Ze_ro
03-21-2008, 02:37 AM
A while ago, I was wondering to myself about what ever happened to Jaleco. I remember them producing a number of NES games, but hadn't seen anything with their name on it in a long time. I looked into it and was surprised to find out that they were, in fact, still around and making games! I then started wonder about other 80's developers like Culture Brain, MicroProse and others. I thought maybe my research would prove interesting to some of you folks, so I kept a list of my findings.
Much of this was researched quite some time ago, so it may be inaccurate or out of date. Much of it is paraphrased form Wikipedia entries. If you have anything to add or correct, please let me know!
3DO - After the failure of the 3DO console, the company continued to release games for other consoles until going bankrupt in 2003. Their properties were sold off to various rivals (Need for Speed went to EA, Army Men went to Crave Entertainment, and Might & Magic went to Ubisoft)
Absolute - Seems to have gone bankrupt in 1995, with all their properties now being owned by Activision
Acclaim - Went bankrupt in 2004, with many of their franchises being auctioned off (Turok being owned by Disney Interactive, and many others being owned by Throwback Entertainment). The Acclaim name was bought for $100,000 and a company named "Acclaim Games" now exists, though it is unrelated to the original Acclaim
Accolade - Gradually faded away in the 1990's until it was bought out by Infogrames in 1999.
American Laser Games - When the arcade business started to collapse, ALG made the jump to the 3DO. In the late 90's, they started a division called "Her Interactive", primarily making games for teenage girls. Eventually, ALG declared bankruptcy. At this point, they spun Her Interactive off into it's own company (which is still alive today), and sold the rights to all their old FMV games to Digital Leisure Inc, a company that deals mostly in FMV games (they're the guys who released Dragon's Lair and others on DVD).
Apogee - Back in 1994, Apogee created the "3D Realms" name, under which it had quite a bit of success. The last game to carry the "Apogee" name was Stargunner in 1996... everything since then has been published under the "3D Realms" name.
Apollo - It seems the companies reach exceeded it's grasp. They tried to base their business around what worked for Activision, except none of their games were any good. The programmers realized the company was doomed and jumped ship in 1982 to start their own company. Apollo went bankrupt 2 weeks later.
Asmik - Merged with Ace Entertainment in 1997 to become "Asmik Ace". They still exist and made games for the PS2 and Gamecube. They also distribute films in Japan.
Atari Inc - There are many sites on the internet that explain the long tale of the fall of Atari, so no sense in repeating it all here. See "Hasbro Interactive" below for more info.
Atari Games - In 1984, Warner Communications sold off Atari to Jack Tramiel, but kept the part of the company which made arcade games, calling it "Atari Games" (Thus isolating Atari Games from the chaos Tramiel inflicted on the rest of Atari). In 1985, a controlling interest in the company was sold to Namco, who ended up selling this share a year later to a group of employees. The original agreement between Warner and Tramiel prevented they from using the name in the home consumer market, so they created the "Tengen" brand name in order to port their arcade games to home consoles. In 1993, Time Warner bought a controlling interest in the company and renamed the company "Time Warner Interactive" (though they still used the Atari Games brand), at which point the Tengen name was abandoned. They were then sold to WMS Industries and the name was changed back to Atari Games. Around this time, Hasbro had bought what was left of Atari Inc and started using the Atari name on a number of their games. To avoid confusion, "Atari Games" was renamed to "Midway Games West". Eventually, Midway gave up the arcade business, and Midway Games West worked primarily on console titles, and the studio was entirely disbanded in 2003.
Avalon Hill - This company still exists, producing board games as it has since 1958. They seem to have given up on the video game scene, with their last efforts being in 1989.
Bally - Most of their video game operations (basically, Bally-Midway) and their pinball division were sold to Williams Electronics in 1988 after various financial difficulties. In 1998, WMS sold off their shares in Midway, making Midway an independant entity. Midway continued using the Bally name for pinball games until 1999. The original Bally company still exists, though they mostly deal in casinos.
Brøderbund - Bought by "The Learning Company" in 1998 for $416 million. TLC was bought and sold a couple of times, and somehow a number of Brøderbunds properties apparently ended up in Ubisoft's hands.
Bullfrog - Acquired by EA in early 1995 (EA had published many of Bullfrog's previous releases). Peter Molyneaux left the studio in 1997, while others left to form Mucky Foot Productions. The last Bullfrog-branded release was SimCoaster (aka Theme Park Inc) in 2001, and the studio was eventually merged into "EA UK".
Camerica - This company seems to have gone bankrupt sometime in 1993. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but some (most?) of the blame can probably be attributed to poor sales of the Aladdin Deck Enhancer, into which they seem to have invested a lot of money. Basically all of their products were actually created by other companies anyways (especially Codemasters).
Coleco - Despite having huge success with the ColecoVision and Cabbage Patch Kids, the ADAM computer was an enormous failure for the company. In 1989, they sold all their assets to Hasbro. The Coleco name was eventually acquied by River West Brands, a company that primarily works on revitalizing dead brand names. They use the name on a series of handheld systems, though none that actually play ColecoVision games (presumably, the rights to those are still held by Hasbro?)
Color Dreams - After various legal battles with Nintendo, they seem to have gone out of business in the mid-90's... though their Christian gaming label "Wisdom Tree" managed to survive and is still in business today.
Commodore - Declared bankruptcy in 1994 after the failure of the CD32 and Amiga line of computers. Their properties have been bought out by a long list of companies, none of which have managed to do anything with them.
Core Design - Merged with US Gold and CentreSoft to form "CentreGold". Eidos acquired CentreGold shortly afterwards (1996), with the Core team kept active (most notable for developing the Tomb Raider franchise). In 2006, Eidos sold Core's assets and staff to Rebellion Developments, but apparently kept the brand name and all related IP's (including Tomb Raider).
Crystal Dynamics - After being (relatively) successful developing and publishing games on the short-lived 3DO, the company had a hard time transitioning to the PlayStation. The company was hemmhoraging money and staff until eventually being bought by Eidos in 1998. No longer publishing games, they still exist as a development studio within Eidos.
Culture Brain - They're actually still in business, and if their web site is any indication, they have a DS game in the works.
Data Age - Presumably lost in the video game crash, though I couldn't find any specifics.
Data East - Endured numerous financial problems through the late 90's, and finally declared bankruptcy in 2003. Their properties are now owned by a japanese company named G-Mode.
DMA Design - A studio most famous for making some of Psygnosis' late 80's / early 90's games (Including Lemmings and most of it's early sequels). After Psygnosis was bought by Sony, DMA started a relationship with Nintendo (Uniracers), and hit hard times with the release of Body Harvest on the N64 before hitting it big with the original Grand Theft Auto. DMA was bought by Gremlin Interactive in 1997. Infogrames bought Gremlin 2 years later, and proceeded to sell DMA to Rockstar, where the studio was renamed "Rockstar North", and still exists as such.
Electro Brain - ???
Enix - Merged with SquareSoft in 2003 to form "Square-Enix".
Epyx - Filed for Chapter 11 in 1989, at which point they sold off all the rights to their upcoming handheld gaming system "Handy" to Atari (which was then released as the Lynx). They eventually managed to come out of bankruptcy in 1993, but the company was in ruins and was sold off. Aside from the Lynx, all their properties are now owned by Bridgestone Media Group.
Exidy - ???
FCI - This company is actually just the American branch of a large Japanese media company called The Fujisankei Group. They eventually gave up on the video game scene and now just serve to publish FCG's media (TV shows, radio, music, etc) outside of Japan.
GameTek - Went bankrupt in 1997, with some of their assets sold to Take 2 Interactive.
Gottlieb - Bought by Columbia Pictures in 1977. After Coca-Cola bought Columbia, Gottlieb's assets were transferred to Mylstar Electronics. Coca-Cola eventually sold off Mylstar's pinball assets (which included Gottlieb's) in 1984. The new owners continued making pinball games under the name "Premier Technology". In 1996, this company sold off all it's assets. Currently, all these pinball games (Gottlieb, Mylstar and Premier's) as well as the Gottlieb name are owned by a company called "Gottlieb Development LLC"
Gremlin Graphics - Bought by Infogrames in 1999 for £21 million and renamed "Infogrames Sheffield House", and eventually closed entirely four years later.
GT Interactive - Bought by Infogrames in 2000, and rolled into what eventually became the new Atari Inc. The GT Interactive brand is no longer used.
HAL Laboratory - Though originally an independant company, they now exist as a subsidiary of Nintendo.
Hasbro Interactive - After hard times, this division of Hasbro was sold to Infogrames in 2001 and renamed "Infogrames Interactive". This sale included many extras, such as Atari, Microprose and 15 years worth of rights to make video games based on Hasbro's board games. In 2003, this subsidiary of Infogrames was renamed Atari Interactive Inc.
Hi-Tech Expressions - Seems to be out of business, with the last of their games released on the SNES... no idea what the final fate of the company was though.
Hudson - Despite being involved with the TG16 and PC-FX, they somehow managed to stay in business all these years, and even have a few games on the 360 and various TG16 games on the Wii's Virtual Console.
Imagic - Lost in the video game crash, with most (all?) of their properties now owned by Activision.
Infocom - Bought by Activision in 1986, and shut down by them in 1989. Activision retains all their IP, and has released several Infocom collections since then.
Interplay - The company's success peaked around 1998 due to their PC game business (Battle Chess, Descent, Fallout, etc). However, after this, they spiralled downwards (at one point being acquired by Titus Interactive, which themselves went out of business), things being so financially bad that they were $59 million in debt in 2001, were evicted from their building in 2004, and could not meet payroll, forcing them to close all their studios. Despite effectively ceasing to function as a game developer or publisher for several years, it seems they were not quite dead yet. In 2006, they made headlines by selling the Fallout franchise to Bethesda, with a licensing agreement that would allow Interplay to continue work on a planned Fallout MMO (Though the contractual requirements for this to happen seem impossible for Interplay to meet at this point). This sale seems to have breathed some life back into the company, as their website currently shows a teaser graphic featuring several of their franchises with a "Coming Soon" message....
Irem - In the mid-90's, the company was split up... all it's manufacturing and sales ended up as a company called Apies, while it's video game division remained as Irem. Some of their developers ended up leaving to form Nazca Corporation (Metal Slug). A new company called Irem Software Engineering was founded which eventually took over Irem, and was then sold to Apies(!). Despite all this, the company is actually still making video games, though any connection it has to the Irem that made R-Type is somewhat questionable.
Jaleco - This company actually still exists, and publishes games.
Kemco - This company also still exists, and publishes games.
LJN - This company was bought by Acclaim and used as a "puppet company" to release more NES games that Nintendo would have otherwise allowed Acclaim to release on their own (Though they actually released a few titles of their own BEFORE Acclaim bought them, as well as producing various lines of toys). Though the company was mostly seperate from Acclaim during this time, it was eventually folded into Acclaim (along with a few of Acclaims other labels) in 1994. However, the name was used one last time when Spirit of Speed 1937 was published for the Dreamcast.
Maxis - Unable to repeat their initial success with SimCity, Maxis was acquired by Electronic Arts in 1997. Many of EA's acquisitions were gradually absorbed, but Maxis has so far managed to remain as a distinct entity within EA, likely thanks to the huge success of The Sims franchise.
MicroProse - Acquired by Spectrum Holobyte in 1993, who (over several years) consolidated all their titles under the MicroProse name (At this point, the Spectrum Holobyte name essentially stopped being used). Hasbro acquired MicroProse in 1998 and the company was merged into Hasbro Interactive. After Infogrames bought Hasbro Interactive, MicroProse was effectively dead. In 2007, the MicroProse brand (as well as some of it's properties) were sold, thus forming MicroProse Systems LLC. This incarnation of the company seems focussed on consumer electronics, and does not make video games.
Midway - Still very much alive, but see "Bally", "Williams" and "Atari Games" entries for some interesting history which involves Midway.
Mindscape - Purchased by Mattel in 1996 for $3.6 billion, and was later sold to Gore Technology Group, who sold off a number of their properties (Chessmaster is now a Ubisoft product). The remains of the company were later bought by The Learning Company, and Mindscape remains alive today... such as it is.
New World Computing - Bought by 3DO in 1996. When 3DO went bankrupt in 2003, the "Might and Magic" franchise (New World's main product) was sold to Ubisoft.
Ocean - Acquired by Infogrames in 1999 for £100 million and renamed to Infogrames UK.
Origin - Acquired by Electronic Arts in 1992. Afterwards, the only notable thing they managed to do was Ultima Online. The studio was eventually disbanded in 2004.
Parker Bros - The company sold to Kenner, and is now owned by Hasbro. They gave up the video game scene after the crash.
Psygnosis - After the death of Commodore, Psygnosis partnered with Sony to develop many PlayStation games (Wipeout, Destruction Derby, etc), and was eventually absorbed entirely, being renamed "Sony Studio Liverpool" in 1999.
Sensible Software - Bought by Codemasters in 1999. The team seems to still exist, with Codemasters releasing Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder games developed by them.
Seta - ???
Shiny Entertainment - After much success with Earthworm Jim and MDK, they were bought by Interplay. Infogrames (Atari) eventually acquired them during development of "Enter The Matrix" (2002) for $47 million... the deal apparently only including the development team themselves and the Matrix video game rights. After hard times at Atari, they expressed interest in selling Shiny, at which point Dave Perry (original Shiny founder) resigned to form his own company. In late 2006, Shiny was finally acquired by Foundation 9. Most of Shiny's franchises and IP (including Earthworm Jim and MDK) are still owned by Interplay.
Sierra On-Line - After huge growth (including acquiring many other companies along the way), Sierra was bought by CUC International in 1996. CUC was new to the interactive multimedia business, and the resulting years seem to have been bad for Sierra, as various internal groups were closed or restructured. In 1998, Cendant (the result of a merger between CUC and another company called HFS) was involved in a huge fraud scandal. Although Sierra themselves were largely uninvolved, they took a huge toll from the fallout, and were sold off to Vivendi. Despite extensive restructuring, the company continues to publish games. The recent merger between Vivendi and Activision will certainly mean more changes for Sierra in the future.
SNK - Acquired by Aruze in 2000. Aruze mainly used SNK's properties to make pachinko machines, while letting the video game side of things flail. SNK's original founder then left Aruze to start a new company called Playmore. In the meantime, SNK went bankrupt and most of it's properties were bought by Playmore. Playmore also bought Brezzasoft (a company formed by ex-SNK employees), and eventually renamed the company to "SNK Playmore", and still exists today.
Sony Imagesoft - This was a subsidiary of Sony that was created to handle development and publishing of video games. When Sony came out with the PlayStation, the company was folded into Sony Computer Entertainment, and later 989 Studios.
Spectravision - Presumably lost in the crash, though I couldn't find any specific information.
Spectrum Holobyte - See "MicroProse" above.
Sunsoft - Was very popular during the NES days, but after the transition to the 16-bit (and eventually 32-bit) generation, the company faded into obscurity and closed it's North American offices. Sunsoft still exists in Japan, releasing RPG's and pachinko games.
SSI - Acquired by Mindscape in 1994, which was in turn bought by a number of other companies. The brand name ended up being sold to Ubisoft in 2001.
Stern - The original Stern Electronics seems to have exited the amusement industry in 1985... however, there currently exists a Stern Pinball Inc which still makes pinball games and seems to own the rights to all of the original Stern's games (including the various other rights which Stern had bought from other companies).
Taito - Bought by Square Enix in late 2005, now existing as a wholly owned subsidiary. They still create and release games under the Taito name.
Taxan - This company still exists, but now only deals with production, sales, and import/export of power supplies and various computer peripherals.
Technos - After making a few NeoGeo games, Technos went bankrupt in 1995. Their IP was sold to a company called "Million", which still makes new games based on these franchises
Tengen - See "Atari Games" above.
Tradewest - Acquired by WMS Industries in 1994 and renamed to Williams Entertainment. The division was later transferred to Midway (which was also owned by WMS) and renamed "Midway Home Entertainment" and was used by Midway to port it's arcade games to home consoles. They still exist as a part of Midway today.
Ultra - This was actually a "puppet company" created by Konami in order to publish more NES games than Nintendo would have otherwise allowed. When the SNES was released, Nintendo loosened up on some of their rules, and the Ultra brand name was no longer needed.
US Games - A subsidiary of Quaker Oats that only existed for about a year. None of their games became very popular, and in the face of the video game crash, they closed up shop.
US Gold - Ran into hard times in the 90's and merged with Core Design and CentreSoft to form "CentreGold". CentreGold was acquired by Eidos in 1996, at which point Eidos retired the US Gold brand (The CentreGold publishing business was sold off to Activision).
Vic Tokai - This company is still in business selling telecommunications products in Japan. It's video game division is defunct as of 1998.
Virgin - The Virgin Group is still in business, in a large variety of industries (everything from soft drinks to space flight). It's games division seems to only deal with online games and gambling these days.
Westwood Studios - Acquired by Electronic Arts in 1998, after which it was mostly absorbed. Aside from a few Command & Conquer related releases, EA did very little with it's acquisition, and the studio was dropped in 2003.
Williams - The original Williams Manufacturing Company acquired Bally/Midway in 1988 and changed their name to WMS Industries. By 1991, Williams video game division was merged into Midway. WMS sold off their shares in Midway in 1998, thus giving up the video game industry. WMS still exists today, though their primary business seems to be "WMS Gaming", which sells slot machines and similar games.
Xonox - Presumably lost in the crash, though I couldn't find any specific information.
--Zero
Much of this was researched quite some time ago, so it may be inaccurate or out of date. Much of it is paraphrased form Wikipedia entries. If you have anything to add or correct, please let me know!
3DO - After the failure of the 3DO console, the company continued to release games for other consoles until going bankrupt in 2003. Their properties were sold off to various rivals (Need for Speed went to EA, Army Men went to Crave Entertainment, and Might & Magic went to Ubisoft)
Absolute - Seems to have gone bankrupt in 1995, with all their properties now being owned by Activision
Acclaim - Went bankrupt in 2004, with many of their franchises being auctioned off (Turok being owned by Disney Interactive, and many others being owned by Throwback Entertainment). The Acclaim name was bought for $100,000 and a company named "Acclaim Games" now exists, though it is unrelated to the original Acclaim
Accolade - Gradually faded away in the 1990's until it was bought out by Infogrames in 1999.
American Laser Games - When the arcade business started to collapse, ALG made the jump to the 3DO. In the late 90's, they started a division called "Her Interactive", primarily making games for teenage girls. Eventually, ALG declared bankruptcy. At this point, they spun Her Interactive off into it's own company (which is still alive today), and sold the rights to all their old FMV games to Digital Leisure Inc, a company that deals mostly in FMV games (they're the guys who released Dragon's Lair and others on DVD).
Apogee - Back in 1994, Apogee created the "3D Realms" name, under which it had quite a bit of success. The last game to carry the "Apogee" name was Stargunner in 1996... everything since then has been published under the "3D Realms" name.
Apollo - It seems the companies reach exceeded it's grasp. They tried to base their business around what worked for Activision, except none of their games were any good. The programmers realized the company was doomed and jumped ship in 1982 to start their own company. Apollo went bankrupt 2 weeks later.
Asmik - Merged with Ace Entertainment in 1997 to become "Asmik Ace". They still exist and made games for the PS2 and Gamecube. They also distribute films in Japan.
Atari Inc - There are many sites on the internet that explain the long tale of the fall of Atari, so no sense in repeating it all here. See "Hasbro Interactive" below for more info.
Atari Games - In 1984, Warner Communications sold off Atari to Jack Tramiel, but kept the part of the company which made arcade games, calling it "Atari Games" (Thus isolating Atari Games from the chaos Tramiel inflicted on the rest of Atari). In 1985, a controlling interest in the company was sold to Namco, who ended up selling this share a year later to a group of employees. The original agreement between Warner and Tramiel prevented they from using the name in the home consumer market, so they created the "Tengen" brand name in order to port their arcade games to home consoles. In 1993, Time Warner bought a controlling interest in the company and renamed the company "Time Warner Interactive" (though they still used the Atari Games brand), at which point the Tengen name was abandoned. They were then sold to WMS Industries and the name was changed back to Atari Games. Around this time, Hasbro had bought what was left of Atari Inc and started using the Atari name on a number of their games. To avoid confusion, "Atari Games" was renamed to "Midway Games West". Eventually, Midway gave up the arcade business, and Midway Games West worked primarily on console titles, and the studio was entirely disbanded in 2003.
Avalon Hill - This company still exists, producing board games as it has since 1958. They seem to have given up on the video game scene, with their last efforts being in 1989.
Bally - Most of their video game operations (basically, Bally-Midway) and their pinball division were sold to Williams Electronics in 1988 after various financial difficulties. In 1998, WMS sold off their shares in Midway, making Midway an independant entity. Midway continued using the Bally name for pinball games until 1999. The original Bally company still exists, though they mostly deal in casinos.
Brøderbund - Bought by "The Learning Company" in 1998 for $416 million. TLC was bought and sold a couple of times, and somehow a number of Brøderbunds properties apparently ended up in Ubisoft's hands.
Bullfrog - Acquired by EA in early 1995 (EA had published many of Bullfrog's previous releases). Peter Molyneaux left the studio in 1997, while others left to form Mucky Foot Productions. The last Bullfrog-branded release was SimCoaster (aka Theme Park Inc) in 2001, and the studio was eventually merged into "EA UK".
Camerica - This company seems to have gone bankrupt sometime in 1993. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but some (most?) of the blame can probably be attributed to poor sales of the Aladdin Deck Enhancer, into which they seem to have invested a lot of money. Basically all of their products were actually created by other companies anyways (especially Codemasters).
Coleco - Despite having huge success with the ColecoVision and Cabbage Patch Kids, the ADAM computer was an enormous failure for the company. In 1989, they sold all their assets to Hasbro. The Coleco name was eventually acquied by River West Brands, a company that primarily works on revitalizing dead brand names. They use the name on a series of handheld systems, though none that actually play ColecoVision games (presumably, the rights to those are still held by Hasbro?)
Color Dreams - After various legal battles with Nintendo, they seem to have gone out of business in the mid-90's... though their Christian gaming label "Wisdom Tree" managed to survive and is still in business today.
Commodore - Declared bankruptcy in 1994 after the failure of the CD32 and Amiga line of computers. Their properties have been bought out by a long list of companies, none of which have managed to do anything with them.
Core Design - Merged with US Gold and CentreSoft to form "CentreGold". Eidos acquired CentreGold shortly afterwards (1996), with the Core team kept active (most notable for developing the Tomb Raider franchise). In 2006, Eidos sold Core's assets and staff to Rebellion Developments, but apparently kept the brand name and all related IP's (including Tomb Raider).
Crystal Dynamics - After being (relatively) successful developing and publishing games on the short-lived 3DO, the company had a hard time transitioning to the PlayStation. The company was hemmhoraging money and staff until eventually being bought by Eidos in 1998. No longer publishing games, they still exist as a development studio within Eidos.
Culture Brain - They're actually still in business, and if their web site is any indication, they have a DS game in the works.
Data Age - Presumably lost in the video game crash, though I couldn't find any specifics.
Data East - Endured numerous financial problems through the late 90's, and finally declared bankruptcy in 2003. Their properties are now owned by a japanese company named G-Mode.
DMA Design - A studio most famous for making some of Psygnosis' late 80's / early 90's games (Including Lemmings and most of it's early sequels). After Psygnosis was bought by Sony, DMA started a relationship with Nintendo (Uniracers), and hit hard times with the release of Body Harvest on the N64 before hitting it big with the original Grand Theft Auto. DMA was bought by Gremlin Interactive in 1997. Infogrames bought Gremlin 2 years later, and proceeded to sell DMA to Rockstar, where the studio was renamed "Rockstar North", and still exists as such.
Electro Brain - ???
Enix - Merged with SquareSoft in 2003 to form "Square-Enix".
Epyx - Filed for Chapter 11 in 1989, at which point they sold off all the rights to their upcoming handheld gaming system "Handy" to Atari (which was then released as the Lynx). They eventually managed to come out of bankruptcy in 1993, but the company was in ruins and was sold off. Aside from the Lynx, all their properties are now owned by Bridgestone Media Group.
Exidy - ???
FCI - This company is actually just the American branch of a large Japanese media company called The Fujisankei Group. They eventually gave up on the video game scene and now just serve to publish FCG's media (TV shows, radio, music, etc) outside of Japan.
GameTek - Went bankrupt in 1997, with some of their assets sold to Take 2 Interactive.
Gottlieb - Bought by Columbia Pictures in 1977. After Coca-Cola bought Columbia, Gottlieb's assets were transferred to Mylstar Electronics. Coca-Cola eventually sold off Mylstar's pinball assets (which included Gottlieb's) in 1984. The new owners continued making pinball games under the name "Premier Technology". In 1996, this company sold off all it's assets. Currently, all these pinball games (Gottlieb, Mylstar and Premier's) as well as the Gottlieb name are owned by a company called "Gottlieb Development LLC"
Gremlin Graphics - Bought by Infogrames in 1999 for £21 million and renamed "Infogrames Sheffield House", and eventually closed entirely four years later.
GT Interactive - Bought by Infogrames in 2000, and rolled into what eventually became the new Atari Inc. The GT Interactive brand is no longer used.
HAL Laboratory - Though originally an independant company, they now exist as a subsidiary of Nintendo.
Hasbro Interactive - After hard times, this division of Hasbro was sold to Infogrames in 2001 and renamed "Infogrames Interactive". This sale included many extras, such as Atari, Microprose and 15 years worth of rights to make video games based on Hasbro's board games. In 2003, this subsidiary of Infogrames was renamed Atari Interactive Inc.
Hi-Tech Expressions - Seems to be out of business, with the last of their games released on the SNES... no idea what the final fate of the company was though.
Hudson - Despite being involved with the TG16 and PC-FX, they somehow managed to stay in business all these years, and even have a few games on the 360 and various TG16 games on the Wii's Virtual Console.
Imagic - Lost in the video game crash, with most (all?) of their properties now owned by Activision.
Infocom - Bought by Activision in 1986, and shut down by them in 1989. Activision retains all their IP, and has released several Infocom collections since then.
Interplay - The company's success peaked around 1998 due to their PC game business (Battle Chess, Descent, Fallout, etc). However, after this, they spiralled downwards (at one point being acquired by Titus Interactive, which themselves went out of business), things being so financially bad that they were $59 million in debt in 2001, were evicted from their building in 2004, and could not meet payroll, forcing them to close all their studios. Despite effectively ceasing to function as a game developer or publisher for several years, it seems they were not quite dead yet. In 2006, they made headlines by selling the Fallout franchise to Bethesda, with a licensing agreement that would allow Interplay to continue work on a planned Fallout MMO (Though the contractual requirements for this to happen seem impossible for Interplay to meet at this point). This sale seems to have breathed some life back into the company, as their website currently shows a teaser graphic featuring several of their franchises with a "Coming Soon" message....
Irem - In the mid-90's, the company was split up... all it's manufacturing and sales ended up as a company called Apies, while it's video game division remained as Irem. Some of their developers ended up leaving to form Nazca Corporation (Metal Slug). A new company called Irem Software Engineering was founded which eventually took over Irem, and was then sold to Apies(!). Despite all this, the company is actually still making video games, though any connection it has to the Irem that made R-Type is somewhat questionable.
Jaleco - This company actually still exists, and publishes games.
Kemco - This company also still exists, and publishes games.
LJN - This company was bought by Acclaim and used as a "puppet company" to release more NES games that Nintendo would have otherwise allowed Acclaim to release on their own (Though they actually released a few titles of their own BEFORE Acclaim bought them, as well as producing various lines of toys). Though the company was mostly seperate from Acclaim during this time, it was eventually folded into Acclaim (along with a few of Acclaims other labels) in 1994. However, the name was used one last time when Spirit of Speed 1937 was published for the Dreamcast.
Maxis - Unable to repeat their initial success with SimCity, Maxis was acquired by Electronic Arts in 1997. Many of EA's acquisitions were gradually absorbed, but Maxis has so far managed to remain as a distinct entity within EA, likely thanks to the huge success of The Sims franchise.
MicroProse - Acquired by Spectrum Holobyte in 1993, who (over several years) consolidated all their titles under the MicroProse name (At this point, the Spectrum Holobyte name essentially stopped being used). Hasbro acquired MicroProse in 1998 and the company was merged into Hasbro Interactive. After Infogrames bought Hasbro Interactive, MicroProse was effectively dead. In 2007, the MicroProse brand (as well as some of it's properties) were sold, thus forming MicroProse Systems LLC. This incarnation of the company seems focussed on consumer electronics, and does not make video games.
Midway - Still very much alive, but see "Bally", "Williams" and "Atari Games" entries for some interesting history which involves Midway.
Mindscape - Purchased by Mattel in 1996 for $3.6 billion, and was later sold to Gore Technology Group, who sold off a number of their properties (Chessmaster is now a Ubisoft product). The remains of the company were later bought by The Learning Company, and Mindscape remains alive today... such as it is.
New World Computing - Bought by 3DO in 1996. When 3DO went bankrupt in 2003, the "Might and Magic" franchise (New World's main product) was sold to Ubisoft.
Ocean - Acquired by Infogrames in 1999 for £100 million and renamed to Infogrames UK.
Origin - Acquired by Electronic Arts in 1992. Afterwards, the only notable thing they managed to do was Ultima Online. The studio was eventually disbanded in 2004.
Parker Bros - The company sold to Kenner, and is now owned by Hasbro. They gave up the video game scene after the crash.
Psygnosis - After the death of Commodore, Psygnosis partnered with Sony to develop many PlayStation games (Wipeout, Destruction Derby, etc), and was eventually absorbed entirely, being renamed "Sony Studio Liverpool" in 1999.
Sensible Software - Bought by Codemasters in 1999. The team seems to still exist, with Codemasters releasing Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder games developed by them.
Seta - ???
Shiny Entertainment - After much success with Earthworm Jim and MDK, they were bought by Interplay. Infogrames (Atari) eventually acquired them during development of "Enter The Matrix" (2002) for $47 million... the deal apparently only including the development team themselves and the Matrix video game rights. After hard times at Atari, they expressed interest in selling Shiny, at which point Dave Perry (original Shiny founder) resigned to form his own company. In late 2006, Shiny was finally acquired by Foundation 9. Most of Shiny's franchises and IP (including Earthworm Jim and MDK) are still owned by Interplay.
Sierra On-Line - After huge growth (including acquiring many other companies along the way), Sierra was bought by CUC International in 1996. CUC was new to the interactive multimedia business, and the resulting years seem to have been bad for Sierra, as various internal groups were closed or restructured. In 1998, Cendant (the result of a merger between CUC and another company called HFS) was involved in a huge fraud scandal. Although Sierra themselves were largely uninvolved, they took a huge toll from the fallout, and were sold off to Vivendi. Despite extensive restructuring, the company continues to publish games. The recent merger between Vivendi and Activision will certainly mean more changes for Sierra in the future.
SNK - Acquired by Aruze in 2000. Aruze mainly used SNK's properties to make pachinko machines, while letting the video game side of things flail. SNK's original founder then left Aruze to start a new company called Playmore. In the meantime, SNK went bankrupt and most of it's properties were bought by Playmore. Playmore also bought Brezzasoft (a company formed by ex-SNK employees), and eventually renamed the company to "SNK Playmore", and still exists today.
Sony Imagesoft - This was a subsidiary of Sony that was created to handle development and publishing of video games. When Sony came out with the PlayStation, the company was folded into Sony Computer Entertainment, and later 989 Studios.
Spectravision - Presumably lost in the crash, though I couldn't find any specific information.
Spectrum Holobyte - See "MicroProse" above.
Sunsoft - Was very popular during the NES days, but after the transition to the 16-bit (and eventually 32-bit) generation, the company faded into obscurity and closed it's North American offices. Sunsoft still exists in Japan, releasing RPG's and pachinko games.
SSI - Acquired by Mindscape in 1994, which was in turn bought by a number of other companies. The brand name ended up being sold to Ubisoft in 2001.
Stern - The original Stern Electronics seems to have exited the amusement industry in 1985... however, there currently exists a Stern Pinball Inc which still makes pinball games and seems to own the rights to all of the original Stern's games (including the various other rights which Stern had bought from other companies).
Taito - Bought by Square Enix in late 2005, now existing as a wholly owned subsidiary. They still create and release games under the Taito name.
Taxan - This company still exists, but now only deals with production, sales, and import/export of power supplies and various computer peripherals.
Technos - After making a few NeoGeo games, Technos went bankrupt in 1995. Their IP was sold to a company called "Million", which still makes new games based on these franchises
Tengen - See "Atari Games" above.
Tradewest - Acquired by WMS Industries in 1994 and renamed to Williams Entertainment. The division was later transferred to Midway (which was also owned by WMS) and renamed "Midway Home Entertainment" and was used by Midway to port it's arcade games to home consoles. They still exist as a part of Midway today.
Ultra - This was actually a "puppet company" created by Konami in order to publish more NES games than Nintendo would have otherwise allowed. When the SNES was released, Nintendo loosened up on some of their rules, and the Ultra brand name was no longer needed.
US Games - A subsidiary of Quaker Oats that only existed for about a year. None of their games became very popular, and in the face of the video game crash, they closed up shop.
US Gold - Ran into hard times in the 90's and merged with Core Design and CentreSoft to form "CentreGold". CentreGold was acquired by Eidos in 1996, at which point Eidos retired the US Gold brand (The CentreGold publishing business was sold off to Activision).
Vic Tokai - This company is still in business selling telecommunications products in Japan. It's video game division is defunct as of 1998.
Virgin - The Virgin Group is still in business, in a large variety of industries (everything from soft drinks to space flight). It's games division seems to only deal with online games and gambling these days.
Westwood Studios - Acquired by Electronic Arts in 1998, after which it was mostly absorbed. Aside from a few Command & Conquer related releases, EA did very little with it's acquisition, and the studio was dropped in 2003.
Williams - The original Williams Manufacturing Company acquired Bally/Midway in 1988 and changed their name to WMS Industries. By 1991, Williams video game division was merged into Midway. WMS sold off their shares in Midway in 1998, thus giving up the video game industry. WMS still exists today, though their primary business seems to be "WMS Gaming", which sells slot machines and similar games.
Xonox - Presumably lost in the crash, though I couldn't find any specific information.
--Zero