Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Video games |
Founded | c. 1994 |
Defunct | June 14, 2002 |
Headquarters | Redmond, Washington, United States |
Website | Archived |
Boss Game Studios was an American video game developer based in Redmond, Washington. The company was founded in 1994 and closed in 2002. It specialized in Nintendo 64 racing games with releases such as Top Gear Rally and World Driver Championship .
Boss Game Studios was formed in Redmond, Washington as an independent offshoot of Boss Film Studios, a company that created special effects for feature films. [1] Some members of its creative and development team had contributed to games such as The Lion King and Dune II . [1] Barry Leitch was the company's music director. [1]
Following the release of their first game in 1997, Spider: The Video Game , [2] the company specialized in Nintendo 64 racing games with releases such as Top Gear Rally and World Driver Championship . In 2000, the company was approached by Microsoft, who offered them an opportunity to develop games for their Xbox console. [3] Boss Game Studios started work on an Xbox racing game, but were unable to find a publisher for the title. [4] On June 14, 2002, the company disbanded. [4]
Rare Limited is a British video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Twycross, Leicestershire. Rare's games span the platform, first-person shooter, action-adventure, fighting, and racing genres. Its most popular games include the Battletoads, Donkey Kong, and Banjo-Kazooie series, as well as games like GoldenEye 007 (1997), Perfect Dark (2000), Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001), Viva Piñata (2006), and Sea of Thieves (2018).
Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic racing simulations and more fantastical arcade-style racing games. Kart racing games emerged in the 1990s as a popular sub-genre of the latter. Racing games may also fall under the category of sports video games.
R.C. Pro-Am is a racing game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in North America in February 1988, and then in Europe on April 15. Presented in an overhead isometric perspective, a single player races a radio-controlled car around a series of tracks in vehicular combat. Each track qualifies its top three racers for the next track. Collectible power-up items improve performance, hazards include rain puddles and oil slicks, and missiles and bombs can temporarily disable opponents. Originally titled Pro Am Racing, it was ported to the Sega Genesis in 1992 as Championship Pro-Am, an enhanced remake with enhanced graphics and additional features. R.C. Pro-Am spawned two sequels: Super R.C. Pro-Am in 1991, and R.C. Pro-Am II in 1992.
Wave Race 64 is a 1996 racing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It is the second entry in the Wave Race series following the 1992 Game Boy game Wave Race. Gameplay involves the player racing on a personal watercraft on a variety of courses while successfully manoeuvring the vehicle around various buoys. A multiplayer mode where two players can compete against each other on a chosen course is also included. The game supports the Controller Pak, which allows players to transfer saved data from one game cartridge to another. The game is presented in a letterboxed 14:9 aspect ratio.
Top Gear Rally is a 1997 racing video game developed by Boss Game Studios and released for the Nintendo 64. A follow-up to Kemco's original Top Gear game, it features a championship mode where a single player must complete six seasons of two to four races, as well as a multiplayer mode where two players may compete against each other via a split-screen display. The game's tracks combine both road and off-road surfaces and can be played in different weather conditions, including night, fog, rain, and snow. Players may customize their car with different tire grips and adjust its suspension stiffness and steering sensitivity. An option that allows players to custom paint their cars is also included.
V-Rally is a racing video game developed by Infogrames Multimedia and released for the PlayStation console in 1997. The first game in the V-Rally series, it is based on the 1997 and 1998 World Rally Championship seasons, and features officially licensed cars and tracks inspired by real locations of rally events. Players drive rally cars through a series of stages spread over eight different locations, ranging from European countries like England, Spain or Sweden, to island countries such as Indonesia and New Zealand. As a simulation game, V-Rally places a strong emphasis on replicating the behavior physics of real cars and generally requires more practice than arcade-style racers.
Crave Entertainment was an American video game publisher founded in 1997 by Nima Taghavi. Its headquarters was in Newport Beach, California. It was acquired by Handleman Company in 2005 in a deal valued up to $95,000,000 but was then sold to Fillpoint LLC in early 2009 for only $8,100,000 due to Handleman's bankruptcy and pending liquidation. During its lifetime it published games for Dreamcast, Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, GameCube, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox, and Xbox 360. Crave mainly focused on budget titles, and imported games such as Tokyo Xtreme Racer series.
World Driver Championship is an automobile racing video game. It was developed by Boss Game Studios and published for the Nintendo 64 by Midway. It is notable for having especially high quality graphics.
Paradigm Entertainment Inc. was an American video game development company. Paradigm is perhaps best known for its vehicle simulation games. Founded as a 3D computer graphics company in 1990, Paradigm primarily worked on realistic flight simulation technology for major space and aviation clients. The company got its start in game development when it was contacted by Nintendo in 1994 to aid in the creation of one of the Nintendo 64's launch titles, Pilotwings 64. The game was a critical and commercial success for the developer, causing the simulation and entertainment divisions of Paradigm to separate and focus on their respective products. The newly independent Paradigm Entertainment continued to develop for Nintendo's 64-bit console. After a short partnership with Video System, Paradigm was acquired as a wholly owned subsidiary of Infogrames in 2000 and began developing games for sixth-generation video game consoles. Paradigm was sold to THQ in 2006 and was ultimately closed in 2008.
Top Gear Rally 2 is a racing video game developed by Saffire and released for the Nintendo 64 in 1999. It is a sequel to Top Gear Rally.
Race Driver: Grid known outside of Europe as Grid is a 2008 racing video game developed and published by Codemasters for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, arcade, Java ME and OS X. It is the first game in the Grid series.
Tantalus Media is an Australian video game developer based in Melbourne. It was founded in 1994 by programmers Andrew Bailey and Trevor Nuridin. Since its inception, Tantalus has developed almost 100 games and has won multiple game awards. In March 2021, Keywords Studios acquired 85% of Tantalus Media for US$46.8 million.
Boss Rally is a 1999 racing game developed by Boss Game Studios and published by SouthPeak Interactive for Microsoft Windows. It is essentially a port of the Nintendo 64 game Top Gear Rally, with extra features such as more cars and tracks and a multiplayer mode that supports up to eight players.
Ever since Pole Position in 1982, Formula One (F1) has always played a part of the racing genre in video games. Early Formula One games were typically arcade racing games, before Formula One Grand Prix (1991) popularized Formula One racing simulations on home computers.
WRC, short for World Rally Championship, is a rally racing video game series. The series is currently developed by Codemasters and published by EA Sports. To date, a total of seventeen main games have been released, with the latest game released on 3 November 2023.
Duke Nukem is a fictional character and protagonist of the Duke Nukem video game series. The character first appeared in the 1991 video game Duke Nukem, developed by Apogee Software. He has since appeared in multiple sequels and spin-offs, as well appearing in various games not in the series. Most recently, he starred in Duke Nukem Forever, released by Gearbox Software, which now owns the intellectual property rights to the series and the character.
Majesco Entertainment Company is an American video game publisher and distributor based in Hazlet, New Jersey. The company was founded as Majesco Sales in Edison, New Jersey in 1986, and was a privately held company until acquiring operation-less company ConnectivCorp in a reverse merger takeover, becoming its subsidiary and thus a public company on December 5, 2003. ConnectivCorp later changed its name to Majesco Holdings Inc. on April 13, 2004.
Top Gear is a racing video game series published by Kemco. It is unrelated to the BBC TV series of the same name.