Cinemaware

Cinemaware is a video game developer that released several popular titles in the 1980s based on popular film themes. In the 80s, Cinemaware was also a video game publisher.

=History=

Founded in 1985, Cinemaware s first title was the popular Defender of the Crown , a swashbuckler adventure that featured graphics considered extraordinary for the era. Spectacular graphics became the hallmark of Cinemaware s games and they remain some of the best games to be created in the 80s.

Cinemaware went onto release a string of hits, each based on some classic category of movies. Their games generally debuted on the most competent home computer of the era, the graphically spectacular Amiga. Most games were then port (computing) to the other popular home computers of the era, such as the Apple II family, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC compatible (running under MS-DOS) and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). This was particularly true for Defender of the Crown , which holds the record as the most ported game.

Cinemaware eventually branched out into .

Cinemaware went bankrupt in 1991. This was the result of, remarkably, Creeping featurism. While porting S.D.I. to another system, one of the company s owners demanded that the game programmer add more and more features. Adding these additional features added to the programming time required, slipping the ship date for the product. Unfortunately, at this time, the sales of Cinemaware s other titles were beginning to wane. Reluctant to publish the title without all the extra features they wanted, and unable to support the company with the meager sales of its existing titles, Cinemaware went under.

One of the company s original owners resurrected the company in the early 21st century. Cinemaware immediately developed recreations of its popular past titles, updated for Microsoft Windows and the Apple Macintosh. Dubbed the Digitally Remastered editions, these games feature the same gameplay as the originals, but with updated graphics. They ve also ported some of their classic games to handheld systems such as the Game Boy Advance.

On their website, they ve also released disk images of their original titles for use with emulators and some are emulated via Macromedia Shockwave.

The new Cinemaware also develops modern retakes on their classic games. Their first game in this endeavour is and poor reviews.

Ever since the 1.02 .

Recently, due to intense spamming in the website s forums, it seems that the Cinemaware staff has shut it down, though no news of the closing was mentioned on the main page.

=Past titles=

Cineware s classic titles in chornological order:

Defender of the Crown (swashbuckling movies; 1986, Apple II, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, NES, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, DOS)

S.D.I. (computer game) (Cold war era space drama; 1986, Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, DOS)

King of Chicago (inpired by mob movies; 1987, Amiga, Atari ST, DOS)

Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS)

The Three Stooges (video game) (3 Stooges movies; 1987, Amiga, Commodore 64, DOS, NES)

Rocket Ranger (1950s science fiction serials; 1988, Amiga, Commodore 64, DOS, NES)

, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS)

Lords of the Rising Sun (Japanese Samurai movies; 1988, Amiga, Atari ST, DOS)

It Came From the Desert (1950s science fiction/monster movies; 1989, Amiga, Atari ST, Mega Drive, Turbo Grafx 16, DOS)

, Amiga, DOS)

, Amiga)

Wings (video game) (World War I movies; 1990, Amiga)

, Amiga, DOS)

=Current titles=

, PS2, Xbox, Windows)

Defender of the Crown (GBA)

The Three Stooges (video game) (GBA, PlayStation)

Wings (video game) (2003, GBA)

Defender of the Crown: Digitally Remastered Edition (Windows, Macintosh)

The Three Stooges: Digitally Remastered Edition (2002, Windows, Mac)

Wings: Digitally Remastered Edition ( on hold , Windows, Mac)

Lords of the Rising Sun: Digitally Remastered Edition ( on hold , Windows, Mac)

=External links=

*[http://www.cinemaware.com Cinemaware s official website] *[http://www.mobygames.com/company/sheet/companyId,19/ MobyGames entry on Cinemaware] *[http://dmoz.org/Games/Video_Games/Developers_and_Publishers/C/Cinemaware/ Category at ODP]