Where are they now?

[Zadoc]

Where are they now?

A look back at once prominent and now defunct video game copmanies, and where they are today.

[Zadoc]

Where are they now: Zircon (http://www.zircon.com/) & Fairchild Semiconductors (http://www.fairchildsemi.com)


In 1976 a company called Fairchild Semiconductors, a popular camera manufacturer, made history and changed the world of console gaming forever when they released a little known console called the Fairchild Channel F. The Channel F was revolutionary because it was the first console that was "reprogrammable." In other words, it was the world’s first console that used carts. To this day cart gaming is still a big market, (GBA).

In 1977 Atari released its famed 2600 which was a superior system in every aspect. Soon the Fairchild's success came to an end.

In 1979 a company called Zircon (http://www.zircon.com/) bought the rights and the back stock of the Channel F. They remodeled the console, made it so that sound comes from the TV, not the unit, and added detachable controllers, and repackaged and sold it as the Channel F System II. When the great crash of the video game industry hit in in 1982 the console, which was dead on arrival due to competition, was finally cut off, though the last game was released in 1979.

Where are Zircon (http://www.zircon.com/) now?

Zircon (http://www.zircon.com/) are now makers of electronic power tools. From video game console maker to electronic power tools, the evolution from one to the other just makes sence!!

Where are Fairchild Semiconductors (http://www.fairchildsemi.com/)?

Fairchild Semiconductors never re-entered the video game industry after their brief success and sudden failure in the mid to late 1970's, and probably never will again. Today Fairchild Semiconductors (http://www.fairchildsemi.com/) are still a manufacturer of semiconductors and other computer/electronics parts. :)

[Zadoc]

Where are they now: Control Video Corp.


Circa 1980. A company called Control Video Corp. had an idea. They recognized the popularity of the new video game "fad" and that of the Atari 2600 in particular. The company has spanned from a failed Company called Digital Music, a company that delivered commercial free music over Cable TV. Entire albums could be downloaded and stored on cassette tape. Though the company started off with support from the record companies, retailers feared that this popular service would be the end of them, so after a short time the noose was tightened and the company fell apart.

Out of the ashes of Digital Music came Control Video Corp. They wanted in this new video game business. They took the technology from Digital Music and created a 1200 bits-per-second download/50 pits-per-second upload modem for the Atari 2600. The product was called the Gameline Master Module (pictured above). The modem retailed for $70, it stuck in the cart slot of the system. Control Video unveiled the Gameline Master Module and the GameLink service, through which gamers could download 2600 games for only $1 each at the CES. It was received warmly.

When the great crash happened Control Video was among the victims. They disposed of their modems in dumpsters and that was that.

So, where is Control Video Corp. now?

A Control Video employee by the name of Steve Case picked up the pieces of the company and turned it into Quantum Computer Services. Quantum Computer Services provided internet service to C64 computers, Apple II's, Macs... Eventually Quantum Computer Services became AOL (http://www.aol.com).

[Zadoc]

WARP

Created by Kenji Eno in 1994, WARP quickly became the source for some of the most unique and original ideas in gaming. Eno, a musician by trade, not only produced, directed and programmed the games that his company developed, but he was responsible for scoring the original soundtracks as well, leaving WARP games to have incredibly eerie and enveloping audio.

Emergence

Though the company got off to an interesting start in 1995, which saw the release of Flupon World and Trip’d for the 3DO, it didn't break out until later that year with the release of D.

D

D, the original Japanese title of which was D no Shokutaku, is often referred to as "D's Diner." This is a result of a mistaken Gamefan article which mistranslated the original Japanese meaning of the title, which actually means, "D's Dinner Table."

Useless geeky information aside, D quickly rallied a cult following when it was released on the 3DO. It was a survival horror game before the survival horror genre was invented. In D, players controlled Laura Harris, a young an attractive woman from LA. The gameplay was set on a track, preventing the player from exploring the pre-rendered 3D world. Gamers who interacted with D led our heroine Laura through the twisted mind of her father, who butchered a number of people in a LA country hospital, where he was a doctor.

The game combines disturbing images, psychosis, imaginative puzzles, a twisted plot and decision making, which is - of course - accompanied by brilliant audio and sound effects. A pure adventure game, don't expect to find action here.

Though the game sold poorly in the US on the 3DO, Acclaim took it upon themselves to take the game to the masses in America by publishing it on both Saturn and Playstation, thereby expanding the audience.

Sega Saturn

In 1997 the developer had two major releases for the Sega Saturn. Real Sound and Enemy Zero. Staying true to his roots in music, Eno decided that he wanted to develop and publish a videogame that blind people could play. The result was Real Sound, a risky venture by WARP that used only sound as the interactive element in the forms of music, effects, and voice actors. The game was met with rave reviews, but minimal sales. Due to its nature, the title was never released outside of Japan, because it would've essentially needed to be re-created for an English speaking market. In 1999 a an update of the Saturn game was released for the Dreamcast, called Real Sound: Kaze no Regret.

With Enemy Zero (a.k.a. E0) we find ourselves re-united with our familiar Laura, this time, in space! She awakes from a cryogenic sleep to find that her friends have been killed by an alien that has escaped, and is now loose on the ship. Through exploration and wit, Laura must hunt and kill the enemy zero before it kills her.

Following with the sound motif, the gameplay of Enemy Zero is incredibly unique. The enemie us not visible, and can only be detected through the use of sound. Differnt notes of different pitch at different intervals are the only means of the player to determine the distance and direction of enemies, and when to pull the trigger.

At the time, the unconventional gameplay aroused harsh reviews from critics, and the games sales suffered. However, more recent looks back at this game - in an age where gaming and gamers are far more sophisticated - have revealed that E0 is a jewel in the rough.

Dreamcast

In 1998, WARP became the first 3rd party publisher to commit to the newly announced Sega Dreamcast. In 2000, D2 was released, reuniting gamers with Laura once again... and this time, she could be controlled in a fully 3D world.

Combining adventure, survival horror, and RPG elements together, D2 was such a unique title that many did not know what to think about it. It was too slow to be an action title; it had too much action to be a pure adventure, and it didn't have enough RPG elements to make it a true RPG - though it did have a leveling system and random encounters.

The size and scope of D2 was epic for its time, featuring a very large playing field, fully interactive 3D environment, immense story, well crafted plot... and just as twisted as ever.


M2D2

The sequel to D, was originally scheduled for release on the 3DO M2 system. This version of D2 is often referred to as M2D2 because the M2 version of the game was so completely different from the Dreamcast incarnation.

When Matsushitsa bought the rights for the M2 console from 3DO, they bought with it the rights to 10 to 12 complete titles that were ready to ship with the system, the originally D2 being among them. As a result, it is unlikely that this game will ever see the light of day.

Where are they now?

After D2's mediocre sales, reception and reviews, WARP disbanded, left the videogame industry, and re-emerged as a new company called 'Superwarp,' which was created to provide online music, networking solutions, and other things.

In 2005 Superwarp was dissolved as well, and Kenji Eno formed a new company called 'From Yellow to Orange' or "fyto." fyto will pick up where WARP left off, and Eno will once again be designing and developing videogames. Though the company has not announced any new game, Eno revealed at E3 2006 that his company is working on a brand new game for a console with and new control device, leading many to believe that he is working on project destined for the Nintendo Wii.

[bangtango]

Nice job. Are we permitted to make requests Zadoc? If so, what happened to Jaleco? :)

[Xexyz]

Jaleco is still alive and kicking, although their releases are few and far between. They even have a U.S. publishing branch still, but they only release like one game a year, and it's always something developed by a small, independent, 3rd party Western company, like the guys that made Jazz Jackrabbit for the GBA.

Anyways, if by any chance you happen to be taking recommendations Zadoc, may I suggest making a post about Data East, and when they disbanded, who went where (if possible that is).

[Zadoc]

Ya, okay. I can do requests. I just can't promise that I can get to all of them, or in a timely fassion. :)

[Haoie]

If you ask me, you can profile someone lesser known, like Human Entertainment [1 of the original pioneers of the survival horror genre, with the very first Clock Tower].

They went bust in 99, I think.

[vintagegamecrazy]

Pretty sweet, I would love to hear more.

[diskoboy]

Whatever happened to Infocom and Broderbund?

You think Infocom would still be around. Makking killer RPG's and MMO's...

And I asked this in the recent topic about adventurevision - what happened to Entex electronics? Before the gameboy was even a dream, Entex was the undisputed king of handheld gaming. Then, they just up and disappeared.

[Mayhem]

Infocom got into debt with Cornerstone and a dwindling text adventure market, got bought up by Activision in 1985, and was eventually wound up as an entity in 1989.

[DreamTR]

Xexyz: I thought Jaleco was gone at least 2-3 years ago? The "new" Jaleco only existed through name in New York and briefly in Colorado, only thing they had in common with the older company was the purchase of the name for recognition purposes. AFAIK, they have since been disbanded. The original Jaleco went out around 1999-2000 or so (from IL)

[Famidrive-16]

Whatever happened to Infocom and Broderbund?


Broderbund was bought out by the Learning Company in the mid-90's. Learning Company got bought out by another company, and then some shares got sold, ectectcece. Now they're owned by Ubisoft.

Here's their site:
http://www.broderbund.com/

[tom]

Infocom, now owned by Activision since 1985 released the last titles but only under the Activision label:
Zork Grand Inquisitor Mac/PC (1997),
Zork The Undiscovered Underground download only C-64/PC/Mac(1997),
Zork Nemesis (1996)

see here:
http://videogamecollectors.com/gallery/album301

Last Infocom labelled games were:
Return to Zork (1993)
Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2 (1992, written by Steve Meretzky)
Battletech The Cresent Hawks' Revenge (1990)
Circuits Edge (1990)
Mines of Titan (1989)

basically these are post original-Infocom titles, and released only under the name, except for LGOP2, because of the SM input

last Infocom 'Infocom' game was Arthur The Quest for Excalibur (1989)

[T2KFreeker]

Anyone remember Telesys? They made some 2600 games that kicked ass, especially this one game I still play the Hell out of called Fast Food. Would be cool to see what in the Hell happened to them! :))

[Kamisama]

Anyways, if by any chance you happen to be taking recommendations Zadoc, may I suggest making a post about Data East, and when they disbanded, who went where (if possible that is).

I would be interested in that aswell. Dont forget Data West though. :)

[Mayhem]

There's actually a whole company history on Data East in the current issue of Retro Gamer, so perhaps go read that tonight to answer the question ;)

[diskoboy]

Broderbund was bought out by the Learning Company in the mid-90's. Learning Company got bought out by another company, and then some shares got sold, ectectcece. Now they're owned by Ubisoft.

Here's their site:
http://www.broderbund.com/


Oh, that's right! They made the first version of Print Shop in 1985... When sales of that went through the roof, they quit focusing on games and towards crappy buisness apps and learning games. It still weirds me out Print Shop is still around.

My 5th grade teacher used to use the original PS like it was going out of style (thank god, it did.)

Broderbund should still be making great games. Spare Change is still one of my all time faves.

[rolenta]

Broderbund was bought out by the Learning Company in the mid-90's. Learning Company got bought out by another company, and then some shares got sold, ectectcece. Now they're owned by Ubisoft.

Some notes about The Learning Company. The company was founded by Warren Robinett (Adventure) with a $130K grant from the National Science Foundation. The company was sold to Softkey in 1995 for $660M. Softkey retained The Learning Company name. In 1998, when The Learning Company was the second largest consumer software company in the world after Microsoft, the company was sold to Mattel for $4.3 billion. After under-performing to Mattel’s expectations and causing Mattel’s CEO to step down, The Learning Company was sold to Gores Technology Group in October 2000.

[rolenta]

In 1976 a company called Fairchild Semiconductors, a popular camera manufacturer, made history and changed the world of console gaming forever when they released a little known console called the Fairchild Channel F.

Actually, when it was first released, the system was called the Video Entertainment System (VES)

[Zadoc]

Where are they now? Nolan Bushnell's Axlon

After Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari, the once largest and seemingly unstoppable game and console developer, sold his company to Time Warner in 1977 for $28 million, he made several attempts to re-enter the game industry.

On October 1st, 1983, the date his non-competition clause ended with Time Warner after he sold Atari, he announced Sente Games, which a console/arcade developer with Midway as the distributor. After a decent run, and with only one majot hit Hat Trick, Sente games was absorbed into Midway in 1987.

Determined as ever, Bushnell created Axlon in 1988 under his Catalyst Technologies Venture Capitol Group. Axlon developed some of the finest games for the Atari 2600 very late in its life cycle, including Off the Wall and Secret Quest, the last game officially released for the 2600 in the US (1989).

Despite the brilliance of Axlon’s games, they were published only to help generate enough revenue to keep the company alive for their real mission - to launch a new revolutionary game console to rival the Nintendo dominated market.

To create this console, Axlon partnered Hasbro. Bushnell, and his partner Tom Zito created the NEMO project, which was the code word for the project used internally at Hasbro, which purportedly meant, "Never Ever Mention Outside."

The console later came to be known as Control-Vision. It was to use VHS as its storage medium, like the View-Master InteractiveVision, only with a focus on using real live actors for games, and it used a special patented technology called "InstaSwitch." A game called Scene of the Crime AKA Night Trap, now famous for being the subject of hearings in the US Congress in the 1990’s due to girls in wearing the kind of lingerie than can be seen in a beer commercial in prime time, was developed as a tech-demo to showcase the amazing InstaSwitch technology, which allowed the seamless transition from one part of a VHS tape to another. Sewer Shark, a game of Sega CD infamy, was also originally developed for this system.

In an exclusive interview with NetLink World, Ken Soohoo, current Planetweb CEO and former Digital Pictures honcho, commented that the Control-Vision version of Night Trap was far superior to what was possible on the Sega CD and Sega CD 32X, both in terms of graphics and gameplay.

Set for release in January of 1989, Control-Vision was dropped by Hasbro in November of 1988, less than two months before the console’s launch. The reason? Cost. Ram in the late 80's and early 90's was expensive. It has been reported that the D-RAM needed to run the console would’ve cost $100 by its self. The console would have retailed for $299, much more expensive than the Nintendo Entertainment System, Atari 7800, NEC Turbo Grafix 16, or Sega Genesis, all of which would be competing on the US market by the end of 1989.

After spending over $20 million dollars on R&D for the Control-Vision console, and over $4 million in game development costs, Hasbro pulled the plug on the whole thing.

So, where are they now?

Axlon was done. Hasbro absorbed the company’s assets, and it ceased to be. Tom Zito, the mastermind behind the Control-Vision games, went on to found Digital Pictures, and released both Nght Trap and Sewer Shark for the Sega CD. Night Trap 32X has a special video of a NEMO demo for any gamer able and willing to complete the game.

The rights to the two unreleased and never completed Control-Vision titles, Police Academy and an RDI Halcylon-esque NFL game featuring John Madden were acquired by Hasbro and footage of these two projects has never surfaced.

Nolan Bushnell, unable to repeat the initial success of Atari, declared bankruptcy in 1996 after his latest business venture, TeamNet - a series of online arcade games - failed due to being too far ahead of their time, and not all that good in the first place. Bushnell is now back in business with uWink, which is responsible for many of the cheesy games in bars that fat women sit in front of by themselves to play while everyone else is having fun. Bushnell has recently launched a restaurant chain based around the uWink concept called uWink Media Bistro, in which guests can order food from a touch screen, play games, watch movie trailers and other videos, and get their online dating groove on with other singles in the bar. Good luck with that, Mr. Bushnell!

Dana Plato, star of Night Trap, former star of Different Strokes, went on to make softcore lesbian porno, posed in Playboy, and died in 1999 of a drug overdoes.

[tom]

Poor Dana

[Dreamporter]

What ever happened to Sunsoft? I heard they had a few japanese titles out for PS2....is this true..

Anyone remember Segasoft? lol I think this was a joint venture between sega and CSK which was some random japanese conglomerate....which never made sense to me... hmm

[Zadoc]

Poor Dana

At least we can still watch videos of her doing another girl. :) If Night Trap was like that, I might have enjoyed it.


What ever happened to Sunsoft?


http://www.sun-denshi.co.jp/soft/

They're alive and kicking, and are working with Nintendo on the Wii virtual console.



Anyone remember Segasoft? lol I think this was a joint venture between sega and CSK which was some random japanese conglomerate....which never made sense to me... hmm

Sega was owned by CSK. SegaSoft was an independant publishing arm of Sega that was owned jointly by Sega and CSK and founded in 1995. It was based on California, and its mission was to publish multiplayer PC games. This didn't work out too well, and it ended up doing a few Saturn titles. Later, SegaSoft developed HEAT.net for online multiplayer games. It was closed down in 2000, along with HEAT.net, and was merged into SEGANET.

A copy of the the website is here: http://www.craigspeed.com/web_sites/ssofthome/index.html

[MrRoboto19XX]

Great idea for a thread, very informative.

What ever happened to LJN? (and what did "LJN" stand for?)

[Zadoc]

Great idea for a thread, very informative.

What ever happened to LJN? (and what did "LJN" stand for?)


Easy. Wikipedia is your friend:



LJN was an American toy company and video game publisher in operation from 1970 to 1994. They created many toylines and video games that were based on popular movies, T.V shows, and celebrities.

LJN was founded in 1970 by Jack Friedman (who later founded toy companies THQ and Jakks Pacific). The name LJN was inspired by the initials of Lewis J Norman which is the reverse of Norman J. Lewis Associates, a toy company where Friedman was employed in the 1960s before leaving to form LJN.

In 1986, LJN was acquired by MCA through their Universal subsidiary. LJN ventured for the first time into the video game market and released several titles for the Nintendo Entertainment System, often based on popular franchises such as movie and cartoon licenses. In late 1988, Acclaim Entertainment acquired LJN from MCA/Universal.

Under Acclaim, LJN pretty much kept the same movie/cartoon direction for their video games as when they were under Universal. Acclaim got rid of LJN's toy division and turned LJN into a video game only company. During the 8-bit gaming era, Nintendo, as a form of quality control, regulated the number of titles to appear on its console, the Nintendo Entertainment System. As a result, companies like Acclaim used divisions such as LJN to produce more products than Nintendo would have traditionally allowed. Other companies that utilized such tactics included Konami with their division Ultra. Unlike Ultra who was just a brand name of Konami, LJN was a legal company operating independently and at a different location from Acclaim. Even after Nintendo dropped its rule in the early 1990s, Acclaim kept LJN operating who published several titles for the Super NES. Also, whether for the NES or Super Nintendo, there is no known game to have been developed by LJN themselves even though many of their video games, especially the pre-Acclaim ones, did not disclose the developer.

LJN, along with the Flying Edge and Arena Entertainment labels (the latter two labels which published Acclaim's games to Sega's consoles) were folded into Acclaim in 1994.

In 2000, LJN made a return in name only when Acclaim used the brand to publish Spirit of Speed 1937, a video game title for the Sega Dreamcast.

[Zadoc]

Whatever happened to Infocom and Broderbund?

You think Infocom would still be around. Makking killer RPG's and MMO's...

And I asked this in the recent topic about adventurevision - what happened to Entex electronics? Before the gameboy was even a dream, Entex was the undisputed king of handheld gaming. Then, they just up and disappeared.

Some of the older game companies that went under around the time of the crash are almost impossible to research, because many members of those companies did not stay in the industry, thus they are impossible to track down, even for a phone call.

I do have a lot of info on Entex... I've been writing that one for a few weeks now, I just wanted to do Axlon real quick since it was easy.

[Zadoc]

Where are they now? Nolan Bushnell's Axlon

After Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari, the once largest and seemingly unstoppable game and console developer, sold his company to Time Warner in 1977 for $28 million, he made several attempts to re-enter the game industry.

On October 1st, 1983, the date his non-competition clause ended with Time Warner after he sold Atari, he announced Sente Games, which a console/arcade developer with Midway as the distributor. After a decent run, and with only one majot hit Hat Trick, Sente games was absorbed into Midway in 1987.

Determined as ever, Bushnell created Axlon in 1988 under his Catalyst Technologies Venture Capitol Group. Axlon developed some of the finest games for the Atari 2600 very late in its life cycle, including Off the Wall and Secret Quest, the last game officially released for the 2600 in the US (1989).

Despite the brilliance of Axlon’s games, they were published only to help generate enough revenue to keep the company alive for their real mission - to launch a new revolutionary game console to rival the Nintendo dominated market.

To create this console, Axlon partnered Hasbro. Bushnell, and his partner Tom Zito created the NEMO project, which was the code word for the project used internally at Hasbro, which purportedly meant, "Never Ever Mention Outside."

The console later came to be known as Control-Vision. It was to use VHS as its storage medium, like the View-Master InteractiveVision, only with a focus on using real live actors for games, and it used a special patented technology called "InstaSwitch." A game called Scene of the Crime AKA Night Trap, now famous for being the subject of hearings in the US Congress in the 1990’s due to girls in wearing the kind of lingerie than can be seen in a beer commercial in prime time, was developed as a tech-demo to showcase the amazing InstaSwitch technology, which allowed the seamless transition from one part of a VHS tape to another. Sewer Shark, a game of Sega CD infamy, was also originally developed for this system.

In an exclusive interview with NetLink World, Ken Soohoo, current Planetweb CEO and former Digital Pictures honcho, commented that the Control-Vision version of Night Trap was far superior to what was possible on the Sega CD and Sega CD 32X, both in terms of graphics and gameplay.

Set for release in January of 1989, Control-Vision was dropped by Hasbro in November of 1988, less than two months before the console’s launch. The reason? Cost. Ram in the late 80's and early 90's was expensive. It has been reported that the D-RAM needed to run the console would’ve cost $100 by its self. The console would have retailed for $299, much more expensive than the Nintendo Entertainment System, Atari 7800, NEC Turbo Grafix 16, or Sega Genesis, all of which would be competing on the US market by the end of 1989.

After spending over $20 million dollars on R&D for the Control-Vision console, and over $4 million in game development costs, Hasbro pulled the plug on the whole thing.

So, where are they now?

Axlon was done. Hasbro absorbed the company’s assets, and it ceased to be. Tom Zito, the mastermind behind the Control-Vision games, went on to found Digital Pictures, and released both Nght Trap and Sewer Shark for the Sega CD. Night Trap 32X has a special video of a NEMO demo for any gamer able and willing to complete the game.

The rights to the two unreleased and never completed Control-Vision titles, Police Academy and an RDI Halcylon-esque NFL game featuring John Madden were acquired by Hasbro and footage of these two projects has never surfaced.

Nolan Bushnell, unable to repeat the initial success of Atari, declared bankruptcy in 1996 after his latest business venture, TeamNet - a series of online arcade games - failed due to being too far ahead of their time, and not all that good in the first place. Bushnell is now back in business with uWink, which is responsible for many of the cheesy games in bars that fat women sit in front of by themselves to play while everyone else is having fun. Bushnell has recently launched a restaurant chain based around the uWink concept called uWink Media Bistro, in which guests can order food from a touch screen, play games, watch movie trailers and other videos, and get their online dating groove on with other singles in the bar. Good luck with that, Mr. Bushnell!

Dana Plato, star of Night Trap, former star of Different Strokes, went on to make softcore lesbian porno, posed in Playboy, and died in 1999 of a drug overdose.


Fixed.

[Tron 2.0]

Anyways, if by any chance you happen to be taking recommendations Zadoc, may I suggest making a post about Data East, and when they disbanded, who went where (if possible that is).
It's a shame about DataEast they had some good titles.

Even though, G-Front owns there IP now all there doing.. is putting there games on cell phones :p

[Xexyz]

^ Well, I don't know what the replation ship is between G-Front and Japan only publisher Hamster, but Hamster has been releasing some of Data East's classic coin-ops under the Oretachi Gaming Center line of coin-op budget releases.

It's a shame about Jaleco. Thanks for the info about them DreamTR, I had no idea that the "butchered" Jaleco logo was from a completely different company that got the rights to their name. The latest game I own from them that they published is Vanark for the PS1, and that was a joint venture with Asmik.