Cyberdreams Interactive Entertainment was a

video game publisher A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer ( ...

located in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

that specialized in

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...

s developed in collaboration with famous names from the

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

, horror and

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 unive ...

genres between 1990 and 1997.

History

Patrick Ketchum, who had founded

Datasoft Datasoft, Inc. (also written as DataSoft and Data Soft) was a software developer and publisher for home computers founded in 1980 by Pat Ketchum and based out of Chatsworth, California. Datasoft primarily published video games, including home port ...

before, founded the company in 1990. In 1995, an "internal shake-up" took place in which the investors removed management and installed a "turnaround management team" that could accomplish the transition to third-party publishing. Ketchum left the company and started a career as a photographer. The company went defunct early in 1997. Cyberdreams' most successful titles were '' Dark Seed'', incorporating the art of

H. R. Giger Hans Ruedi Giger ( ; ; 5 February 1940 – 12 May 2014) was a Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as " biomechanical". Giger later abandoned airbrush for pastels, mark ...

, and ''

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" is a post-apocalyptic science fiction short story by American writer Harlan Ellison. It was first published in the March 1967 issue of '' IF: Worlds of Science Fiction''. It won a Hugo Award in 1968. The na ...

'', based upon Harlan Ellison's short story of the same name. Cyberdreams other published titles included ''

CyberRace ''CyberRace'' is a futuristic single player racing game developed and published by Cyberdreams in 1993 for MS-DOS. It features flying car vehicles, called sleds, designed by industrial designer Syd Mead. The 1995 game ''Cyber Speedway'' is a sp ...

'', a futuristic racing game using the vehicle designs of

Syd Mead Sydney Jay Mead (July 18, 1933 – December 30, 2019) was an American industrial designer and neo-futurist concept artist, widely known for his designs for science-fiction films such as ''Blade Runner'', '' Aliens'' and ''Tron''. Mead has bee ...

, '' Noir: A Shadowy Thriller'', a

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...

interactive movie Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...

, and a sequel to ''Dark Seed''.

List of published titles

* '' Dark Seed'' (1992) * ''

'' (1993) * ''Red Hell'' (1993) * ''

Dark Seed II ''Dark Seed II'' is a psychological horror point-and-click adventure game developed and published by Cyberdreams and distributed by MGM Interactive in 1995, and is the sequel to the 1992 game '' Dark Seed''. It sees recurring protagonist Mike Daw ...

'' (1995) * ''

'' (1995) * '' Noir: A Shadowy Thriller'' (1996) Titles announced by Cyberdreams but never completed include ''Hunters of Ralk'', a

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

'' creator

Gary Gygax Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax created an ...

, and ''Wes Craven's Principles of Fear'', based on a concept by film director

Wes Craven Wesley Earl Craven (August 2, 1939 – August 30, 2015) was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and editor. Craven has commonly been recognized as one of the greatest masters of the horror genre due to the cultural imp ...

. Other announced, but unreleased games are ''Evolver'', an adaptation of ''

Species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

'', ''Reverence'', and ''The Incredible Shrinking Character''. Only two survived with the help of other publishers: '' Ares Rising'' and '' Blue Heat''. ''Reverence'' was also eventually leaked as a playable prototype.

References

External links

Cyberdreams, Inc.
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

Cyberdreams titles
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

Cyberdreams company history
at Game Nostalgia Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game companies established in 1990 Video game companies disestablished in 1997 Companies based in Calabasas, California {{US-videogame-company-stub