Rocketdyne
The Rocketdyne Division was founded by North American Aviation (NAA) in 1955, and was later part of Rockwell International (1967-1996) and Boeing (1996-2005). In 2005, the Rocketdyne Division was sold to United Technologies Corporation, becoming Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne as part of Pratt & Whitney. In 2013, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne was sold to GenCorp, which merged it with Aerojet to form Aerojet Rocketdyne.
The Space Bar
As 1996 progressed, "The Space Bar" was pushed back to an October release in the United States, and translation efforts got underway for its international versions. Steve Meretzky said that Rocket Science Games' European partner company would be "marketing heavily in Europe." Rocket Science demonstrated "The Space Bar" alongside "Obsidian" at the mid-1996 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3); Peter Smith of "Computer Games Strategy Plus" wrote that the two titles "made a big splash" at the show. However, Meretzky later told "Gamasutra", "With typical Boffo luck, they [Rocket Science] ran out of money halfway through the project and sold our game to SegaSoft." In August 1996, Rocket Science laid off its marketing team of 20 people in an effort to transition exclusively to game development, and signed with SegaSoft to publish "The Space Bar", "Rocket Jockey" and "Obsidian". By the 20th, Rocket Science's old marketing division had been picked up by the publisher and put to work on these titles' promotional effort. All three games were set to launch by Christmas. SegaSoft described the deal as an effort to break into the computer game industry; its first releases in this market—"Puzzle Castle" and "Fractured Fairy Tales"—launched later that year.