Tradewest

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Tradewest

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1986
resolution 1994
Reason for dissolution Takeover by WMS
Seat Corsicana, Texas , USA
management Leland Cook, Founder
Byron Cook, Co- Founder
Website www.tradewest.co.uk

Trade West is a defunct American game developer based in Corsicana ( Texas ), wide range of games in the 1980s and 1990s published. The company is best known as a publisher of the Battletoads and Double Dragon series .

In August 2009, the Tradewest name was reintroduced under the name Tradewest Games for the new owners of Midway Games . Midway Games adopted the Tradewest brand in 1996.

history

Tradewest was founded in 1986 by John Rowe (Vice Chairman), Leland Cook (banker and farmer) and his son Byron Cook . Tradewest began manufacturing SNK 's Ikari Warriors (Arcade) in the United States , continuing with the development of Victory Road , Alpha Mission , Redline Racer , John Elway's Quarterback, and Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off-Road when the company finally did drifted away from the coin-op arcade game business and focused on video games for home consoles .

In 1987 Tradewest acquired Cinematronics in El Cajon ( California ), which produced the games Dragon's Lair and Space Ace , among others . From then on, the merger of the two companies bore the name Leland Corporation . John Rowe was selected to head the El Cajon headquarters because of his background in the video game business as Vice Chairman of SNK .

In 1994 Tradewest was acquired by WMS Industries (owners of the Williams and Midway brands ) and renamed Williams Entertainment , which resulted in the end of Tradewest as an independent company. This is how WMS entered the video game market.

In 1996 WMS lost interest in video games and eventually transferred Williams Entertainment to Midway , which was henceforth called Midway Home Entertainment . As was the case with WMS, Midway was able to gain a foothold in the video game market and was able to develop and publish video games without relying on other publishers . The Corsicana facility in Texas and a new R§D facility in San Diego were retained by Midway, employing Byron Cook (then Managing Director of Midway Home Entertainment) and John Rowe (then Vice Chairman and Head of Product Development) to develop and publish games for Nintendo's GameCube , Microsoft's Xbox , Sony's Playstation and the PC .

Follow-up time

  • Midway's Chicago headquarters closed the Corsicana office and laid off its staff in late 2002.
  • Byron Cook left the video game business in favor of politics at the end of 2000. He is the state agent for the Corsicana District in Texas
  • In 2009 the Tradewest name was revived . In the course of the management buy-out of Midway , in which the previous management of the company bought their shares from the owners with the support of investors, Midway also acquired the rights to the name at the same time.

List of games manufactured and marketed by Tradewest

Arcade

  • Alpha Mission (1985)
  • Ikari Warriors (1986)
  • Victory Road (1987)

Nintendo Entertainment System

  • Double Dragon (June 1988)
  • John Elway's Quarterback Challenge (March 1989)
  • Taboo: The Sixth Sense (April 1989)
  • Magic Johnson's Fast Break (March 1990)
  • Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road (April 1990)
  • Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship (September 1990)
  • Battletoads (June 1991)
  • High Speed (July 1991)
  • Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat (August 1992)
  • RC Pro-Am II (December 1992)
  • Battletoads & Double Dragon (June 1993)

Game Boy

  • Double Dragon (August 1990)
  • Sneaky Snakes (June 1991)
  • Battletoads (November 1991) - Story, graphics and level design differ greatly from the NES game, which was also released in 1991, although the title and cover illustration have been adopted.
  • Jack Nicklaus Golf (May 1992)
  • Super Off Road (November 1992)
  • Battletoads in Raganarok's World (June 1993) - Port of the 1991 NES title
  • Battletoads & Double Dragon (December 1993)

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

  • Super Off Road (December 1991)
  • Jack Nicklaus Golf (May 1992)
  • Pro Quarterback (September 1992)
  • Super Double Dragon (October 15, 1992)
  • Battletoads in Battlemaniacs (June 1993)
  • Super Baseball 2020 (July 1993)
  • Plok (September 1993)
  • Super Off Road: The Baja (September 1993)
  • Battletoads & Double Dragon (December 1993)
  • Fun 'N' Games (August 1994)
  • Troy Aikman NFL Football (August 1994)
  • Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls (August 5, 1994)

Sega Mega Drive

  • Championship Pro-Am (May 12, 1992)
  • Battletoads (July 13, 1992)
  • Pro Quarterback (September 1992)
  • Fun 'N' Games (August 2, 1993)
  • Battletoads & Double Dragon (December 1993)
  • Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls (August 5, 1994)
  • Troy Aikman NFL Football (August 1994)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Midway rebranded Tradewest Games by new owner ( English ) August 2009. Retrieved on 9 March of 2010.
  2. ↑ State Representative Byron Cook ( English ) Retrieved on 9 March of 2010.

Web links