What game company from your childhood do you remember with fondness?
What game company from your childhood do you remember with fondness?
I was thinking about how I remember Maxis fondly, and I got to wondering what other people's experiences were like!
Is your favorite still around? Are they still the same, or did they "change directions under new management?"
sierra ❤️
also bill pogue
Valve.
Not new management, but they definitely changed direction. From Portal 2 to Half-Life Alyx was a dark age of live service titles and hardware. Fortunately, it seems like they're finally getting back to their old selves?
Alyx was supposedly their re-entry into releasing games (hopeful that HLX is good), the Steam Deck caused them to go back and fix several of their titles (plus do the huge Half-Life update we just got), and while they're not exactly making their games as open as they used to, they're letting the community handle things like TF2 events and L4D2 patches.
So, I dunno, cautiously optimistic for their future. At least as long as Gabe is running the company.
Interplay, Microprobe, Sierra On-Line, Bullfrog, Dynamix, Origin, all long gone.
Activision is still around, but it's something completely different. Same with Atari (although theres a nostalgia brand now, so maybe back).
Of them all, I think is have to say I'm most nostalgic for Sierra On-Line, although Origin gives them a run for most nostalgic.
Westwood I had fun with Red Alert 1 & 2 for a long time. Super casual player though.
Origin "We create worlds". They definitely did with the Wing Commander series. Played a lot of WC 3, 4 as well as Privateer.
I don't think anyone mentioned Lionhead Studios. Black and White was fun. Sadly it's in copyright limbo if I'm not mistaken.
Also played a lot of Civilization 1 from Microprose back in the day.
Hard to pick but early to mid 90s era Maxis, Bullfrog, Bungie (Pathways/Marathon/Myth era), Blizzard, and SEGA all come to mind. All either gone or changed.
As soon as I saw the title, I was gonna say Maxis, too. I like how they called their games “software toys”.
Humongous entertainment
Maxis, Bullfrog, Westwood, Origin... basically any studio that EA bought and destroyed.
Interplay's Black Isle Studios, now Obsidian.
Blizzard. Without Activision.
Infocom hands down. Pure escapism
Novalogic - Loved the earlier Delta Force games, and Tachyon: The Fringe
Squaresoft, tri-Ace, Natsume
Dice with the OG Battlefield 2 on PC. That's what I mostly played. Now I haven't touched a BF game in years. None have lived up to that game yet.
Aspyr! I was a Mac user in an era that was 95% Windows, and Aspyr brought quality games over to our side of the pond. I remember they ported Alpha Centauri in particular, but there were lots of other ones too.
Also Bungie back in that era—they were Mac-exclusive and putting out the amazing Marathon series. I was heartbroken when I saw the trailer for the new “Marathon” game that looks nothing like the originals.
Valve is the only one of mine that's still around as more than just a brand name used by EA.
Bioware, Maxis, Bullfrog, Westwood, and more... All gobbled up and turned into shit by Electronic Farts.
Others that just died on their own include Black Isle and Interplay, Sierra and LucasArts. Some of these might be around in some capacity, though afaik they're just used for the names.
Looking Glass Studios.
Neversoft. THPS2 had a banger soundtrack.
Blizzard and Westwood studios. It's unfortunate what happened to them.
Mastertronic on the C64.
Level 5, I still go back to play dark cloud 1 and 2 every couple years. Now if they'd just make the third one I stead of another professor Layton or yokai watch that'd be great!
Westwood, but not for Command & Conquer or Dune 2. I still remember them fondly for their Kyrandia games. I loved the art design, the music and the jokes.
Kyrandia 2 being one of my all time favorite adventure games, Zanthia was an awesome protagonist. Especially for her time.It’s nice that their strategy games picked up the way they did, but part of me wishes they stuck with their fantasy games.
LK Avalon.
I grew up with tony hawks pro skater 2, need for speed 2 se, and prince of persia sands of time. So no.
Some I haven’t seen mentioned yet are Interplay and MECC.
I dont remember the name of it, but you flew around in a blue spaceshit type thing. I think the story involved you being in some futuristic scifi navy/army. One word I can remember being said a lot (i think your wingman or something said it sometimes when you got a kill) is "Casbah".
Its not a lot but I was very very young, and played it on my uncle's PC over a summer while I was visiting my relatives abroad. If anyone has even remotely any idea what Im blabbering about please tell me 😂. Ive been occasionally thinking about it for years.
Psygnosis simply for Drakan. I recently replayed it and it holds up pretty well, even if the melee combat as Rynn is a little clunky.
Another one, who is still around and very successful in their niche, is Egosoft. X4 at release was a little so-so, but mostly due to performance issues and me being spoiled from years and years worth of mods for the previous games (but also, without any of the really good DLCs, only three of the six or so factions are in the game).
PopTop. Railroad Tycoon 2&3 and Tropico 1&2. They got bought by 2K, which eventually killed the studio. The Railroad Tycoon series is dead. Tropico is still around, but I'm not excited about the latest interation. Some of the guys tried to kickstart a new Railroad Tycoon but it didn't fund. Phil Steinmeyer was an underrated developer, though I believe he's retired today.
It's too bad it worked out that way. I think they could have been on the level with Paradox as far as strategy games are concerned, but focusing more on economic games, city builders, and the like. On Steinmeyer's blog he said he didn't think there was demand for heavier games anymore about mid 00s. That might have been true then, but so many games out now prove that wrong.
ID tech
Ambrosia probably provided me the most hours of gaming entertainment over the 90s. They published Mac software and, if I remember correctly, most of their games were shareware and the non-paid versions were pretty well featured.
I wonder how many hundreds of hours I played Escape Velocity and Escape Velocity Override. Those were some absolutely amazing games and they supported plugins (mods) and had a thriving mod community.
For the 90s mac users, you’ll probably recognize a lot of their games (listed on the Wikipedia page). Here are some from the 90s that stand out to me:
Maelstrom
Chiral
Apeiron
Swoop
Barrack
Escape Velocity
Avara
Bubble Trouble
Harry the Handsome Executive
Mars Rising
EV Override
Ares
Escape Velocity Nova
GoD Games
I'm surprised no one has said thq. They had so many bangers
SSI for Dark Sun. They merged into Mindscape which then dissolved according to Wikipedia.
Quintet for the Soul Blazer/Terranigma/Illusion of Gaia trilogy. They just kinda disappeared in the early 2000s.
Treasure! Dynamite Headdy, Gunstar Heroes. Bangai O. Not to mention the shmups. Damn they made some amazing games with super cool mechanics. Last I checked, they made a few anime tie-in games or something in the 2010s, but nothing since then.
DMA Design and Stainless Studios.
