ICOM Simulations, Inc. (later known as Rabid Entertainment) was a software company based in

Wheeling, Illinois Wheeling is a village in Cook County, Illinois, Cook and Lake County, Illinois, Lake counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. A suburb of Chicago, it is primarily in Cook County, approximately northwest of downtown Chicago. Per the 2020 United Sta ...

. It is best known for creating the

MacVenture The MacVenture games comprise a series of four adventure games introducing a characteristic menu-based point-and-click interface. They were originally developed for the Apple Macintosh by ICOM Simulations: #''Déjà Vu'' (1985) #'' Uninvited'' (19 ...

series of

adventure games 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-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based me ...

including ''

Shadowgate ''Shadowgate'' is a black-and-white 1987 point-and-click adventure video game originally for the Apple Macintosh in the MacVenture series. The game is named for its setting, Castle Shadowgate, residence of the evil Warlock Lord. The player, as t ...

''. Following the foundation in 1981 a number of game titles for the Panasonic JR-200 were produced. Later products for the

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

included the

debugger A debugger or debugging tool is a computer program used to software testing, test and debugging, debug other programs (the "target" program). The main use of a debugger is to run the target program under controlled conditions that permit the pr ...

TMON and an application launching utility called ''OnCue''.

History

ICOM Simulations was formed as TMQ Software on March 4, 1981, by Tod Zipnick. With the

series, ICOM pioneered the

point-and-click adventure 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-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

interface and later

multiplatform In computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software r ...

CD-ROM development with '' Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective''. Zipnick died of

Hodgkin's disease Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a type of lymphoma, in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, where multinucleated Reed–Sternberg cells (RS cells) are present in the patient's lymph nodes. The condition wa ...

in 1991 just as the company was beginning to take off. In the early-to-mid 1990s, ICOM Simulations was a major third-party developer for the

TurboGrafx-16 The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC, NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth genera ...

(TG-16) platform in the US. They produced many games for the console, including the TG-16 exclusive ''Shadowgate'' sequel, ''

Beyond Shadowgate ''Beyond Shadowgate'' is a TurboGrafx CD sequel to the 1987 Mac and MacVenture game ''Shadowgate''. Unlike its predecessor, ''Beyond Shadowgate'' is a classical point-and-click adventure viewed from a platform perspective. A 14 by 19 inch po ...

''. The company was acquired in 1993 by

Viacom New Media Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...

which closed its operations in 1997. Renamed to Rabid Entertainment, VNM/ICOM was dismantled in 1998. The rights to ICOM's game portfolio were held by the company Infinite Ventures, but they are now owned by David Marsh who obtained most of the rights in January 2012. On March 5, 2012,

Dave Marsh Dave Marsh (born March 1, 1950) is an American music critic, and radio talk show host. He was an early editor of ''Creem'' magazine, has written for various publications such as ''Newsday'', ''The Village Voice'', and ''Rolling Stone (magazine), ...

and

Karl Roelofs Karl Roelofs (born September 11, 1964) is an American video game developer known for creating the MacVenture game ''Shadowgate''. He is a co-founder of the video game development company Zojoi, LLC with Dave Marsh. Biography ICOM Simulation ...

, both former developers at ICOM Simulations, formed a new game development company called Zojoi, LLC, and have begun releasing upgraded versions of previous ICOM Simulations titles, starting with '' Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective'' for iOS Tablets.

Games

References

External links

ICOM Simulations
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 ...

{{Authority control Companies based in Cook County, Illinois Software companies established in 1980 Software companies disestablished in 1998 Defunct companies based in Illinois Defunct software companies of the United States Defunct video game companies of the United States Software companies based in Illinois

History

Games

See also

References

External links