Lore: The Fun Makers

[xinjinmeng]

Putting this here so I can find it later.

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Company	Logo	Description
Altamont		From their humble beginnings selling DIY computer kits by mail, Altamont eventually became a leader in personal computing. While their attempts to make a home console never materialized, they had much greater success with mobile devices.
Bidapak		Primarly a music label, with some of the best-selling acts across multiple decades, Bidapak published several games in the second- and third-generation eras. Today, most of their titles are mobile games licensed to outside parties.
Forbin		One of the pioneers of home computing, Forbin shifted from hardware to software as low-cost clones eroded their share. The company pivoted to acquisition, and now controls a large library of movies, television, music, and video-game entertainment.
Foreco		Originally an arcade-machine manufacturer, Foreco also commissioned their own games, always as conversion kits for existing machines. Many of these titles were converted for the home market, where they have a small but devoted fan base who praise their idiosyncratic style. While still incorporated, Foreco hasn't published any titles in years and appears to be a holding company.
Lagniappe Video		Primarily a distributor for home video, Lagniappe also published several titles for early-generation machines. Their games are almost all licensed shovelware and kusoge, of interest only to die-hard collectors.
Liu		One of many companies to publish dedicated "Pong" consoles, Liu were quick to enter the home-computing market. Their advertisements were often seen in magazines and shopping-trailers, especially their plea for unpublished designers to send their own games for consideration.
Mediagra		Originally incorporated as "Guru Mountain", this company was formed by disaffected developers who had worked for other corporations. Their games were famous for their "rock-star" packaging where they prominently featured their designers. After sales floundered in the fourth-era, they were rebranded as "Mediagra", where they aggressively pursued sports and entertainment licenses, which proved to be a good fit in the "attitude era" of gaming. Today Mediagra is notorious for their aggressive monetizations and their abuse of employees, a tragic turn of their bright legacy.
MPC		Formed by ex-Guru Mountain employees, MPC both made their own games and maintained a set of "MPC standards" under license. Their theory was that if there were a unified set of home-computer standards, many companies could make their own consoles while other developers could make games, creating a thriving ecosystem. MPC-compatible computers and consoles enjoyed success during the fourth-generation, largely due to their comprehensive and affordable standards for CD-ROM media. While MPC has never officially dissolved, they remain largely irrelevant in the mobile-games era.
Nagaco		Originially an energy concern, by mid-century they had begun making cable-ready televisions and their own cable network to help sell them. With the home video-game explosion, they became a publisher of several titles. Today, the company is primarily involved in energy and manufacturing; their legacy titles are subcontracted to other publishers.
Nimbal		Nimbal Products were a successful toy and boxed-game manufacturer. With the rise of the home market, they exploited their library of IPs and licenses to subcontract several studios so they could publish dozens of video-games a year. Their titles are infamous for their poor coding, their baffling game-play, and their unforgiving difficulty. Nevertheless, Nimbal's games proved incredibly profitable. Their filing for bankruptcy at the start of the sixth-generation was due to poor sales in other departments; their portfolio was acquired by Forbin, where it is occasionally dumped onto "mini-consoles" and other retro-themed merchandise.
Nullarbor		Catering primarily to English-speaking audiences, Nullarbor House first became famous for innovations to the interactive-fiction market: complex parsers, colorful graphics, and limited artificial intelligence. Their catalog includes a variety of titles, original and licensed. During the fourth generation, their company was bought by Mediagra, mostly for its publishing and distribution network. Their in-house studio was renamed "Mediagra Pacific" and now exists to port or remaster other titles.
Springheel		Operating out of a computer store in Europe, this studio enjoyed early success on third-generation micros with their Billy Sloper and Runewind series of games. Later renamed "Springheel Interactive", they had more success with their simulation series of "Czar" games before the inter-company tensions resulted in several lawsuits. The assets were sold off to numerous companies.
Worldwide Amusements		Originally incorporated as Kampong Ltd., this company was a manufacturer of Pachinko, gacha, and slot machines. They were one of the first distributor of arcade machines, eventually subcontracting other companies to produce more titles. The rarity of some of their games, coupled with their unorthodox styles of play, gave their titles a sinister reputation. (One game in particular, "Necrolution", appears in contemporary catalogs for sale, but it appears to have never been produced; it has now become fodder for urban legends and parody.) Today, the company makes point-of-purchase gambling machines and owns many casinos.
Zevo		A family-owned operation, Zevo Toys were popular with the boomer set for being cheap, durable, and fun. The company was more famous for their various after-market peripherals to games (joysticks, trackballs, etc.) and a line of action-figures that would respond to signals embedded in direct-to-video cartoons. After the fifth generation, Zevo no longer makes home amusements; today, they exist only as patent-holders for micro-processors and other computer hardware.