Favorite classic game developer no longer around

[rhcocker]

Infocom - Zork, Planetfall, Trinity, More

Origin Systems - Ultimas, Wing Commander, System Shock, More

Sierra On-Line - Kings/Space/Police Quests, Leisure Suit Larry, Gabriel Knight, & More

Interplay - Fallout, The Bard's Tale

Black Isle - Balduer's Gate, Icewind Dale, Planetscape Torment

I second Origin Systems and Black Isle. I would give anything for another ultima or baldur's gate.

[tom]

Yes, and add Mindscape, Broderbund, Penguin, Microprose, SSI, Synapse, Databyte...

[Tron 2.0]

Telenet:Yeah sunsoft has there games now but nothing at all currently.
Compile
Technos
Dataeast

[retro junkie]

Miss,
Sega when they had Sega Hardware (home and arcade)
Irem (R-Type, In the Hunt, etc)
Hudson Soft (from the TG 16 days)

[Griking]

Yes, and add Mindscape, Broderbund, Penguin, Microprose, SSI, Synapse, Databyte...

More great choices.

Penguin didn't make a ton of games but I really enjoyed the ones from them that I played.

[tom]

Did I mean Databyte? I think I meant Datasoft (The Dallas Quest, Zaxxon etc...)

also missed: Spinnaker, Access, SSG, Accolade, Absolute Entertainment, Sirius Software, Sir-Tech, Tsunami, Legend

Some UKs: Level 9, Thalamus, Magnetic Scrolls, Robico, System 4, Freescape

and of course we miss most of all*:






*nowadays Atari is NOT Atari


.

[kedawa]

It baffles me that Capcom could see Clover create a game like Okami and then shut them down. Not only was that a fail for Capcom, but it was also a fail for the video game playing community at large for not recognizing Okami as the incredible gem that it was. Everyone who didn't buy this game should have to shove a copy of Halo up their @ss, and then sh*t it back out over the board room of Capcom. I've played through the game three times (twice on the PS2, once on the Wii). The game is magic- f*cking magic.

I think I'm going to go somewhere and cry now.

My experience with Okami was mashing the X button for half an hour while being drip fed the story, then playing a thoroughly average action game for another ten minutes, then returning it to the store for something that's actually fun.
Godhand, however, is pure awesome.

[j_factor]

Core Design

[treismac]

My experience with Okami was mashing the X button for half an hour while being drip fed the story, then playing a thoroughly average action game for another ten minutes, then returning it to the store for something that's actually fun.
Godhand, however, is pure awesome.

The world of Okami sucked me in right from the start, which is not surprising in light of my love of Japanese culture and its mythology and folklore. Undoubtedly, this colored my perception of the game. I doubt I'd be as enamored with it if the story had a medieval French setting. With that said, I think the story was pretty damn good by (cliched) video game standards. The long intro didn't bother me. I wanted an experience that reached beyond the average game, and I felt the story's intro with the waterbrush styled graphics helped establish that. As far as you not enjoying playing the game, kedawa, if you only played it for ten minutes, what did you expect? I am not even sure if you can discover the first brush technique within the first ten minutes, and apart from the brush techniques in Okami, the game has nothing revolutionary to offer gamers right off the bat. If memory serves me well, the game starts off in a dream-like world of the gods where there isn't much action going on at first.

Out of curiosity, did you pick up Okami on a whim or recommendation or did you anticipate the release of the game before its actual release, kedawa?

[Tupin]

Rareware, but they were getting bad by the time they left Nintendo anyway. Working Designs, for all of their great games we otherwise wouldn't have gotten. Midway is one people forget happened, but they made awesome arcade games. Sierra and Interplay both had awesome franchises.

Hudson, obviously. Broderbund did so much more than Carmen Sandiego, but no one seems to remember that.

Hey, losing all of these developers is worth is so we don't have to have LJN, Acclaim, Ocean, 3DO, or Titus anymore.

[kupomogli]

Working Designs.
The first publisher/developer to show true fan appreciation w/ their packaging, goodies etc.

I'll second this.

Godhand, however, is pure awesome.

And this.

Out of curiosity, did you pick up Okami on a whim or recommendation or did you anticipate the release of the game before its actual release, kedawa?

Whether he came in his pants while waiting for the game or didn't know anything about the game prior to getting it wouldn't matter. If a game is good, it'd be good regardless of interest in it.

*edit*

The only thing is if you paid $60 for it, you'd probably be biased over the game as you'd want to feel you made a good decision. So if you were hyped for the game, paid $60 for it, and then you still hate it, then it must have been a huge steaming pile of horseshit.

[treismac]

Whether he came in his pants while waiting for the game or didn't know anything about the game prior to getting it wouldn't matter. If a game is good, it'd be good regardless of interest in it.

*edit*

The only thing is if you paid $60 for it, you'd probably be biased over the game as you'd want to feel you made a good decision. So if you were hyped for the game, paid $60 for it, and then you still hate it, then it must have been a huge steaming pile of horseshit.

Expectations can drastically affect how someone views something in more ways than if they felt like they made a good financial decision or not.

[mobiusclimber]

Don't think Working Designs should be included since I don't think they developed any games. Praise them for publishing games that others wouldn't touch, but please don't confuse them with the guys who actually developed the games they published.

As for me, I have a soft-spot for the failed developers studios that ex-Squaresoft employees founded, like Love-de-lic, Sacnoth... and I think that's all of em?

Surprised no one's mentioned LJN, lol.

[Drixxel]

Surprised no one's mentioned LJN, lol.

I don't believe that LJN actually developed many, if any, of the games that people (i.e. AVGN) bash them for. The only times I've ever seen LJN credited as a developer are with The Uncanny X-Men and NFL Football on NES but that info might deserve a closer bit of snooping. LJN may have been a prolific publisher of crap but not a developer of it, as far as I know.

[mobiusclimber]

So I did the very thing I accused others of doing? *facepalm*

[tom]

That is true actually, he's talking about developers, many publishers didn't develop, eg Pokemon was not developed by Nintendo....but maybe he meant publishers too....who knows.

Ayway, I think Infocom also cared lots about packaging, more so than Working Designs?

[fergojisan]

Activision, specifically their games for the 2600. Definitely not the same company now. I lost touch with them in the SNES days, but I knew they were still making games. I was surprised (and a little sad) to see how much hatred gamers have for the company now.

[tom]

Yep, Activision, Atari, Electronic Arts, three of the greatest software houses are nothing like the original.

[Sanriostar]

Can I add Synapse? While more of a publisher rather than a developer, You knew Synapse games had that 'oddball but awesome' feel to their games. And I loved the opening fanfare to their early games. I can still blow through Shamus Case 2 inside a half-hour.

I'm also gonna add Access from the C64 Pantheon; Beach Head, Raid Over Moscow, Neutral Zone.... loved Access games.

[Griking]

Yep, Activision, Atari, Electronic Arts, three of the greatest software houses are nothing like the original.

Well to be fair Electronic Arts and Activision are the same companies as they were, its just that they've grown too large.