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Tradewest
Tradewest was an American video game company based in Corsicana, Texas that produced numerous games in the 1980s and early 1990s. The company was the publisher of the ''Battletoads'' and ''Double Dragon'' series in North America and the PAL region. The name was revived in August 2009 by Midway Games's former European subsidiaries which rebranded themselves as Tradewest. They inherited the name from the American parent company which had owned the Tradewest trademark since 1996. History Original company Tradewest was founded in 1985 by Leland Cook, his son Byron Cook, and John Rowe. Tradewest started out by manufacturing SNK's ''Alpha Mission'' arcade game in the United States, followed by ''Ikari Warriors'' and '' Victory Road'' before shifting away from the coin-op arcade game business to concentrate on the home console market. In 1987, Tradewest purchased Cinematronics, a video game developer and manufacturer based in El Cajon, California, whose previous games included ''Drago ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Midway Games
Midway Games Inc., known previously as Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known as simply Midway, was an American video game developer and publisher. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', ''Rampage (series), Rampage'', ''Spy Hunter'', ''NBA Jam (series), NBA Jam'', ''Cruis'n (series), Cruis'n'', and ''NFL Blitz''. Midway also acquired the rights to video games that were originally developed by WMS Industries, Williams Electronics and Atari Games, such as ''Defender (video game), Defender'', ''Joust (video game), Joust'', ''Robotron 2084'', ''Gauntlet (series), Gauntlet'', and the ''Rush (video game series), Rush'' series. The company was founded as Midway Manufacturing in 1958, as an amusement game manufacturer. The company was then purchased by Bally Manufacturing in 1969, and used the Bally Midway name in the 1980s. In 1973, Midway moved into the interactive entertainment industry, Video game developer, developing and video game publisher, publishing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byron Cook (Texas Politician)
Byron Cook is an American businessman, rancher, and Republican politician from his native Corsicana in east central Texas, who is a former state representative for District 8, which encompasses the counties of Anderson, Freestone, Hill, and Navarro. In October 2017, Cook announced that he would not seek re-election in 2018. Early life and education Cook graduated from Navarro College, a community college, with an associate degree in 1974. Cook's father, the late Leland P. Cook, was the former circulation manager for the ''Corsicana Daily Sun''. Leland left the newspaper to start a family business. In 1986, he and Cook founded Tradewest, a now-defunct video game company and licensee of several Nintendo games, including Double Dragon, Battletoads, and Super Off Road. Texas House of Representatives Cook served as the chairman of the Texas House State Affairs Committee and as a member of the Texas House Calendars Committee. He is also a member of the Texas House Republican C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ikari Warriors
''Ikari Warriors'', known as in Japan, is a vertically-scrolling, run-and-gun shooter arcade video game released by SNK in 1986. It was published in North America by Tradewest. The game was released at the time when there were many ''Commando'' clones on the market. What distinguished ''Ikari Warriors'' were rotary joysticks and a two-player cooperative mode. The rotary joystick controls were in turn based on SNK's earlier ''TNK III'' (1985). ''Ikari'' was originally intended it to be an official licensed adaptation of the film '' Rambo: First Blood Part II'' (1985), but SNK were initially unable to acquire the rights to the film. The game was a major commercial success in arcades. It was Japan's second highest-grossing table 1986, and London's third highest-grossing arcade game that year. It was also a major breakthrough US release for SNK, ranking among America's top five highest-grossing dedicated arcade games for two years in a row, in 1986 and 1987. Gameplay The player t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battletoads
''Battletoads'' is a video game media franchise by Rare that began with the original beat 'em up game ''Battletoads'' in 1991. Starring three anthropomorphic toads named after skin conditions, Rash, Zitz, and Pimple, the series was created to rival the ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' games series. The original ''Battletoads'' game for the NES was renowned for its extreme difficulty, but still received a cult following, spawning sequels for various platforms including a crossover with the ''Double Dragon'' series and a modern reboot after a 25 year gap in releases. In each of the games, the objective is to defeat the toads' nemesis the Dark Queen and her army of space mutants. Video games Series * ''Battletoads'': The Battletoads have to defeat the evil Dark Queen on her planet and rescue their kidnapped partners, Pimple and Princess Angelica. Originally released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1991 by Rare, the game was distributed by Tradewest in Europe and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corsicana, Texas
Corsicana is a city in Navarro County, Texas, United States. It is located on Interstate 45, 56 miles northeast of Waco, Texas. The population was 23,770 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Navarro County, and an important Agri-business center. History Founded in 1848, Corsicana was named by José Antonio Navarro after the Mediterranean island of Corsica, the birthplace of his father. He had died when Navarro and his many siblings were young. The first school opened shortly afterwards in 1849. Women's groups have had a strong role throughout the history of the city. They established the Corsicana Female Literary Institute, a school that operated from 1857 through 1870. The first public library in Corsicana opened in 1901 by effort of the women's clubs of the city. A 1905 library matching gift by Andrew Carnegie gave the library a permanent home and its first full-time, professionally trained librarian. The library today is housed in a dedicated building downtown and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cinematronics
Cinematronics Incorporated was an arcade game developer that primarily released vector graphics games in the late 1970s and early 1980s. While other companies released games based on raster displays, early in their history, Cinematronics and Atari, Inc. released vector-display games, which offered a distinctive look and a greater graphic capability (at the time), at the cost of being only black and white (initially). Cinematronics also published ''Dragon's Lair'' in 1983, the first major LaserDisc video game. Beginnings Cinematronics Inc. was founded in 1975 by San Diego Chargers football players Dennis Partee and Gary Garrison in Kearny Mesa, California. Soon after, they brought in a third partner named Jim Pierce to manage the company's day-to-day operations. Cinematronics' first games, a ''Pong'' clone, a ''Flipper Ball'' copy and their first original game design, ''Embargo'', were released in 1975, 1976, and 1977, but they were not particularly notable. In 1977, Pierce an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leland Corporation
The Leland Corporation was a manufacturer of several arcade video games in the 1980s and early 1990s. The company was formed when Tradewest purchased the ailing Cinematronics in 1987. Notable among these were Quarterback (1987) and John Elway's Quarterback (1989), '' Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp'' (1991), and ''Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart's Super Off Road'', which spawned an expansion and two sequels at Leland's successor company Midway Games (''Off Road Challenge'' and '' Offroad Thunder''). John Rowe, (co-founder and President of Tradewest) became the President of the new Leland Corporation and guided the reorganization and technology evolution which led to a number of popular video games which were positioned to transition into the new market of home systems including the NES, Game Boy and Sega Genesis. During the early 1990s, they developed home console titles under the brand name Leland Interactive Media. Leland was itself purchased in 1994 by WMS Industries WMS Industrie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alpha Mission
''Alpha Mission'', known as in Japan, is a vertically scrolling shooter game developed by SNK and released for arcades in 1985, by Namco in Japan and Tradewest in North America. It was later ported to the Famicom in 1986 and released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987. The arcade game was a commercial success in Japan, where it was the seventh highest-grossing table arcade game of 1986. A sequel, ''Alpha Mission II'', was released for the Neo Geo arcade system in 1991. Gameplay ''Alpha Mission'' is a one-player scrolling shooter game in its segregation of air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons. Missiles are used to destroy ground enemies, while laser-like weapons are used for aerial opponents. Throughout each of the levels, the player must fight off waves of enemies that threaten several space stations and a boss must be defeated at the end of each. Like most early games in this genre, when the player dies, all weapons are lost and the player is moved to a point slig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade playing cards. After venturing into various lines of business during the 1960s and acquiring a legal status as a public company, Nintendo distributed its first console, the Color TV-Game, in 1977. It gained international recognition with the release of ''Donkey Kong (video game), Donkey Kong'' in 1981 and the Nintendo Entertainment System and ''Super Mario Bros.'' in 1985. Since then, Nintendo has produced some of the most successful consoles in the video game industry, such as the Game Boy, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the Nintendo DS, the Wii, and the Nintendo Switch, Switch. It has created numerous major franchises, including ''Mario (franchise), Mario'', ''Donkey Kong'', ''The Legend of Zelda'', ''Pokémon'', '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WMS Industries
WMS Industries, Inc. was an American electronic gaming and amusement manufacturer in Enterprise, Nevada. It was merged into Scientific Games in 2016. WMS's predecessor was the Williams Manufacturing Company, founded in 1943 by Harry E. Williams. However, the company that became WMS Industries was formally founded in 1974 as Williams Electronics, Inc. Williams initially was a manufacturer of pinball machines. In 1964, Williams was acquired by jukebox manufacturer Seeburg Corp. and reorganized as Williams Electronics Manufacturing Division. In 1973, the company branched out into the coin-operated arcade video game market with its ''Pong'' clone ''Paddle Ball'', eventually creating a number of video game classics, including '' Defender'' and '' Robotron: 2084.'' In 1974, Williams Electronics, Inc. was incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Seeburg. Williams Electronics was sold off as an independent company during the bankruptcy of Seeburg in 1980. In 1987, the company went ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Double Dragon
is a beat 'em up video game series initially developed by Technōs Japan and released as an arcade game in 1987. The series features twin martial artists, Billy and Jimmy Lee, as they fight against various adversaries and rivals. The original ''Double Dragon'' was a blockbuster hit arcade game, ushering in a "Golden Age" for the beat 'em up genre,Spencer, SpannerThe Tao of Beat-'em-ups (part 2) ''EuroGamer'', Feb 12, 2008, Accessed Mar 18, 2009Cassidy, William, ''Gamespy'', Jan 5, 2003, Accessed, March 24, 2009 resulting in a flood of beat 'em ups during the late 1980s to 1990s that followed the conventions set by ''Double Dragon''. Due to the popularity of the game series, a 1993 animated series and 1994 live-action film adaptation were produced; these adaptations were widely-panned by critics and audiences. The franchise is now the property of Arc System Works, the company that ported the original ''Double Dragon'' to the Sega Master System console in 1988. Game series The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SNK Playmore
is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. It is the successor to the company Shin Nihon Kikaku and presently owns the SNK video game brand and the Neo Geo video game platform. SNK's predecessor Shin Nihon Kikaku was founded in 1978 by Eikichi Kawasaki. The corporation was initially named . In 1981, the name was informally shortened to SNK Corporation, which became the company's official name in 1986. SNK is known for its creation of the Neo Geo family of arcade, home, and handheld game consoles in 1990. The Neo Geo line was halted in 2001 because financial troubles forced SNK Corporation to close in the same year. Anticipating the end of the company, Kawasaki founded Playmore Corporation in 2001, which acquired all of the intellectual property of the first iteration of SNK Corporation. In 2003, Playmore Corporation was renamed to SNK Playmore Corporation. In 2016, SNK dropped the name Playmore from its logo and reintroduced its old slogan, "The Future Is Now", offic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
