Spectrum HoloByte

Spectrum Holobyte, Inc. was an American computer game developer and publisher headquartered in Alameda, California. The company was one of the most innovative designers of the 1980s and 1990s and published in that time, many games that are now considered classics.

In addition to many simulations like Falcon and Orbiter and the games hit Tetris Spectrum also acquired many licenses for games conversions of hit films such as Star Trek Generations, Top Gun and Starship Troopers.

Published in late 1986 Macintosh version of Falcon was the killer games application for the Mac. Designers at Apple even contacted Spectrum and made changes to its operating system for Falcon could be played on the whole Apple range. The published end of 1991 for the PC Falcon 3 was the first game that supported the multiplayer games via LAN.

History

Spectrum was founded in 1983 by Gilman Louie. The first published game was the submarine simulation GATO in the same year.

In the late 1980s acquired Spectrum by Robert Stein, CEO of British software company Andromeda, the U.S. distribution rights to the world-famous game Tetris. Spectrum version of the game was a big seller, but soon it turned out that Stein had never owned the rights to Tetris. In the following, there was a small international scandal between stone, various Western software companies and the Russian Ministry ELORG. Although the legal situation remained quite dubious, drove Spectrum continued with the development of Tetris games, which quickly developed into one of two main product lines of the company. The other product line consisted of real flight sims like Falcon.

After 1992, the owners changed, Spectrum was with a large sum support risk capital. The new owners got a new manager on board to manage the company, but they were probably more interested in increasing their stock options, as in the development of innovative products.

1993 Spectrum acquired the distribution rights for the title of the game developer Domark Software.

Also in 1993, we took advantage of the high sums of risk capital to buy the faltering development MicroProse Software. In the following years the games of both companies were sold under the respective company name. In 1996 it was decided to publish all future games under the name MicroProse.

Also in 1996, we signed a contract with Sony Signatures Film and Television Licensing on the development of several games that should be based on the successful movie title Starship Troopers.

Although the purchase of MicroProse was then hailed as a great success, MicroProse, the company moved down. Mismanagement and bad policy had an additional effect on creativity and work of the developers. It suffered greater losses than before. In 1997, the financial situation due to high revenue was temporarily stabilized, but they came too late to save the company even more.

The company was bought in 1998 by Hasbro Interactive, which shortly thereafter fired the flight simulation team. Just one year later, the development studio in Alameda was closed and Spectrum Holobyte ceased to exist.

Development studios

Spectrum Holobyte owned several development studios that developed at the same time different games:

  • Spectrum Holobyte California ( Alameda, California )
  • MicroProse Software ( Hunt Valley, Maryland)
  • MicroProse Chapel Hill ( Chapel Hill, North Carolina)
  • MicroProse Limited ( Chipping Sodbury, England)
  • Simtex Software Corporation (Austin, Texas)

Games

Developers

  • Tetris ( 1987)
  • Falcon (1987)
  • Orbiter (1988 )
  • Stunt Driver (1990 )
  • Flight of the Intruder (1990 )
  • Super Tetris ( 1991)
  • Falcon 3.0: Operation Fighting Tiger ( 1992)
  • Tetris Classic ( 1992)
  • Falcon 3.0: Hornet: Naval Strike Fighter ( 1993)
  • Falcon 3.0: MiG -29 ( 1993)
  • Triple this Challenge ( 1993)
  • Falcon Gold (1994 )
  • Qwirks (1995)
  • National Lampoon 's Chess Maniac 5 Billion and 1 (1993, MicroProse )
  • X - COM: UFO Defense (1994, MicroProse together with myth Games)
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation: A Final Unity (1995, MicroProse )
  • Star Trek: Generations (1996, MicroProse )

Publisher for

  • GATO (1983 )
  • Sokoban (1984, developed by ASCII Corporation)
  • Orbiter (1986, developed by Digital Illusions CE)
  • Falcon (1987, developed by Sphere )
  • PT- 109 (1987, developed by Digital Illusions CE)
  • Solitaire Royale (1987, developed by International Publishing )
  • Tetris ( 1987)
  • Falcon A.T. (1988, developed by Sphere )
  • Orbiter (1988 )
  • Tetris: The Soviet Challenge ( 1988)
  • Tank: The M1A1 Abrams Battle Tank Simulation (1989, developed by Sphere )
  • Vette! (1989, developed by Sphere )
  • Welltris (1989, developed by Sphere )
  • Faces (1990, developed by Sphere )
  • Flight of the Intruder (1990, developed by Rowan Software )
  • Stunt Driver (1990 )
  • Crisis in the Kremlin ( 1991)
  • Falcon 3.0 (1991, developed by Sphere )
  • Super Tetris ( 1991)
  • Falcon 3.0: Operation Fighting Tiger ( 1992)
  • Iron Helix (1992, developed by Drew Pictures)
  • Tetris Classic ( 1992)
  • The Chaos Engine (1993, developed by The Bitmap Brothers )
  • Falcon 3.0: Hornet: Naval Strike Fighter ( 1993)
  • Falcon 3.0: MiG -29 ( 1993)
  • National Lampoon 's Chess Maniac 5 Billion and 1 (1993, developed by MicroProse )
  • TORNADO (1993, developed by Digital Integration)
  • Breakthru! (1994)
  • Falcon Gold (1994 )
  • Gazillionaire (1994, developed by LavaMind )
  • X - COM: UFO Defense (1994, developed by MicroProse and Mythos Games)
  • ClockWerx (1995, developed by Callisto Corporation)
  • Qwirks (1995)
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation: A Final Unity (1995, developed by MicroProse )
  • Knight Moves (1996, developed by Kinesoft software)
  • Star Trek: Generations (1996, developed by MicroProse )
Types of business entity Video game publisher Starship Troopers (Film) Chief Executive Officer Chapel Hill (North Carolina) Austin (Texas) Flight of the Intruder (video game) History of Star Trek games MobyGames
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