Brøderbund

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Brøderbund

logo
legal form Subsidiary of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
founding 1980
Seat Novato (United States)
Website www.broderbund.com

Brøderbund (/ ˈbruːdərbʌnd /) is a US-American software company based in Novato that makes educational software and computer games . The company relocated its computer games at times under the name Red Orb Entertainment .

history

The company was founded in 1980 by brothers Doug and Gary Carlston in Eugene , Oregon . The name is derived from the South African African Broederbond - Doug Carlston had been a teacher in Botswana in the 1960s and came across the name of the organization there. The three crowns in the company logo stand for the three Carlston siblings - sister Cathy joined the company in the early 1980s. Brøderbund was able to successfully enter the market with the text-based strategy game Galactic Empire , which was written by Doug Carlston for the TRS-80 . The company soon switched from the TRS-80 to the more successful Apple II and sold games for this home computer that partner companies in Japan programmed for Brøderbund. The company grew and made a name for itself with educational games and game programs such as Choplifter , The Mask of the Sun , Lode Runner , Castles of Dr. Creep , The Ancient Art of War , Karateka , Wings of Fury , Stunts , Prince of Persia , The Last Express and Myst (which was the best-selling computer game for a long time and was only replaced by The Sims ). By 1983 the company had 60 employees and had moved to San Rafael , California. In 1984 a desktop publisher called The Print Shop was published, which was developed further under changing brand owners and licensees until the 2010s.

In May 1997, the company introduced the publishing label Red Orb Entertainment (Red Orb = "Broder" written backwards) to better distinguish between edutainment software and computer games. In June 1998 Brøderbund was taken over by the rival company The Learning Company for about 420 million US dollars. In the same year 500 of the then 1200 Brøderbund employees were laid off. In December 1998 the Mattel group acquired the group of companies for the amount of 3.8 billion US dollars. The new company owners initially continued to use the Red Orb label by the responsible computer game subsidiary Mindscape . Mattel's financial faltering after the purchase, so that board member Jill Barad ( CEO ) had to leave the company due to pressure from angry investors and shareholders. Mattel eventually sold The Learning Company to the Gores Technology Group in September 2000 on behalf of the Company to sell. 2001 Gores sold the entertainment division of The Learning Company to Ubisoft and the other shares - including the name Brøderbund - to the Riverdeep company .

Until 2006, Brøderbund was the brand name for Riverdeep's graphic design division, for the production area and for the distribution of own learning programs and entertainment titles - such as The Print Shop , Carmen Sandiego , Mavis Beacon - and the distribution of software from other manufacturers. Riverdeep was taken over by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2006, and Brøderbund has been a subsidiary of MMH ever since.

In 2014, Doug Carlston donated a collection of Brøderbund business documents, software and a game collection to The Strong National Museum of Play, which gave the material to the International Center for the History of Electronic Games for safekeeping.

Ludography

As Brøderbund

year game genre Platforms
1981 Apple panic Action Apple II, Atari 8-bit, PC Booter, VIC-20
1981 David's Midnight Magic Pinball simulation Apple II, Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit, C64
1981 Snoggle Action Apple II
1981 Space quarks Action Apple II
1981 Tawala's Last Redoubt strategy Apple II
1982 Choplifter Action Apple II, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari 8-bit, ColecoVision, C64, MSX, NES, PC-88, Sharp X1, SEGA MS, Thomson TO, VIC-20
1982 Serpentine Action Apple II, Atari 8-bit, C64, PC Booter, VIC-20
1983 Lode runner Jump 'n' run Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, BBC Micro, C64, CPC, DOS, J2ME, Mac, MSX, NES, Sharp X1, VIC-20, Wii, WonderSwan, ZX Spectrum
1984 Championship Lode Runner Jump 'n' run Apple II, Atari 8-bit, C64, FM-7, MSX, NES, PC-88, PC Booter, SG-1000, Wii, Wii U
1984 Karateka Fighting game Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, C64, CPC, DOS
1984 Mindwheel Text adventure Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, C64, DOS
1984 Spelunker Jump 'n' run Atari 8-Bit, C64, MSX, NES, Nintendo 3DS, Wii
1984 The Castles of Doctor Creep Jump 'n' run C64
1984 The Mask of the Sun Text adventure Apple II, Atari 8-bit, C64
1985 Essex Text adventure Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, C64, DOS
1985 Brimstone Text adventure Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, C64, DOS
1985 Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Adventure Apple II, C64, CPC, DOS, SEGA Master System, TRS-80 CoCo
1986 Breakers Text adventure Apple II, Atari ST, C64, DOS
1987 Wings of Fury Action Amiga, C64, CPC, DOS, Gameboy Color, NEC PC-9801, X86000
1988 Arcade Game Construction Kit Application program C64
1993 Myst Adventure Amiga, Windows, Mac

As Red Orb Entertainment

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Glenn Rifkin: Broderbund Casts Itself as a Studio. In: The New York Times. September 11, 1995, accessed April 22, 2012 .
  2. ↑ Brøderbund . In: Retro Gamer Collection . 6, 2012, p. 185.
  3. ^ David Barry: The Carlston Trio . In: Antic Magazine . 2, No. 7, October 1983, p. 13.
  4. ^ Julia Angwin: Broderbund in the Game / New titles will bear Red Orb brand name . In: San Francisco Chronicle . May 22, 1997. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
  5. ↑ GiantBomb.com: Who in the World Owns Carmen Sandiego? Retrieved May 26, 2019 .
  6. ^ Mattel to buy Learning Company
  7. ^ Alan Dunkin: Red Orb Stays With Mindscape . In: GameSpot . October 2, 1998. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
  8. ^ Mattel To Ditch The Learning Company
  9. ^ Ubi Soft Acquires The Learning Company's Entertainment Division . GameZone. March 7, 2001. Retrieved February 24, 2010.
  10. ↑ Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep buys US business from Harcourt Education
  11. ↑ Dave Tach: Broderbund founder donates collection including Myst, Prince of Persia to Museum of Play ( English ) polygon.com. March 4, 2014. Retrieved August 13, 2014.