Buzz #15 09 июля 1998

История

Old Stars - The stars of days gone by today. (On the fate of foreign companies, soft).

  ∙ ° · ∙ ·. D-Man
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(C) MELTED SNOW, 1998



                 Star of days gone by - today.


  When a software for the Spectrum came with it
native land - good old England, or its limits. At that time, 
computers were tape, but the program proprietary. But in the 
year 1993 the flow of programs from behind a hill to a halt. 
Many foreign firms producing soft'a moved to other platforms or 
completely ceased. And Russia was filled with programs of local 
production. What happened to those famous foreign companies 
after their departure from the world of Speccy. On this We now 
discuss (and take a look at their way of life). - The 
world-famous company Virgin Games started as a small trading 
company dealing with e-mail sending music recordings, and then 
called just Virgin. In the late seventies a young company's 
business went up the hill and the firm changed its name to 
Virgin Records. Since 1983 the company becoming the largest 
publisher of software for 8bitnyh machines and changed its name 
to Virgin Games. By 1994, the firm's total capital exceeded the 
first billion and the company has once again changed its name 
to Virgin Interactive Entertainment (VIE). Today VIE brings 
together a network studios, outstretched in peace from central 
Europe to western coast of America. Most of these units exist 
as independent programmer at companies with their brand, but 
they all operate under a single coordinating VIE. Among these 
"child" studios Revolution Software (works in the genre of 
Adventure), Rowan Software (developed aviaimitatory) Trylobyte 
(works in the genre of interactive video), Westwood Studious 
(role playing), Adeline Software (arcade adventyury) and many 
other groups. Address VIE in Internet'e following: 
http://www.vie.com/.  - The company Activision - one of the 
oldest companies that publish video games. Was established in 
1979 and was pervonachlno focused on video game consoles such 
as Atari. In the early 90 years has moved to game consoles such 
as "SEGA" and "Nintendo". Since the mid-90 switched to the PC 
platform and released a game Series Mechwarrior. Company 
Address: http://activision.com/.  - Firm Gremlin Interactive - 
is currently working on Platform PC. Her address: 
http://www.gremlin.co.uk/.  - The company Konami - works on a 
PC. Address: http://www.konami.com/.  - Company Microprose - 
running on a PC. Address: http://www.microprose.com/.

 - The company Ocean - works on a PC. Address: 
http://www.oceanltd.com/  - U.S. firm Gold - runs on 
PC-platform.  - The company Infocom Star 80's in the genre 
adventyurnogo disintegrated. One of its programmers (Steve 
Meretskov) joined the company Legend running on a PC.  - Firm 
ARTIC, which released the text adventyurnye games 1982-1984 gg 
(Adventure A, Adventure B, Adventure C. ..) is also split. Head 
of Charles Cecil has created his own company Revolution 
Software, focused on PC-platform.  - Firm Mirrorsoft - 
disintegrated.  - Firm FireBird - glorified his name release 
besmertnoy Elite games, too, ceased to exist. One of her most 
talented programmers created within the firm and released for 
the PC game Frontier: Elite II.



  In conclusion I want to give a little rating on the basis of 
sales of entertainment software for the last time PC-platform:


   Virgin - 21%

   Electronic Arts - 12%

   Sony Interactive-5%

   Microprose - 5%

   U.S. Gold - 4%

   Ocean - 4%

   Sierra - 3%

   Mindscape - 3%

 The data presented shows that the most popular
enjoyed by those firms that were previously released software 
for the Spectrum. And it's not casual. Spectrum, though not a 
very profitable machine, it gives such practical skills, which 
will be useful in any situation in the future. 


  PS: If someone from readers has more information
the fate of the old soft-foreign companies, you can share
her with the newspaper "BUZZ".