Where are they now?

zx1 · December 2006

I often wonder whats hapenned to a lot of the old 8-bit software companies. You never hear anymore of companies such as Gremlin, Elite, Ocean or Mastertronic. Have all these companies just went bust? I wonder where they are now? Does anyone know?

Spector · December 2006

Mastertronic and Elite are still going in one form or another, though I don't know what they are up to nowadays. Maybe Elite are still working on the original version of Scooby Doo.

Geoff · December 2006

Mastertronic has a fascinating history.

http://www.if-legends.org/~adventure/Mastertronic.html

Not all went bust. Psion saw the end and switched to hardware.

It would be nice to have something like 'Rock Family Trees'.

Ian Hamilton · December 2006

Elite are still around. They mostly make games for mobile phones these days.

http://www.elite-systems.co.uk/elite/

Necros.

Malc74 · December 2006

Ocean and Gremlin were both bought out by Infogrames. US Gold and Domark were both bought up by Eidos (I think). Titus went bust around 3 years ago, taking Digital Integration and Virgin Interactive with them (although Virgin had already been renamed beforehand). Melbourne House were recently sold by Atari and had their name changed.

Alternative are still around, and Audiogenic still exists as a webpage, but not much more I think. System 3 just did Gottlieb Pinball Classics. Obviously, Codemasters are one of the highest profile survivors from the old days.

Arjun · December 2006

Malc74 wrote:

Obviously, Codemasters are one of the highest profile survivors from the old days.

Don't forget Rare (ex-ultimate) are still around and doing well. The biggest survivor is probably Electronic Arts - they practically own the sports simulation and mobile game market!

zx1 · December 2006

Activision are still around, i've been playing their game 'the movies' for months now, i'm practically addicted to it. They almost went bust in the ninties after a big court case that they lost but they bounced back.
I often wonder where the older software houses are such as Mikro-Gen. Bug Byte, Microsphere and Digital Integration.

VincentAC · December 2006

zx1 wrote:

Activision are still around

Probably more well known for the Tony Hawk games than anything they've done in the past :(

Philip Kendall · December 2006

For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, this thread gives you links to ~100 (as I write) Wikipedia articles on Spectrum personalities/companies.

Zagreb · December 2006

VincentAC wrote:

Probably more well known for the Tony Hawk games than anything they've done in the past :(

*ahem* The Total War series!

Zagreb · December 2006

I think most of the software houses of the 1980s folded eventually as the games market became bigger and bigger business. In the early '80s, many software companies were small businesses run by bona fide entrepreneurs, some of them writing the games themselves, whose company could stand or fall on the success of the latest title. As the '80s progressed, some of these companies became reasonably large and well-established (Ocean and Gremlin, for instance) and survived into the 16-bit era. However, now there are just a handful of major American, Japanese and European giants who own all the other companies. The enormous French company Infrogrammes seems to have made a habit of buying-up smaller companies (the aforementioned Ocean and Gremlin being notable cases) and then robbing them of their identity after a year or so (Ocean became "Infrogrammes Manchester"). I think Atari was the only company who survived an Infrogrammes-buyup with their identity intact, largely because they are such a well-established brand.

netraider · December 2006

Zagreb wrote:

... I think Atari was the only company who survived an Infrogrammes-buyup with their identity intact, largely because they are such a well-established brand.

Are you sure?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infogrames

NR

udgoverload · December 2006

The Atari from the 1980s ceased to exist long ago. Infogrames bought the brand and that's all, there's no other connection to the original company.

zx1 · December 2006

I thought Atari were an independent comapny, owned my no one. They published Civ 3 a few years ago (possibly my favourite game of all time). Aren't Ubisoft (one of the last 8 bit survivors) into the habit of buying smaller companies?

sully · December 2006

I once heard that Denton Designs became Psygnosis, who where then bought out by Sony?

Malc74 · December 2006

zx1 wrote:

I thought Atari were an independent comapny, owned my no one. They published Civ 3 a few years ago (possibly my favourite game of all time).

Atari haven't been an independent company since Nolan Bushnell sold out to Warner Bros back in the late 70's. The Atari of today are, in essence, the remnants of GT Interactive (publishers of Doom 2 among other things) which Infogrames bought and set up as their North American arm (Infogrames Inc). After Infogrames acquired the Atari name they renamed Infogrames Inc. to Atari.

Malc74 · December 2006

sully wrote:

I once heard that Denton Designs became Psygnosis, who where then bought out by Sony?

Psygnosis was set up by Imagine's owners when that company went splat, but yes, they were eventually bought out by Sony.

maximspeccyfan · December 2006

Who know about IMAGINE? What happen with this great company

Philip Kendall · December 2006

Went bankrupt, bought out by Ocean in the mid 1980s.

zx1 · December 2006

Theres a documentary on a website (think its called ZX heaven) where theres a programme on the demise of Imagine. It was meant to be about the games industry but the makers ended up filming Imagine going down the tubes! Its facinating viewing for anyone interested in early 80's software companies.
Maybe someone could supply you with the link cos i haven't got it, i deleted the site after something went wrong with access.

Ian Hamilton · December 2006

That's probably Sinclair Heaven (www.sinclair-heaven.net[URL="http://www.sinclair-heaven.net)"][/URL])

Did'ya hear that foggy? He sez there's a problem with your access. :p

Necros.

Lee Fogarty · December 2006

Theres no problem with access that I know of!

The documentary was indeed there, conent at the moment is lacking though due to the extreme amount of work I have and therefore not updating the new site :(

Hopefully I will get no work next year and will be able to finish updating the site before I go bankrupt. hmmm. On the other hand, being busy is quite handy!

Vampyre · December 2006

zx1 wrote:

Theres a documentary on a website (think its called ZX heaven) where theres a programme on the demise of Imagine. It was meant to be about the games industry but the makers ended up filming Imagine going down the tubes! Its facinating viewing for anyone interested in early 80's software companies.
Maybe someone could supply you with the link cos i haven't got it, i deleted the site after something went wrong with access.

Although it's quite sad to see the disintegration of a workplace, it does make fascinating viewing. It was Reality TV 20 years before its time and at least it IS real, not some back street studio pretending to be a workplace. I thought it was heartbreaking when the "workers" are trying to get back to their desks only to be be thwarted at the door by a management bod using his foot as a door wedge. Bet the Management Bod felt a right c**t and was put up to it by his superior who was too ashamed to face the wrath of his staff.

At least we know it ended well for some of the staff, they went on to form Denton Designs and produced some excellent software, although some of it was overrated by Crash IMO.

gasman · December 2006

The video is on http://zxvideos.speccy.cz/ - video 16, Commercial Breaks.

Vampyre wrote:

at least it IS real, not some back street studio pretending to be a workplace.

I can believe the Imagine scenes are, yes - apparently the bits filmed at Ocean were rather less so :) Joffa Smiff spills the beans here: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/frobush/pudpud.html

VincentAC · December 2006

gasman wrote:

Joffa Smiff spills the beans here: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/frobush/pudpud.html

Another 'million' or so customers are about to be satisfied
as they take delivery of Ocean's latest blockbuster...

...meanwhile delivery man Arthur drives round the block with a van full of empty boxes.

:lol:

That's a classic!

Ian Hamilton · October 2007

Some of the former members of Gremlin formed a new company called Sumo Digital and were responsible for Out Run 2 among other games.

Necros.

ADJB · October 2007

fogartylee wrote: »

Hopefully I will get no work next year and will be able to finish updating the site before I go bankrupt. hmmm. On the other hand, being busy is quite handy!

Finished contract. Two weeks away in Malta and a week unemployed. Massive update to website.

Suppose I better think about getting a job now.

ADJB

Bluce_Ree · October 2007

Geoff wrote: »

Mastertronic has a fascinating history.

http://www.if-legends.org/~adventure/Mastertronic.html

Not all went bust. Psion saw the end and switched to hardware.

It would be nice to have something like 'Rock Family Trees'.

EA
?
?
?
?
everyone else

zx1 · October 2007

Bluce_Ree wrote: »

EA
?
?
?
?
everyone else

Several of the old 8 bit companies are still around. Codemasters, Electronic arts, Ubisoft and Activision are all still going strong.

Where are they now?

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