When playing some of our games or browsing this site, you’ll come across a variety of other companies with whom we worked throughout the years. Sometimes Epyx developed games and other companies ported and published them, and other times we acted as publishers for titles originally developed by other companies..
Here’s a brief summary of the other companies you may come across as part of the Epyx ecosystem, especially in regards to intellectual property, and the best information we could find on their history, mergers, acquisitions, and the IP path for the titles. We may be wrong, so please reach out to the companies below for the definitive answers.
- Gremlin Graphics
- Hewson Consultants Limited
- Thalamus
- Addictive Games
- Incentive Software
- Rainbow Arts
- Infogrames / Atari
- First Star Software
- Lucasfilm Games
Epyx worked on many titles with Gremlin Graphics, who would later become Gremlin Interactive Limited, which was acquired in 1999 by Infogrames Studios Limited. They helped with many of our European ports to the ZX Spectrum and Armstrad CPC. According to Wikipedia, after the studio was closed by Infogrames (Atari), they sold the assets to Zoo Digital. That company later was renamed to Zushi Games, which went into receivership in 2010, and the assets were acquired by Urbanscan Limited. Allegedly some of the Gremlin assets were then acquired by Funbox Media, which is still an operating company, but we don’t know exactly which assets they acquired. The Urbanscan home page says they have the rights at least to Thing on a Spring.
Hewson Consultants Limited was a smaller UK-based software company founded by Andrew Hewson that developed games in the 1980s. It seems that the company was shut down, and while there are some existing companies named Hewson Consultants, they do not seem to be linked to the original. If you are interested in any of these titles, we’d suggest reaching out to Andrew Hewson, the original founder.
Addictive Games was a UK publisher in the 1980s and was purchased by Prism Leisure Corporation in 1987, which fell into receivership in 2007. It seems the entertainment assets were acquired by FremantleMedia, which is a giant company who has completed numerous acquisitions and spun off various divisions. We’re actually not positive where the game IP currently resides, but we’d suggest reaching out to Fremantle directly.
Incentive Software (the maker of Driller which Epyx released as Space Station Oblivion) was a British video game developer and publisher until 1995, at which point they took on the name Dimension International. Later they changed their name to Superscape, which was later acquired by Glu Mobile UK, which eventually was acquired by Electronic Arts. We’re not exactly if the rights for Driller still exist under Glu, or with the parent. We’d suggest reachout out to Glu first.
Rainbow Arts was a German video game publisher acquired by Rushware and then by THQ. Ziggurat acquired 80 titles from THQ, and while we can’t find a definitive list, they seem to be part of their retro collection, so we suspect the rights for Street Cat exist with Ziggurat today. They do list Purple Saturn Day on their website.
Infogrames (sometimes spelled as Infogrammes) started in 1983 in France and developed and released a myriad of gaming titles throughout the 80s and 90s, including Bivouac, which Epyx released as Final Assault. In 2000, Infogrames acquired the Atari brand from then-owner, Hasbro. Infogrames started to rebrand under Atari around 2003, and sold off their Gremlin Group acquisition (see above) to Zoo Digital Publishing. There’s a rather long history of various IP being sold off at this page, and we aren’t completely clear on where all of the original Infogrames IP currently resides. We’d suggest reaching out to Atari or Infogrames for details on a specific title.
First Star Software originally wrote several Epyx releases including Boulder Dash Construction Kit, Spy vs. Spy III: Arctic Antics, and Omnicron Conspiracy. Their IP seems to have been acquired by BBG Entertainment GmbH, and can be reached at the BBG Contact Page.
Lucasfilm Games, which also went by the name Lucasarts for a period of time, licensed four titles to Epyx: Koronis Rift, Rescue on Fractalus, Ballblazer, and The Eidolon. We’ve reached out to them about potentially reviving these titles and they told us (as well as another firm who worked on their titles) that they weren’t interested in the moment. Feel free to contact them directly.