Tsunami Games

Tsunami Games (or Tsunami Media, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1991 by former employees of Sierra Entertainment (then known as Sierra On-Line).^[2]The company was based in Oakhurst, California, which at the time was also the home of Sierra. Between 1992 and 1996 Tsunami published several games, most notably adventure games and interactive movies, before becoming defunct.

Tsunami Games

Founded	1991
Founder	Ed Heinbockel
Defunct	1999
Number of employees	35 (1992[1])

History

Following the release of Police Quest III, designer Jim Walls and other Sierra staff joined Tsunami, a new Oakhurst studio formed by former Sierra chief financial officer Ed Heinbockel.^[3][4] In a later note on his personal site, Sierra co-founder Ken Williams recalled that the company “threatened litigation” related to Tsunami’s recruiting of Sierra personnel.^[5]

In 1993 the company released the space-exploration title Protostar: War on the Frontier and published the police adventure Blue Force, designed by former Sierra designer Jim Walls.^[6][7] In 1994 Tsunami developed the licensed sequel Return to Ringworld, and released the full-motion-video title Flash Traffic: City of Angels, which was noted in that year’s COMDEX coverage.^[8][9]

List of games

• Wacky Funsters! The Geekwad's Guide to Gaming (1992, re-released on CD in 1993)
• The Geekwad: Games of The Galaxy (1992, re-released on CD in 1993)
• Ringworld: Revenge of the Patriarch (1993)
• Blue Force (1993)
• Protostar: War on the Frontier (1993)
• Man Enough (1993)
• Return to Ringworld (1994)
• Flash Traffic: City of Angels (1994)
• Silent Steel (1995)
• Free Enterprise (or Free Enterpri$e) (1996)

Reception

Contemporary reviews were mixed. Computer Gaming World wrote that Protostar “delivers on some points and comes up short on others,” recommending it mainly to newcomers while noting it failed to break new ground.^[10] The magazine’s Charles Ardai was critical of Blue Force, faulting its dialogue and pacing and concluding that “Walls and Tsunami both have better work in them.”^[11] In a review of Return to Ringworld, CGW judged it “not as painful as the original voyage,” but still uneven.^[12]