The story
Origins
Spectrum HoloByte was founded in 1983 in Boulder, Colorado, by Jeff Sauter, Phil Adam and Mike Franklin. The name came from terms, spectrum was coming from the color, holo was meant to be 3D or holography and byte meaning computer.
The company's first hit was a game called GATO, which was a hit for learners. The company made another hit with the game without copy protection, Orbiter, which was another breakout.
Merger with Nexa
In 1987 Spectrum HoloByte merged with another game developer, Nexa Corporation, forming a common holding company, Sphere, Inc., which was owned by Pergamon Press, who had a 89% share in the company, and prompting the company's move from Colorado to California, with Nexa and Spectrum HoloByte as brands. Nexa founder Gilman Louie served as chairman of the combined company.
The company then signed a distribution deal with distributor Mirrorsoft to become the company's European distributor, while the company begin distributing Mirrorsoft's titles for North America. The company made its biggest move and breakout success when its title Tetris become the company's best-selling title for home computers. The success led to a sequel to Tetris for home computers, called Welltris.
In 1989, the company was awarded a third-party license for the Sega Genesis, and its first title was intended to be Falcon, but scrapped at the last minute. In 1990, the company made its move when the company licensed Vette to Sega of America for the Sega Genesis, but never came to fruition.
In April 1991, the company, via Sphere, Inc. launched a joint venture with Mirrorsoft, Arena Entertainment to release games for platforms like Amiga and Sega Genesis, before Mirrorsoft was sold to Acclaim in 1992, allowing Acclaim to purchase Arena Entertainment from Mirrorsoft and Spectrum HoloByte. Only three games were released under the venture, including Back to the Future Part III, Battlemaster, and Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe, all for the Genesis, before Arena was sold to Acclaim.
Reorganization, merger with MicroProse and closure
In 1992, Spectrum HoloByte received an investment from Kleiner Perkins, which let the company repurchase shares formerly owned by Robert Maxwell's companies, after the death of Robert Maxwell, ending its ties to their bankruptcies. In early 1992, the company entered into an agreement with Horizon Entertainment and W Industries to create a new firm Cyberstudio, designed to create firms for the Virtuality Entertainment System.
Also in 1992, the company signed a deal with MicroProse where it became its new European distributor after Mirrorsoft was sold to Acclaim, signed a licensing deal with Paramount Pictures to make video games based on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and then the company then made their first true home console game in 1992, Wordtris, for the SNES and Game Boy, a port of the home computer game.
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In late 1992, the parent company was reincorporated from Sphere, Inc. to Spectrum HoloByte, Inc. to reflect the business. In 1993, the company acquired the North American business of video game publisher Bullet-Proof Software. In December 1993, Spectrum HoloByte, Inc. merged with MicroProse, who was distributing Spectrum HoloByte's games in Europe, to form MicroProse Inc.
For the following years, games from both companies were published under their respective brands, but in 1996 all titles were consolidated under the MicroProse brand, with the Alameda headquarters continued to be used on its titles developed at the former Spectrum HoloByte sttaff. In 1995, the company had bought out Simtex. The company was an early adapter of Nintendo 64, as no titles came out under the label.
Hasbro Interactive acquired the merged company in 1998, and what had been Spectrum HoloByte ceased to exist when the development studio in Alameda, California, was closed in 1999.
From Wikipedia’s article on Spectrum HoloByte, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4