Eutechnyx Limited (formerly Zeppelin Games Limited, until 1994, and Merit Studios (Europe) Limited, until 1997) is a British

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 ...

based in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

, England. Since 1997, the company has focused on

racing game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic rac ...

s. They are known for their largely panned video game '' Ride to Hell: Retribution'', work with the ''NASCAR The Game'' franchise, and as a developer on various other racing titles and games.

History

Zeppelin Games (1987–1994)

The company founder, Brian Jobling, started creating games for the

Atari 800 The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE ...

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...

, and

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

personal computers at home in the early 1980s as a 14-year-old. With the money that he made, he started the company, Zeppelin Games, in November 1987 when he was 17. Zeppelin Games produced a large number of games for various home computer systems including

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...

and

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 ...

and by the early 90s were also making games for PC and consoles such as the

Mega Drive/Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

and

SNES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Euro ...

. Popular games included ''

Jocky Wilson's Darts Challenge ''Jocky Wilson's Darts Challenge'' is a video game of darts, created after darts champion Jocky Wilson. The game was published by Zeppelin Games and was released in 1989 for the Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum Amstrad CPC Th ...

'', ''International Tennis'', ''Universal Warrior'' and '' Sink or Swim''. They also worked with publisher

Codemasters The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts. Founded by brothers Richard and David Darling in Octo ...

to produce the first two ''

Micro Machines Micro Machines are a line of toys originally made by Galoob (now part of Hasbro) in the mid-1980s and throughout the 1990s. Micro Machines are tiny scale component style "playsets" and vehicles that are slightly larger than N scale. The toys ...

'' games and ''

Pete Sampras Tennis ''Pete Sampras Tennis'' is a sports video game, developed by Zeppelin Games and published by Codemasters. It was followed by ''Sampras Tennis 96'' for Sega's 16-bit console and later by '' Pete Sampras Tennis '97'', released for the PlayStatio ...

''. The company, being primarily a budget publisher, operated several labels for different price ranges; among them were Cognito and Impulze for full-price releases, Zeppelin Premier and Zeppelin Platinum.

Merit Studios Europe (1994–1996)

The company was acquired by American company Merit Studios, Inc. in 1994 and became known as Merit Studios Europe. As well as developing their own games, the company was also responsible for the marketing and distribution of Merit's US games in Europe.

Eutechnyx (1996–present)

The company became Eutechnyx in 1996. After gaining registered developer and publisher status for the

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

, the directors bought back the company from Merit with help from French publishers

Infogrames Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA) is a French video game holding company headquartered in Paris. Its subsidiaries include Atari Interactive and Atari, Inc. It is the current owner of the Atari brand through Atari Interactive. Bec ...

. This started a 3-year agreement with Eutechnyx developing exclusively for

on the PlayStation and PC platforms. The end of this agreement meant that as of 2000, the company became a fully independent developer and currently releases games across many formats for publishing companies such as

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

and

Namco was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...

. Since 1996, the company has specialised in driving and racing games of many types, including licensed titles such as ''

James Bond 007 The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

'', '' Max Power'', ''

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

'' and ''

The Fast and the Furious ''Fast & Furious'' (also known as ''The Fast and the Furious'') is a media franchise centered on a series of action films that are largely concerned with street racing, heists, spies, and family. The franchise also includes short films, ...

''. As of 2009, Eutechnyx had studios in

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

, England;

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

;

Chengdu Chengdu (, ; Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively Romanization of Chi ...

; and the United States. It employed almost 200 people. After the failure of ''Ride to Hell: Retribution'', the London studio was closed in June 2013. In June 2013, several employees were loaned to

Ubisoft Reflections Ubisoft Reflections Limited (formerly Reflections and later Reflections Interactive Limited) is a British video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Newcastle upon Tyne. Founded in 1984 by Martin Edmondson and Nicholas Chamberlain, th ...

and in February 2014, a restructuring was announced, with the loss of 12 jobs, taking the headcount to 130. In 2012, sister company ZeroLight was formed at the Gateshead offices, to apply the realtime rendering technology developed for racing games to showroom and online configurators for car manufacturers. In October 2013, Darren Jobling replaced his brother Brian as

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

, to take on a more active role in development, with Brian becoming Executive Chairman. In July 2014, again after the failure of ''Warhammer 40k: Storm of Vengeance'', following another re-structuring an additional 19 members of staff were lost. In January 2015, their NASCAR license were given to Dusenberry Martin Racing, while Eutechnyx continued to develop their final NASCAR title, '' NASCAR '15'', for DMR; subsequent NASCAR titles by them (since renamed 704Games and purchased by

Motorsport Network Motorsport Network is an American media and technology company headquartered in Miami, FL and London, UK. The company's proprietary brands, websites and OTT operations focus on motor racing and consumer automotive content serving and presenting ...

) were developed by

Monster Games Monster Games, Inc. is an American independent video game developer in Northfield, Minnesota, United States that specializes in racing games and ports in action, platforms and action role-playing game An action role-playing game (often ab ...

(until the 2019 title '' NASCAR Heat 4'') instead. In July 2015, following commercially disappointing results from ambitious multiplayer online racing game ACR, a further 8 redundancies were made, with some of the 22 people announced as being added to sister firm ZeroLight, being relocated from Eutechnyx. In September 2016, Zerolight moved across the river from Eutechnyx' Gateshead office to LiveWorks, on the Quayside at Newcastle upon Tyne.

Games developed

as Zeppelin Games

* 1988 '' Zybex'' ( C64, ZX, Atari 8-bit) * 1988 '' Draconus'' (C64, ZX, Atari 8-bit) * 1988 ''Las Vegas Casino'' (C64, ZX, CPC, Atari 8-bit) * 1988 ''Speed Ace'' (Atari 8-bit) * 1989 ''

'' (C64, ZX, CPC, Atari 8-bit,

) * 1989 '' Kenny Dalglish Soccer Manager'' (C64, ZX, CPC, Atari 8-bit,

) * 1989 ''The Living Daylights'' (Atari 8-bit - re-release from Domark) * 1989 ''Mirax Force'' (Atari 8-bit - re-release from Tynesoft) * 1989 ''Mountain Bike Racer'' (C64, ZX, Atari 8-bit, MSX) * 1989 ''Ninja Commando'' (C64, ZX, CPC, Atari 8-bit) * 1989 ''Phantom'' (Atari 8-bit - re-release from Tynesoft/Micro Value) * 1989 ''Sidewinder'' (Atari 8-bit - re-release from Futureware) * 1990 ''Fantastic Soccer'' (C64, Atari 8-bit) * 1990 ''Fantastic American Football'' (ZX) * 1990 ''Edd The Duck!'' (C64, ZX, CPC,

, Atari ST) * 1990 ''World Soccer'' (C64, ZX, CPC, Atari 8-bit,

) * 1990 ''Arcade Fruit Machine'' (C64, ZX, CPC, Atari 8-bit,

, Atari ST, PC) * 1990 ''Blinky's Scary School'' (C64, ZX, Atari 8-bit,

, Atari ST) * 1990 ''Cavernia'' (Atari 8-bit) * 1990 ''Santa's Xmas Caper'' (C64, ZX, CPC,

) * 1991 ''Jocky Wilson's Compendium of Darts'' (C64, ZX, Atari 8-bit,

, Atari ST) * 1991 ''Stack Up'' (ZX, Atari 8-bit,

, Atari ST, PC) * 1991 ''Tai-Chi Tortoise'' (C64, ZX) * 1991 ''Titanic Blinky'' (C64, ZX, CPC,

, Atari ST) * 1991 ''Sharkey's Moll'' (ZX, CPC,

, Atari ST) * 1991 ''Mission Shark'' (Atari 8-bit - import from Polish developer

LK Avalon Laboratorium Komputerowe Avalon (lit. "Computer Laboratory Avalon"), abbreviated LK Avalon, was a Polish software developer and distributor, with product range encompassing video games, educational software and other applications. History The co ...

''Misja'') * 1991 ''Fred'' (Atari 8-bit - import from LK Avalon) * 1991 ''F1 Tornado'' (C64, ZX, CPC,

, Atari ST) * 1992 ''Arnie'' (C64, Amiga) * 1992 ''Edd The Duck 2: Back with a Quack'' (

) * 1992 '' American Tag-Team Wrestling'' (ZX, CPC,

) * 1992 ''International 5-A-Side'' (C64, ZX) * 1992 ''International Truck Racing'' (C64,

, Atari ST) * 1992 ''International Tennis'' (C64, ZX,

, PC) * 1992 ''International Athletics'' (PC) * 1992 ''Match Of The Day'' (C64, ZX,

, Atari ST) * 1992 ''Graeme Souness Soccer Manager'' (C64, ZX,

, Atari ST, PC) * 1992 ''Carnage'' (C64,

, Atari ST, DOS) * 1993 ''Fist Fighter'' (C64,

) * 1993 ''Arnie 2'' (C64,

, PC) * 1993 ''

World Rugby World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rug ...

'' (C64, ZX) * 1993 ''Universal Warrior'' (

) * 1993 '' Sink or Swim'' a.k.a. ''S.S. Lucifer: Man Overboard'' (Amiga, PC,

, MD) * 1994 ''International Soccer'' (

, PC)

as Merit Studios Europe

* 1994 ''The Machines'' (PC) A revised port of ''Universal Warrior'' * 1994 ''

'' (SNES, GB) * 1995 ''Frankenstein: Life or Death'' (PC) Developed by Junkyard * 1995 '' Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament'' (SNES) * 1996 ''CyberJudas'' (DOS) Published by Merit Studios, developed by D.C. True. Successor to ''Shadow President''. * 1996 ''Bud Tucker in Double Trouble'' (PC)

as Eutechnyx

* 1997 '' Total Drivin'' ( PS1) * 1998 ''Motor Mash'' (PS1, PC) * 1998 ''Max Power Racing'' a.k.a. '' C3 Racing - Car Constructors Championship'' (PS1) * 1999 '' Le Mans 24 Hours'' (PS1, PC) * 2000 ''

007 Racing ''007 Racing'' is a 2000 racing video game based on the James Bond license. It was developed by Eutechnyx, published by Electronic Arts, and released for the PlayStation console system. This game marks the seventh appearance of Pierce Brosnan's ...

'' (PS1) * 2000 ''TNN Hardcore TR'' (PS1) US only release. * 2001 '' F1 World Grand Prix 2000'' (PS1, PC) * 2002 ''

Big Mutha Truckers ''Big Mutha Truckers'' is a racing video game developed by British studio Eutechnyx and released in 2002. Set in fictional Hick County, the game revolves around completing trips between cities, delivering goods, and competing in races while at th ...

'' (

PS2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia o ...

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 na ...

, GC, PC) * 2004 ''

Street Racing Syndicate ''Street Racing Syndicate'' is a multiplatform racing video game produced by Eutechnyx, and released by Namco on August 31, 2004 for the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox and Windows-based personal computers. The game was also released for the Game B ...

'' (PS2, Xbox, GC, PC) * 2005 '' Ford Mustang: The Legend Lives'' (PS2, Xbox) * 2005 ''

Ford vs. Chevy ''Ford vs. Chevy'' is a racing video game published by 2K Games and developed by Eutechnyx. It was released on November 10, 2005 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Plot The Ford vs. Chevy rivalry began with characters Eddie Olson and Tyrone Baker, r ...

'' (PS2, Xbox) * 2005 '' Big Mutha Truckers 2: Truck Me Harder'' (PS2, Xbox, PC) * 2006 ''

Cartoon Network Racing ''Cartoon Network Racing'' is a racing video game developed by Eutechnyx for PlayStation 2 and Firebrand Games for Nintendo DS, published by Danish video game developer The Game Factory, and released on December 4, 2006, in North America, and on ...

'' (PS2) * 2006 '' Hummer Badlands'' (PS2, Xbox) * 2006 ''

'' (PS2, PSP) * 2006 ''

Pimp My Ride ''Pimp My Ride'' is an American television series produced by MTV and hosted by rapper Xzibit, which ran for six seasons on MTV from 2004 to 2007. In each episode, a car in poor condition is both restored and customized. The work on the show w ...

'' (PS2,

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

) * 2007 '' Hot Wheels: Beat That!'' (PS2, PC, Xbox 360,

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

) * 2008 '' Ferrari Challenge: Trofeo Pirelli'' (PS2, PS3, Wii, DS, PSP) * 2009 '' Supercar Challenge'' (PS3, PSN) * 2010 ''Ferrari: The Race Experience'' ( PSN, Wii) * 2011 '' NASCAR The Game: 2011'' (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) * 2012 ''

Auto Club Revolution ''Auto Club Revolution'' was a free PC online simulation racing game. The game was published by Eutechnyx and was developed in collaboration with motor brands such as BMW and Renault. It was announced in early 2011 and officially launched at th ...

'' (PC) * 2012 '' NASCAR The Game: Inside Line'' (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) * 2013 '' Ride to Hell: Retribution'' (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) * 2013 '' NASCAR: The Game 2013'' (PC) * 2014 ''

NASCAR '14 ''NASCAR '14'' is a NASCAR video game. It is the third edition of the '' NASCAR The Game'' racing simulator series, and is the sequel to '' NASCAR The Game: Inside Line''. Developed by Eutechnyx and published by Deep Silver, the game was release ...

'' ( PS3,

, PC) * 2014 '' Warhammer 40,000: Storm of Vengeance'' ( PC,

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

, Android) * 2015 '' NASCAR '15'' ( PS3,

, PC)

References

External links

*
Eutechnyx on IGN.com

Zeppelin Games at World of Spectrum
{{Authority control Companies based in Newcastle upon Tyne British companies established in 1987 Video game companies established in 1987 Video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game development companies 1987 establishments in England