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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 1993 in Adelaide, Australia |
| Founder | Richard Harrison, Greg Siegele |
| Defunct | 15 December 2005 |
| Fate | Acquired and shut down by Midway Games [1] [2] |
Number of employees | 60(2001) [3] |
Ratbag Games Pty Ltd was an Australian developer of video games such as Powerslide , The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee and World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars 2002 .
Ratbag was founded in 1993 in Adelaide, South Australia, by Richard Harrison and Greg Siegele. Known initially as "Emergent Games", the company took three years to prototype their first title Powerslide . Following its acquisition by Midway Games on 4 August 2005, the company was known as "Midway Studios - Australia". [4] [5] On 13 December 2005, employees at the studio were told that Ratbag was going to be closed by its parent company. Two days later, on the 15th, the studio was closed, leaving the staff there without jobs. Subsequently, Krome Studios rehired many of the Ratbag staff and established Krome Studios Adelaide.
Ratbag made a name for itself with its debut title Powerslide . The arcade racer, set in a post-apocalyptic future, is powered by a highly advanced rendering system for its time, allowing for up to 300,000 polygons on-screen at once. Powerslide was met with critical if not commercial success, receiving a lot of publicity from the Australian gaming media. Several PC racing titles followed over the years, and before too long Ratbag found itself "typecast" as a simulation racing developer.
With the arrival of the PlayStation 2 in late 2000, Ratbag saw an opportunity to move into the lucrative console market. World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars 2002 was the first of several PlayStation 2 titles developed and released, with a handful of titles going unpublished, most notably the follow-up to Powerslide, Powerslide: Slipstream .
The last title developed by Ratbag (prior to their acquisition) was The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee for the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox . The "Adventure/Racing" title was the first Ratbag title to break from the simulation tradition set forth by previous titles and features simple "on-foot" gameplay in addition to various story-driven racing missions. Coming after a wave of similar mission-based driving games and with a rushed development, The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee received a lukewarm response from the gaming press.
Need for Speed: Underground is a 2003 racing video game and the seventh installment in the Need for Speed series. It was developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts. Three different versions of the game were produced: one for consoles and Microsoft Windows, and another for the Game Boy Advance. An arcade version was additionally developed by Global VR, and was published by Konami with assistance from Electronic Arts.
Sidhe is a New Zealand video game company headquartered in Wellington. Sidhe is a co-founding member of the New Zealand Game Developers Association and the New Zealand Institute of Screen Innovation. Sidhe has produced more than 20 titles, including several licensed non-realistic racing games.
TOCA Race Driver 3, TOCA Race Driver 3 Challenge in the PlayStation Portable version and Race Driver: Create & Race in the Nintendo DS version is a racing video game developed and published by Codemasters for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PlayStation Portable and OS X. It is the sixth game in the TOCA series. The game features several fully licensed championships, including the DTM series and V8 Supercar championship. This is the last in the series to have TOCA in its title as following on from this TOCA was dropped in favour of just Race Driver. Despite featuring the name TOCA in its title, the game did not feature the British Touring Car Championship. The game received positive reviews, frequently being compared favourably to Gran Turismo 4 and Forza Motorsport, in the aspects of cars on track, collision and wear damage.
Empire Interactive was a British video game developer and publisher based in London. Founded in 1987 by Ian Higgins and Simon Jeffrey, it was acquired by Silverstar Holdings in 2006 and went out of business in 2009.
Krome Studios Pty Ltd. is an Australian video game company. Its headquarters were in Brisbane and it previously had offices in Adelaide and Melbourne. Krome Studios is best known for their Ty the Tasmanian Tiger games and for their reboot of the Spyro the Dragon series. Krome has created games for the Xbox, GameCube, Wii, Game Boy Advance, Dreamcast, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Macintosh and PC. Krome has also developed for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Windows Phone 7 and iOS.
Eutechnyx Limited is a British video game developer based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Since 1997, the company has focused on racing games. They are known for their largely panned video game Ride to Hell: Retribution, work with the NASCAR The Game franchise, and as a developer on various other racing titles and games.
Greg Siegele is an Australian businessman. He co-founded Ratbag Games Pty Ltd, an Australian video game developer of such games as Powerslide, The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee and World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars 2002.
Zynga Eugene is an American video game developer based in Eugene, Oregon. The company was founded as Buzz Monkey Software in late 2001 by four former Dynamix employees: senior producer Randy Thompson, senior engineers Jon Milnes and Steve Cordon, and lead artist Barry Drew.
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.
World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars 2002, also known as simply World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars for the Microsoft Windows and PAL region PlayStation 2 versions, is a sprint car racing video game developed by the Australian developer Ratbag Games and published by Ignition Entertainment in the PAL region and Infogrames in North America for the PS2 and Windows. GameSpot's review of the former console version described that the "gameplay is solid and the physics are top-notch." The game had a limited sales run; it developed a large following and it was widely requested at video game stores.
Leadfoot: Stadium Off-Road Racing, or Leadfoot for short, is a computer video game by the now defunct Ratbag Games. It is a spin-off of the dirt track racing series by Ratbag, which includes Dirt Track Racing, Dirt Track Racing: Sprint Cars and Dirt Track Racing 2. It is a racing game simulation reproducing the sport of stadium off-road racing. Pick-up trucks and buggies race around dirt tracks built inside stadiums - Supercross on four wheels.
Dirt Track Racing is a video game by the now defunct developer Ratbag Games. It is the first game in the series, which includes Dirt Track Racing, Dirt Track Racing: Sprint Cars, and Dirt Track Racing 2.
Dirt Track Racing: Sprint Cars is a sprint car racing video game by the now defunct Ratbag Games. It is the second game of the dirt track racing series by Ratbag, which includes Dirt Track Racing (DTR), Dirt Track Racing: Sprint Cars, and Dirt Track Racing 2 (DTR2).
Powerslide is a post-apocalyptic Microsoft Windows racing game by Australian developer Ratbag Games. It was released in Australia, United States and Europe in 1998. Powerslide was praised for its graphics and AI in particular. A sequel, Powerslide: Slipstream, was in development as of 2004, but Ratbag couldn't find a suitable publisher, and shortly after the company was shut down. Powerslide was re-released on GOG.com in 2012.
World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars is a racing video game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was developed by Big Ant Studios and published by THQ. It features 12 Tracks from the World of Outlaws schedule and 20 drivers such as, Steve Kinser and Donny Schatz. It features 8 player online racing with 5 multiplayer modes. In the US it was released for Xbox 360 on February 9, 2010 and the PlayStation 3 via the PlayStation Store on May 11, 2010. In Australia, it was released on June 21, 2010.
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 sixteen main games have been released, with the upcoming installment being set to release on 3 November 2023.
The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee is a racing video game developed by Ratbag Games and published by Ubisoft. It was released in 2004 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles. The game is based on the television series The Dukes of Hazzard and was released to coincide with The Dukes of Hazzard film, which was released in 2005.
Forza is a racing video game series for Xbox consoles and Microsoft Windows published by Xbox Game Studios.
Project CARS was a sim racing video game series developed by Slightly Mad Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The franchise was introduced in 2015 and received a sequel in 2017, followed by Project CARS 3 in 2020. Following the acquisition of Codemasters by Electronic Arts, the Project CARS IP was later shutdown in 2021.
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