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Imagic
Imagic ( ) was an American video game developer and publisher that created games initially for the Atari 2600. Founded in 1981 by corporate alumni of Atari, Inc. and Mattel, its best-selling titles were ''Atlantis'', '' Cosmic Ark'', and '' Demon Attack''. Imagic also released games for Intellivision, ColecoVision, Atari 8-bit computers, TI-99/4A, IBM PCjr, VIC-20, Commodore 64, TRS-80 Color Computer, and Magnavox Odyssey². Their Odyssey² ports of ''Demon Attack'' and ''Atlantis'' were the only third-party releases for that system in America. The company never recovered from the video game crash of 1983 and was liquidated in 1986. History Imagic was the second third-party publisher for the Atari 2600, formed after Activision. Founders included Bill Grubb, Bob Smith, Rob Fulop, and Denis Koble from Atari, Inc., Jim Goldberger, Dave Durran and Brian Dougherty from Mattel as well as Pat Ransil and Gary Kato. Grubb previously served as the vice president of sales and marke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Demon Attack
''Demon Attack'' is a fixed shooter video game created by Rob Fulop for the Atari 2600 and published by Imagic in 1982. The game involves the player controlling a laser cannon from the surface of a planet, shooting winged demons that fly down and attack the player in different sets of patterns. Fulop designed the game after leaving Atari, Inc., Atari, saying he was not properly reimbursed for his work on a port of ''Space Invaders''. He co-founded the company Imagic in 1981 and began developing ''Demon Attack''. It was the first game he developed that had a graphic artist, Michael Becker, who created eight-phase animations for the demons. On the games release in 1982, it received positive critical attention for its graphics and gameplay and became one of the best-selling Atari 2600 games, and the best-selling game developed by Imagic. Programmer Gary Kato created a port of ''Demon Attack'' for the Intellivision console which added a final boss mothership. The boss was similar in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlantis (video Game)
''Atlantis'' is a fixed shooter video game released by Imagic in August 1982 for the Atari 2600. The game is set in the fabled city of Atlantis where the cities are under attack by invading Gorgon vessels who plan to destroy the city. The player controls sentries to fire a counter attack. The game was designed by Dennis Koble. In comparison to his previous game ''Trick Shot'' which he described as giving him anxiety, Koble described the development of ''Atlantis'' as a far more positive experience. ''Atlantis'' was ported to the Atari 8-bit computers, VIC-20, Intellivision, and Magnavox Odyssey 2. While the VIC-20 and Odyssey 2 versions of the game play similar to the original, the Intellivision version adds several elements of gameplay to the game. ''Atlantis'' was a financial success for Imagic, being the second highest-grossing game for the company after ''Demon Attack'' (1982). A follow-up titled ''Atlantis II'' was given as a grand prize for winners of a video game competi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cosmic Ark
''Cosmic Ark'' is an Atari 2600 game designed by Rob Fulop and published by Imagic in 1982. The objective is to gather specimens from different planets in a spaceship which contains the survivors from the city of Atlantis. There are two versions of the cartridge. One allows the player to toggle the starfield display with the Black & White / Color TV switch. In the other the starfield cannot be disabled. Gameplay In the first stage, the player must fend off meteor showers from all four sides of the screen by pushing the joystick to fire in the desired direction, similar to the 1980 arcade game '' Space Zap''. The second stage requires the player to pilot a shuttle to a planet and use its tractor beam to pick up life forms. While near the planet's surface, planetary defenses will fire at the shuttle. If hit, one previously captured specimen will be freed, forcing the player to retrieve another. After a set period of time, a klaxon will warn of renewed meteor activity, and the pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rob Fulop
Rob Fulop is an American game programmer who created two of the Atari 2600's biggest hits: the port of arcade game '' Missile Command'' and 1982's '' Demon Attack'', which won '' Electronic Games''' Game of the Year award. While at Atari, Fulop also ported ''Night Driver'' to the 2600 and ''Space Invaders'' to the Atari 8-bit computers. Early life Fulop grew up in Oakland, California where was first introduced to computers via a teletype in Skyline High School (Oakland, California), Skyline High School in 1974, which he used to create simple programs in BASIC such as a coin flipper and a game similar to ''Nim''. His experience with the device inspired him to pursue a degree in electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. Career Atari (1978-1981) While studying in university, Fulop got an internship in Atari's coin-op division where he worked on sound design for a ''Superman'' pinball machine [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intellivision
The Intellivision (a portmanteau of intelligent television) is a home video game console released by Mattel Electronics in 1979. It distinguished itself from competitors with more realistic sports and strategic games. By 1981, Mattel Electronics had close to 20% of the domestic video game market, selling more than 3.75 million consoles and 20 million cartridges through 1983. At its peak Mattel Electronics had about 1800 employees in several countries, including 110 videogame developers. In 1984, Mattel sold its video game assets to a former Mattel Electronics executive and investors, eventually becoming INTV Corporation. Game development ran from 1978 to 1990, when the Intellivision was discontinued. In 2009, IGN ranked the Intellivision No. 14 on their list of the greatest video game consoles of all time. History The Intellivision was developed at Mattel in Hawthorne, California. By 1969, multiple research and development groups came together as the Preliminary Design departme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atari, Inc
Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry. The company was founded in Sunnyvale, California, in the center of Silicon Valley, to develop arcade games, starting with ''Pong'' in 1972. As computer technology matured with low-cost integrated circuits, Atari ventured into the consumer market, first with dedicated home video game console, home versions of ''Pong'' and other arcade successes around 1975, and into programmable consoles using game cartridges with the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS or later branded as the Atari 2600) in 1977. To bring the Atari VCS to market, Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications in 1976. In 1978, Warner brought in Ray Kassar to help run the company, but over the next few years, gave Kassar more of a leadership role in the company. Bushnell was fired in 1978, with Kassar name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnavox Odyssey²
The Magnavox Odyssey 2 (stylized as Magnavox Odyssey2), also known as Philips Odyssey 2, is a home video game console of the second generation that was released in 1978. It was sold in Europe as the Philips Videopac G7000, in Brazil and Peru as the Philips Odyssey and in Japan as Odyssey2 (オデッセイ2 ''odessei2''). The Odyssey 2 was one of the five major home consoles prior to the 1983 video game market crash, along with Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Intellivision and ColecoVision. In the early 1970s, Magnavox pioneered the home video game industry by successfully bringing the first home console to market, the Odyssey, which was quickly followed by a number of later models, each with a few technological improvements (''see Magnavox Odyssey series''). In 1978, Magnavox, now a subsidiary of North American Philips, decided to release an all-new successor, Odyssey 2. In 2009, the video game website IGN named the Odyssey 2 the 21st greatest video game console, out of its list of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Activision
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one of the largest third-party video game publishers in the world and was the top United States publisher in 2016. The company was founded as Activision, Inc. on October 1, 1979, in Sunnyvale, California, by former Atari, Inc., Atari game developers upset at their treatment by Atari in order to develop their own games for the popular Atari 2600 home video game console. Activision was the first independent, third-party, console video game developer. The video game crash of 1983, in part created by too many new companies trying to follow in Activision's footsteps without the experience of Activision's founders, hurt Activision's position in console games and forced the company to diversify into games for home computers, including the acquisition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Video Game Crash Of 1983
The video game crash of 1983 (known in Japan as the Atari shock) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985 in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including market saturation in the number of video game consoles and available games, many of which shovelware, were of poor quality. Waning interest in console games in favor of personal computers also played a role. Home video game revenue peaked at around $3.2 billion in 1983, then fell to around $100 million by 1985 (a drop of almost 97%). The crash abruptly ended what is retrospectively considered the second generation of console video gaming in North America. To a lesser extent, the arcade video game market also weakened as the golden age of arcade video games came to an end. Lasting about two years, the crash shook a then-booming video game industry and led to the bankruptcy of several companies producing home computers and video game consoles. Analysts of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS), it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridges, a format first used with the Fairchild Channel F in 1976. The VCS was bundled with two joystick game controller, controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle (game controller), paddle controllers, and a game cartridgeinitially ''Combat (video game), Combat'' and later ''Pac-Man (Atari 2600 video game), Pac-Man''. Sears sold the system as the Tele-Games Video Arcade. Atari rebranded the VCS as the Atari 2600 in November 1982, alongside the release of the Atari 5200. Atari was successful at creating arcade video games, but their development cost and limited lifespan drove Chief executive officer, CEO Nolan Bushnell to seek a programmable home system. The first inexpensive microprocessors from MOS Technology in late 1975 made this feasible. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 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 World Records as the highest-selling single computer model of all time, with independent estimates placing the number sold between 12.5 and 17 million units. Volume production started in early 1982, marketing in August for . Preceded by the VIC-20 and Commodore PET, the C64 took its name from its of RAM. With support for multicolor sprite (computer graphics), sprites and a custom chip for waveform generation, the C64 could create superior visuals and audio compared to systems without such custom hardware. The C64 dominated the low-end computer market (except in the UK, France and Japan, lasting only about six months in Japan) for most of the later years of the 1980s. For a substantial period (1983–1986), the C64 had betwe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Third-party Developer
A video game developer is 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 business with employee responsibilities split between individual disciplines, such as programmers, designers, artists, etc. Most game development companies have video game publisher financial and usually marketing support. Self-funded developers are known as independent or indie developers and usually make indie games. A developer may specialize in specific game engines or specific video game consoles, or may develop for several systems (including personal computers and mobile devices). Some focus on porting games from one system to another, or translating games from one language to another. Less commonly, some do software development work in addition to games. Most video game publishers maintain development studios (such as Electronic Arts's EA Canada, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
