What was the first game developed by PopCap Games?
PopCap Games
PopCap Games was founded by John Vechey, Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka in 2000. They wanted to create games, primarily by learning from other Internet gaming sites. Their first game was "Bejeweled", a gem-swapping game, which was supported on all major platforms and awarded by Computer Gaming World Hall Of Fame in 2002. The company expanded in 2005 with the acquisition of Sprout Games, a Seattle-based casual games developer company like PopCap Games, founded by James Gwertzman. Sprout Games is the creator of the game "Feeding Frenzy". The Sprout team helped PopCap to make a sequel to the game, "", with Gwertzman becoming the Director of Business Development at PopCap. In early 2006, PopCap International was opened, based in Dublin, Ireland, working on product localization, mobile games development, marketing, sales and business development.
Plants vs. Zombies
In May 2013, the Facebook game "Plants vs. Zombies Adventures" was released by developer PopCap Games and publisher Electronic Arts. The gameplay is a tower defense game, players no longer had to defend a single home in front of the zombie horde, and could travel to new locations and engage with new characters. On July 14, 2014, it was announced that Plants vs. Zombies Adventures would close down on October 12, 2014. The Facebook game was removed by November 2014.
Eipix Entertainment
Parallel to its work in the HOPA genre, Eipix also develops and publishes a variety of games". Free the Witch", the first Eipix-developed free-to-play game, was released in 2016 through Big Fish Games. Later in the same year, Eipix also became a self-publishing company, independently releasing its own games for a variety of mobile platforms. The company's first independent release was the free-to-play game "Hoppy Land", published on the iTunes app store on August 31, 2016, followed by "Nom Nom" on October 4, 2016 and "Spiny Core" on December 16, 2016.
Lucas Pope
Pope collaborated with other video game modders, including working on a officially-sanctioned mod by Sony Pictures to promote "Anaconda". Pope and another set of modders decided to form their own studio, Ratloop, releasing the total "Quake" conversion mod "Malice" in 1997. Ratloop struggled with distribution through retail channels. While Walmart would help distribute their game, the chain required Ratloop to have 5,000 copies ready to ship within 24 hours at any time, requiring Ratloop to secure a publisher to help. After a first failed 3D game, Ratloop decided to develop a car repair game, "Gearhead Garage". It was successful enough to be picked up by Activision for retail distribution, and gave Ratloop sufficient funds to try a number of experimental games, something which had interested Pope. But none of these were published, and facing competition from other studios, particularly from Eastern Europe, that could make games at substantially lower prices, Ratloop became dormant.
Peggle
Peggle is a casual puzzle video game developed by PopCap Games. Initially released for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X systems in 2007, it has since had versions released for Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, the Nintendo DS (with the help of Q Entertainment), Windows Mobile, iOS, Zeebo and Android; the game has also been ported as a Java application, and an extended minigame incorporated into the massively multiplayer online game "World of Warcraft". A sequel was released in September 2008, titled "Peggle Nights". PopCap, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts, announced "Peggle 2" at E3 2013.
Peggle
Though the game was technically completed within a year, PopCap opted to spend more time to polish it, improving the visuals and background images. The team spent time refining the various sound effects used in the game, in order to provide an appropriate atmosphere. In some cases, they found the desired sound quickly; the sound of the ball hitting a peg was borrowed from another game in development at PopCap, but was considered perfect for "Peggle". Other cases required iteration; the sound of the ball shooter was originally closer to that of a cannon, while a "plunk" sound effect was used when the ball catcher caught a ball. These were changed to more airy sounds (an air cannon and a brief angelic chorus) in order to make the elements sound as if part of the game's music. The team found it helped to create a defining moment at the end of each level when the player is moments from clearing the final peg. This initially was programmed as a simple message stating "Extreme Fever" and the music of "Ode to Joy" as a placeholder. Sidhu wanted to recreate the "wild sounds and visuals" that were present on winning pachinko games. However, the team found that the players reacted well to the simpler placeholder elements, and the team focused on improving the presentation of these, including adding a zoom on the current ball as it neared the last orange peg to be cleared.
Peggle Nights
Peggle Nights is a Windows, Mac OS X and Microsoft Xbox Live Arcade downloadable game from PopCap Games. It is the sequel to 2007's "Peggle". It is also unlockable in "Peggle: Dual Shot" for the Nintendo DS. However, in "Peggle Dual Shot", Marina is not unlockable. The gameplay between the two games has remained largely unchanged, with each featuring a colorful 2D background filled with different colored "pegs". The objective in each level is to clear all of the orange pegs by hitting them with a ball shot from the top of the screen. New to this version are 60 new levels, 60 additional challenges, the introduction of the new Peggle Master Marina the Electric Squid, and the addition of an "Aced" score for each level. In 2013 PopCap announced a sequel, Peggle 2.
Pizza Frenzy
Pizza Frenzy is an arcade-style pizza delivery game written by Sprout Games and published by PopCap Games. A trial Windows version of the game can be downloaded and played for an hour, with full capabilities unlockable for a fee.
Mindcraft
After Ali Atabek enjoyed "Ultima II", he created "Rings of Zilfin" for SSI. With his wife and business partner Jim Thomas, Atabek formed Mindcraft Software to publish his next game, "The Magic Candle". By 1993 the company was publishing six titles a year and had about 30 employees. The company's games were primarily developed for DOS systems, but they also developed games for Apple II, Commodore 64, and Amiga computers. The company developed 15 games between 1989 and 1997.
Adventure game
The first known graphical adventure game was "Mystery House" (1980), by Sierra On-Line, then at the time known as On-Line Systems. The game featured static vector graphics atop a simple command line interface, building on the text adventure model. Sierra would continue to produce similar games under the title "Hi-Res Adventure". Vector graphics would give way to bitmap graphics which also enabled for simple animations to show the player-character moving in response to typed commands. Here, Sierra's "King's Quest" (1984), though not the first game of its type, is recognized as a commercially successful graphical adventure game, enabling Sierra to expand on more titles. Other examples of early games include Koei's "Night Life" and "Danchi Tsuma no Yuwaku" (1982), "Sherwood Forest" (1982), Yuji Horii's "Portopia Serial Murder Case" (1983), "The Return of Heracles" (which faithfully portrayed Greek mythology) by Stuart Smith (1983), Dale Johnson's "Masquerade" (1983), Antonio Antiochia's "Transylvania" (1982, re-released in 1984), and "Adventure Construction Set" (1985), one of the early hits of Electronic Arts.
Guru Logi Champ
PopCap released an web game called Pixelus (and the downloadable version Pixelus Deluxe) that featured the same gameplay mechanics as Guru Logi Champ, but dressed up in an Ancient Roman graphical theme.
Zuma's Revenge!
Zuma's Revenge! is a tile-matching puzzle video game developed and published by PopCap Games. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X on September 15, 2009 as a sequel to the earlier "Zuma", and was later ported to Windows Phone. It features high-definition graphics, new levels and 'power-ups,' several new features, as well as boss battles. On February 22, 2011, a version was introduced for Nintendo DS which features daily challenges, versus mode and achievements.
Ape Escape
"Ape Quest" was officially released in 2008 exclusively to the US PSN store, and was the first game to be developed by Sony Computer Entertainment America. It was then published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe in May 2008 and was finally released in March 2009 in Japan. It was the first game in the series to be a PSN-only title, excluding Asia, where it received a physical release. In 2009, a game titled "Ape Escape" was announced along with the PlayStation Move. Fans and critics speculated that it was the fourth entry in the series, after Sony's 2006 advertisement. In Q3 2010, "PlayStation Move: Ape Escape" was officially announced under the party genre, and with a different name for every region. It was released in Japan in December 2010, Asia in January 2011, and the UK and Europe in mid-2012. In the US, the title was only made available on the PSN store. After the release of "PlayStation Move: Ape Escape", no titles were announced in 2012, making it the first year since 2002 that no "Ape Escape" title had been released and the first year in the history of the franchise that no title had been announced within each region. Despite this, Spike is a character in "PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale", which was released in November 2012.One of the main story elements of each of the main series involves a white-haired monkey named Specter obtaining a helmet known as the Peak Point Helmet (Pipo Helmet for short), which boosts his intelligence. After equipping an army of monkeys with Pipo Helmets, and using an enhanced helmet for himself, Specter sends his monkey army to take over the world, and Space. It is up to the game's protagonists, equipped with various gadgets, to capture the monkeys and restore order to the world.
Ace (video game)
The game was developed by Cascade Games founded in 1983 by Guy Wilhelmy and Nigel Stevens. Wilhelmy had a pilot's license and had experience with aircraft control and responsiveness, while Stevens' father had been in British Royal Air Force. Wilhelmy explained that he wanted to create a fast-paced flying game with responsive graphics that other games of the time struggled with. Cascade hired programmer Ian Martin and graphics designer Damon Redmond to work on the project in 1985. The first version known as "A.C.E.: Air Combat Emulator" was released in 1985 for the Commodore 16 and VIC-20 home computers. Martin describes that an advertisement erroneously promising a Plus/4 version forced them to develop it under threat of action by Advertising Standards Agency.
Social-network game
Some large established video games developers are acquiring small operators to capitalize on the social gaming industry. The Walt Disney Company purchased social game developer Playdom for $763.0 million, and Electronic Arts purchased PopCap Games for $750.0 million in July 2011.
Herald: An Interactive Period Drama
Herald is a single-player adventure video game, or "interactive period drama", for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux.
It was the first game released by Wispfire, a Dutch indie studio located in the Dutch Game Garden, Utrecht. The company was founded by creative director Bart Heijltjes, writer Roy van der Schilden, artist Aïda de Ridder, and programmer Remko Haagsma. On March 31, 2017, Wispfire released a Patch that allows "Herald" to be played on Xbox 360, Xbox One and the Sony Dualshock 4 for PlayStation 4.
Electronic Arts
The company began developing games in-house and supported consoles by the early 1990s. EA later grew via acquisition of several successful developers. By the early 2000s, EA had become one of the world's largest third-party publishers. On May 4, 2011, EA reported $3.8 billion in revenues for the fiscal year ending March 2011, and on January 13, 2012, EA announced that it had exceeded $1 billion in digital revenue during the previous calendar year. In a note to employees, EA CEO John Riccitiello called this "an incredibly important milestone" for the company. EA began to move toward direct distribution of digital games and services with the acquisition of the popular online gaming site Pogo.com in 2001. In 2009, EA acquired the London-based social gaming startup Playfish, and in June 2011, EA launched Origin, an online service to sell downloadable games directly to consumers. There is also a "On The House" feature in Origin that lets you download full versions of EA games for free, it is updated regularly. In July 2011, EA announced that it had acquired PopCap Games, the company behind hits such as "Plants vs. Zombies" and "Bejeweled".
Planet of the Apes (video game)
In 1998, 20th Century Fox greenlit the most recent of several attempts at a "Planet of the Apes" film remake, to be produced by James Cameron. The company's video game division Fox Interactive prepared to develop a video game tie-in. Cameron dropped out and the film project went on hold, but confident a remake would progress sooner or later, Fox proceeded with the video game. It was the first ever "Planet of the Apes" video game; Fox had attempted a game for the Atari 2600, but abandoned it amid the video game crash of 1983 (new designers completed and released this game as "Revenge of the Apes" in 2003). Fox Interactive contracted French video game developer Visiware to design the "Planet of the Apes" game. With the film in limbo, the creators developed a new story inspired by Pierre Boulle's original novel "Planet of the Apes" and the 1968 film version. The designers felt an action-adventure game would best suit the material and available technology. They developed the game for PC, PlayStation, and Sega Dreamcast, though they scrapped the Dreamcast version when Sega discontinued the console. Rather than publish the game themselves, Fox Interactive opted to co-publish with a third party. This move, which industry professionals took as a sign that the division was in decline, resulted in major production delays.
Peggle
"Peggle Extreme" was packaged with the Windows version of "The Orange Box", featuring levels inspired by "Half-Life 2", "Team Fortress 2", and "Portal". It includes ten levels with one Peggle Master, and five Challenges. "Peggle Extreme" was eventually made free to download for anyone with a Steam account. The game was developed in conjunction with Valve Corporation after PopCap's Tams learned that "Peggle" was played often at Valve's offices and that the company had helped to promote the game on Steam. PopCap proposed a version that would pay tribute to Valve's games, which Valve readily warmed up to, helping PopCap with its development, including providing graphical assets and artwork.
Galaxy Game
Galaxy Game is a space combat arcade game developed in 1971 during the early era of video games. Created by Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck, it was one of the first coin-operated video games; its initial prototype display in November 1971 at the Tresidder student union building at Stanford University was only a few months after a similar display of a prototype of "Computer Space", making it the second known video game to charge money to play. "Galaxy Game" is an expanded version of the 1962 "Spacewar!", potentially the first video game to spread to multiple computer installations. It features two spaceships, "the needle" and "the wedge", engaged in a dogfight while maneuvering in the gravity well of a star. Both ships are controlled by human players.
Bejeweled (series)
PopCap Games initially announced a version of "Bejeweled" for the iPhone that was not a standalone game, but rather a web application playable over the Safari browser. A native application for the iPhone has since been made available for purchase in the iTunes store, although the web-based version still exists.
Dropchord
Dropchord is a motion controlled music-based puzzle video game for Windows and OS X using the Leap Motion controller. It was developed and published by Double Fine Productions and financed by Dracogen. The game was one of the first games released on Leap Motion's Airspace app store, when it went live on July 22, 2013. It was also released for Ouya on July 31, 2013, and on Android and iOS on August 1, 2013.
Zombie
PopCap Games' "Plants vs. Zombies", a humorous tower defense game, was an indie hit in 2009, featuring in several best-of lists at the end of that year. The massively multiplayer online role-playing game "Urban Dead", a free grid-based browser game where zombies and survivors fight for control of a ruined city, is one of the most popular games of its type.
PopCap Games
PopCap Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Seattle. The company was founded in 2000 by John Vechey, Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka, and was acquired by Electronic Arts in July 2011.
Bejeweled
The game was created by PopCap Games as a web-based Shockwave (later using Flash) game called "Diamond Mine", inspired by the 1994 MS-DOS game "Shariki". PopCap created partnerships which allowed Microsoft Zone and other gaming sites to host "Bejeweled" as well. The name "Bejeweled" was suggested by Microsoft, who thought the original name "Diamond Mine" was too similar to that of an existing game, "Diamond Mines".
Danny O'Dwyer
Danny O'Dwyer launched Noclip via a Patreon campaign and is supported through crowdfunding. NoClip's first project provided viewers with insight into the hit videogame "Rocket League". The second project covered a history of "Doom", revealing some previously unreleased footage from "Doom 4." For the third project, Danny introduced the company's first in its "Noclip Profiles" series, traveling to Ireland "to talk to John Romero about his incredible career making some of the most influential first person shooters of all time." In the fourth project, a multi-game documentary entitled Rediscovering Mystery, Noclip's YouTube page stated: "we talk to Jonathan Blow [lead designer of The Witness], Derek Yu [lead designer of Spelunky] and Jim Crawford [lead designer of Frog Fractions and Frog Fractions 2] about the challenge of retaining mystery & player discovery in the age of the internet."
Hellcats over the Pacific
Hellcats over the Pacific is a flight simulator computer game for the Macintosh computer. It was written by Parsoft Interactive and released by Graphic Simulations in 1991. Hellcats was a major release for the Mac platform, one of the first 3D games to be able to drive a 640 x 480 x 8-bit display at reasonable frame rates in an era when the PC clone's VGA at 320 x 240 x 4-bit was the standard. The graphics engine was combined with a simple Mac interface, a set of randomized missions, and a number of technical features that greatly enhanced the game's playability and made it a lasting favorite into the mid-1990s. The original game was followed with a missions disk in 1992, Hellcats: Missions at Leyte Gulf, which greatly increased the visual detail and added many more objects to the game.
Insaniquarium
Insaniquarium is a puzzle video game created by American studio Flying Bear Entertainment and published by PopCap Games.
LucasArts
The first adventure game developed by Lucasfilm Games was "" in 1986, based on the Lucasfilm movie of the same name. The 1987 title "Maniac Mansion" introduced SCUMM, the scripting language behind most of the company's later adventure offerings. The adventures released in the following years, such as "Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders" in 1988, "" in 1989, and the 1990 titles "Loom" and "The Secret of Monkey Island" helped Lucasfilm Games build a reputation as one of the leading developers in the genre. The original five adventure games created with SCUMM were released in a compilation titled "LucasArts Classic Adventures" in 1992.
Bejeweled (series)
Bejeweled is a series of tile-matching puzzle video games created by PopCap Games. "Bejeweled" was released initially for browsers in 2001, followed by five sequels: "Bejeweled 2" (2004), "Bejeweled Twist" (2008), "Bejeweled Blitz" (2009), "Bejeweled 3" (2010), and "Bejeweled Stars" (2016), all by PopCap Games and its parent, Electronic Arts. More than 25 million copies of "Bejeweled" have been sold, and the game has been downloaded more than 150 million times. An arcade version was released in Q3 2013.
"Bejeweled" was initially created by PopCap Games as a web-based Flash game named "Diamond Mine". PopCap created partnerships with established Internet gaming sites, such as Microsoft Zone, to host "Bejeweled" as well. The name "Bejeweled" was suggested by Microsoft, who thought the original name "Diamond Mine" was too similar to that of an existing game, "Diamond Mines".
Epic Games
Epic Games, Inc. (formerly Potomac Computer Systems and later Epic MegaGames, Inc.) is an American video game and software development company based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, Maryland. Following his first commercial video game release, "ZZT" (1991), the company became Epic MegaGames in early 1992, and brought on Mark Rein, who is the company's vice president to date. Moving their headquarters to Cary in 1999, the studio's name was simplified to Epic Games.
Quest for Camelot
The first video game was titled "Quest for Camelot" and is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Titus Interactive with assistance from Nintendo for the Game Boy Color in 1998. A Nintendo 64 version of the game was planned but was scrapped due to the film's performance at the box office.
The second video game was titled "Quest for Camelot: Dragon Games" is a computer game developed by Knowledge Adventure, it gives the player the ability to explore Camelot after the events of the film. In addition to exploring the world, the player gets to raise a dragon egg and watch it grow.
List of commercial failures in video gaming
"APB: All Points Bulletin" was a multiplayer online game developed by Realtime Worlds in 2010. The game, incorporating concepts from their previous title "Crackdown" and past work by its lead developer David Jones, who had helped create the "Grand Theft Auto" series, was set around the idea of a large-scale urban battle between Enforcers and Criminals; players would be able to partake in large-scale on-going missions between the two sides. The game was originally set as both a Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 title and as Realtime Worlds' flagship title for release in 2008, but instead the company set about developing "Crackdown" first, and later focused "APB" as a Windows-only title, potentially porting the game to the Xbox 360 later. Upon launch in June 2010, the game received lukewarm reviews, hampered by the existence of a week-long review embargo, and did not attract the expected number of subscribers to maintain its business model. Realtime Worlds, suffering from the commercial failure of the game, sold off a second project, Project MyWorld, and subsequently reduced its operations to administration and a skeleton crew to manage the "APB" servers while they attempted to find a buyer, including possibly Epic Games who had expressed interest in the title. However, without any acceptable offers, the company was forced to shut down "APB" in September 2010. Eventually, the game was sold to K2 Network, a company that has brought other Asian massive-multiplayer online games to the Western markets as free-to-play titles, and similar changes occurred to "APB" when it was relaunched by K2.
Bookworm Adventures
Bookworm Adventures is a word-forming puzzle video game, the follow-up to "Bookworm" from PopCap Games. Released in November 2006, "Bookworm Adventures" combines the "create words from sets of letters" aspect of "Bookworm" with several elements of a role-playing video game. In the 2007 Interactive Achievement Awards, "Bookworm Adventures" won the "Downloadable Game of the Year". The game also won three Zeeby awards for Best Word & Trivia Game of 2006, Best Game Design of 2006 and Best Story/Narrative of 2006.
LucasArts
The early charter of Lucasfilm Games was to make experimental, innovative, and technologically advanced video games. "Habitat", an early online role-playing game and one of the first to support a graphical front-end, was one such title. It was only released as a beta test in 1986 by Quantum Link, an online service for the Commodore 64. Quantum Link could not provide the bandwidth at the time to support the game, so the full Habitat was never released outside of the beta test. However, Lucasfilm Games recouped the cost of development by releasing a sized down version called "Club Caribe" in 1988. Lucasfilm later licensed the software to Fujitsu, who released it in Japan as "Fujitsu Habitat" in 1990. Fujitsu later licensed Habitat for worldwide distribution, and released an updated version called "WorldsAway" in 1995. The latest iteration of Habitat is still called "WorldsAway", which can be found at MetroWorlds.
God game
Although there are many influences on the god game genre, the first god game is widely considered to be "Populous" from 1989. Developed by Peter Molyneux of Bullfrog Productions, the game established the gameplay template where the player's godlike powers would grow in proportion to the population of their worshippers. The game gives players supernatural powers over land and nature that could be used for good or evil, and some of this gameplay was emulated by other real-time strategy games with more direct control. Notable hybrids of the genre include "ActRaiser" for the Super NES in 1990. It was also an influence on the real-time strategy hybrid "Dungeon Keeper", developed by Molyneux in 1997.
Ironsword: Wizards &amp; Warriors II
"Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II" was developed by UK-based computer game company Zippo Games, headed by Ste and John Pickford; this was the first game Zippo developed for fellow UK-based video game company Rare. At the time, Zippo Games had just completed a previous game titled "Cosmic Pirate" - a game that was published by Palace Software and released for the Commodore 64, Atari ST, and Amiga in 1988. New to the technical capabilities of the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Pickford brothers visited Rare and were pleased with their NES library, though they thought they were backtracking by deciding to develop games for the console. According to Ste Pickford: "The NES seemed primitive by comparison, sub-Commodore 64. But the games were ten times better than everything being released for home computers, which we appreciated, and we wanted to try to make games as good as that." Rare decided to hire Zippo Games to develop this "Wizards & Warriors" sequel; Pickford remarked: "Rare showed us "Wizards & Warriors" and asked us to develop the sequel, and pretty much left us to it." Rare felt that Zippo Games was trustworthy enough to develop the sequel without much help from them.
PopCap Games
On April 5, 2011, PopCap announced the creation of a new subsidiary, 4th and Battery, started in order to create "edgier" games. Their first creation was the game "Unpleasant Horse". On July 12, 2011, Electronic Arts announced it was acquiring PopCap for $650 million with an additional $100 million stock option.
Roberta Williams
In the 1980s and 1990s, Roberta and her husband, Ken Williams, were leading figures in the development of graphical adventure games. In 1980, they founded the company On-Line Systems, which later became Sierra On-Line. The first Williams' title was "Mystery House" (1980), the first graphical adventure game. The second title, "Wizard and the Princess" (1980), added color graphics. But the first serious success was the "King's Quest" series, which featured a large expansive world that could be explored by players. "King's Quest I" (1984) was the first adventure game to have animation, and "King's Quest V" (1990) was the first to use an icon-based interface. Roberta Williams also designed such titles as "Mixed-Up Mother Goose" (1987), "The Colonel's Bequest" (1989), and "Phantasmagoria" (1995), which was the first in her career to be developed in the full-motion video technology. "Phantasmagoria" featured extreme violence and rape scenes. The game has received mixed reviews. Though Sierra was sold in 1996, Williams' production credits date to 1999, when she retired from Sierra On-Line. Roberta posed for the cover of the game "Softporn Adventure" by Chuck Benton, published by On-line Systems. She also posed much later with her children as Mother Goose for the cover photograph of "Mixed-Up Mother Goose". The end sequence of "Leisure Suit Larry 3" features her as an in-game character. She was also a source of inspiration for Cameron's character in the AMC television drama "Halt and Catch Fire".
Peter Molyneux
Using money earned from the database program, Molyneux and Les Edgar founded Bullfrog Productions in 1987. The company's first game was a conversion of "Druid II: Enlightenment". Molyneux recalled, "I got in touch with a software company called Firebird and told them that I could program games. Of course I was bull-shitting, but they gave me "Druid 2" to convert to the Amiga. You're very unlikely to get that kind of break today." Molyneux provided the original concept for "Populous", the first god game for the personal computer. Released in 1989, "Populous" was a major success for Bullfrog and went on to sell over 4 million copies.
History of video games
Nintendo followed a year later with the GameCube (code-named "Dolphin" while in development), the company's first optical disc-based console. While it had the component-video ability of its contemporaries, the GameCube suffered in several ways compared to Sony's PS2. First, the PS2's high anticipation and one-year head start gained it player and developer attention before the GCN's release. As a result, the GameCube had less third-party backing and very few third-party exclusives, mostly from Nintendo-faithful studios such as Rare and the now-defunct Midway Games. Cross-platform giants like Capcom, Electronic Arts and Activision released most of their GameCube titles on other consoles as well, while Square Enix released high-demand PS2 exclusives. The GCN's game disc capacity was a third that of the PS2's full-size DVD disks, forcing a few games to be released on multiple discs and most titles to compromise on texture quality and other features of GameCube games, when other platforms had no such limitations on their versions. It had no backward compatibility with the now-obsolete cartridges of the N64. It was a dedicated game console, with the optical drive being too small to hold a full-size CD or DVD. Lastly, The GameCube was hindered by a reputation for being a "kid's console", due to its initial launch color scheme and lack of mature-content games which the current market appeared to want. Though T- and M-rated titles did exist on the GameCube, almost all GCN games were E-rated and mostly cartoon-style in their art design.
Before the end of 2001, Microsoft Corporation, best known for its Windows operating system and its professional productivity software, entered the console market with the Xbox. Based on Intel's Pentium III CPU, the console used a great deal of PC technology to leverage its internal development, making games for PC easily portable to the Xbox. To gain market share and maintain its toehold in the market, Microsoft reportedly sold the Xbox at a significant loss and concentrated on drawing profit from game developing and publishing. Shortly after its release in November 2001 Bungie Studio's "" instantly became the driving point of the Xbox's success, and the "Halo" series would go on to become one of the most successful console shooter franchises of all time. By the end of the generation, the Xbox had drawn even with the Nintendo GameCube in sales globally, but since nearly all of its sales were in North America, it pushed Nintendo into third place in the American market.
Capcom
While Capcom's first product was the coin-operated "Little League" from July 1983, its first real video game, the arcade title "Vulgus", was released in May 1984. Beginning with a Nintendo Entertainment System port of "1942" published in December 1985, the company started to venture into the market of home console video games, which became its main business segment a few years later. Its division Capcom USA had a brief stint in the late 1980s as a video game publisher for the Commodore 64 and IBM PC DOS computers although the development of these arcade ports were handled by other companies. Capcom has created 15 multi-million-selling game series, the most successful of which is "Resident Evil".
Plants vs. Zombies
In late 2012, PopCap announced that they were working on a sequel to "Plants vs. Zombies". However, the game's status was in doubt shortly after the announcement when the company went through a period of layoffs, which included series creator George Fan. "" released August 15, 2013 as a free-to-play title, and was a time-limited exclusive title for iOS systems before moving to Android later that year.
Star Wars: Rebel Assault
Star Wars: Rebel Assault is a rail shooter video game developed and published by LucasArts for DOS, Apple Macintosh, Sega CD and 3DO Interactive Multiplayer systems, set in the Star Wars universe. Released in 1993, it is the first CD-ROM-only game to be published by LucasArts. The game's story focuses on a young pilot called Rookie One as He or She is trained by, and subsequently fights for, the Rebel Alliance in the Galactic Civil War.
Human-based computation game
The first human-based computation game or games with a purpose was created in 2004 by Luis von Ahn. The game was called ESP because players had to come up with labels for images and try to guess what labels a randomly designated partner was coming up with. The game marked the first of many microtask games. Microtask games are games containing a simple task that can be solved quickly without the need of any credentials. More specifically, ESP was an output-agreement game. Games with a Purpose categorized as output-agreement games are microtask games where a pair of randomly assigned partners try to match output with each other given a shared input visible to both. In 2006 von Ahn introduced another microtask game called Peekaboom. This game extended upon ESP by having players associate a labels with a specific region of an image. Peekaboom demonstrated a new type of microtask game known as inversion-problem games. In inversion-problem games, two players are randomly paired together where one is assigned as the describer and the other as the guesser. The describer is given an input which the guesser must reproduce given hints from the describer. In "Peekaboom", for example, the describer slowly reveals small sections of an image until the guesser correctly guesses the label provided to the describer. In 2008 Edith L. M. Law created the game called "TagATune". In this game, players label sound clips. TagATune contributed a new category of microtask games known as input-agreement games. In input-agreement games two randomly paired players are each given an input that is hidden from the other player. Player inputs will either match or be different. The goal of these games is for players to tag their input such that the other player can determine whether or not the two inputs match. In TagATune, players describe sound clips and guess if their partner's sound clip is the same as their own given their partner's tags. Also in 2008, Foldit was introduced by Seth Cooper. "Foldit" was the first game with a purpose to be considered a macrotask game. Macrotask games contain complex problems usually left to experts to solve. In "Foldit", player attempt to fold a three-dimensional representation of a protein. While this is a hard problem of computers to automate completely, it is not hard to score. Thus players are able to focus on their score to perform this complex task without much knowledge of biology.
Star Wars video games
In 2003, "", a BioWare RPG that debuted on the Microsoft Xbox and PC. "Knights" (also known as KotOR among fans) was critically acclaimed, even winning "Game of the Year" at the Game Developers Choice Awards, (along with many other critics) in 2003. "" was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and released in 2004. KotOR II was praised for its cerebral writing and moral ambiguity, similar to The Empire Strikes Back. Another MMORPG titled "" was developed by BioWare, which released globally on December 20, 2011. Pre-orders went up for sale in July 2011 and open beta weekends were confirmed for September 2011."" (2004). "" in 2005.A third Star Wars 
Battlefront title was planned for 2006 but was cancelled. It is also to be noted that "" was released on November 3, 2009 for the Nintendo DS and the PSP. This is the first "Battlefront" game to offer a transition from space to ground battles at the players choice. After Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm and the restructuring of the "Star Wars" canon, the "Battlefront" series was rebooted by EA DICE.
Commodore 64 software
There were many classic must-have games produced on the Commodore 64, perhaps too many to mention, including versions of classic video games. Of particular note, the smash hit "Impossible Mission" produced by Epyx was originally designed for the Commodore 64. Epyx's multievent games ("Summer Games", "Winter Games", "World Games", and "California Games") were very popular, as well as perhaps the first driving game with split-screen dynamics, "Pitstop II". Most of these games eventually made an appearance on the Commodore DTV joystick unit many years later.
Other hit games such as "Boulder Dash", "The Sentinel", "Archon", and "Elite" were all given Commodore 64 versions. Cassette users may remember titles such as "Master of Magic", "Rocketball", "One Man and His Droid", and "Spellbound" on Mastertronic's budget labels. Other notable titles on the Commodore 64 include the "Ultima" and "Bard's Tale" role-playing game series. Hewson/Graftgold were responsible for several well-received C64 titles including "Paradroid" and "Uridium"—made famous for their metallic bas-relief styled graphic effects and addictive gameplay. System 3 produced "The Last Ninja" action adventure series originally on the C64. "Armalyte", a groundbreaking shoot 'em up title from Thalamus Ltd, and "Turrican I & II" are among some of the highest rated games for the Commodore 64 (according to "Zzap64", which awarded "Gold Medals" to these games).
List of BioWare video games
BioWare was given the opportunity to work on another popular intellectual property, "Star Wars", when LucasArts approached them at the turn of the millennium.
"" released first on Microsoft's Xbox video game console in 2003. While it was not BioWare's first console game, it helped the studio break into the console market since Microsoft Game Studios wanted to partner with them on console exclusive titles, such as "Jade Empire" (2005) and "Mass Effect" (2007). In March 2006, BioWare expanded their operations and opened a new studio in Austin, Texas, to helm the development of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). In October 2007, American publisher Electronic Arts (EA) announced that it had acquired BioWare. Under EA, BioWare established the fantasy RPG series "Dragon Age", continued to release games in their science fiction RPG series "Mass Effect", and opened a new studio in Montreal. They also revisited the "Star Wars" franchise with BioWare Austin's MMORPG "" (2011).
Star Fox (1993 video game)
In 2002, Rare's "Star Fox Adventures" was released for Nintendo GameCube. "Adventures" was the first "Star Fox" game to incorporate an action role-playing element, where the player acts as Fox McCloud on the world of Sauria, also known as Dinosaur Planet. In 2005, "" was released for the GameCube, this time developed by Namco. It incorporates a third-person shooter aspect into the game. "Star Fox Command", released for the Nintendo DS in 2006, is the first game of the series on a portable system, and the first featuring online gaming. It uses many features from the unreleased "Star Fox 2".
Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time
Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time is a 2013 free-to-play tower defense video game developed by PopCap Games and published by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to "Plants vs. Zombies", and was released worldwide on Apple App Store on August 15, 2013 and Google Play on October 23, 2013.
History of video games
Starting with PCs, a new trend in casual games, with limited complexity and designed for shortened or impromptu play sessions, began to draw attention from the industry. Many were puzzle games, such as Popcap's "Bejeweled" and PlayFirst's "Diner Dash", while others were games with a more relaxed pace and open-ended play. The biggest hit was "The Sims" by Maxis, which went on to become the best selling computer game of all time, surpassing "Myst".
NeocoreGames
NeocoreGames was founded in 2005 and began working as a small game development studio. The studio is known for their work in the role-playing game genre exemplified by their "" series. The sequel, "", was developed using Coretech 2, NeocoreGames's new game engine.
In 2012 with the announcement of the action-RPG "The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing" and the party-based tactical RPG "Broken Sea", NeocoreGames has returned to independent video game development. In May 2012 the company announced the development of a role-playing game based on Bram Stoker's "Dracula". Titled "The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing", the game follows Van Helsing's son as he travels to the eastern-European kingdom of Borgovia to slay the monsters that are overrunning the land. The game was to be the start of a new intellectual property for NeocoreGames. In June 2012 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, NeocoreGames announced a second new game they were developing: "Broken Sea" is a fantasy tactical role-playing game developed for the PC. In August 2014, NeocoreGames announced their first tower defense game, titled "Deathtrap". In February 2017, NeocoreGames launched the Founding for their upcoming Action-RPG titled "Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr."
Galaxy Game
Tuck and Pitts, on the other hand, while impressed with Bushnell's hardware were not impressed with the game itself. They felt that "Computer Space", a single-player game without the central gravity well of the original game, was a pale imitation of "Spacewar", while their own "Galaxy Game" was a superior adaptation of the game. In November 1971, the "Galaxy Game" prototype debuted. The veneered walnut console, complete with seats for players, was located on the second floor of the building and connected to the PDP-11 in the attic by a 100-foot cable. It was very successful; Pitts later said that the machine attracted crowds of people "ten-deep" watching the players. They briefly attached a second monitor hanging above the console so that the watchers could more easily see the game. The low prices meant that they did not come close to making back the price of the PDP-11, but they were excited by the game's reception and had not intended the prototype to be profitable. As the initial "Galaxy Game" prototype was displayed to the public a few months after the first "Computer Space" prototype, it is believed to be the second video game to charge money to play.
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare
PopCap Games in Vancouver started the title's development in early 2012. With PopCap hoping to use a new game to expand the franchise and introduce it to a broader audience, they intentionally opted not to make a 2D tower defense game and opted for a different genre. The team was inspired by other team-based shooters with colorful visuals such as "Left 4 Dead" and "Team Fortress 2", and the team faced different challenges when designing the game's eight classes. Game engine Frostbite 3 powered the game, and the team collaborated closely with EA DICE when implementing the game's technology.
Gyromancer
The game was first thought up in 2007 during a meeting between PopCap and Square Enix, which had published several of PopCap's games in Japan. Jason Kapalka, the co-founder and chief creative officer of PopCap, claims that he "half-jokingly" proposed a game collaboration between the two companies that would combine a role-playing game with "Bejeweled"-style gameplay, calling it “Final Fantasy Bejeweled”. Kapalka was envisioning creating a similar game to "", a 2007 video game which members of the development staff of both companies were playing at the time. The idea attracted the attention of Yuichi Murasawa, designer of "Final Fantasy Tactics Advance", and the game began formal development. To differentiate the game from "Puzzle Quest", the gameplay was based around "Bejeweled Twist" rather than "Bejeweled", which Kopalka feels fit the art design of the game more. Other candidates considered were "Zuma" and "Peggle", but they were dropped as the developers felt that they did not fit in with the combat theme. PopCap developed the early prototype for the game, then allowed Square Enix to complete the bulk of the work in designing and creating the game, especially in regards to the RPG aspects. Square Enix and PopCap announced the game on September 24, 2009. It was published by Square Enix on the Xbox Live Arcade and on the Steam platform for Windows PCs on November 18, 2009. A downloadable pack of maps and a pack of items were made available for sale a week after launch on November 23, 2009 for both versions of the game.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
In July 2000, BioWare announced that they were working with LucasArts to create a Star Wars role-playing video game for the PC and next-generation consoles. Joint BioWare CEO Greg Zeschuk commented that "The opportunity to create a richly detailed new chapter in the Star Wars universe is incredibly exciting for us. We are honored to be working with the extremely talented folks at Lucas Arts, developing a role-playing game based upon one of the most high-profile licenses in the world." The game was officially unveiled as "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" at E3 2001. At this point, the game had been in development for around six months. "Preproduction started in 2000, but the discussions started back in 1999," LucasArts' Mike Gallo said, "The first actual e-mails were in October or November of '99. That's when we first started talking to BioWare. But some really serious work finally started at the beginning of 2000."
The decision to set the game four thousand years before "" was one of the first details about the game made known. LucasArts gave BioWare a choice of settings for the game. "LucasArts came to us and said that we could do an game," BioWare CEO Raymond Muzyka said. "Or LucasArts said we could go 4,000 years back, which is a period that's hardly been covered before." BioWare chose to set the game four thousand years before the films as it gave them greater creative freedom. They aimed to create content similar to that from the films but different enough to be a definite precursor. Concept work had to be sent to "the ranch" to be approved for use. Muzyka noted that very little of their content was rejected: "It was more like, 'Can you just make his head like this rather than like that.' So it was all very feasible. There were good suggestions made and they made the game better, so we were happy to do them. It was a good process really and I think we were pleasantly surprised how easy LucasArts was to work with." Zeschuk said that "Overall, we were really happy with the results. We felt like we had enough freedom to truly create something wonderful."
Bullfrog Productions
After the release of "Magic Carpet", seven games were in development: "Magic Carpet 2", "Theme Hospital", "The Indestructibles", "Syndicate Wars", "Gene Wars", "Creation", and "Dungeon Keeper". After Electronic Arts' purchase, Molyneux was told to release a game, namely "Magic Carpet 2" or "Dungeon Keeper", within six weeks. Neither were near completion, so to appease Electronic Arts, "Hi-Octane" was developed. This predicament was the reason for the game's creation and rushed development, and as of July 1995, the project did not have a name. Molyneux explained that Bullfrog's games were normally original, and they were not concerned about them being copied, but the project was "a little derivative", which was why it was kept secret—even Edgar was not informed of the project at first. Around this time, Bullfrog had a reputation for having largely ignored 16-bit game consoles, and "Syndicate Wars" was the company's first title developed originally for a console—the PlayStation.
Bonnie's Bookstore
Bonnie's Bookstore is a word-forming puzzle video game developed by New Crayon Games and published by PopCap Games. On each level, tiles containing one (or in some cases, two) letters are arranged in a specific structure. As in the similar title "Bookworm", players use adjacent letters to form valid words, with points being awarded based on the length of the word. In most cases, once a letter is used, it is removed from the board, with existing letters moving downwards and new letters filling in from the top.
Star Fox
The first game, "Star Fox" ("Starwing" in Europe and Australia) was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1993. Developed by Nintendo EAD and programmed by Argonaut Software, it used the Super FX chip to simulate 3D graphics during a period of predominately 2D games. Fox McCloud and his team, Slippy Toad, Peppy Hare, and Falco Lombardi, take on Andross, who threatens to overthrow the Lylat system. Several boss battles from the game are included as mini-games in the Wii title "", using the Wii Remote to fly the ship.
PopCap Games
PopCap began another round of expansion in July 2007 by buying other casual game developers including the creators of an online consumer portal, SpinTop Games. One week prior, the company acquired the Chicago-based development house Retro64, founded by Mike Boeh, which is best known for their retro-arcade action and puzzle titles. After these acquisitions, the PopCap logo was rebranded, dropping the "Games" portion. PopCap's premium games list on their website are mixed with other games from other developers/distributors.
Plants vs. Zombies
To date, "Plants vs. Zombies" is the fastest-selling video game created by PopCap Games. "Plants vs. Zombies" director George Fan estimated that half of the game's sales are from hardcore gamers. According to PopCap, the iOS release of "Plants vs. Zombies" sold more than 300,000 copies in the first nine days it was available on the App Store, generating more than $1M in gross sales, and considered it "the top-grossing iPhone launch".
RoboCop (1988 video game)
Despite being an arcade game, numerous versions appeared for home computers and video game consoles. The first group was released in 1988 for the Apple II, PC compatibles, Amiga, and Atari ST. The Apple and PC ports were developed by Quicksilver Software, while the Amiga and ST versions were developed directly by Ocean. Data East published the game in North America. A NES port followed in 1989, developed by Sakata SAS Co, and a version for the TRS-80 CoCo 3. Ocean developed and published a version for the Game Boy in 1990.
DuckTales (video game)
Although Capcom had previously worked with Disney by publishing the Hudson-produced "Mickey Mousecapade" in North America in 1988, "DuckTales" became the first licensed game that the company developed, and shared many key personnel with the original "Mega Man" series including producer Tokuro Fujiwara, character designer Keiji Inafune, and sound programmer Yoshihiro Sakaguchi.
Peggle Blast
Peggle Blast is a puzzle video game for mobile devices developed by PopCap Games and published by Electronic Arts. The game is the latest entry in the "Peggle" series. It expands on new levels, challenges, Peggle Masters and their powerups. It was announced on Electronic Art's site shortly after its release.
Role-playing video game
The earliest RPG on a console was "Dragonstomper" on the Atari 2600 in 1982. Another early RPG on a console was "Bokosuka Wars", originally released for the Sharp X1 computer in 1983 and later ported to the MSX in 1984, the NES in 1985 and the Sharp X68000 as "New Bokosuka Wars". The game laid the foundations for the tactical role-playing game genre, or "simulation RPG" genre as it is known in Japan. It was also an early example of a real-time, action role-playing game. In 1986, Chunsoft created the NES title "Dragon Quest" (called "Dragon Warrior" in North America until the ), which drew inspiration from computer RPG's "Ultima" and "Wizardry" and is regarded as the template for future Japanese role-playing video games released since then.
Star Trek (2013 video game)
Star Trek is a third-person action-adventure "Star Trek" video game. It was developed by Digital Extremes and co-published by Namco Bandai Games and Paramount Pictures in association with CBS Studios International. The game was first released in North America on April 23, 2013, for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows platforms. It took three years to produce, and was the first in-house video game development by Paramount Studios, who opted not to license development to a third party. The production team aimed for it to be a collaboration with those working on the "Star Trek" films to avoid the typical pitfalls associated with film tie-in video games. Video games which influenced "Star Trek" included the "Mass Effect" series, "Uncharted" and "Metroid Prime", and certain elements of "Star Trek" reflected episodes of "" such as "" and "Amok Time".
Mystery P.I.: The Lottery Ticket
Mystery P.I.: The Lottery Ticket is a hidden object game, created and published by Canadian studio SpinTop Games. The title is published by PopCap Games. The object of the game is to find a lottery ticket belonging to the player character's grandmother. When it is found, the player character is rewarded with over 400 million dollars in prize money. Before that, the player must find various hidden objects and solve various clues which all relate to the lottery ticket.
LucasArts
The first "Star Wars" game announced under Electronic Arts' exclusive license was "Star Wars Battlefront", a reboot of the , developed by DICE. The game was released in the third quarter of 2015. The second game by Electronic Arts under their Star Wars license was a free to play mobile game titled "". It was announced at the 2015 E3 Expo, where it was announced as a collectible card game RPG. The game received a soft launch in Australia during October 2015, and was formally released on November 24, 2015.
PopTop Software
PopTop Software was founded by video game programmer and designer Phil Steinmeyer in 1993. On July 24, 2000, Take-Two Interactive announced that they had acquired PopTop Software. The deal saw a transaction of 559,100 shares in Take-Two Interactive, valued at an estimated . On January 25, 2005, Take-Two Interactive announced the opening of publishing label 2K Games, which would henceforth manage their development studios, including PopTop Software.
InnoGames
The company released its second game, The West, in 2008. That same year InnoGames moved to Hamburg-Harburg and hired additional employees. As the company continued to grow, they released their third game, Grepolis, on 2009. Since 2013, Grepolis is playable as an app for iOS and Android devices. Its first city-builder, Forge of Empires, was published in 2012. The game includes a journey through time that begins in the Stone Age and guides the player through the ages of human history. As of late-July, 2018, the latest era is the Virtual Future, but further extensions are planned. Forge of Empires was awarded the German Computer Game Prize in 2013 as the best browser game. Since 5 June 2014 the game is also playable as an app on the iPad. The iPhone version followed on September 2014 and the Android version on 25 March 2015. Following Forge of Empires' Android version in 2015, the German developer published its second city-building MMO, Elvenar in April
Rockstar Vancouver
Rockstar Vancouver's first game under Rockstar Games' oversight would have been "Spec Ops", a new entry in the eponymous series. In a March 2005 interview held by James Montgomery of MTV, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age revealed that he and Alain Johannes would be scoring the game, which they expected to release at the end of that year. The game was in development for PlayStation 2, however, was cancelled for unknown reasons. Rockstar Vancouver's first game to be released was 2006's "Bully" (titled "Canis Canem Edit" in Europe), an action-adventure game, which was announced in May 2005. The game attracted a lot of controversy, mostly attributed to its title, regarding the glorification of school violence. Regardless, "Bully" was met with very positive reception. In a 2014 retrospective, PC Gamer edtior Sam Roberts depicted the game as Rockstar Games' "softest and silliest game, with the warmest heart". While the original "Bully" was released exclusively for PlayStation 2, Mad Doc Software developed a remastered version of the game, "Bully: Scholarship Edition", which was released for Microsoft Windows, Wii, and Xbox 360 in 2008. Furthermore, a remastered version of "Bully: Scholarship Edition", "Bully: Anniversary Edition", was developed by War Drum Studios in celebration of "Bully" tenth anniversary, and released for Android and iOS in December 2016.
List of BioWare video games
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. They signed a partnership with American publisher Interplay Productions to get investment and development resources for their first game "Shattered Steel", a mech simulation action game released in 1996. The game was a modest success, but BioWare's second title, "Baldur's Gate" (1998), achieved overwhelming critical praise and defined the company's future direction. A role-playing video game (RPG) based on "Dungeons & Dragons", "Baldur's Gate" sold more than two million copies and became the most successful "Dungeons & Dragons" game ever at the time. Two years later, the studio released an acclaimed sequel "", which along with the use of BioWare game engines in RPGs such as "" (1999) and "Icewind Dale" (2000) helped propel the studio to the forefront of the computer RPG genre. Interplay was suffering financially by the early 2000s, so BioWare collaborated with publisher Infogrames to release their next "Dungeons & Dragon"-based RPG "Neverwinter Nights" (2002).
PlayFirst
PlayFirst’s biggest commercial success is one of its earliest released games, "Diner Dash" series, which was released for the first time on PC/Mac platforms in 2005. "Diner Dash" was initially developed by Gamelab, a New York-based casual game developer, and after foreseeing its huge potential, PlayFirst bought the rights to the game. The success of "Diner Dash" with game critics and gamers prompted PlayFirst to release four sequels in the following years: "Restaurant Rescue" (2006), "Flo on the Go" (2006), "Hometown Hero" (2007), and the fifth "BOOM!" in 2010.
List of Capcom games
Capcom is a Japanese video game development and publishing company formed from a merger on June 11, 1983. In addition to arcade and consumer video games, it also produced a number of pinball games and non-video arcade games. The company is known for several game series which became mega-million franchises, such as "Mega Man", "Street Fighter", "Resident Evil", "Devil May Cry", and "Monster Hunter". The company has developed or published hundreds of titles in several video game franchises on numerous gaming platforms.
Capcom Vancouver
The company was formed on July 4, 2005 in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada by three core founders with thirty five years of combined video game experience. Starting with only twelve staff and one game ("The Bigs"), the company has grown to 200 people with 3 shipped titles. In February 2008, Blue Castle Games won the award for Best New Video Game Company at the 2008 Elan Awards for "The Bigs", in a tie with another local Vancouver company. A wide number of developers in Capcom Vancouver were formerly of EA Vancouver, located only a couple blocks away from their studio.
Supersoft
Early games published by Supersoft for the Commodore PET included "Air Attack" (see "Blitz computer game") and "Super Glooper", the latter based on the popular "Pac-Man" arcade game. A text-adventure game based on the Douglas Adams book "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" was withdrawn following legal action. The game's programmer, Bob Chappell, rewrote the game to remove all "Hitchhiker's" references, and Supersoft republished it as "Cosmic Capers.". The most successful business program developed by Supersoft was "Busicalc", a spreadsheet program originally produced for the Commodore PET, and converted to the Vic-20 and Commodore 64; it was one of Supersoft's most successful products in the UK and became the company's first and most successful product in the USA, where it was published under licence by Skyles Electric Works. "Busicalc 2" and "Busicalc 3" followed, the latter offering three-dimensional capabilities.
David Whatley
In 2009, Whatley founded Critical Thought Games to develop his own line of iPhone games. His first title, geoDefense was a critical and financial success, and has continued to be a top seller on the App store. His second title, geoDefense Swarm went on to receive even more critical acclaim, and was named one of "TIME" magazine's "Top 10 Video Games of 2009."
Tabletop role-playing game
Another early game was "Traveller", designed by Marc Miller and first published in 1977 by Game Designer's Workshop. This was originally intended to be a system for playing generic space-opera-themed science-fiction adventures (in the same sense that "Dungeons & Dragons" was a system for generic fantasy adventures), but an optional setting called "the Third Imperium" that was detailed in subsequent supplements became strongly identified with the game. The changes in this setting over time, especially those involving "the Fifth Frontier War" as depicted in the "Journal of the Travellers Aid Society", arguably constitute the first use of metaplot in a role-playing game. 
Meanwhile, "Call of Cthulhu" and "Paranoia" offered different role-playing experiences, in which the story arc of a group's investigation would lead to death and/or madness, or where comical infighting within a group would be expected and reinforced within the genre conventions of "a darkly humorous future". At the same time, games using the fictional worlds of "Star Trek", DC Heroes, the Marvel Universe or "The Lord of the Rings" expanded the range of possibilities for Table-top gaming. Games such as "GURPS" and "Champions" introduced game balance between player characters; later, "" and similar games emphasized storytelling, plot and character development over rules and combat. More recently, rules innovations have combined with literary techniques to develop games such as "Dogs in the Vineyard" and "Polaris" that rely on the contributions of players to enhance moral agency in a process of emergent storytelling.
Video gaming in the Philippines
The first Filipino-developed commercial computer game was "" which was released in November 2003. 2 months prior to the release of Anito, in September 2003, a free and open source Solitaire card game named Drac was also released by Rico Zuñiga, which makes Drac the first Filipino-developed computer game and game development framework. Drac was also used to create another card game based on the rules of the popular Filipino game, Tong-its which was released on November 2003.
Plants vs. Zombies Heroes
Plants vs. Zombies Heroes is a digital collectible card game in the "Plants vs. Zombies" series, developed by PopCap Games and published by Electronic Arts. On March 10, 2016, it underwent a soft launch in some countries on iOS, before being internationally released on October 18, 2016. This is the first mobile release in the "Plants vs Zombies" series in which players can play as either a Plant or a Zombie.
Bejeweled Blitz
Bejeweled Blitz is a puzzle video game, originally a Facebook application which was developed and published by PopCap Games. It developed into a downloadable game, based on the then-in-development "Bejeweled 3" engine, due to popularity of the differences from "Bejeweled 2" and its new graphics. As with the "Bejeweled" series, "Bejeweled Blitz" is based on the "Shariki" game mechanic. It is the fourth game of the "Bejeweled" franchise and initially was available on iOS as part of the "Bejeweled 2" iOS application, later on with the standalone iOS application.
List of Mega Man video games
Capcom of Japan has released several "Rockman" games for mobile phones in Japan. Only the first two games, "Rockman Space Rescue" and "Mega Man Rocket Christmas" were ported for international cell phones; on the other hand, "Mega Man Rush Marine" was created specifically for international audiences. In 2017 Capcom released ports of the first six NES "Mega Man" games to iOS and Android devices.
In , Hi-Tech Expressions (under license from Capcom) produced a DOS game based on the series simply titled "Mega Man". It was followed by a second DOS game titled "Mega Man III" in . Both games were released exclusively in North America. Despite their titles, neither games are ports of their corresponding NES counterparts, but original games. There was no PC game titled "Mega Man II". Aside from handing the license to Hi-Tech Expressions, Capcom themselves were not directly involved in the PC games. Both games were programmed and designed by Steven Rozner.
Zuma (video game)
Zuma is a tile-matching puzzle video game published by PopCap Games. It can be played for free online at several Web sites, and was released for a number of platforms, including PDAs, mobile phones, and the iPod.
Video game culture
From the 1970s through even the 1990s, video game playing was mostly seen as sub-culture hobby activity and as a substitute for physical sports. However, in its early history video gaming had occasionally caught the attention of the mainstream news outlets. In 1972, "Pong" became the first video game pop-culture phenomenon. This was followed by "Pac-Man" in 1980. Other video games labeled as pop-culture phenomena include "Final Fantasy", "Halo", "Metal Gear", "The Legend of Zelda", "Tomb Raider", "Grand Theft Auto", "Call of Duty", "Street Fighter", "Mortal Kombat", "Pokémon", "Guitar Hero", "Sonic the Hedgehog", and the "Mario" games.
Mindscape
Mindscape began in 1983 as a software publisher in Northbrook, Illinois. Founded by English-born Roger M. Buoy, the company established its early roots developing educational software for the TI-99/4A and the Apple II. It later branched out into entertainment software by becoming a Lucasfilm licensee, publishing the Indiana Jones computer games before they were taken in-house by Lucasfilm Games with "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". It also released text adventures tied to famous authors and a controversial game from Tom Snyder Productions called "Sub Mission". The latter required gamers to purchase a replacement disk if they lost the mission three times.
Namco
Namco's first original video game was "Gee Bee" (1978). It was "Pac-Man" (1980), however, that would become definitive of Namco's legacy, going on to become a fixture in popular culture. "Galaga" (1981), a follow-up to "Galaxian", was one of the most successful sequels of the era. "Dig Dug" (1982), "Xevious" (1982), and "Pole Position" (1982) continued Namco's success in establishing iconic franchises during the Golden Age. During this period, Namco published video games for home consoles and personal computer under the Namcot brand name.
Pogo.com
Pogo.com is a free online gaming website that offers over 100 casual games from brands like Hasbro and PopCap Games. It offers a variety of card and board games like First Class Solitaire and Monopoly to puzzle, sports and word games like Scrabble. It is owned by Electronic Arts and is based in Redwood Shores, CA.
Eugene Jarvis
As Jarvis worked on pinball games at Williams in the late 1970s, "Space Invaders" was released, sparking great interest in microprocessor video games. Jarvis wanted to try making a video game. When thinking of design ideas with famed pinball designer Steve Ritchie, they developed the concept for "Defender" — a side-scroller with the player flying over the surface of a planet. "Defender" (1980) was Jarvis's first video game and turned out to be a huge hit, helping kick off the golden age of arcade games and eventually becoming one of the highest grossing video games ever. Williams expanded greatly with the success of "Defender", but Jarvis left to found an independent game development firm called Vid Kidz with Larry DeMar in February 1981. After four months of tag-team programming between DeMar and Jarvis, they produced Vid Kidz's first game: "Stargate" (1981), an enhanced sequel to "Defender" that they sold to Williams.
Bookworm (video game)
Bookworm is a word-forming puzzle video game by PopCap Games. From a grid of available letters, players connect letters to form words. As words are formed, they are removed from the grid and the remaining letters collapse to fill the available space. Players earn more points by creating longer words or words which use less common letters and earn less for smaller words. In November 2006, PopCap Games released a sequel, "Bookworm Adventures". "Bookworm" was released for the Nintendo DS digital distribution service DSiWare on November 30, 2009. It has also been released on the regular Nintendo DS cartridge.
Peggle 2
Peggle 2 is a casual puzzle video game developed by PopCap Games and published by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to "Peggle". Electronic Arts announced "Peggle 2" during the E3 2013 press conference, and also as a timed exclusive for the Xbox One. "Peggle 2" adds four new masters, with the return of Bjorn Unicorn, new gameplay options, in-game features, and more. An Xbox 360 version of the game was released on May 7, 2014 as well as a PlayStation 4 version on October 14, 2014.
List of Game &amp; Watch games
Popeye is a "Game & Watch" game released as a part of the Wide Screen series on August 5, 1981, as a part of the Table Top series on August 17, 1983, and as a part of the Panorama series on August 30, 1983. It is a single-screen single-player "Game & Watch". Hirokazu Tanaka composed the game music.
UltraCorps
UltraCorps is an online, multi-player, turn-based space strategy game originally developed by VR-1 Entertainment in 1997 and acquired by Microsoft's MSN Gaming Zone in 1998. The game couples distinctive 3-D rendered artwork and the ability to play with hundreds of people in a single game. It was the first multi-player turn-based game that could be played entirely in a web browser. In 2006, the game was redeveloped by Steve Jackson Games.
Andy Schatz
Schatz' first job after college was at the viral marketing firm e-tractions, where he helped create a virtual Christmas snowglobe. After his work at Netplay, he worked on his first commercial release at Presto Studios, where he helped develop "" (1999) as a level builder. He left Presto Studios temporarily to work for e-tractions again, only to return later to help with the AI on the Xbox Live version of "Whacked!" (2002). After leaving Presto Studios, Schatz moved to Santa Cruz to work for TKO Software, and in the early 2000s helped develop "" (2003) and "" (2004) among other games. During a time when the development team had nothing to work on, Schatz proposed a prototype of a game he had been working on described as "a house-robbing game" where players would build a home and defend it, then attempt to break into other players' homes. He sent this prototype to Microsoft, but it did not interest them.
Schatz founded Pocketwatch Games, an independent video game development studio as a sole proprietorship in December 2004, before TKO shut down in 2005. The first game Schatz developed and released was "Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa" (2005), a tycoon game designed to appeal to the same audience as "Zoo Tycoon" (2001). Set in the African wilderness, the game focused on a number of themes including balancing the ecosystem, species' relationships and weather cycles. It was a success and became an Independent Games Festival (IGF) finalist helping Schatz' secure the budget for the sequel: "Venture Arctic" (2007). "Venture Arctic" had the same premise as "Venture Africa". While some critics praised it, and it won Gametunnels simulation game of the year in 2007, it had complications that players did not enjoy. As a result it was a commercial failure compared to "Venture Africa". Schatz was then hired by Jim Safka, co-founder of Match.com, to develop a flash game for Green.com. This contract slowly waned, and Schatz began to work on "Venture Dinosauria". It was cancelled before its 2009 release date. Looking back Schatz said he had failed to find "a way to make it both fun and open-ended, but also a small, self-contained experience at the same time". Throughout this period Schatz wanted to expand Pocketwatch Games from a studio to a business and applied for enrollment in various business schools. He was never accepted, something he now considers "the biggest blessing of [his] entire career".
Bejeweled 2
Bejeweled 2 is a tile-matching puzzle video game. The sequel to "Bejeweled", it was developed and published by PopCap Games. In 2004, "Bejeweled 2 Deluxe" was released, which includes extra game modes and features. "Bejeweled 2 Deluxe" was released for the Xbox 360 as a downloadable Xbox Live Arcade game on November 22, 2005. In 2007, the game was released on the PlayStation 2 alongside another PopCap game, "AstroPop" as a two-game compilation pack as "PopCap Hits! Volume 1". PopCap also released a version for iOS in 2008. "Bejeweled 2" was also released for PlayStation 3 on the PlayStation Network on January 29 2009, on the Wii via WiiWare on June 14, 2010, and on PlayStation Portable on June 29, 2010, and for Android. As with the original "Bejeweled", "Bejeweled 2" is based on the "Shariki" game mechanic.
HopeLab
HopeLab's first product is the Re-Mission video game for teens and young adults with cancer. Released on April 3, 2006, the game is a Microsoft Windows based third-person shooter based in the serious games genre. The game was conceived by Pam Omidyar and designed based on HopeLab research, direct input from young cancer patients and oncology doctors and nurses, and game developer Realtime Associates, among others. The game was designed to engage young cancer patients through entertaining game play while impacting specific psychological and behavioral outcomes associated with successful cancer treatment.
Bookworm Adventures
In contrast to the lower production budgets typical of most "casual games", PopCap Games spent over two and a half years and US$700,000 developing "Bookworm Adventures".
Although the direct sales model used by the company avoids various distribution and retail fees, this still represents one of the most expensive investments in the genre to date. John Vechey, PopCap's director, indicated that this did seem to be a departure from the previous model, noting that "A couple years ago, the prevailing wisdom was that it took three guys six months and $100,000 to make a casual game. They used to be considered a low art form."
PopCap Games
On August 21, 2012, PopCap fired 50 employees in North America in a move to address a shift to mobile and free-to-play games and evaluated ceasing operations of its Dublin studio. The Dublin studio was closed on September 24, 2012.
Pucca
There is a WiiWare game called "Pucca's Kisses Game", which is an action-platformer about Pucca trying to chase Garu around perilous levels and obstacles just to catch Garu and kiss him. This game was developed by Otaboo, and was published by BigBen Interactive. "Pucca's Kisses Game" was released in Europe and Australia on February 4, 2011, and in North America on February 14, 2011 for 800 Wii Points. On February 14, 2011, the game was re-released in Europe as a retail disc entitled "Pucca's Race for Kisses" for the Wii console.
U.S. Games
U.S. Games Corporation was a video game company founded by Donald Yu, which originally produced handheld electronic sports games. It pivoted to focus exclusively on video game software in 1981, and was acquired by cereal company Quaker Oats in 1982 to develop games for the Atari 2600. U.S. Games released their first game, "Space Jockey" for the Atari 2600, in January 1982, followed by 13 more cartridges in 1982 and 1983. "Space Jockey" and other early titles used the Vidtec brand name.
PDP-10
Will Crowther created "Adventure", the prototypical computer adventure game, for a PDP-10. Don Daglow created the first computer baseball game (1971) and "Dungeon" (1975), the first role-playing video game on a PDP-10. Walter Bright originally created "Empire" for the PDP-10. Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle created the first MUD on a PDP-10. "Zork" was written on the PDP-10. Infocom used PDP-10s for game development and testing.
Alberto Jose González
Citing mismanagement and financial issues, the New Frontier team, including González, left and founded their own game developing company Bit Managers in 1992. González composed the music for all of Bit Managers titles with the exception of two, being BANG!, released in the arcades, and Radikal Bikers, a Sony PlayStation port of the arcade game with the same name. His first soundtrack for Bit Managers was Pop Up, released on the Game Boy in 1992.