[1] After a large devaluation of their stock, Miller and Whitehead left Activision to form Accolade. Soon having the company renamed Infogrames North America, Infogrames began using it for all its North American development and publishing … [6] These games pioneered the "three-click" system seen in most golf games,[5] where the player times their button presses to control their backswing, downswing, and follow-through. [5] As a publisher, Accolade partnered with peers such as U.S. Gold to distribute their games in Europe, before later switching to Electronic Arts, who would eventually become Accolade's biggest domestic competitor. Into the late 1990s, they experienced a mix of successes and challenges. [5] Barnett earned the praise of the company's board of directors for increasing sales. [5] In 1990, Accolade CEO Allan Epstein expressed his opinion that the growing console market was both an opportunity and a challenge, since both the technology and audience were different from that of the computer. [35][36][37] Still, the 1996 release of Star Control 3 was a modest commercial success for Accolade as a publisher, as was the release of Deadlock that same year. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Success in sports and publishing (1985–1990), Atari, Inc. (Atari SA subsidiary) § 1999 – Control by Infogrames, Jack Nicklaus' Greatest 18 Holes of Major Championship Golf, The Cycles: International Grand Prix Racing, Jack Nicklaus' Unlimited Golf & Course Design, Jack Nicklaus Golf & Course Design: Signature Edition, Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind, Speed Racer in My Most Dangerous Adventures, "The Commodore Games That Live On And On", "The Future of Computer Games: Ten Industry Leaders Speak Out", "The Gamespy Hall of Fame – Star Control 2", "The Greatest Games of All Time – Star Control 2", "HG101 Presents: The 200 Best Video Games of All Time", "The Game That 'Won' Our Classic PC Games List (If It Had A Winner)", "Greatest Games of All Time – Star Control II (Interview Feature)", "Fusion, Transfusion, or Confusion: Future Directions in Computer Entertainment", "The Ultimate History Of Video Games Revisited", "New Chief May Score Big / As 49ers CEO, Peter Harris brings business savvy to top post", "Accolade's Jim Barnett Becomes Chairman", "A Chat with Bubsy's Michael Berlyn Part 1: The Rise and Fall of Bubsy", "Star Control lead devs fire back at Stardock lawsuit", "Relive The Glory Of Star Control II In Delicious High Definition With Ur-Quan Masters HD", "Jack Nicklaus 6: Golden Bear Challenge Review", "Accolade's Barnett to Head Infogrames US", "Infogrames Consolidates North American Operations", "Infogrames to Acquire Hasbro Interactive", "Purchase Agreement between Atari, Inc. and Rebellion Developments, Stardock & Tommo", "Accolade brand returns with a new Bubsy game", "Bubsy: Paws On Fire taking the rubbo bobcat autorunning", "Computer Strategy and Wargames: The 1900–1950 Epoch / Part II (M–Z) of an Annotated Paiktography", "Jack Nicklaus' Greatest 18 Holes of Major Championship Golf: Accolade's Big Bear takes on Leaderboard", "The Cycles: International Grand Prix Racing", "Crapshoot: If you can't go to a bar in real life, Bar Games is not a good replacement", "War In Our Time / A Survey Of Wargames From 1950–2000", "Only the Oracle Knows ... / A Review of Accolade's Ishido", "Thus Passes the Glory of the World – Accolade's Stratego", "Accolade and Jack Nicklaus Team Up on Golf Simulation", "More Than a Game, It's a Double Feature! [40], With Accolade experiencing mixed success, Electronic Arts decided to invest in the company in 1997 and agreed to take over their distribution. Genre: PuzzlePublisher: Infogrames North America; Inc.Developer: Infogrames Entertainment;… 4.99 - $ 4.99. [1] This would also allow Accolade to take advantage of floppy disks as a new technology, which were less expensive to manufacture than cartridges, and did not require licensing fees to be paid to the console companies. [22][23], Accolade also saw the rise of a new generation of gaming consoles, and sought to shift towards a market they had previously abandoned. [53][50] Atari/Infogrames declared bankruptcy in 2013, with Tommo purchasing the Accolade trademark and several related assets. Infogrames Inc. has announced that it has entered into an agreement with majority shareholder Infogrames Entertainment SA to consolidate its North American operations. Merger of Infogrames North America, Inc. and Infogrames, Inc. announced; Oct 03, 2000: Merger between Infogrames, Inc. and Infogrames North America completes. Developer: Bit Managers MultiPlayer: Release Date: 1998 Language: English Rating: Registered agent is BRUCE YONEHIRO, 5300 STEVENS CREEK BLVD STE 500SAN JOSE CA 95129. Jan 30, 2003: The company sells off its Mac game business, MacSoft, to Destineer Inc. May 07, 2003: Infogrames re-brands the company. Details: Alone in the Dark 3: PC - DOS, Win 95 [14] This allowed Whitehead time to develop original titles such as the American football game 4th & Inches, while the company published Steve Cartwright's basketball game Fast Break, as well as Artech's tennis game, Serve & Volley. [edit description ... Infogrames North America: 3.35: Sonic Adventure: 1998: Dreamcast, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360: SEGA of America, Inc. 4.08: The House of the Dead 2: 1998: They made several major acquisitions in late 90's, which included Ocean Software, Philips Media, Gremlin Interactive, Accolade, Beam Software, GT Interactive, Shiny, Eden Games and Hasbro Interactive (with … [1] At the same time, Whitehead had previously seen success with the sports games Home Run and Football on the Atari 2600, which led to the baseball game HardBall! [49] What followed was a series of acquisitions and consolidations, when Infogrames purchased GT Interactive and renamed it Infogrames Inc.[50] By 2000, Infogrames merged Infogrames North America into Infogrames Inc.[51][52] This marked the end of Infogrames North America as a separate company, and what was left of Accolade as an entity. [25] One of the conditions of the settlement was that Accolade would develop several games exclusive to Sega consoles, as a way for Sega to maintain an advantage over their rivals. [5], Between 1985 and 1986, Accolade's revenues grew from $1.5 million to $5 million, thanks to titles such as Ace of Aces, a golf game called Mean 18, and a driving game called Test Drive. Email news@gamespot.com. The company logo is a… The gameplay is a very repetitive, but it does get harder as you go along, and the graphics are excellent for the 160x100 resolution and 27 colours. Accolade was founded in 1984 by Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead; both had previously worked at Atari. ", "Bubsy: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind", "BUBSY II: Bubsy and the twins go for all the marbles", "The Sports Page – Sir Charles Controls The Streets – Barkley: Shut Up and Jam! Originally Founded as Accolade, Inc. in 1984 and acquired in 1999, where they were … The company was founded in November 1984 by Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead, who had previously co-founded Activision in October 1979.. North America, continent comprising northern part of the double continent of America; 24.4 million km2, 586.1 million residents (2019).North America includes Greenland, Canada, the United States, Mexico, the Central American States, the Caribbean and the islands of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon (France) and Bermuda (United Kingdom). Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? The Registered Agent on file for this company is Bruce Yonehiro and is located at … [1] Miller and Whitehead believed that Atari undervalued its coding team, leading them to leave the company and start Activision in 1979. [38] Moreover, Test Drive 4 and Test Drive: Off Road sold well on both PC and the Sony PlayStation, with more than 850,000 and 500,000 sales respectively, making it the top-selling racing series at the time. Under the agreement, Infogrames North America, a wholly owned subsidiary of Infogrames Entertainment SA, will be merged with a newly formed subsidiary of Infogrames Inc. [1] The game was the first to emulate the "behind the pitcher" viewpoint seen on television, and introduced new features such as coach-mode and player data. [27], Accolade hired a new CEO in 1994, recruiting the former head of FAO Schwarz, Peter Harris, to help them attract much-needed investment. Also published on Windows 3.x, this sports game is abandonware and is set in a golf and licensed title. It is expected that the merger will be completed by October 2 or soon thereafter. Infogrames Entertainment SA purchased Accolade in 1999, as part of the European company's strategy to become more global. [39] Jack Nicklaus 5 received positive reviews, but was ultimately a commercial disappointment. [6] Around this time, Accolade also gained notoriety as the publisher of the Star Control series of games, created by Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford. [6] Other early successes included boxing game Fight Night,[7] developed by Canadian developer Artech Digital Entertainment. ", "Double Eagle: Accolade Drives to Perfection With the Stunning, Deep Jack Nicklaus 4", "Hardball 6 Review [date mislabeled as "May 1, 2000"]", "Test Drive: Off-Road 3 Review (PC) [date mislabeled as "May 2, 2000"]", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Accolade_(company)&oldid=1013030037, Defunct video game companies of the United States, Video game companies disestablished in 2000, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, 1988 (Amiga, Apple II, Apple IIGS, C64, DOS), 1990 (Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS), 1999 (Dreamcast, Game Boy Color, PS1, Windows), 1987 (Amiga, Apple IIGS, Atari ST, DOS, MSX), 1987 (Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, ZX Spectrum), 1989 (Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple IIGS, Atari ST), 1989 (Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple IIGS, C64, DOS, MacOS, ZX Spectrum), This page was last edited on 19 March 2021, at 17:00. But the company faced the financial strain of a lawsuit with Sega, even after winning the case on appeal. [46] Infogrames paid $50 million to acquire Accolade's workforce of 145 employees, their sports franchises such as Test Drive and Hardball, and Accolade's licensing deals with brands such as Major League Baseball. "Stunt GP is a no holds barred driving experience," said Laddie Ervin, director of marketing for sports and racing at Infogrames North America, Inc. "Stunt GP … [6] They also hired Mimi Doggett, a veteran visual artist from Atari, to compete with other developers on graphical detail. [2][3], Accolade was founded and operated in San Jose, California. Infogrames North America, Inc. is a California Domestic Corporation filed On December 11, 1984. In 2000, THQ Inc., Infogrames North America publishes Jack Nicklaus 5 on Windows. [6] In 1987, Frisnia left as CEO and went on to found Three-Sixty Pacific. The company became known for numerous sports franchises, including Hardball!, Jack Nicklaus Golf, and Test Drive. [6] Infocom alumni Mike Berlyn created the adventure game Altered Destiny, while Activision veteran Steve Cartwright created the Les Manley series. [55][56], Defunct American video game developer and publisher. [24], The company soon released several games for the Sega Genesis by reverse-engineering the console's boot-protection. Sega also committed to design its Sega Sports 2K3 lineup for the Xbox broadband online game service, which is scheduled to launch in the first half of 2002. These companies, whose name starts with I, have published at least one game. [28], Accolade president Jim Barnett became the new CEO, and largely focused their strategy on extending existing franchises. The Smurfs. Its subsidiaries include Atari Interactive and Atari, Inc. Because of continuing pressures upon the company, and difficulty finding investors, it … [5][27] Harris led the company's efforts to build a new management team and secure new financing from Time Warner, before leaving to become CEO of the San Francisco 49ers in 1995. The pair hired CEO Tom Frisina to handle managerial duties and began to each work on their own launch titles. By [42][43] Pitbull Syndicate completed development on Big Air, which was released at the start of 1999 after a delay. The company later published the acclaimed Star Control and Bubsyseries, before f… and American football game Mike Ditka Power Football. [26] As the company changed leadership, Accolade published another breakthrough hit with the platform game Bubsy, created by Infocom veteran Mike Berlyn. [6] The game pioneered the concept of driving exotic cars at the risk of being chased by the police[5] and became one of Accolade's longest lasting and most successful series. [5] Accolade recruited Mike Lorenzen from Activision to create the science fiction game Psi 5 Trading Company,[5] drawing inspiration from Star Trek. Infogrames North America (U.S.), Cathy Tische, VP Lic. [11][12], Accolade continued to earn a strong reputation as a publisher and developer of sports games. NFL Blitz 2000. … [21] Because Accolade had focused their success around sports games, they accidentally placed a sticker on the box of Star Control II calling it the "Best Sports Game" of 1992. Launch title: Dreamcast (North America) Group Description Games that were available for the North American launch of the Dreamcast on September 9th, 1999. By the early 1990s, Accolade published acclaimed games such as Star Control and Bubsy. ; phone: 408-985-1700; fax: 408-246-1053; p. INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS Infogrames North America Creative Licensing Corporation / CLC Accolade, Inc. was a American video game developer and publisher based in San Jose, California. Later, Infogrames acquired the Atari brand from Hasbro Interactive in 2001, and slowly re-branded their properties under Atari SA through the decade. The final choice, "Infogrames", was a slightly modified version of that suggestion, and is Template:Pron-enin English. Infogrames Entertainment SA and Infogrames Inc. integrate their North American subsidiaries. External groups would port the games to other hardware so that Accolade could focus more energy on original titles. Worms Armageddon. The founders wanted to christen the company Zboub Système, but were dissuaded by their legal counsel. In the same year, IESA also bought Accolade for $60 million which was renamed as Infogrames North America, Inc. and Beam Software, which was renamed to Infogrames Melbourne House Pty Ltd. The company explored other game genres, developing their own graphic adventure game engine to compete with LucasArts and Sierra. [29] However, the second and third instalments of the Bubsy series were commercial disappointments, leading Accolade to ask series creator Mike Berlyn to return as the next game's producer. [5], At the turn of the decade, Accolade began to diversify their strategy. Accolade later reached an out of court settlement with Sega that allowed Accolade to continue building their own Genesis cartridges but as an official licensee. [2] Activision became the first third-party game developer, and one of the few game companies to survive the video game crash of 1983, though they still posted $18 million dollars in losses the following year. Beware: there are no instructions. The company became known for numerous sports franchises, including HardBall!, Jack Nicklaus, and Test Drive. Worms Armageddon. [48] As a result, major franchises such as Test Drive 6 were published under the name Infogrames North America starting in 1999. as his Accolade debut. [5], As Accolade rushed to develop the exclusive games promised to Sega, the company saw the departure of co-founder Bob Whitehead, who felt their games were slipping in quality and that the game industry had become tiresome. [5], The lawsuit with Sega continued to have serious long-term effects for Accolade. [6] Artech also created the flight simulator The Dam Busters inspired by the classic war film, which led to another flight simulator called Ace of Aces. [54] In June 2017, Hong Kong-based holding company Billionsoft announced that it had acquired the Accolade trademark, and, together with developer Black Forest Games and publisher Tommo, announced it would resurrect several Accolade franchises, starting with the Bubsy series. Infogrames though would later sell off DMA Design to Take-Two Interactive in the same year. [39] By the end of the year, Accolade released their sequels to Test Drive as scheduled, while cancelling their plans for a fourth Star Control game. [8], Accolade aimed to balance their roles as both a developer and publisher. Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA) is a French video game holding company headquartered in Paris. [5], Accolade asked Ford and Reiche to make a third Star Control game at the same budget as Star Control II, which they turned down to pursue other projects. Company is incorporated on 11th December 1984. [33][34] The third edition was not as celebrated as the first two games, with reviewers noting the change in developer. [6] Miller's first project was Law of the West, a High Noon inspired western that mixed gunfights with adventure game elements, pioneering a choice of dialogue options that later became common in other games. [44] Development was also completed on Redline, and the driving-and-shooting game was published by Accolade in April.[45]. [27] Alan Miller initially stayed on as chairman and head of product development, but quit the company later in the year to work in medical software, marking the end of the founders' influence. [5] As a publisher, their baseball game Hardball went on to become a consistent and prolific series,[13] with later entries created by outside developers such as Chris Taylor. Accolade, Inc. (renamed as Infogrames North America, Inc. in 1999) was an American video game developer and publisher based in San Jose, California. [9] Test Drive was created by Distinctive Software, another developer from Canada who had previously ported Accolade's games to other computer systems. The company was founded as Accolade in November 1984 by Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead, who had previously co-founded Activision in October 1979. Still, games such as Star Control 3 and Deadlock were considered modest successes, while Test Drive 4 and Test Drive: Off Road experienced strong sales. Soon having the company renamed Infogrames North America, Infogrames began using it for all its North American development and publishing operations. There were also at least two Asterix games made for the Amstrad—… [6] It became one of Accolade's best selling games on the Commodore 64[7] and was considered a commercial blockbuster at the time. Shahed Ahmed Infogrames North America Inc.'s Hogs of War is a turn-based strategy game in which players battle rival nations, bloodthirsty pigs, and a speedy clock. ", "Crapshoot: Les Manley returns even though nobody wanted him to for Lost in LA", "Gamer's Guide to Science Fiction – Hoverforce", "Accolade's Al Michaels Announces Hardball III", "Accolade's Speed Racer: The Winner's Circle Or The Pits? Atari, SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA) is a French holding company who owns Atari, Inc. and Atari Interactive, the latter being the owner of the Atari trademark. [17] Journalists have listed Star Control among their best games of all time,[18] with Star Control II earning even more "best game" rankings through the 1990s,[19] 2000s,[20] and 2010s. By 2000, the subsidiary was consolidated into one Infogrames brand, marking the end of Infogrames North America as a separate company, and what was left of Accolade as an entity. Alan Miller estimated that "the commercial damage associated with this injunction ultimately proved to be somewhere around $15 to $25 million",[25] leading the company to report major losses in 1993. The games will ship in the Xbox 2001 launch window in North America. "We believe that this will continue to strengthen the Infogrames global family, and more specifically our North American presence, by combining the two organizations into one industry power.".