Red Orb Entertainment was a publishing division created by the

Broderbund Broderbund Software, Inc. (stylized as Brøderbund) was an American maker of video games, educational software, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits ''Choplifter'', ''Lode Runner'', ''Karateka'', and '' ...

software company to market its

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

titles, distinguishing them from its library of

edutainment Educational entertainment (also referred to as edutainment) is media designed to educate through entertainment. The term was used as early as 1954 by Walt Disney. Most often it includes content intended to teach but has incidental entertainment ...

titles, which it marketed to schools. Launched on May 21, 1997, and based in

Novato Novato (Spanish for "Novatus") is a city in Marin County, California, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area. At the 2020 census, Novato had a population of 53,225. History What is now Novato was originally the site of several Coast Miwok ...

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 ...

, the name comes from the first six letters of "Broderbund," which spell "Red Orb" when reversed. After its parent company Broderbund was acquired by

The Learning Company The Learning Company (TLC) was an educational software company founded in 1980 in Palo Alto, California and headquartered in Fremont, California. The company produced a grade-based line of learning software, edutainment games, and productivity ...

in 1998, Red Orb's brand continued to be used and was supported by the latter's Mindscape division. After TLC's parent company

Mattel Interactive Mattel Interactive (Known as Mattel Media until 1999) was a video game publisher and software distributor. History Mattel originally founded the company as Mattel Media in February 1996, as an aim to expand into the multimedia unit by producing ...

was sold off in 2000, Subsequent games of the

Myst ''Myst'' is a graphic adventure/puzzle video game designed by the Miller brothers, Robyn and Rand. It was developed by Cyan, Inc., published by Broderbund, and initially released for the Macintosh in 1993. In the game, the player's character t ...

Prince of Persia ''Prince of Persia'' is a video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner. It is built around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous Prince, set in ancient and medieval Persia. The first two games i ...

, and

Warlords A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

franchises were later published by

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', '' ...

, who acquired all of Mattel Interactive's entertainment library in March 2001.

Titles

Red Orb Entertainment developed and/or published several games in the late 1990s, including: * '' John Saul's Blackstone Chronicles'' * '' The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time'' * '' The Journeyman Project Trilogy'' * '' Myst: Masterpiece Edition'' * ''

Prince of Persia 3D ''Prince of Persia 3D'' is a 1999 action-adventure video game developed by Mindscape, and published by Red Orb Entertainment for Microsoft Windows. A port for the Dreamcast was developed by Avalanche Software and published by Mattel Interactive ...

'' * '' Ring: The Legend of the Nibelungen'' * '' Riven: The Sequel to Myst'' * ''

Soul Fighter ''Soul Fighter'' is a 3D beat 'em up video game developed by Toka and published by TLC Multimedia for the Sega Dreamcast in 1999. Gameplay The gameplay centers around martial art styles of combat and using a small selection of weapons. Plot An ...

'' * ''

Take No Prisoners The phrase no quarter was generally used during military conflict to imply combatants would not be taken prisoner, but killed. According to some modern American dictionaries, a person who is given no quarter is "not treated kindly" or "treated ...

'' * ''

WarBreeds ''WarBreeds'' is a real-time strategy video game developed and published by Red Orb Entertainment and Broderbund. The game is set in a far off galaxy where the humanoid amphibian race called the Yedda have died out due to famine, disease and ci ...

'' * '' Warlords III: Darklords Rising'' * '' Warlords III: Reign of Heroes''

References

External links

*
Red Orb Entertainment
at

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Video game publishers Video game companies established in 1997 Video game companies disestablished in 2001 Defunct video game companies of the United States {{US-videogame-company-stub