Cinemaware's first release in 1986, Defender of the Crown, redefined computer game graphic quality of the era and secured its reputation as a developer of graphically superior games in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Cinemaware is a computer game developer that released several popular titles in the 1980s based on popular movie themes. In the '80s, Cinemaware was also a publisher.

History

Founded in 1985, Cinemaware's first title was the popular Defender of the Crown, a swashbuckling adventure that featured graphics considered extraordinary for the era. Spectacular graphics became the hallmark of Cinemaware's games and they remain some of the best games to be created in the '80s.

Cinemaware went onto release a string of hits, each based on some classic category of movies. Their games generally debuted on the most competant home computer of the era, the graphically spectacular Amiga. Most games were then ported to the other popular home computers of the era, such as the Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, PC (running under DOS) and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). This was particularly true for Defender of the Crown, which holds the record as the most ported game.

Cinemaware eventually branched out into sports games. It's "TV Sports" line again featured unparalleled graphics and gameplay. They were quickly considered the best games of the genre and proved very popular. The "TV Sports" line covered basketball, football and soccer. Some "TV Sports" titles were only released in Europe, such as and .

Cinemaware went bankrupt in 1991. This was the result of, remarkably, feature creep. While porting S.D.I. to another system, one of the company's owners demanded that the programmers add more and more features. Adding these additional features added to the programming time required, slipping the ship date for the product. Unfortunately, at this time, the sales of Cinemaware's other titles were beginning to wane. Reluctant to publish the title without all the extra features they wanted, and unable to support the company with the meager sales of its existing titles, Cinemaware went under.

One of the company's original owners resurrected the company in the early 21st century. Cinemaware immediately developed recreations of its popular past titles, updated for Windows and the Macintosh. Dubbed the "Digitally Remastered" editions, these games feature the same gameplay as the originals, but with updated graphics. They've also ported some of their classic games to handheld systems such as the Game Boy Advance.

On their website, they've also released disk images of their original titles for use with emulators and some are emulated via Shockwave.

The new Cinemaware also develops modern retakes on their classic games. Their first game in this endevour is which features a modern 3D engine. It debuted in September 2003 on Windows, PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Sales of this title seemed to have suffered due to insufficient marketing and poor reviews.

Alas, though no announcements have been made, Cinemaware's production seemed to have stagnated since the release of Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown. Many upcoming products are listed as "on hold" and the North American releases of many products—which debuted in Europe in 2003—are listed as "TBD." So it appears that Cinemaware may have gone bankrupt once again.

Past titles

Cineware's classic titles in chornological order:

• Defender of the Crown (swashbuckling movies; 1986, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, NES)
• S.D.I. (Cold war era space drama; 1986, Amiga, Atari ST)
• The King of Chicago (inpired by mob movies; 1987, Amiga, Atari ST, DOS)
• (Sinbad and Arabian nights movies; 1987 Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS)
• The Three Stooges (3 Stooges movies; 1987, Amiga, Commodore 64, DOS, NES)
• Rocket Ranger (1950s science fiction serials; 1988, Amiga, Commodore 64, DOS, NES)
• (1988, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS)
• Lords of the Rising Sun (Japanese Samurai movies; 1988, Amiga, Atari ST, DOS)
• It Came From the Desert (1950s science fiction/monster movies; 1989, Amiga, DOS)
• (1990, Amiga, DOS]]
• ( 1990, Amiga)
• Wings (World War I movies; 1990, Amiga)
• (1991, Amiga, DOS)

Current titles

• (2003, PS2, Xbox, Windows)
• Defender of the Crown (GBA)
• The Three Stooges (GBA, PlayStation)
• Wings (2003, GBA)
• Defender of the Crown: Digitally Remastered Edition (Windows, Macintosh)
• The Three Stooges: Digitally Remastered Edition (2002, Windows, Mac)
• Wings: Digitally Remastered Edition ("on hold", Windows, Mac)
• Lords of the Rising Sun: Digitally Remastered Edition ("on hold", Windows, Mac)

External links

• Cinemaware's official website
• MobyGames' entry on Cinemaware