Company type | Software development |
---|---|
Founded | 1989 [1] |
Founder | Greg Johnson, Basel Dalloul |
Magnet Interactive Studios was a software development company based in Georgetown. Founded in 1989 by designer Greg Johnson as a print and 3D design firm and later joined by businessman Basel Dalloul, the company saw a short-lived software and video game business in the mid-1990s as a subsidiary of the Magnet Interactive Group holding company. [2] The studio was shut down in 1996 after demand dropped due to the advent of the Internet, firing its employees. Only Magnet Interactive Communications, a web development company and separate subsidiary, remained operational.
The company had five divisions, action and role-playing video games, business applications, edutainment and children's games, interactive story and strategy, and the advanced products group. [2] Among the video games developed by the studio are Beyond the Wall: Stories Behind the Vietnam Wall (1995), Icebreaker (1995), a strategy and action game, and Chop Suey (1995), a point-and-click adventure. They were developing a space video game called Bluestar, planned for release in November 1995, and Hellraiser: Virtual Hell, a game based on the Hellraiser franchise planned for release in early 1996, but they were both cancelled upon the studio's shutdown.
The company was created in 1989 as a print and 3D design firm, and soon switched to developing interactive media. [3] In February 1994, The company changed its name from Magnet Design and Communications to Magnet Interactive Studios. [4] By June 1995, the company employed 212 people and had 300 PC and Mac computers, including an SGI Challenge. At the time, Johnson was chief technical officer and senior creative director, and Dalloul the chairman and CEO. [2] The company was seen as unusual for making numerous games in many different genres at once, rather than focusing on one segment of the business, as well as being largely funded by family money from its founders. [5] While Dalloul planned for the company to become the United States' largest software developer, around 1997, the company scaled back its software ambitions, citing a drop in demand due to the Internet, reducing the company to 90 employees and pivoting to web development. [6]
Year | Title | Platform(s) | Publisher |
---|---|---|---|
1995 | Beyond the Wall: Stories Behind the Vietnam Wall | Windows Macintosh | Fox Interactive |
1995 | Icebreaker | Windows 3DO | Fox Interactive |
1995 | Chop Suey | Windows Macintosh | Magnet Interactive Studios |
Raven Software Corporation is an American video game developer based in Middleton, Wisconsin, and part of Activision. Founded in May 1990 by brothers Brian and Steve Raffel, the company is most known for the dark fantasy franchise Heretic/Hexen, the first two Soldier of Fortune games, as well as licensed titles based in the Star Wars: Jedi Knight series and Marvel Comics's X-Men characters, including 2006's Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Since 2011, Raven has been working on multiple Call of Duty games as both lead and support developer.
The 3DO Company was an American video game company based in Redwood City, California. It was founded in 1991 by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins in a partnership with seven other companies to develop the 3DO standard of video gaming hardware. When 3DO failed in the marketplace, the company exited the hardware business and became a third-party video game developer and published well-known games series like Army Men, Battletanx, High Heat Major League Baseball and Might and Magic. It went bankrupt in 2003 due to poor sales of its games.
Ritual Entertainment was an American video game developer established in 1996 by Robert Atkins, Mark Dochtermann, Jim Dosé, Richard 'Levelord' Gray, Michael Hadwin, Harry Miller, and Tom Mustaine. Based in Dallas, Texas, Ritual Entertainment was formerly known as Hipnotic Interactive, during which period they began development of their signature video game SiN.
Sierra Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genre, including the first such game, Mystery House. It is known for its graphical adventure game series King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, Gabriel Knight, Leisure Suit Larry, and Quest for Glory, and as the original publisher of Valve's Half-Life series.
MicroProse is an American video game publisher and developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the Civilization and X-COM series. Most of their internally developed titles were vehicle simulation and strategy games.
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Super 3D Noah's Ark is a non-violent Christian first-person shooter developed and published by Wisdom Tree for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1994 and MS-DOS in 1995. Its gameplay is similar to that of Wolfenstein 3D, as Wisdom Tree had licensed that game's engine from id Software. Wisdom Tree opted not to secure a license from Nintendo for the game's SNES release. While not illegal, it prevented the game from being sold at most video game retailers, which were under a contractual agreement with Nintendo not to sell unlicensed games for the company's consoles. As a result, the SNES release of Super 3D Noah's Ark was sold primarily via Christian bookstores.
Mindscape was a video game developer and publisher. The company was founded by Roger Buoy in October 1983 in Northbrook, Illinois, originally as part of SFN Companies until a management buyout was completed in 1987. Mindscape went public in 1988 and was acquired in 1990 by The Software Toolworks, eyeing Mindscape's Nintendo license. When Toolworks was acquired by Pearson plc in 1994, Mindscape became the primary identity for the development group. Mindscape was then sold to The Learning Company in 1998 and bought out by Jean-Pierre Nordman in 2001, becoming headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. Following the poor performance of its products, Mindscape exited the video game industry in August 2011 and soon ceased operations after filing for liquidation. However, its Dutch and Australian-based subsidiaries, Mindscape B.V. and Mindscape Asia Pacific Pty, Ltd., continue to operate as independent publishers and distributors.
Adobe Shockwave is a discontinued multimedia platform for building interactive multimedia applications and video games. Developers originate content using Adobe Director and publish it on the Internet. Such content could be viewed in a web browser on any computer with the Shockwave Player plug-in installed. MacroMind originated the technology; Macromedia acquired MacroMind and developed it further, releasing Shockwave Player in 1995. Adobe then acquired Shockwave with Macromedia in 2005. Shockwave supports raster graphics, basic vector graphics, 3D graphics, audio, and an embedded scripting language called Lingo.
Argonaut Games is a British video game developer founded in 1982. It was known for the Super NES video game Star Fox and its supporting Super FX chip, and for Croc: Legend of the Gobbos and the Starglider series. The company was liquidated in late 2004, and ceased to exist in early 2007. It was relaunched in 2024.
Gearbox Software, L.L.C is an American video game development company based in Frisco, Texas. It was established as a limited liability company in February 1999 by five developers formerly of Rebel Boat Rocker. Randy Pitchford, one of the founders, serves as president and chief executive officer. Gearbox initially created expansions for the Valve game Half-Life, then ported that game and others to console platforms. In 2005, Gearbox launched its first independent set of games, Brothers in Arms, on console and mobile devices. It became their flagship franchise and spun off a comic book series, television documentary, books, and action figures. Their second original game series, Borderlands, commenced in 2009, and by 2015 had sold over 26 million copies. The company also owns the intellectual property of Duke Nukem and Homeworld.
SingleTrac Entertainment Technologies, Inc. was an American video game developer. It was formed by was founded in 1994 by Michael Ryder, Todd Kelly, and Michael Bartholomew, who were former employees of Evans & Sutherland, bringing their 3D graphics and software engineering skills into the video game industry. Its most famous titles were the Twisted Metal and Jet Moto video game series. At its heyday it was closely associated with Sony Computer Entertainment, with whom they produced the above two series.
Engineering Animation, Inc., or EAI, was a services and software company based in Ames, Iowa, United States. It remained headquartered there from its incorporation in 1990 until it was acquired in 2000 by Unigraphics Solutions, Inc., now a subsidiary of the German technology multinational Siemens AG. During its existence, EAI produced animations to support litigants in court, wrote and sold animation and visualization software, and developed a number of multimedia medical and computer game titles. Part of EAI's business now exists in a spin-off company, Demonstratives.
Rockstar Vienna was an Austrian video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Vienna. Peter Baustädter, Niki Laber, and Hannes Seifert founded the studio as Neo Software in January 1993 as they neared the completion of Whale's Voyage. The game led Neo Software to early success, as did 1994's The Clue!, which sold over a million copies, and enabled the company to relocate from Seifert's house in Hirtenberg to offices in Vienna. After Neo Software's Alien Nations sold more than a million copies in 1999, Computec Media acquired a majority stake in the company, seeking it to produce online games. It then sold the studio and several other businesses to Gameplay.com in February 2000, which sold Neo Software to Take-Two Interactive in January 2001 as part of a subsidiary exchange.
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