Boffo Games was a

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

founded in 1994 by

Steve Meretzky Steven Eric Meretzky (born May 1, 1957)
''Infocom''. Retrieved July 11, 2011. is an American

, Mike Dornbrook, and Leo DaCosta. The logo was designed by Gayle Syska, formerly of

Infocom Infocom was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called ''Cornerstone (software), Cornerstone''. ...

. Boffo produced two games, ''

Hodj 'n' Podj ''Hodj 'n' Podj'' is a 1995 computer board game and minigame compilation developed by Boffo Games and published by Media Vision and Virgin Interactive. It was designed by Steve Meretzky, previously known for adventure games such as ''The Hitchhi ...

'' and ''

The Space Bar ''The Space Bar'' is a 1997 graphic adventure game developed by Boffo Games and published by Rocket Science Games and SegaSoft. A comic science fiction story, it follows detective Alias Node as he searches for a shapeshifting killer inside The ...

'', before closing its doors in 1997. ''Hodj 'n' Podj'' was originally designed for

Media Vision Media Vision Technology, Inc., was an American electronics manufacturer of primarily computer sound cards and CD-ROM kits, operating from 1990 to approximately 1995 in Fremont, California. Media Vision was widely known for its Pro AudioSpectrum ...

but it divested all of its multimedia interests following a securities-fraud scandal and the title was purchased by

Virgin Interactive Virgin Interactive Entertainment (later renamed Avalon Interactive) was the video game publishing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group. It developed and published games for major platforms and employed developers, including Westwo ...

. ''The Space Bar'' was originally to be published by

Rocket Science Games Rocket Science Games was a video game developer and publisher that created games for consoles and personal computers from 1993 to 1997. The company released '' Loadstar: The Legend of Tully Bodine'', '' Cadillacs and Dinosaurs: The Second Catac ...

(RSG) but

SegaSoft SegaSoft, originally headquartered in Redwood City, California and later San Francisco, was a joint venture by Sega and CSK (Sega's majority stockholder at the time), created in 1995 to develop and publish games for the PC and Sega Saturn, prim ...

bought out RSG and became the game's publisher.

History

In late 1993, designer

Steve Meretzky Steven Eric Meretzky (born May 1, 1957)
''Infocom''. Retrieved July 11, 2011. is an American

began to consider founding an independent game development studio with his friends Mike Dornbrook and Leo DaCosta. The three of them had gone to the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

together, and Meretzky had worked with Dornbrook at

and with DaCosta during the 1990s. Following the 1989 closure of Infocom, Meretzky worked on a contractual basis for companies such as

Legend Entertainment Legend Entertainment Company was an American Video game developer, developer and Video game publisher, publisher of computer games, best known for creating Adventure game, adventure titles throughout the 1990s. The company was founded by Bob ...

. However, Meretzky later called this period of remote work "creatively unsatisfying" and sometimes "frustrating". He preferred to work on location with a team, and he decided that he no longer wanted "to design games for someone else thousands of miles away." The involvement of Dornbrook, a

business school A business school is a university-level institution that confers degrees in business administration or management. A business school may also be referred to as school of management, management school, school of business administration, o ...

graduate, made the idea of an independent company more viable. According to Meretzky, the final impetus for the project came when Dornbrook read an article about

's new game division, founded in mid-1993 under record label executive

Stan Cornyn Carl Stanley Cornyn (July 8, 1933 – May 11, 2015) was an American record label executive and the author of ''Exploding: The Highs, Hits, Hype, Heroes, and Hustlers of the Warner Music Group'' (). He also wrote three privately published family ge ...

. As Cornyn was an acquaintance of Dornbrook's, Dornbrook was able to secure a New York meeting with the executive's

second-in-command Second-in-command (2i/c or 2IC) is a title denoting that the holder of the title is the second-highest authority within a certain organisation. Usage In the British Army or Royal Marines, the second-in-command is the deputy commander of a unit, ...

, Linda Rich.

List of games made by Boffo

* ''

'' * ''Reverse Alien'' (cancelled) * ''

References

External links

Boffo Games, Inc.
* {{Boffo Games Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game companies established in 1994 Video game companies disestablished in 1997 Video game development companies