Acclaim Studios Austin
| Acclaim Studios Austin | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Inc. |
| founding | 1991 (as Iguana Entertainment) |
| resolution | August 2004 |
| Reason for dissolution | Closure by the parent company |
| Seat |
Austin, Texas , United States
|
| Branch | Computer games |
Acclaim Studios Austin (formerly Iguana Entertainment ) was an American computer game developer based in Austin, Texas . The company was originally founded in 1991 by Jeff Spangenberg in Santa Clara, California . After the first success with Aero the Acro-Bat , the studio was relocated to Austin in 1993 and the British developer Optimus Software (later Iguana UK) was taken over. In January 1995, Iguana became a subsidiary of the American computer game publisher Acclaim Entertainment and, in October of the same year, Iguana West was another subsidiary. After the dismissal of the studio founder Spangenberg in July 1998 and internal corporate restructuring, Iguana Entertainment was renamed Acclaim Studios Austin in May 1999. It was closed in August 2004, a month before the parent company went bankrupt and was liquidated under Chapter 7 .
history
Before founding Iguana Entertainment, Jeff Spangenberg, who taught himself how to program and dropped out of college for his subsequent programming career, worked as lead designer for Punk Development, the developer team at the publisher RazorSoft. In 1991, Spangenberg founded his own studio in Santa Clara, California , and hired 20 people, including personal friends. The company initially had no name. According to Development Support Manager Jay Moon, Spangenberg kept two iguanas named Spike and Killer as pets, which is why the team agreed on Iguana Entertainment with Spike and Killer as the company mascot. In 1992, some Punk Development employees joined Iguana when the business relationship between Punk and RazorSoft ended. With cash injections from the publishers Sunsoft and Acclaim Entertainment , Iguana hired additional employees in 1993.
Because of the high cost of living in the San Francisco Bay Area , Spangenberg and his team decided to relocate the company headquarters. The first choice fell on Seattle, Washington , where the headquarters of Nintendo of America was also located. But after learning of Texas' growing technology industry, some team members traveled to Austin in May 1993 to explore settlement opportunities there. The team returned from Austin's Sixth Street entertainment district with a videotape. With one exception, all employees voted to move to Austin, which took place shortly afterwards. At the end of the year, Iguana celebrated its first commercial success with the title Aero the Acro-Bat and used the profits to acquire Optimus Software, a development studio based in Stockton-on-Tees , which was renamed Iguana UK.
On December 21, 1994, the American publisher Acclaim announced the takeover of Iguana. The sale closed on January 4, 1995, for which Acclaim paid $ 5 million in cash and other undisclosed sums in the form of shares. In October 1995, Acclaim acquired the Salt Lake City- based studio Sculptured Software for an additional $ 30 million in shares , which in December 1997 became part of Iguana under the name Iguana West. During the time under Acclaim, Iguana mainly developed sports simulations such as the NFL Quarterback Club series . The studio also achieved greater awareness with the software implementation of the Turok comic series .
Founder Jeffrey Spangenberg was dismissed as studio manager on July 8, 1998. Shortly thereafter, Acclaim announced further, unspecified changes in the studio management and reorganized the corporate structure. Iguana has been sub-structured to Acclaim Studios, a new, decentralized management for all Acclaim development studios. The management took over the former Iguana employee Darrin Stubbington. In October of the same year Spangenberg filed a lawsuit against Acclaim, Acclaim co-founder Gregory Fischbach and Iguana for breach of contract and fraud. Spangenberg accused Fischbach of having urged him to buy Acclaim shares worth $ 25,000 in February 1998 and then advising him to hold. Shortly afterwards he was fired and lost all stock options . He further accused Acclaim of having fired him for cost reasons and for opposing Fischbach's ongoing demands for shorter development times to cut costs. Acclaim has systematically exchanged managers from the early days of its subsidiaries for employees loyal to the group. The litigation was settled with an unknown outcome. Spangenberg founded his new development company Retro Studios on October 1st, 1999 .
In May 1999, Acclaim Studios announced that it would combine all of the company's development studios under one branded label. As part of this, Iguana, Iguana UK and Iguana West were renamed Acclaim Studios Austin, Acclaim Studios Teesside and Acclaim Studios Salt Lake City. When Acclaim's contract with major financier GMAC Commercial Finance expired on August 20, 2004, the company closed all development studios on August 27, including Acclaim Studios Austin, whose workforce was completely laid off. Acclaim itself filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the Bankruptcy Court of Central Islip, New York, on September 1 and has been liquidated.
The name Iguana Entertainment was reused by the founders of Optimus Software, brothers Jason and Darren Falcus, when they started a new studio with the same name in 2009. It was bought by Team17 in December 2011 and integrated into the company.
Published games
As Iguana Entertainment
| year | title | platform |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Super high impact | Mega drive |
| 1993 | Aero the Acro-Bat | Mega Drive, Super Nintendo |
| 1994 | Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel | |
| Aero the Acro-Bat 2 | ||
| The Pirates of Dark Water | Mega drive | |
| NBA Jam | Sega CD , Game Gear , Mega Drive, Super Nintendo | |
| Side pocket | Super Nintendo | |
| 1995 | Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra | |
| NBA Jam Tournament Edition | PlayStation , Mega Drive, Super Nintendo | |
| NFL Quarterback Club | Mega Drive, Super Nintendo | |
| Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball | Windows , PlayStation, Mega Drive, Sega Saturn , Super Nintendo | |
| NFL Quarterback Club 96 | Windows, Mega Drive, Sega Saturn, Super Nintendo | |
| 1996 | College slam | Game Boy , Windows, PlayStation, Mega Drive, Sega Saturn, Super Nintendo |
| NFL Quarterback Club 97 | PlayStation, Sega Saturn | |
| Batman Forever: The Arcade Game | ||
| 1997 | All-star baseball | |
| Turok: Dinosaur Hunter | Windows, Nintendo 64 | |
| NFL Quarterback Club 98 | Nintendo 64 | |
| 1998 | NHL Breakaway 98 | |
| All-Star Baseball 99 | ||
| Forsaken 64 | ||
| Iggy's Reckin 'Balls | ||
| NFL Quarterback Club 99 | ||
| NHL Breakaway 99 | ||
| NBA Jam 99 | ||
| South Park | Windows, Nintendo 64 | |
| Turok 2: Seeds of Evil | ||
| 1999 | All-Star Baseball 2000 | Nintendo 64 |
As Acclaim Studios Austin
| year | title | platform |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | South Park: Chef's Luv Shack | Dreamcast , Windows, Nintendo 64, PlayStation |
| Turok: Rage Wars | Nintendo 64 | |
| 2000 | Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion | |
| 2001 | All-Star Baseball 2002 | GameCube , PlayStation 2 |
| NFL QB Club 2002 | ||
| 2002 | All-Star Baseball 2003 | GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox |
| Turok: evolution | GameCube, Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox | |
| 2003 | Vexx | GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox |
| All-Star Baseball 2004 | ||
| NBA Jam | PlayStation 2, Xbox | |
| 2004 | All-Star Baseball 2005 | |
| Showdown: Legends of Wrestling | ||
| Discontinued | The Red Star | |
| 100 bullets |
Web links
- Iguana Entertainment at MobyGames (English)
- Acclaim Studios Austin at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Editor: Making Games Fun Again . In: IGN . October 19, 2000. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
- ↑ a b A Retrospective: The Story of Retro Studios . In: IGN . December 17, 2004. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
- ↑ Techno Cop . In: Hardcore Gaming 101 . Retrieved August 11, 2018.
- ↑ a b Falcus Brothers Complete 15 Years in Business - Timeline Event . In: spong.com . Retrieved August 11, 2018.
- ↑ a b c Eric Caoili: Worms Studio Team 17 Amps Up Social Strategy With Iguana Acquisition . In: Gamasutra . Retrieved August 11, 2018.
- ↑ Bloomberg News: Acclaim to Buy Iguana . In: NY Times . Retrieved August 11, 2018.
- ^ Allyne Mills, Dan Harnett: Acclaim completes acquisition of Iguana Entertainment. . In: The Free Library . January 4, 1995. Archived from the original on May 28, 2015. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
- ^ The End Game: How Top Developers Sold Their Studios - Part One . In: Gamasutra . Retrieved August 11, 2018.
- ↑ Editor: Iguana Breaks the Ice . In: IGN . December 16, 1997. Retrieved August 26, 2018.
- ↑ Editor: Breaking into the Industry Vol. 5 . In: IGN . April 1, 1999. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
- ↑ Computer game-maker shifts personnel . In: Bizjournals.com . July 30, 1998. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
- ^ Marla Dial: Iguana founder goes Retro with new company . In: Bizjournals.com . November 30, 1998. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
- ^ Acclaim Studios Evolves into a Single Worldwide Entity; Internal Development Cornerstone of Product Success. - Free Online Library . In: Business Wire . Berkshire Hathaway . May 12, 1999. Archived from the original on August 5, 2018. Retrieved June 28, 2019.
- ^ Acclaim's assets to go on the auction block . In: Bizjournals.com . December 8, 2004. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
- ^ Douglass C. Perry: Acclaim Closes Offices . In: IGN . August 27, 2004. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
- ↑ Curt Feldman: Acclaim shutters offices, staffers ushered off premises . In: Gamespot . August 31, 2004. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
- ^ Curt Feldman: Acclaim bankruptcy now official . In: Gamespot . September 1, 2004. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
- ^ Simon Carless, Acclaim Officially Files For Bankruptcy . In: Gamasutra . Retrieved August 11, 2018.
- ↑ Team17 hires Iguana Entertainment founders . In: gamesindustry.biz . Retrieved August 11, 2018.