Cinemaware was a video game developer and

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

that released several titles in the 1980s based on various film themes. The company was resurrected in 2000, before being acquired by eGames in 2005.

Cinemaware Corp. (1986–1991)

The company was founded in January 1986 by Phyllis and Robert “Bob” Jacob. Cinemaware's first title was ''

Defender of the Crown ''Defender of the Crown'' is a strategy computer game designed by Kellyn Beck. It was Cinemaware's first game, and was originally released for the Commodore Amiga in 1986, setting a new standard for graphic quality in home computer games. In ...

'', a strategy computer game originally released for the

Commodore Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

. Bob Jacob was a film buff, and Cinemaware released other popular games based on classic film genres that emphasized action, graphics, and ease of play. Its games generally debuted on the most graphically powerful home computers of the era, the Amiga, Apple IIGS, and Atari ST, and then

ported In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desi ...

to others, such as the Commodore 64, PC (running under

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

), and the Nintendo Entertainment System. ''Defender of the Crown'' is the most ported Cinemaware game. Cinemaware expanded to

sports game A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with a game, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize actually playing the sport ( ...

s, with its "TV Sports" line, which featured elements of sports telecasts such as studio announcers. The "TV Sports" line covered

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

, and football. Some of the titles were only known by "TV Sports" name in Europe, ''TV Sports: Boxing'' and ''TV Sports: Baseball'', which was released in the United States by

Data East , also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 video game titles. Its main headquarters were located in Suginami, Tokyo. The A ...

as ''

ABC Wide World of Sports Boxing ''ABC Wide World Of Sports Boxing'' is a boxing video game released in 1991. The player can create, train, and manage their own character. It is based on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) program '' Wide World of Sports'' and was released ...

'' and ''

Bo Jackson Baseball ''Bo Jackson Baseball'' is a baseball video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Amiga, TurboGrafx-16, and MS-DOS. It features athlete Bo Jackson, then a star in professional baseball and a former professional American football, football pl ...

'' respectively. By 1990,

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...

owned 15% of Cinemaware. Cinemaware went bankrupt in 1991. While porting '' S.D.I.'' to another system, one of the company's owners demanded the

programmers A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

add more features, increasing the programming time and delaying the product's release. Coupled with falling sales of their other titles amid an economic downturn, the company suffered. The company also suffered from software piracy, threatening to stop publishing Amiga games at several points because of the ease by which video games could be copied. Many of their games, including ''

Wings A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expre ...

'', were cracked and spread amongst gamers even before release.

Releases

Cinemaware's titles in chronological order: * ''

'' (swashbuckling movies; 1986, Apple IIGS, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MS-DOS, Macintosh, CD-I) * '' S.D.I.'' ( Cold War era space drama; 1986, Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, MS-DOS, Macintosh) * '' The King of Chicago'' (inspired by

mob Mob or MOB may refer to: Behavioral phenomena * Crowd * Smart mob, a temporary self-structuring social organization, coordinated through telecommunication Crime and law enforcement * American Mafia, also known as the Mob * Irish Mob, a US crimin ...

movies; 1987, Apple IIGS, Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, Macintosh) * ''

Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon ''Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon'' is a 1987 action-adventure game developed and published by Cinemaware. Set in an Arabian Nights-esque world, the player assumes the role of Sinbad the Sailor, and is commissioned by The Princess to rid the ...

'' ( Sinbad and Arabian nights movies; 1987, Apple IIGS, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS) * ''

The Three Stooges The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeared ...

'' (''The Three Stooges'' short subjects; 1987, Apple IIGS, Amiga, Commodore 64, MS-DOS) * ''

Rocket Ranger ''Rocket Ranger'' is a 1988 action-adventure game developed and published by Cinemaware. The game's setting is based in the World War II era, allowing the player to control a US Army scientist and setting out to stop Nazi Germany from winning the ...

'' (1950s

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

serials; 1988, Apple IIGS, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS) * '' TV Sports: Football'' (1988, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, TG-16) * ''

Lords of the Rising Sun ''Lords of the Rising Sun'' is a 1989 video game by Cinemaware, game design and art by Doug Barnett, released for the Amiga among other systems. Like the earlier ''Defender of the Crown'', it was a mix of map-based strategy and arcade-style mini g ...

'' (Japanese

Samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

movies; 1988, Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, TG-16, CD-I) * '' Disney's Cartoon Arcade'' (1989 Viewmaster Interactive Vision) * '' It Came from the Desert'' (1950s science fiction/monster movies; 1989, Amiga, Atari ST, Mega Drive, TG-16, MS-DOS) * '' The Kristal'' (1989, Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS) * '' TV Sports: Baseball'' (1989, Amiga) * '' TV Sports: Basketball'' (1990, Amiga, MS-DOS) * '' Antheads: It Came from the Desert 2'' (1990, Amiga) * ''

'' (

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

movies; 1990, Amiga) * '' TV Sports: Boxing'' (1991, Amiga, MS-DOS)

Cinemaware Inc. (2000–2005)

Lars Fuhrken-Batista later bought the Cinemaware trademark and associated intellectual property, founding Cinemaware Inc. in 2000. Cinemaware developed recreations of its past titles, updated for Microsoft Windows and the

Apple Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

. Dubbed the "Digitally Remastered" editions, these games feature the same gameplay as the originals, but with updated graphics. They also ported some of their older games to handheld systems, such as the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...

. On their website, they have also released

disk image A disk image, in computing, is a computer file containing the contents and structure of a disk volume or of an entire data storage device, such as a hard disk drive, tape drive, floppy disk, optical disc, or USB flash drive. A disk image is us ...

s of their original titles for use with

emulator In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use pe ...

s and some are emulated via

Macromedia Shockwave Adobe Shockwave (formerly Macromedia Shockwave and MacroMind 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 new Cinemaware developed modern retakes of their classic games. Their first game in this endeavor was '' Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown'' which features a modern 3D

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

and was released in September 2003 for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

, PlayStation 2, and

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the ...

. Since the 1.02

patch Patch or Patches may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Patch Johnson, a fictional character from ''Days of Our Lives'' * Patch (''My Little Pony''), a toy * "Patches" (Dickey Lee song), 1962 * "Patches" (Chairmen of the Board song) ...

for ''Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown'' in December 2003, Cinemaware has made no official announcements for its other games. One

developer Developer may refer to: Computers * Software developer, a person or organization who develop programs/applications * Video game developer, a person or business involved in video game development, the process of designing and creating games * Web d ...

made a statement in the website's forums in October 2004 stating Cinemaware is still working on these projects, but no other announcements have been made since.

Releases

* '' Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown'' (2003, PS2, Xbox, Windows) * ''

'' (2002, GBA) * ''

'' (GBA, PlayStation) * ''

'' (2003, GBA) * ''Defender of the Crown: Digitally Remastered Edition'' (Windows, Macintosh) * ''The Three Stooges: Digitally Remastered Edition'' (2002, Windows, Mac) * ''Wings: Digitally Remastered Edition'' (postponed, Windows, Mac) * ''Lords of the Rising Sun: Digitally Remastered Edition'' (postponed, Windows, Mac) * ''Wings Remastered'' (2014, Windows, Mac)

Acquisition

On October 6, 2005, Cinemaware was acquired by predominantly family-oriented game publisher eGames, Inc., and Lars Furken-Batista became Vice President of Development. Shortly after the acquisition, eGames announced the launch of Cinemaware Marquee, a publishing label to be used to bring new games to the U.S. market. Their first published game was, '' Space Rangers 2'', a critically acclaimed space adventure. They have brought retail releases of '' Darwinia'' from

Introversion Software Introversion Software Limited is a British video game developer based in Walton-on-Thames, England. History The company was founded in 2001 by three friends, Chris Delay, Mark Morris, and Thomas Arundel, who met as undergraduates at Imperial ...

, ''Moscow to Berlin'' from Monte Cristo, and ''Neighbours from Hell: On Vacation'' and ''Buccaneer's Bounty'' from German publisher

Ascaron Ascaron Entertainment was a video game developer based in Germany. Founded as Ascon by Holger Flöttmann in 1991 and later renamed in October 1996 due to the possible confusion with the Swiss company Ascom AG, the company produced titles prima ...

to the American market. In 2007, eGames released an

Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Fla ...

version of ''

'' for download via their website, entitled ''Defender of the Crown: Heroes Live Forever''.

Cinemaware rights acquisition by Starbreeze (2016)

In May 2016, the Swedish game developer and publisher Starbreeze acquired all Cinemaware intellectual property rights from Cinemaware. * The Cinemaware brand * ''

'' * ''

'' * '' The King of Chicago'' * ''

'' * ''

'' * '' It Came from the Desert'' * ''Antheads: It Came from the Desert 2'' * '' S.D.I.'' * '' TV Sports: Basketball'' * '' TV Sports: Baseball'' * '' TV Sports: Boxing'' * '' TV Sports: Football'' * ''TV Sports: Hockey'' The rights include all brands, websites, existing products, and licenses including the Cinemaware label.Starbreeze pressrelease
Starbreeze acquires the rights to Cinemaware’s classic video game catalogue, including “It Came From the Desert”, “Defender of the Crown” & “Wings”
31 May 2016, Retrieved on 21 August 2017.

References

External links

Official website
(archived via

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...

) * {{Authority control 1985 establishments in California 1991 disestablishments in California 2000 establishments in California 2005 disestablishments in California Companies based in Burlingame, California Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Defunct video game companies of the United States Re-established companies Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Video game companies based in California Video game companies established in 1985 Video game companies disestablished in 1991 Video game companies established in 2000 Video game companies disestablished in 2005 Video game development companies