MicroGraphic Image
| Fate | Ceased Operations |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1983 |
| Defunct | 1984 |
|
Key people
|
Tim Martin Robert Barber Cash Foley |
| Products | Computer Games |
MicroGraphicImage was a computer software company that produced games in the early eighties, predominantly for Atari hardware, notably the game Spelunker.
MicroGraphicImage was founded by former employees of a company called Games by Apollo. Games by Apollo had been among the companies that had overproduced games for the Atari 2600, creating a glut of cheap games. In the pre-Christmas market of 1983, the company became insolvent. At the time, they had a lot of games in the works for a number of platforms, including the Atari 400/800. Three former programmers from Games by Apollo would go on to form MicroGraphicImage: Tim Martin, Robert Barber, and Cash Foley. Martin had been one of the lead developers on the Atari 2600 platform and Foley had been on the Atari 800.
When Games by Apollo went broke, Martin and another former employee, Robert Barber, developed a game entitled Halloween based on the infamous movie. The 'Halloween' game was innovative for the time, both in content and usage of the Halloween theme music. The contract funded the founding of MicroGraphicImage. The game was released by Wizard Video Games during the video game crash of 1983-84, resulting in poor sales.
Martin and Barber's expertise was with the Atari 2600. Furthermore, they were dis-satisfied with the kind of money being made through contract game development. Their strategy was to utilize the contract programming to leverage the funding of a software publishing company. They brought Cash Foley in as technical specialist with Atari and Apple computer programming. The trio went to the January 1983 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It was there they developed a relationship with Gary Carlson, one of the founding brothers of Brøderbund. In early 1983, MicroGraphicImage developed games under contract for Brøderbund, Parker Brothers, and CBS Electronics while developing Spelunker for themselves.
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