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Psygnosis
Type Private
Founded 1984
Headquarters Liverpool

Psygnosis was a British video game developer publisher, perhaps best known for their Destruction Derby, Lemmings, Wipeout and Shadow of the Beast series of games. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual that creates Video games A developer may specialize in a certain video A video game publisher is a company that publishes Video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a Video game developer Destruction Derby is a 1995 Video game developed by Reflections and published by Psygnosis, the former Lemmings is a puzzle computer game, developed by DMA Design and published by Psygnosis in, originally for the Commodore Amiga Wipeout is the title of a series of futuristic Anti-gravity Racing games originally produced by Psygnosis for the PlayStation video Shadow of the Beast is a side-scrolling platform computer game produced by Reflections Interactive and published by Psygnosis During its early years, Psygnosis was famous for their moody computer games boasting cover art by Yes album cover artist Roger Dean. A personal computer Game (also known as a computer game or simply PC game) is a Video game played on a Personal computer, rather Yes are an English Progressive rock band that formed in London in 1968. Roger Dean (born August 31, 1944, in Ashford Kent) is an English Artist. It became part of Sony in 1993 and eventually changed its name to Sony Studio Liverpool. is a multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato Tokyo, Japan, and one of the world's largest Media conglomerates with Events March &mdash In Sweden, the Swedish Video game Magazine Super PLAY (SP starts SCE Studio Liverpool is a video game development house head-quartered at Wavertree Technology Park in Liverpool, England.

Contents

History

Founded by Ian Hetherington and Jonathan Ellis, the Liverpool-based Psygnosis was born from the ashes of the defunct 8-bit game company Imagine Software, where Hetherington was Financial Director. Ian Hetherington was co-founder of Psygnosis, a company responsible for creating many early Computer games Along with Jonathan Ellis, Hetherington founded Liverpool ( is a City and Metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary For the American company see Imagine Software (US Imagine Software was a British Video games developer based in After the collapse of Imagine in 1984, the name and trademarks were bought by Ocean Software, while the rights of the software remained with original copyright owners. Year 1984 ( MCMLXXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1984 Gregorian calendar) Ocean Software (or Ocean Software Ltd and sometimes Ocean of America Inc The fabled mega-games being created by the company, Bandersnatch (for the ZX Spectrum) and Psyclapse (for the Commodore 64), were fused into one to become Psygnosis' first release, called Brataccas. Bandersnatch was a Home computer "mega- game " written by Imagine Software intended for release on the ZX Spectrum The Sinclair ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal Home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd Brataccas is a Video game released in 1986 for the Amiga, Atari ST, and Macintosh, and was the first game published by Psygnosis This game was originally created for the Sinclair QL, but was instead ported over to other Motorola 68000-based machines and released on the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, and Apple Mac in 1985. The Sinclair QL (for Quantum Leap) was a Personal computer launched by Sinclair Research in 1984 as the successor to the ZX Spectrum The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC Microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor (formerly Motorola Semiconductor The Amiga is a family of Personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation. The Atari ST is a home / Personal computer that was commercially available from 1985 to the early 1990s Macintosh, commonly nicknamed Mac is a Brand name which covers several lines of Personal computers designed developed and marketed by Apple Inc Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar)

Psygnosis produced only one title in 1986 called Deep Space, a complex, difficult space exploration game. Year 1986 ( MCMLXXXVI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar) The box artwork was very distinctive with a black background and fantasy artwork bordered in red. This style was maintained for the best part of ten years, with a Psygnosis game being easily identifiable on a shelf of miscellaneous games. For the next few years, Psygnosis' releases contained increasingly improved graphics, but were marred by similarly difficult gameplay and control methods.

Although Psygnosis became primarily a game publisher, games were also developed fully or partly in-house. During the early days, artists were employed full-time at the headquarters, offering third-party developers, who were often just single programmers, a very high-quality art resource. A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual that creates Video games A developer may specialize in a certain video A game programmer is a Programmer who primarily develops Video games or related Software (such as Game development tools. This had the result of allowing Psygnosis to maintain very high graphical standards across the board, something for which the company became most famous. The original artists were Garvan Corbett, Jeff Bramfitt, Colin Rushby and Jim Bowers, with Neil Thompson joining a little later. Neil Thompson (born 2 October, 1963, in Beverley, England) is an English former footballer who played in defence

The faces of the main character in Obliterator were hand-drawn 2D images.
The faces of the main character in Obliterator were hand-drawn 2D images. Obliterator is a side-scrolling Arcade adventure Computer game published by Psygnosis in 1988.

Closely following in the path of 1987 hit Barbarian with what was becoming a trademark high-quality introduction, Obliterator, released in 1988, contained an opening animation by Jim Bowers (now a digital matte painter for the movie industry) with the main character looking directly into the "camera". Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) Barbarian is a 1987 computer Platform game by Psygnosis. It was first developed for the Atari ST, but eventually Obliterator is a side-scrolling Arcade adventure Computer game published by Psygnosis in 1988. Year 1988 ( MCMLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar) His face is animated with bewilderment that turns into anger, at which point he drops his guns and shoots at the observer. This short scene would further pave the way for many increasingly sophisticated intro animations, starting with 2D hand drawn sequences, and then progressing into FMV and 3D rendered movies created with Sculpt 4D on the Amiga. Sculpt 4D is a three-dimensional modeling texture mapping Raytrace rendering and animation application released by Byte by Byte Corporation for Apple 's Macintosh Eventually, Psygnosis would buy many Silicon Graphics workstations for the sole purpose of creating these animations. Silicon Graphics Inc (commonly initialised to SGI, historically sometimes referred to as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) is a company

While most games companies of the mid-to-late '80s (including Psygnosis) were releasing identical games on both the Amiga and Atari ST, Psygnosis started to use the full potential of the Amiga's more powerful hardware to produce technically stunning games. The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. It was these technically superior titles that brought the company its early success, with the landmark title Shadow of the Beast bringing the company its greatest success so far in 1989. Shadow of the Beast is a side-scrolling platform computer game produced by Reflections Interactive and published by Psygnosis Year 1989 ( MCMLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar) Its multi-layered parallax scrolling and stunning music were highly advanced for the time and as such led to the game being used as a showcase demonstration for the Amiga in many computer shops. Parallax scrolling is a special Scrolling technique in Computer graphics, seen first in the 1982 Arcade game Moon Patrol Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time.

Later, Psygnosis consolidated its fame thanks to Lemmings game franchise: debuting in 1991 on the Amiga, Lemmings was soon to be exported to a plethora of different computer and videogame platforms, generating many sequels and variations of its concept through the years. Lemmings is a puzzle computer game, developed by DMA Design and published by Psygnosis in, originally for the Commodore Amiga Year 1991 ( MCMXCI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar. After that, Psygnosis put unparalleled effort in producing Microcosm, a game that debuted on Japanese system FM Towns and was to become technical showcase and flagship title for Commodore CD32 and SMSG 3DO new multimedia consoles: although gameplay was never considered on par with technical aspects, graphics, music by Rick Wakeman and long FMV introduction were among the finest in company history at the time. The FM Towns (commonly spelled FM-Towns, FM TOWNS, or FM-TOWNS) system is a Japanese PC The Amiga CD32 was the first 32-bit CD-ROM based Video game console released in western Europe and Canada 3DO Interactive Multiplayer (often called simply 3DO) was a Video game console originally produced by Panasonic in. Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949 in Perivale, London) is an English Keyboard player best known as the

However, Commodore financial troubles with subsequent bankruptcy and the arrival of new relevant actors in videogaming scene can be considered among the indirect causes of a major shifting in Psygnosis strategy: in 1993 the company was acquired by Sony to work on their new PlayStation machine, and in 1995 Psygnosis started producing many of its games using Sony console as primary reference hardware, later porting some of them to PC and other platforms. Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar) is a multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato Tokyo, Japan, and one of the world's largest Media conglomerates with The PlayStation (abbreviated PS, PSone, PS1, or informally as PSX) is a 32-bit fifth generation Video game console Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995 Among most famous creations of this period, Wipeout series, Destruction Derby, G-Police, Colony Wars series. Wipeout is the title of a series of futuristic Anti-gravity Racing games originally produced by Psygnosis for the PlayStation video Destruction Derby is a 1995 Video game developed by Reflections and published by Psygnosis, the former G-Police is a vehicle-based (primarily 'gunships' similar to Helicopters) shooter developed by Psygnosis and Wheelhaus and Colony Wars is a trilogy of Video games developed and produced by Psygnosis for the Sony PlayStation. Psygnosis also programmed several of the in-show video games that were in Nick Arcade, a Nickelodeon game show from the early 90's that revolved around video games. Nickelodeon Arcade, usually called Nick Arcade is an American Game show created by James Bethea and Karim Miteff Nickelodeon (commonly referred to as Nick) is an American Cable television network owned by Viacom International, founded in 1977 as Pinwheel

The original company headquarters were located at the Port of Liverpool Building at the Pier Head in Liverpool, but soon moved to Century Buildings in Brunswick Business Park (also in Liverpool), and later moved down the road 200 metres to South Harrington Building in South Harrington Dock. Liverpool ( is a City and Metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary The metre or meter is a unit of Length. It is the basic unit of Length in the Metric system and in the International As the company expanded after the Sony buyout, another satellite office was opened in Century Building with later offices appearing in Stroud, England, London, Chester, Paris, Germany, and Foster City in California (as the Customer Support & Marketing with software development done in San Francisco), now the home of Sony Computer Entertainment America. Stroud is a Town and Civil parish in the County of Gloucestershire, England. The company headquarters has resided at Wavertree Technology Park since 1995.

The Stroud office was opened in November 1993 in order to attract disgruntled MicroProse UK employees. Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar) MicroProse, as a corporation and brand name has been owned by several entities since its original founding by Sid Meier and Bill Stealey in 1982 The Wheelhouse—its publishing name—was later closed in 2000 as part of the Sony Computer Entertainment takeover of Psygnosis. 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ( SCEI) is a Japanese Video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry mostly in Video game consoles and is a full Some members joined Bristol-based Rage Software, but faced a similar demise a number of years later. Bristol ( ˈbrɪstəl is a city, Unitary authority and ceremonial county in South West England, west of London Rage Software or Rage Games was a British Video game developer.

In 1999 Psygnosis eventually lost its branding to become known as Sony Studio Liverpool. Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) SCE Studio Liverpool is a video game development house head-quartered at Wavertree Technology Park in Liverpool, England. Some of the original developers from late 80s and early '90s are still employed at the site. The 1990s collectively refers to the years between and including 1990 and 1999

Games

External links

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