Accolade (developer)

Infobox Company
company_name = Accolade
company_
company_slogan =
company_type = Defunct
foundation = 1984
location = San Jose, California
num_employees = N/A
key_people = Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead, founders
industry = Video game development and publishing
products = Star Control, Test Drive, Jack Nicklaus Golf, Hardball, Bubsy
revenue = N/A
homepage = [http://www.accolade.com/ www.accolade.com] (defunct), [http://www.atari.com/ www.atari.com]

Accolade was a video game developer and publisher of the 1980s and 1990s. It was founded in 1984 by game industry veterans Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead. Miller and Whitehead founded Accolade after leaving another game developer and publisher they had founded, Activision, the first third-party game developer.

History

Early years

According to legend, Miller and Whitehead named their company "Accolade" because it came before "Activision" alphabetically—implying that Accolade was superior to their previous company. Apparently when forming Activision, they chose "that" name because it came before "Atari." Later, a new game development company, Acclaim , another company formed from ex-Activision employees, apparently formulated their name because it came before "Accolade." Absolute Entertainment, again, a third company formed from ex-Activision people, ended up being first with the 'first in the alphabet' race.

". "Test Drive" and "HardBall!" went on to become two of Accolade's longest-running franchises.

As the popularity of other systems waned, Accolade focused on PC and console development, including the NES, Mega Drive/Genesis, SNES and PlayStation during those systems' popularity.

All of Accolade's initial titles were developed in-house. But being a publisher as well as a developer, Accolade began to publish titles produced by other developers as well. By the mid-1990s, most of Accolade software development was done by third-party developers.

In October of 1991, Accolade was served with a lawsuit regarding copyright infringement, that eventually led to the concept of reverse engineering for interoperability purposes. Sega wanted to keep a hold on their consoles, and wanted all its games exclusive to Sega. Unwilling to conform to single platform use, Accolade engineers researched through reverse engineering on a way to produce titles for the Sega platform. Sega sued Accolade over the practice and won an initial injunction, forcing Accolade to remove all Genesis product from store shelves. Accolade, however, won on appeal and reached an out of court settlement with Sega that allowed Accolade to continue building their own Genesis cartridges but as an official licensee.

Demise

The company had marginal successes during the early 1990s. "Bubsy" for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo sold well and was the company's best-selling game until "Test Drive 4" came out in 1997. "Star Control 2" for the PC (1992, DOS) is still very well regarded and was one of the highest rated games of its time.

However, beginning in the mid-1990s, Accolade started publishing a variety of games of differing genres which were undistinguished and lacked polish.

During a conference of management and producers, Accolade decided to focus only on sports, action games. Accolade already had several franchises based in these categories. Franchises in the sports genre included "HardBall!", "Unnecessary Roughness" and "Jack Nicklaus Golf". In the broad "action" category they had the long-running franchise "Test Drive".

Alan Miller left Accolade in 1995; Bob Whitehead had left shortly after the founding of the company. Before Miller left, the position of CEO was taken over by Peter Harris who was placed there by Prudential Investments (Prudential had made a USD$10 million investment in the company). Harris was on the board of directors and was formerly the CEO of FAO Schwartz and after Accolade, became the president of the San Francisco 49ers. Harris left the fate of the company in the hands of game industry neophyte, Jim Barnett. Under Barnett's direction, the company relaunched the successful "Test Drive" series, began the "Test Drive Offroad" series and introduced both series to the PlayStation platform.

Accolade did well in its early years, but by the 1990s, Accolade's sales suffered and management was forced to enact several rounds of layoffs. Under Barnett's direction, Accolade continued to flounder as more people were laid off. However, he kept the company afloat long enough to be purchased by French publisher Infogrames in 1999, right after publishing their last game "Redline". Accolade, as a game development and publishing entity, quietly ceased to exist after the San Jose office was merged with Infogrammes' other operations and moved to Los Angeles. All of Accolade's assets are now owned by Atari (née Infogrames). Many employees from the time of the aquisition still work for Atari.

Accolade was located in Silicon Valley (California) at::5300 Stevens Creek Blvd.:Suite 500:San Jose, California 95129:coord|37.322368|-121.996983|display=inline|type:landmark_region:US

Accolade

Many people were instrumental in the success of, and finally acquisition of, Accolade throughout its history. The individuals present at the time of its acquisition are listed below

Executive team

*Alan Miller : President, founder
*Bob Whitehead: Co-President, co-Founder
*Alan Epstein : Co-President
*Laverne Laws : Human Resources
*Luis Rivas: Supervisor of Mastering

Producers

*Steve Cartwright: Executive Producer/Designer
*Michael Berlyn: Executive Producer/Designer
*Pam Levins :Executive Producer
*Gene Smith :Executive Producer
*Chris Downend :Executive Producer
*Steve Ackrich :Executive Producer
*Bob Smith : Executive Producer
*Sam Nelson: Executive Producer
*Jim Barnett: Executive Producer
*Slade Anderson :Producer
*Matt Guzenda :Producer
*Robert Daley: Producer
*Kieth Orr: Producer
*Chris Bankston:Producer
*Shelly Safir: Producer
*Danny Pisano: Producer
*Michael Franco: Producer
*Matthew Ford: Producer
*Ted Tahquechi: Producer
*Ken Humpheries: Producer
*Todd Thorson : Producer
*Daniel Tyrrell: Assistant Producer

Programmers

*Gary Strawn
*Bob Morrison

Artists

*Dale Mauk : Lead Artist/ Studio Art Director
*Bob Busick: Lead Artist
*Ken Capelli: Lead Artist
*Brian Wanamaker: Lead Artist
*Heather Capelli: Lead Artist
*Lee Petty: Lead Artist
*Patricia Pearson: Artist
*Roseann Mitchell: Artist
*Justin R. Chin : Graphics
*Betty Cunningham:Artist
*Steven Graziano: Artist
*Jeff Wilcox: Artist
*Taunya Schiffer: Artist
*Beckett Gladney: Artist
*Chris Echkhardt: SGI Lab
*Steve Martinez: SGI Lab
*Dexx Dorris:SGI Lab
*Ken Macklin: Artist
*Thomas Applegate: Artist
*Scott Heckenlively:Artist
*Dave Gustlin: Artist
*Mike Khoury: Artist
*Ted Naifeh: Artist
*Stephan Henry-Biskup: Artist
*Yongki Yoon: Artist
*Chin-han Hsu: Artist
*Thomas Denmark: Artist

Musicians

*Ed Bogas: Music
*Russel Schiffer: Music
*Richard Kelly: Music
*Rudy Helm: Music

Games

Accolade was responsible for developing many influential games. Some of the best known and best-selling series include "Star Control", "Test Drive", "Jack Nicklaus Golf", "HardBall" and "Bubsy".

* "4th & Inches" 1987
* "4th & Inches" Team Construction Disk 1988
* "Accolade Comics " 1987
* "Accolade In Action " 1990
* "Ace of Aces" 1986
* "Altered Destiny" 1990
* "Ballz" 1994
* "Bar Games" 1989
* "Barkley Shut Up and Jam!" 1994
* "Battle Isle 2" (PC) 1993
* "Big Air" (PlayStation) 1998
* "" 1989
* "Brett Hull Hockey 95" 1994
* "Bubble Ghost" 1987
* "" 1996
* "Bubsy II" 1994
* "" 1993
* "" 1994
* "The Cardinal of the Kremlin" 1990
* "Combat Cars" (Sega Genesis) 1994
* "Cyclemania" (PC) 1994
* "" 1989
* "Dam Busters" 1984
* "Day of the Viper" 1989
* "" (PC) 1996
* "" (PC) 1998
* "Don't Go Alone" 1989
* "Double Dragon" 1988
* "" 1989
* "" 1990
* "" 1991
* "Eradicator" (PC) 1996
* "Fast Break" 1988
* "Fight Night" 1985
* "The Game of Harmony" 1990
* "" 1991
* "" 1992
* "Grand Prix Circuit" 1988
* "Grand Prix Unlimited" 1992
* "Gunboat" 1990
* "Hardball!" 1985
* "HardBall II" 1989
* "HardBall III" 1992
* "HardBall 4" 1994
* "HardBall 5" 1995
* "HardBall 6" 1998
* "HardBall 6 - 2000 Edition" 1999
* "Hoverforce" 1990
* "" 1990
* "Jack Nicklaus 4" 1997
* "Jack Nicklaus 5" 1998
* "" 1992
* "Jack Nicklaus' Greatest 18 Holes of Major Championship Golf" 1988
* "Jack Nicklaus' Unlimited Golf & Course Design" 1990
* "Killed Until Dead" 1986
* "Law of the West" 1985
* "" 1992
* "" 1990
* "Mean 18" 1986
* "Mike Ditka Ultimate Football" 1991
* "Mini-Putt" 1987
* "" 1994
* "PO'ed" 1995
* "Power at Sea" 1987
* "" 1985
* "Psi-5 Trading Company" 1986
* "Rack 'Em" 1988
* "Redline" 1999
* "Road & Car" 1991
* "Serve & Volley" 1988
* "Slave Zero" (PC) 1999
* "Snoopy's Game Club" 1992
* "Speed Racer"
* "Speed Racer in The Challenge of Racer X"
* "Star Control" 1990
* "Star Control II" 1992
* "Star Control 1 & 2 CD Compendium"
* "Star Control 3" 1996
* "Star Control Collection"
* "Steel Thunder"
* "Stratego"
* "Strike Aces"
* ""
* "Super Bubsy"
* "Test Drive"
* "Test Drive 4" (PlayStation, PC)
* "Test Drive 5" (PlayStation, PC)
* ""
* ""
* ""
* ""
* ""
* ""
* "Test Drive Off-Road 3"
* ""
* ""
* "The Third Courier"
* "TKO"
* ""
* "Turrican"
* "Universal Soldier"
* "Unnecessary Roughness"
* "Unnecessary Roughness '95" (PC, Sega Genesis)
* "Unnecessary Roughness '96" (PC)
* "Waxworks" (Amiga, DOS)
* "Warp Speed" (Sega Genesis)
* "Winter Challenge"
* "Zero Tolerance" (Sega Genesis)
* "Zyconix"

External links

* [http://www.mobygames.com/company/accolade-inc Accolade profile] from MobyGames
* [http://www.the-underdogs.info/company.php?name=Accolade The Underdogs' company profile for Accolade]
* [http://www.if-legends.org/~adventure/Accolade.html Adventureland: Accolade's adventure games]
* [http://digital-law-online.info/cases/24PQ2D1561.htm Sega vs Accolade details]
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