Know Your Gaming Roots

[Shamus Young]

Know Your Gaming Roots

Shamus Young schools us all in the history of some classic game studios.

Read Full Article

 

[wildcard9]

Where's Interplay? Developers of the original Fallout and publishers of the Bauldur's Gate series? It seems odd that you left them out.

 

[Slaanax]

No TSR? Sadly I remember everyone of those companies. Some really good game companies that didn't make it through.

Not TSR, SSI actually, seemed growing up we had a huge libary of games by them.

 

[The Admiral]

I just want my Frisbee back you crazy old man!

 

[Count_ZeroOR]

No TSR? Sadly I remember everyone of those companies. Some really good game companies that didn't make it through.

Well, TSR was never really a PC or Console game developer. Instead other companies licensed their work, like SSI, Interplay, and Capcom. Now, RPG publisher FASA did build their own Game development studio, FASA Interactive, which was later absorbed by Microsoft.

Where's Interplay? Developers of the original Fallout and publishers of the Bauldur's Gate series? It seems odd that you left them out.

From what I understand, a lot of people aren't entirely sure where they are. Supposedly they've survived bankruptcy, are still a going concern, and are working on a real, honest to god, Fallout MMO. That said, for all we know, Interplay is now only operating out of a storefront in a mini-mall with a desk and a telephone, and two guys trying to code a MMO all by themselves in the back room.

 

[nairb1582]

RIP Westwood

*sniff*

 

[Slaanax]

No TSR? Sadly I remember everyone of those companies. Some really good game companies that didn't make it through.

Well, TSR was never really a PC or Console game developer. Instead other companies licensed their work, like SSI, Interplay, and Capcom. Now, RPG publisher FASA did build their own Game development studio, FASA Interactive, which was later absorbed by Microsoft.

Where's Interplay? Developers of the original Fallout and publishers of the Bauldur's Gate series? It seems odd that you left them out.

From what I understand, a lot of people aren't entirely sure where they are. Supposedly they've survived bankruptcy, are still a going concern, and are working on a real, honest to god, Fallout MMO. That said, for all we know, Interplay is now only operating out of a storefront in a mini-mall with a desk and a telephone, and two guys trying to code a MMO all by themselves in the back room.

I got my companies mixed up meant SSI

 

[Irridium]

Its hard to believe that Activision used to put out the most innovative, interesting, and fun games on the market.

I still play Pitfall from time to time...

 

[GothmogII]

Its hard to believe that Activision used to put out the most innovative, interesting, and fun games on the market.

I still play Pitfall from time to time...

Yeah, I still play Battlezone every now and then, it's sad to see how much they've lost.

 

[GeneticallyModifiedDucks]

I know every single one of these tales of old. Makes me feel good inside

Its hard to believe that Activision used to put out the most innovative, interesting, and fun games on the market.

I still play Pitfall from time to time...

Yeah, I still play Battlezone every now and then, it's sad to see how much they've lost.

It's disturbing to see how little they have actually produced since Kotick took over. All they have done is literally buy existing studios and put them on the sequel tredmil. They have done NO IP creation. NONE.

[PROTOTYPE]? That's the only I can remember right now. Surely there must be more...

 

[Kron_the_mad wants to be deleted]

really?! no mention of the 1st games???
like space war and tennis for two developed on the oscilloscope. The first computer games were not by major dedicated games developers so they get no mention at all.
or the fact that all rpg and strategy games owe their very existence to table top war simulations with miniatures?
and thief definitely wasn't the first stealth game. Try the original metal gear, which only opted for the stealth focus because of a combined hardware/software limitation that made having character collision a pain in the arse.

 

[RollForInitiative]

I think a first-person, party-oriented, turn-based RPG would be an impossible pitch in today's market.

Turn-based in what sense, Shamus? Are we talking the turn-based style of first person dungeon crawler Etrian Odyssey on the DS or something else? I didn't play Eye of the Beholder so I don't have the necessary context here.

 

[Dirty Apple]

Maybe their type of games are just out of style and therefore notice, but if not for Sierra and the games they produced, I would never have come to be a PC gamer. Sure, eventually I got into other genres (Wolfenstein -> FPS, SimCity2k -> Building Sims, Might & Magic -> RPG), but had I never come across King's Quest and Leisure Suit Larry, I'd probably be playing consoles right now instead of my beloved PC.

 

[vxicepickxv]

Well, TSR was never really a PC or Console game developer. Instead other companies licensed their work, like SSI, Interplay, and Capcom. Now, RPG publisher FASA did build their own Game development studio, FASA Interactive, which was later absorbed by Microsoft.

FASA Interactive, after being bought by Microsoft was named FASA studios, originally was a subsidiary of FASA Corporation. All of FASA Corporation's Shadowrun games that made it to the US were done by different companies. Beam Software/Data East for the SNES version and BlueSky Software/Sega for the Genesis.

FASA went out of business, and the rights for Shadowrun were bought up by Wizkids, who licensed the game for production through FanPro(Germans love it so much they have more material than everyone else), then through Catalyst Game Labs.

 

[Caliostro]

They made games for the Atari 2600, but didn't get any credit or receive any additional compensation if they produced a blockbuster. Like the movie stars of just a few decades before, they became aware that they were worth many times what they were being paid. They realized this, and their employers didn't.

...Those who forget their past are doomed to repeat it...

 

[Andy_Panthro]

Since everyone else is mentioning those companies they think should have been mentioned, allow me:

Origin.

Mainly (for me) for the Ultima series, but they produced a lot of other games too, including Bioforge, Crusader and Wing Commander.

Another great developer destroyed by EA.

 

[theSovietConnection]

Maybe their type of games are just out of style and therefore notice, but if not for Sierra and the games they produced, I would never have come to be a PC gamer. Sure, eventually I got into other genres (Wolfenstein -> FPS, SimCity2k -> Building Sims, Might & Magic -> RPG), but had I never come across King's Quest and Leisure Suit Larry, I'd probably be playing consoles right now instead of my beloved PC.

Sierra should definitely be on there, but I guess it already is in a way. If I remember right, they got absorbed by Activision. Shame, I miss games like Caesar III.

I think Reflections Entertainment could be on the list, too, given games like Stuntman and the Driver series.

 

[Fensfield]

What of Maxis? All those simulators they churned out over the years.. I still love SIM Tower to bits (A-Train, too, but that was a license, and a franchise still going strong in Japan. 'Wish someone else would hurry up and license A-Train 4 and all >.>, and god knows how many games owe a lot to SIM City.

And that's just their successful, mainstream jobs. What of all the awesome sim concepts you don't hear much of but were still really unique and cool, like SIM Island (managing little banana economies and stuff), SIM Life (god game, in the most literal sense), and SIM Ant?