Sir John the Net Knight said:It's sad how few people can recall a lot of these old hat names. Or can even see Activision as anything more than Bobby Kotick's satanic institution that constantly screws the industry.
Actually, SimTower wasn't a Maxis original either. It was developed by another company and later published by Maxis.Fensfield said: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 >.>
Me too. It's amazing how well it still stands up, but Activision was making a lot of great games then. (Let's draw a veil over the fiasco that was Barnstorming.) It's sad to think that both Activision and Electronic Arts were founded specifically to not be evil, and now...Irridium said:I still play Pitfall from time to time...
Totally dude, oh the hours i pissed away on Syndicate and Theme Park, i thought it couldn't get any better then Dungeon Keeper came out, which is still one of the greatest games i have ever played......Veterinari said:I miss Bullfrog so much. Great article, made me all nostalgic.
Now that bit I do know - my main confusion was on the state of the video game rights for the various former FASA properties - Earthdawn, Shadowrun, Battletech, etc.vxicepickxv said: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.Count_ZeroOR said: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 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.
Microprose basically introduced me to home computer gaming, since their flight sims for the Commodore 64 were the first games I ever owned. I believe it was a three-game bundle of Hellcat Ace, Mig Alley Ace and Air Rescue.Sgt Pepper said:I remember Microprose more for their sim games in the 80s - F15 I think it was and that stealth bomber one. I also remember they did a game where you were a US ranger.
Blind Sight said:EA's got a similar history to Activision, they were the guys in the past claiming to be 'video game artists'. Bob Dylan's 'the times they are a changin' seems to be the video game industry's theme song.
Two of my favourite Commodore 64 games of 1984 were H.E.R.O. and an early EA sci-fi combat flight sim called Skyfox. Activision also introduced me to console gaming, as Pitfall II was the first Atari 2600 game I remember. It's hard to believe those two generally fringe studios became such potent (and frequently evil) pillars of the industry.The_root_of_all_evil said:
Activision did some damn good games back in '84.
Oh, my! What a strange twist of fate this seems like now.Shamus Young said:What made them important: Before Activision was a multi-billion dollar publisher it was actually a feisty little indie company. Strange, I know. Back in the 1970s, a number of programmers became upset with Atari. 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. In these situations, things rarely go well for the employer.
These programmers jumped ship...