FarSight Studios

FarSight Studios

Industry	Video games
Founded	1988;37 years ago (1988)
Founder	Jay Obernolte
Headquarters	Big Bear Lake, California , United States
Website	farsightstudios.com

FarSight Studios (formerly FarSight Technologies) is an American video game developer established in 1988 by Jay Obernolte.

The founder of the company learned to program on an Apple II. ^[1] The company was founded by Jay Obernolte while still at Caltech. ^[2] FarSight Studios first release was an art application, Videomation , for the NES in 2001. The company's initial success was based on a series of first party football games for Sega until the NFL decided to limit the licences in 2002. After partnering with Crave Entertainment a rolling puzzle game was released, and the same game engine was then used for a series of pinball games based on physical machines. Initially hesitant to develop original pinball designs they met with Tim Arnold before he had established the Pinball Hall of Fame. On his advice that Gottlieb would be the easiest to obtain the license for a modest price, Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection was developed and released in 2004. Surprised at how successful this was they obtained the more expensive Williams license and released Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection in 2008. This received positive critical reviews, but had limited commercial success with disappointing sales.

Bobby King was the lead designer for The Pinball Arcade and this was the first game FarSight Studios self-published in February 2012. For this a more extensive licensing agreement was agreed with Williams, the Gottlieb contract was extended, and a new license was signed with Stern. Unlike prior games ROM emulation was used. By 2013 it had been downloaded over 7,000,000 times. ^[2]

By 2013 the company had grown to over 30 employees with a two-storey building in Big Bear Lake. ^[1]

They are an official licensed developer for all current home and handheld consoles including the Sony PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and Move, PlayStation 2, PSP, and PlayStation Vita; ^[3] the Microsoft Xbox, Xbox 360, and Kinect; as well as the Nintendo Wii, Wii U, DS, and 3DS. In September 2018, FarSight announced that they will also be developing several pinball tables for the Oculus Rift. ^[4]

The company is best known for its pinball games that focus on virtual recreations of classic pinball machines, such as The Pinball Arcade . ^[5] It was announced in May 2018 that FarSight will no longer produce games licensed from Williams and Bally, leading to a loss of over 50 trademarked tables from their Pinball Arcade catalog and announced they will focus mainly on tables under the Stern Pinball license. ^{[6] [7]}

More recently they have released official games based on PBA Pro Bowling, Cornhole, and Pickleball.

Games

This is a sortable table of computer and video games produced by FarSight Studios, in alphabetical order.

Title	Publisher(s)	Release	NES	MD/GEN	PS2	GC	Xbox	PC	P&P	DS	PSP	X360	PS3	Wii	3DS	PSVita	PS4	XBO
Action 52	Active Enterprises	1993	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ACL Pro Cornhole		2023						Yes
Art Alive!	Sega	1991	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Backyard Baseball '09	Atari	2008	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Backyard Baseball '10	Atari	2009	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Backyard Football '08	Atari	2007	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Backyard Football '09	Atari	2008	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Backyard Football '10	Atari	2009	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Brunswick Pro Bowling	Crave Entertainment	2007	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Color a Dinosaur	Virgin Games	1993	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
David Crane's Amazing Tennis	Absolute Entertainment	1993	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ESPN NFL PrimeTime 2002	Konami	2001	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Game Party	Midway Games	2007	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Game Party 2	Midway Games	2008	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Game Party 3	Warner Bros. Interactive	2009	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Game Party: In Motion	Warner Bros. Interactive	2010	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Golden Tee Golf: Home Edition	Radica Games	2006	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Hard Rock Casino	Crave Entertainment	2006	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Hotel for Dogs	505 Games	2009	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Jibbi	Radica Games	2006	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Mojo!	Crave Entertainment DreamCatcher Interactive (PAL)	2003 2004 (PAL)	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
NASCAR Road Racing	EA Sports	1999	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
NCAA Football 98	EA Sports	1997	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
NCAA Football 99	EA Sports	1998	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
NFL '95	Sega	1994	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
NFL Prime Time '98	Sega	1997	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Orbals		2021						Yes
PBA Pro Bowling		2019	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
PBA Pro Bowling 2021		2021						Yes
PBA Pro Bowling 2023		2023						Yes
The Pinball Arcade		2012	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection •Gottlieb Pinball ClassicsEU	Crave Entertainment	2004 2005 (PSP) 2010 (Wii)	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection	Crave Entertainment	2008 2009 (PS3, 360)	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Play TV Baseball 3	Radica Games	2005	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Play TV Basketball	Radica Games	2005	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Play TV Football 2	Radica Games	2005	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Play TV Madden Football	Radica Games	2004	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Play TV Real Swing Golf	Radica Games	2005	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Play TV Skateboarder	Radica Games	2006	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
PPA Pickleball 2025		2024						Yes
Prime Time NFL Starring Deion Sanders	Sega	1995	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Scarface: Money. Power. Respect.	Sierra Entertainment	2006	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Stern Pinball Arcade		2016	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Vacation Isle: Beach Party	Warner Bros. Interactive	2010	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Videomation	THQ	1991	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

See also

• Jay Obernolte

References

1. Schreier, Jason (August 9, 2024). "How a Video Game Developer Wound Up in Congress". Bloomberg.
2. Joosten, Jonathan; Rubens, Paul (2013). "The Pinball Arcade: Interview with Bobby King". Pinball Magazine. No. 2. pp. 166–176.
3. Workman, Robert (March 15, 2013). "FarSight Studios Officially Bringing The Pinball Arcade To PlayStation 4". Prima Games. Retrieved January 6, 2019.
4. "Stern Pinball and FarSight Studios to Release New Stern Pinball Arcade Tables for Oculus Rift". prnewswire.com. September 25, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2019.
5. Dyer, Mitch (April 5, 2012). "The Pinball Arcade Review". IGN. Retrieved January 6, 2019.
6. Santa Maria, Alex (May 7, 2018). "Pinball Arcade Losing Over 50 Bally and Williams Tables On June 30th". Gaming News, Reviews, and Articles – TechRaptor.net. Retrieved January 6, 2019.
7. Grosso, Robert (June 22, 2018). "Juggling Multiball: FarSight Studios and the Loss of Pinball Licenses". Gaming News, Reviews, and Articles – TechRaptor.net. Retrieved January 6, 2019.

External links

• Official website