Cinematronics

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Cinematronics

logo
legal form Incorporated
founding 1975
resolution 1987
Reason for dissolution Acquisition by Tradewest and renaming to The Leland Corporation
Seat El Cajon , California United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
Branch Software development

Cinematronics was an innovative Californian publisher of arcade games . The company is best known for the first well-known laser disc game Dragon's Lair (1983). In 1977, Space Wars was the first arcade game to use vector graphics . For a long time, the faster, but soon obsolete black and white technology was retained. With Warrior (1979) and the very first fighting game for two people was published.

history

Cinematronics Inc. was founded in 1975 by Jim Pearce, Dennis Parte and Gary Garrison in El Cajon , California (USA). However, the first published games in 1976 were unsuccessful. The breakthrough came in 1977 with the first vector game Space Wars , which was published on Spacewar! based.

From 1983 the Dragon's Lair series followed with the new laser disc technology, which was also very successful. This is an interactive cartoon with unprecedented graphic quality.

Around 1984 games with raster graphics were also developed, but they were less successful. After the golden era of arcade games , the company was acquired by Tradewest around 1987 and renamed the Leland Corporation . In 1994 Tradewest was in turn bought by WMS .

Cinematronics, LLC was founded in 1994, but had nothing to do with the original company. This was later taken over by Maxis and then by Electronic Arts .

Games

Web links