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Imagic
American video game company From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Imagic (/ɪˈmædʒɪk/ i-MA-jik) was an American video game developer and publisher that created games initially for the Atari 2600. Founded in 1981 by corporate alumni of Atari, Inc. and Mattel, its best-selling titles were Atlantis, Cosmic Ark, and Demon Attack.[1] Imagic also released games for Intellivision, ColecoVision, Atari 8-bit computers, TI-99/4A, IBM PCjr, VIC-20, Commodore 64, TRS-80 Color Computer, and Magnavox Odyssey². Their Odyssey² ports of Demon Attack and Atlantis were the only third-party releases for that system in America. The company never recovered from the video game crash of 1983 and was liquidated in 1986.
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Imagic was the second independent video game publisher in the early days of home programmable video game systems following Activision. Prior to Activision only Atari and Mattel offered games for their respective consoles.[2] In early 1981, Bill Grubb,[3] the founding CEO of Imagic, had recently left his position as the VP of Sales and Marketing at Atari. After witnessing Activision's meteoric success, Grubb began making plans to form another independent Atari game developer and teamed up with Dennis Koble [4] who was managing game development at Atari. By coincidence at the same time, Jim Goldberger, a marketing executive at Mattel, was working on a business plan with Brian Dougherty, a senior engineer at Mattel, to form the first independent game company for the Mattel Intellivion, the second largest game console at the time. Grubb and Goldberger knew each other and soon discovered each other's plans. Grubb suggested joining forces which would allow the new company to distinguish itself from Activision by offering games for both platforms. An agreement was reached and in the Spring of 1981 Grubb and Dougherty pitched venture capitalist Kleiner Perkins and Merrill Pickard raising $2 million in seed capital. The company was organized as a California Corporation on June 1, 1981, with Frank Caufield and Steve Merrill joining the board along with Grubb and Dougherty. Other founders included Bob Smith and Rob Fulop from Atari, Inc.,[5] Dave Durran from Mattel[6] as well as Pat Ransil[7] and Gary Kato.
It was Grubb's goal to take Imagic public[6] and to eventually overtake Activision as the number one third-party video game publisher.[4] Like Activision, Imagic had a meteoric rise, in its first 3 quarters of sales in 1982, the company sold $48 million worth of games led by Demon Attack developed by Rob Fulop, which became one of the top selling games in the industry. An Intellivion version was also developed by Gary Kato. Fulop, was previously a programmer at Atari, and claimed in a 2019 interview with Paleotronic Magazine that he left the company in favor of Imagic after being paid for developing the Atari 2600 port of Missile Command with a Safeway coupon for a free turkey rather than the monetary Christmas bonus he had expected.[8]
Imagic filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in November 1982 with underwriters Merrill Lynch, Hambrecht & Quist, and Alex Brown. Grubb and Dougherty, along with CFO Dennis Rowland completed a public offering road show. The offering was well received and the company was set to go public in early December. Just days before the offering Atari announced that video game console sales were significantly down for the 1982 Christmas season. This news negatively affected demand for Imagic's stock and the underwriters along with the company decided to delay the offering. Unfortunately the industry was in for a prolonged decline and the company never managed to go public.
Atari also sued Imagic over Demon Attack because of its resemblance to Phoenix,[9] to which Atari had the exclusive home-version rights. The case was settled out of court.
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Fan club
During its height, Imagic ran a fan club for their games, the Numb Thumb Club, which published an annual newsletter.[10] Only two issues were published before Imagic's decline began in late 1983.[10]
Decline
Although Imagic grew quickly in its early years, it was irreparably harmed by the video game crash of 1983. It released 24 games before going out of business by 1986, but the exact time it disbanded is unknown. In 1983, the company laid off 40 of their 170 employees[11] but appeared at the 1984 Consumer Electronics Show with plans for four IBM PCjr games.[12] The rights to Imagic's most popular titles have been owned by Activision since the late 1980s,[citation needed] and they have been re-released on several occasions.
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 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (August 2020) |
Imagic 2600 cartridges were distinct from both Activision and Atari cartridges with an extended ridge at the top of the cart. Packaging was distinctive due to the use of reflective silver on the boxes, with a tapered, ridged end intended for an easy grip. The years are for the original versions only, not subsequent ports.
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References
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