Absolute Entertainment

Absolute Entertainment was an American video game developer and publisher. Through its development division, Imagineering, Absolute Entertainment produced titles for the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Game Gear, Genesis/Mega Drive, Sega CD, Game Boy, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Super NES video game consoles, as well as for the Commodore 64, Apple II, and IBM PC compatibles.

Absolute Entertainment

Company type	Private
Industry	Video game publishing
Genre	Action, sports, strategy
Founded	1986
Founder	Garry Kitchen
Defunct	1995
Fate	Bankruptcy
Successor	Skyworks Technologies
Headquarters	Upper Saddle River, New Jersey , United States
Products	Video games
Divisions	Imagineering

After leaving his position as a video game developer and designer at Activision, Garry Kitchen founded the company in 1986 with his brother Dan Kitchen, along with Alex DeMeo and John Van Ryzin.^[1] The company's headquarters was in Glen Rock, New Jersey, but later moved to another New Jersey borough, Upper Saddle River. In 1988, after his brief stint at Hasbro, David Crane had joined the company.^[2][3] While the company was based in New Jersey, David Crane worked out of his home on the West Coast.^[4] The company's name was chosen because it was alphabetically above Activision, implying that Absolute Entertainment was superior to Activision. It was the same strategy that Activision chose when the programmers left Atari.

At Absolute Entertainment, Kitchen continued developing games for the Atari 2600 and Atari 7800, as he had done at Activision. However, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) had already displaced Atari's dominance of the video game console market. Kitchen swiftly shifted his focus to the NES, and produced several games for the platform, beginning with A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia in 1989, and Battle Tank in 1990.^{[citation needed]}

Absolute Entertainment absorbed its studio Imagineering in 1992 to become itself a video game developer for the first time.

In the third quarter of 1995, Absolute Entertainment went bankrupt and suspended operations and laid off most of its staff.^[5] Since Kitchen had already formed a new company with David Crane called Skyworks Technologies, some of the employees transitioned to the new company.

Imagineering

Imagineering was Absolute Entertainment's in-house development division based in Glen Rock, New Jersey, who also developed for third-party video game developers like Acclaim Entertainment, Atari Corporation, Activision, Hi Tech Expressions, Gametek and THQ. It was folded into Absolute Entertainment in 1992.

See also: Category:Imagineering (company) games

List of games

1988

• Commando (Atari 2600)
• Crossbow (Commodore 64)
• Double Dragon (Atari 2600, Atari 7800)
• River Raid II (Atari 2600)

1989

• Ikari Warriors (Atari 2600, Atari 7800)
• Stealth ATF (NES)
• Touchdown Football (Atari 7800)
• Fight Night (Atari 7800)

1990

• Sentinel (Atari 2600, Atari 7800)
• Destination Earthstar (NES)
• A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia (NES)
• Ghostbusters II (NES)
• My Golf (Atari 2600)
• Heavy Shreddin' (NES)
• R.C. Grand Prix (Master System, Game Gear)

1991

• Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (NES)
• The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants (NES)
• The Simpsons: Bart vs. the World (NES)
• Bart Simpson's Escape from Camp Deadly (Game Boy)
• Family Feud (SNES)
• Flight of the Intruder (NES)
• Jeopardy! Featuring Alex Trebek (SNES)
• Home Alone (SNES, Game Boy)
• Barbie (NES)

1992

• The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends (Game Boy)
• The Simpsons: Bart vs. The Juggernauts (Game Boy)
• The Simpsons: Bartman Meets Radioactive Man (NES)
• Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (NES, SNES, Game Boy)
• Swamp Thing (NES)
• Mouse Trap Hotel (Game Boy)
• Ghoul School (NES)
• Barbie: Game Girl (Game Boy)
• The Ren & Stimpy Show: Space Cadet Adventures (Game Boy)
• Jordan vs. Bird: One on One (Game Boy)
• Race Drivin' (SNES)

1993

• The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends (SNES)
• The Ren & Stimpy Show: Buckaroo$! (NES)