Know Your Gaming Roots

[EmeraldGreen]

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 >.>

Actually, SimTower wasn't a Maxis original either. It was developed by another company and later published by Maxis.

I still play Pitfall from time to time...

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...

 

[Worgen]

where is sierra? where is... toys for bob... oh well it looks like they are technicly still around but its been along time since they made starcontrol 2

 

[RonHiler]

Infocom.

You are about to be eaten by a grue.

I mean, comeon! How can you have a history of game companies without mentioning the inventers of the grue?

 

[beema]

Man, Looking Glass and Westwood were solid gold. I loved so many of their games and still play some today.
Really interesting about Activision.
I can't believe I'm so old that Westwood is ancient history!

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Kudos for mentioning Westwood. It's like people forgot about the poor bastards.

 

[mjc0961]

God dammit you said Microprose. Now I have to re-install RollerCoaster Tycoon. Thanks a lot Shamus.

Also, RIP Westwood. I miss you guys. I might have to re-install Red Alert 2 as well.

 

[Wuvlycuddles]

I miss Bullfrog so much. Great article, made me all nostalgic.

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......

Maybe i should start pestering Mr. Molyneux to make a DK3.

 

[Count_ZeroOR]

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.

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.

 

[Falseprophet]

What, no love for Troika?

All kidding aside, thanks for the look back.

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.

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.

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.

Activision did some damn good games back in '84.

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.

 

[Retardinator]

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...

Oh, my! What a strange twist of fate this seems like now.

 

[Playbahnosh]

Hey! What about Maxis? Or Sierra? Bullfrog? You left out a bunch of huge developers with iconic games. Really Shamus, if you are going to play Obi-Wan Kenobi at least try a little, because you just came off as an old man wanting to look smart. Doesn't become you...

 

[Kimarous]

Does nobody else remember Sierra? They hold some of my deepest, fondest memories... ;_;

 

[Agiel7]

*shakes head in disappointment, along with "tsk, tsk" Shamus, you've seem to have forgotten the OTHER thing Microprose is known for, COMBAT SIMS.

Sure the genre has been displaced by FPSes today, but 10-20 years ago, they were the "it" thing. They had a cover on practically every other issue of Computer Gaming World, with stuff like F-19 Stealth Fighter and Silent Hunter under their belts. And who can forget Falcon 4.0 with that magnificent 600 page manual bound in a binder?

 

[veloper]

Samus got the most important studios.
There are others, but RIP.

Finally a good piece again.

 

[bjj hero]

I really enjoyed the read. There is some great history contained in a very young industry.

I just wish he'd included Sierra, Bitmap Brothers and Bullfrog.

They had a lot to do with my growing up.

 

[Meatstorm]

I am glad to be somewhat familiar with the overall history of the gaming industry but there's so many great companies that will be forgotten in due time. Luckily posts like this share the knowledge a bit.

It's actually funny that this post made me think of the old times when i was a kid and not even a proper gamer that how golden image i have of that time period. When there were numerous things to try and explore for game developers and infinite ways to get successfull and and fail. Nowadays it just seems more organised, and thats kinda sad.

 

[Gigano]

Alas, I miss good ol' Westwood and 3DO, they knew how to make proper solid RTS games (and 3DO RPG's as well). Still plenty of great studios going strong though, Naughty dog, Bethesda, Insomniac and Rockstar for instance, so it's not all misery.

 

[Yohaun]

Rest in peace Looking Glass Studois

 

[Michael O'Hair]

Remembering old development companies is well and good to a point; but I think it's important that many great developers started as hobbyists, not initially under the umbrella of a vast game-making company. Games built by a couple guys or just one person, what would today be an impossible feat, during the infancy of electronic entertainment. That's were the roots of gaming start: not with large studios and budgets and publishers, but with creative individuals who STARTED those companies.

 

[Jenx]

Shit I'm only 23 and I friggin KNOW all of this. What the hell?