Favorite classic game developer no longer around

[Flashback2012]

Publishers I miss...

Working Designs (only for their packaging, their translations were sub-par at times)
Renovation Products

Developers I miss...

Hudson Soft
Data East
Technosoft

I'm sure there's many more that I'm not thinking of.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

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Technōs Japan

They gave us:
Karate Champ
Renegade
Double Dragon
Super Dodge Ball
River City Ransom
Crash 'n the Boys
Super Spike V' Ball

My understanding is that some of the Technōs Japan programmers are still around working for a company called Miracle Kidz, which is working on a sequel to River City Ransom!!! This game was suppose to come out last year, but fans of River City Ransom have waited this long, so what is an extra year or two, right?


Of course, I also loved our recently departed Hudson. :'(

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I bought the Shot Watch app for my iPod the other day to commemorate this great game developer of yesteryear as well as letting Konami know that Hudson still has fans.

Seconded. You saved me a lot of typing!

[Hawksmoor]

Psygnosis

[Drixxel]

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.

You need only to read a bit about the exploits of Bobby Kotick, current CEO of Activision, to understand the hatred towards the company. A lot of the most controversial quotes from the guy are easy to get pissed off about when taken out of context but it's pretty clear that Activision has become too big to have a soul. They've come a long way from being an awesome 2600 developer.

[calthaer]

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 think I might want to modify my answer, too...especially Origin Systems. It was a crime against humanity when they were subsumed within the beast and digested, their wondrous game franchises drowned in a sea of mediocrity.

[Genesaturn]

Throwing another vote in for Origin - Crusader: No Remorse and Crusader: No Regret are a pair of some of my favorite pc games of all time

[Compute]

Sunsoft
Acclaim (Yeah, I know most of it sucked, but I loved the Acclaim WWF games)
Bally/Midway

[kedawa]

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?

I rented the PS2 version with a friend after reading the hyperbolic praise the game was getting on forums and stuff. I was just underwhelmed and annoyed by it. We returned it and got Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks instead, iirc.
The same friend later got the Wii version and actually enjoyed it, but I guess my initial impression just left a bad taste in my mouth. I have a very low tolerance for non-interactive filler in games, and that just erased whatever positive bias that the game's charm and style would have caused.
I like using Amaterasu in Marvel, though.

[BydoEmpire]

SSI. They did so many great turn-based strategy and RPGs. Not only is SSI gone, but the genre of games they put out is pretty much dead along with them. Shame.

Also, Atari, Intellivision, Imagic, Cinemaware, Psygnosis...

[kedawa]

I thought Psygnosis was just a publisher that ran a few small development houses.
Most of the Psygnosis games I owned were developed by Reflections.

[Graham Mitchell]

I thought Psygnosis was just a publisher that ran a few small development houses.
Most of the Psygnosis games I owned were developed by Reflections.

They were back then, but now, as studio Liverpool, they seem to be more of a developer, with Sony being their publisher.

Another developer I miss is horror soft. Elvira 2: jaws of Cerberus is pretty cool, along with Waxworks, even if they do suffer from obfusticated design. They made some genuinely creepy computer games.


---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=34.156261,-118.086692

[Emperor Megas]

I rented the PS2 version with a friend after reading the hyperbolic praise the game was getting on forums and stuff. I was just underwhelmed and annoyed by it. We returned it and got Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks instead, iirc.
The same friend later got the Wii version and actually enjoyed it, but I guess my initial impression just left a bad taste in my mouth. I have a very low tolerance for non-interactive filler in games, and that just erased whatever positive bias that the game's charm and style would have caused.
I like using Amaterasu in Marvel, though.

I'm the exact opposite. I have very little tolerance for INTERACTIVE filler in games. Namely QTEs.

Off topic rant: I HATE the way that Quick Time Events try to make what should be an non-interactive FMV cut scene into an interactive experience. It comes across as clunky and forced, IMO. The QTEs Resident Evil 4 and 5 are goods example of this, and I could do without the ones in Dante's Inferno as well. I wouldn't mind them as much if they were more seamless. Like if they lost the whole HUGE FLICKERING BUTTON ICON flashing in the middle of the screen telling you what to do. I'd actually prefer a more subtle Dragon's Lair type flashing directional clue rather than a big blinking button reminding me that I'm playing a game with artificial difficulty boosting QTE's.

/End rant.

[retro junkie]

I would like to add to my earlier list,
SNK when they had hardware in the arcade and home.

[TheRedKnight]

Alpha Denshi and Data East, FTL Games and SSI, to name a few.

[DylanOZ]

Its been said but i'll say it again anyways,

Technosoft and Hudson Soft

also Midway and Toaplan

[Astrosmash]

I'll put in another vote for Imagic. A lot of their games seemed to be a little outside-the-box for their time, and I don't recall playing anything by them that I didn't like.

[old man]

psikyo

);