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Stormfront Studios

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Stormfront Studios, Inc.
FormerlyBeyond Software (1988–1993)
Company typePrivate
IndustryVideo games
FoundedDecember 28, 1988; 35 years ago (1988-12-28)
FounderDon Daglow
DefunctMarch 31, 2008 (2008-03-31)
FateDissolved
Headquarters,
Key people
Don Daglow (President & CEO)
Number of employees
33 (2008)

Stormfront Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer based in San Rafael, California. In 2007, the company had over 50 developers working on two teams, and owned all its proprietary engines, tools, and technology. As of the end of 2007, over fourteen million copies of Stormfront-developed games had been sold. Stormfront closed on March 31, 2008, due to the closure of their publisher at the time, Sierra Entertainment.[1][2]

The company received major awards and award nominations from The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, G4 Television, BAFTA, The IGDA Game Developers Choice Awards, The EMMA Awards, SCEA, the Software Publishers Association and many magazines and websites.

In 2008, Neverwinter Nights was honored (along with EverQuest and World of Warcraft) at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for advancing the art form of MMORPG games. Don Daglow accepted the award for project partners Stormfront Studios, AOL and Wizards of the Coast.

History

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Stormfront was founded in 1988 by Don Daglow, who had worked as a game programmer and then as Director of Game Development at Mattel Intellivision, as a producer at Electronic Arts, and as a production executive at Broderbund. Stormfront's management includes veterans of Disney, Electronic Arts, Ensemble Studios, LucasArts, Origin Systems, THX, Vivendi Universal and Warner Bros.

Stormfront was founded as Beyond Software, but changed its name in 1993 when the trademark for Beyond proved difficult to enforce.

Highlights 1988–1993

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  • Neverwinter Nights. Daglow had worked on game projects with Kathi McHugh and Steve Case of AOL (then called Quantum Computer Services) since early in AOL's history. Apart from baseball, Stormfront's initial projects were a series of online titles for AOL, including the first original play-by-email game, Quantum Space (1989) and later the first graphical MMORPG, the original Neverwinter Nights (1991–1997). Neverwinter Nights held the all-time record as the top revenue-producing online RPG for almost ten years until the success of Ultima Online in the late 1990s. BioWare subsequently purchased the rights to the name, and built a new generation of award-winning multiplayer RPGs set in the Neverwinter universe.
  • Tony La Russa Baseball. Upon its founding in 1988 Stormfront's first project was a baseball title, which over the following eight years was to become the Tony La Russa Baseball series of games, working closely with baseball manager Tony La Russa. La Russa remains a member of the company's Board of Directors today. Daglow had previously designed or co-designed a number of baseball games, including Baseball, Intellivision World Series Baseball and Earl Weaver Baseball, the latter two with programmer Eddie Dombrower.
  • Gold Box D&D Games. In 1990 the company began working with SSI on a series of Gold Box Dungeons & Dragons RPG games. This led to the company's first #1 hit, Gateway to the Savage Frontier (1991), and the first game where an AI character might fall in love with the player (depending on how they reacted to situations in the game), Treasures of the Savage Frontier (1992).
  • Stronghold (1993). The first RTS game to use a 3D perspective, Stronghold also featured a GUI interface in an era when most games continued to use text menus.

Highlights 1993–1999

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Highlights 2000–2005

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Highlights 2006–2008

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Interactive television

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Stormfront had an ongoing involvement in the development of games for Interactive television since its first experiments on Florida cable systems in 1990, and produced demos for companies including OpenTV.

Games developed

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Year Title Publisher Platform(s)
1996 Andretti Racing EA Sports PC, PlayStation and Sega Saturn
1997 Andretti Racing '98 EA Sports PC
2001 Blood Wake Microsoft Game Studios Xbox
1997 Byzantine: The Betrayal Discovery Channel PC
1994 Eagle Eye Mysteries in London Creative Wonders (EA Kids) PC and Mac
1993 Eagle Eye Mysteries Creative Wonders (EA Kids) PC and Mac
2006 Eragon Vivendi Universal Games Xbox 360, Xbox, PC and PS2
1994 ESPN Baseball Tonight Sony PC
1995 ESPN National Hockey Night Sony PC
2004 Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone Atari Xbox, PC and PS2
1991 Gateway to the Savage Frontier SSI PC, C64 and Amiga
1999 Hot Wheels Turbo Racing EA PlayStation and Nintendo 64
2001 Legend of Alon D'ar UbiSoft PS2
2000 Lego My Style: Kindergarten Lego Media PC and Mac
2000 Lego My Style: Preschool Lego Media PC and Mac
1996 Madden NFL '97 EA Sports PC
1997 Madden NFL '98 EA Sports PC
1994 Mario Andretti Racing EA Sports Sega Genesis
1997 NASCAR 98 EA Sports PlayStation and Sega Saturn
1998 NASCAR 99 EA Sports PlayStation and Nintendo 64
1999 NASCAR 2000 EA Sports PC, PlayStation and Nintendo 64
1991 Neverwinter Nights AOL, SSI PC
1995 Old Time Baseball Self-published PC
2001 Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor Ubisoft PC
1993 Rebel Space Prodigy PC and Mac
1996 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Harbinger Viacom New Media PC and Mac
1998 Starfire Soccer Challenge Purple Moon PC and Mac
1993 Stronghold SSI PC
2002 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers EA PS2, Xbox, GBA[3]
2008 The Spiderwick Chronicles Sierra Wii, Xbox 360 and PC
2000 Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf 2001 EA Sports PlayStation
1991 Tony La Russa Ultimate Baseball SSI PC
1993 Tony La Russa Ultimate Baseball EA Sports Sega Genesis
1994 Tony La Russa Baseball '95 EA Sports Sega Genesis
1994 Tony La Russa Baseball II SSI PC
1995 Tony La Russa Baseball 3 Self-published PC
1996 Tony La Russa Baseball 3: 1996 Edition Self-published PC
1997 Tony La Russa Baseball 4 Maxis PC
1992 Treasures of the Savage Frontier SSI PC and Amiga
1989 Quantum Space AOL PC, Mac, Apple II and C64
1988 The QuantumLink Serial AOL PC, Mac, Apple II and C64

References

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  1. ^ a b "Stormfront Studios shutting down".
  2. ^ "Breaking Report: Stormfront To Shutter Studio". April 2008.
  3. ^ "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (GBA)". Metacritic. Archived from the original on September 13, 2008. Retrieved November 5, 2014.
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