they did the Eye of the Beholder D&D games. Though I guess I played their first game on the C-64: a port of Temple of Apshai (another classic RPG). At some point they did Dune II, which I never played but heard a lot about. Then they did the a little game called Command and Conquer, based on their Dune experience. After much success, they were eaten by EA, chewed up, and spit out.

SingleTrac Entertainment
Okay, so we only made a dozen titles, and we weren't a publisher. It's my list, dangit, and I can include whomever I want! Singletrac rocked the 32-bit gaming world for three wonderful years, and managed to persist for about three more after that. Complete Game List: Warhawk (PS), Twisted Metal (PS), Twisted Metal 2 (PS), Jet Moto (PS), Jet Moto 2 (PS), Outwars (PC), Critical Depth (PS), Streak (PS), Snowmobile Racing (PC), Snowmobile Championship 2000 (PC), Rogue Trip (PS), Animorphs: Shattered Reality (PS).

So there's seven more game industry giants that have faded into legend. Of course, many of the principles involved in these companies are still in the industry, so there's still good fun to be had.

Labels: Biz

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:53 PM (Permalink)