Park Place Productions
Park Place Productions (originally called Park Place Production Team ["ABC"]) was a development company near San Diego, California, started in 1989 by programmers Michael Knox and Troy Lyndon with $3,000 on Knox's credit card. Its first product, ABC Monday Night Football, sold 100,000 units (Sauer). In a few years, Park Place grew to be North America's largest independent game developer with over 100 employees and clients including Electronic Arts, Acclaim, and Virgin (Lyndon).
This meteoric rise brought rapid expansion: A dedicated green screen studio was built (Lyndon), nearby contract developer Knight Technologies was acquired (Forhan 41), software testing was moved in-house (then spun off into a company called Bug Busters) (Private), and a publishing arm for DOS and Windows titles called Spirit of Discovery was formed ("Entrepreneur of the Year"), which was buoyed by a "hybrid publishing agreement" with Konami (Sauer). (Incidentally, the Knox family continued to use the Spirit of Discovery name after they relocated to Kaneohe, Hawaii ["Spirit of Discovery"].) Park Place also branched out into edutainment and other applications such as CAD software (Sauer).
A major setback for the company came in 1991 with the loss of programmer Jim Simmons to Electronic Arts. Simmons was a high school friend of Lyndon who programmed the first John Madden Football and NHL Hockey games for the Sega Genesis. EA opted to contract him directly for future editions, effectively cutting out Park Place ("John Madden Hockey").
Nevertheless, Park Place continued to grow and take on more projects from other publishers. However, by late 1993, the company had clearly overextended itself. As deadlines were missed, those same publishers quit paying and pulled their contracts ("Harsh"). At least one — RazorSoft — sued for breach of contract (District Court). Compounding matters, Lyndon left that November because of a dispute ("Empty") (though he remained a passive shareholder). Former employees accused Park Place of nepotism, as several members of Knox's family were employees, and religious zealotry, which Knox denied (Kunkel). Eventually the company couldn't make payroll ("Empty").
Sony, Park Place's largest customer at this point, offered to buy the beleaguered firm, but Knox refused to sell. As a result, 30 employees resigned on December 27, 1993, to join a new Sony Imagesoft operation in San Diego's Sorrento Valley ("Empty"). Park Place tried to rebuild with a much smaller staff, but the damage was done (Private). A multi-million dollar lawsuit was later filed against Sony, alleging the electronics giant attempted a hostile takeover ("African-American software company").
After leaving Park Place, Lyndon established Studio Arts Multimedia, which entered into an exclusive development contract with Corel. Most of these projects were canceled after that company decided to focus on its newly acquired WordPerfect software (Lyndon). Lyndon later ran Christian game maker Left Behind Games, started in 2001. Knox served on the board of directors for a time (Jenkins). Knox died of colon cancer on September 15, 2009, at age 48 ("Software Expert").
WORKS CITED
- "ABC Monday Night Football (1989) box cover art." MobyGames, www.mobygames.com/game/abc-monday-night-football/cover-art/gameCoverId,11800/.
- "African-American software company sues Sony Corp. for close to $500 million." Business Wire, 19 Dec. 1996, The Free Library, web.archive.org/web/20140828220754/www.thefreelibrary.com/African-American+software+company+sues+Sony+Corp.+for+close+to+%24500...-a018969263.
- Bauder, Don. "Park Place Isn’t Bankrupt, but Payroll's Empty." The San Diego Union-Tribute, 4 Jan. 1994, Newsbank, www.newsbank.com.
- Bauder, Donald C. "Software Firm’s Collapse Is Fast, Harsh." The San Diego Union-Tribute, 1 Jan. 1994, Newsbank, www.newsbank.com.
- District Court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. Razorsoft, Inc. v. Maktal, Inc. 12 Sep. 1995. Justia, law.justia.com/cases/oklahoma/court-of-appeals-civil/1995/4379.html.
- Forhan, Carl. "Straight from the Cat’s Mouth." Classic Gamer Magazine, p. 40–42, Digital Press, www.digitpress.com/library/magazines/cgm/cgm_4.pdf.
- Harris, Blake J. "John Madden Hockey." Read-Only Memory, readonlymemory.vg/john-madden-hockey/.
- "Inc. Magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year Award Goes to Park Place Productions Executives." Jul 1993, Park Place Productions, web.archive.org/web/20140828220757/www.liontelpartners.com/press/park-place-productions-press-release.pdf.
- Jenkins, David. "Left Behind Games Begins Executive Purge." Gamasutra, 30 Apr. 2007, web.archive.org/web/20220120023052/www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=13718.
- Kunkel, Bill. "Park Place: Raid or Rescue?" Electronic Games, p. 10-12, Internet Archive, archive.org/details/Electronic-Games-1994-05.
- Lyndon, Troy A. The Official Site of Troy Lyndon, troylyndon.us/about-us/.
- Private. E-mail interview. Received by CRV, 11 Nov. 2011.
- Sauer, Mark. "Park Place Pruductions [sic] Dynamic Duo." The San Diego Union-Tribute, 24 Nov. 1992, Newsbank, www.newsbank.com.
- "Software Expert Produced 'Madden' Football Video Game." Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 26 Sept. 2009, Hawaii News Archive - Starbulletin.com, archives.starbulletin.com/content/20090926_Software_expert_produced_Madden_football_video_game.
- "Spirit of Discovery - Paradise in Hawaii." Spirit of Discovery, web.archive.org/web/20020202123038/www.spiritofdiscovery.com:80/spirit.html.
Research Methods: Actual mentions, interviews, online resources
3DO
- 3D Adventures (unreleased) (Spirit of Discovery)
- Is this the same as Project X? [1]
- 3D Football (unreleased) (Sports Forum)
- Sports Forum was meant to be Park Place's sports label. [2] Park Place's 3DO titles were to be distributed by Acclaim. [3]
Commodore 64
- ABC Monday Night Football (US Publisher: Data East)
- Game Design: Season Ticket Productions
- The Dream Team: 3 on 3 Challenge (US/CA Publisher: Data East)
- Game Design: Season Ticket Productions
DOS
- ABC Monday Night Football (US Publisher: Data East)
- Game Design: Season Ticket Productions
- Batman Returns (US/EU Publisher: Konami)
- Game Design: Subway Software
- Beat the House (US Publisher: Spirit of Discovery)
- The Berenstain Bears Learn About Counting (US Publisher: Compton's New Media)
- Bo Jackson Baseball / TV Sports: Baseball (US Publisher: Data East; EU Publisher: Mindscape)
- The Amiga and IBM versions were apparently done by Acme Interactive, but Michael Knox's profile lists the IBM version, and an old Usenet post mentions "contract work on Bo Jackson." Acme programmer Nigel Spencer said in a YouTube comment that he wrote the Amiga, VGA, and EGA versions. Does that mean Park Place did the Tandy version?
- David Robinson NBA Action (unreleased) (Spectrum Holobyte) [4] [5] [6]
- Draft & Print (US Publisher: Spirit of Discovery)
- The Dream Team: 3 on 3 Challenge (US/CA Publisher: Data East)
- Game Design: Season Ticket Productions
- Dvorak on Typing (US Publisher: Interplay)
- Re-released on CD-ROM as Typing for Today. Macintosh version by Silicon & Synapse.
- Facts in Action (US Publisher: Spirit of Discovery)
- The Human Calculator (US Publisher: Compton's New Media)
- NFL Video Pro Football (US Publisher: Konami)
Famicom/NES
- Roundball: 2-on-2 Challenge (US/EU Publisher: Mindscape)
Game Boy
- The Chessmaster (US Publisher: Hi Tech Expressions; JP Publisher: Altron)
- The New Chessmaster (US Publisher: Hi Tech Expressions; JP Publisher: Altron)
Jaguar
- 3D Football (unreleased) [7]
Macintosh
- Beat the House (US Publisher: MacPlay)
Mega CD/Sega CD
- Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (unreleased) (Sunsoft) [8] [9]
- NFL's Greatest: San Francisco vs. Dallas 1978-1993 (US Publisher: Sega)
Mega Drive/Genesis
- Champions World Class Soccer (EU/US Publisher: Flying Edge; JP Publisher: Acclaim; BR Publisher: Tec Toy)
- Dan Marino Football (unreleased) (Virgin) [10]
- Also referred to in various places as Dan Marino's Football, Dan Marino Power Play Football, Dan Marino's Power Play Football, and Dan Marino's Touchdown Football
- ESPN Baseball Tonight (US Publisher: Sony Imagesoft)
- Jeopardy! (US Publisher: GameTek)
- Jeopardy!: Deluxe Edition (US Publisher: GameTek)
- Joe Montana Football (US/EU/JP Publisher: Sega)
- John Madden Football / John Madden American Football (US/EU Publisher: Electronic Arts; BR Publisher: Tec Toy)
- Lennox Lewis Boxing (unreleased) (Acclaim) [11]
- Muhammad Ali Heavyweight Boxing (US/EU Publisher: Virgin)
- NHL Hockey / EA Hockey / Pro Hockey (US/EU Publisher: Electronic Arts; JP Publisher: Electronic Arts Victor)
- Road to the Cup Hockey '94 (unreleased) (Electro Brain)
NFL Quarterback Club was originally being developed by Park Place, but the company's problems at the time (as detailed above) forced Acclaim to hand it off to Iguana Entertainment. [12]
Dick Vitale's "Awesome, Baby!" College Hoops turns up on several profiles [13] [14] [15] [16], yet nobody from Park Place is credited. Was this another game caught up in Park Place's internal problems?
The Genesis version of Lobo (unreleased) was originally being programmed at Park Place. The programmer joined Ocean of America and finished it there.
Super Famicom/Super NES
- Champions World Class Soccer (JP/US Publisher: Acclaim)
- Dan Marino Football (unreleased) (Virgin) [17]
- Also referred to in various places as Dan Marino's Football, Dan Marino Power Play Football, Dan Marino's Power Play Football, and Dan Marino's Touchdown Football
- ESPN Baseball Tonight (US Publisher: Sony Imagesoft)
- John Madden Football / Pro Football (US Publisher: Electronic Arts; JP Publisher: Imagineer)
- Kawasaki Caribbean Challenge (US Publisher: GameTek)
- Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (unreleased) (Sunsoft) [18] [19]
- Lobo (unreleased) (some graphics) (Ocean)
- Developer: Ocean of America; Programming: High Performance Games; Some Clay Modeling, Some 3D Modeling: Metropolis Digital; Some Model Digitization: Viewpoint DataLabs; Motion Capture: Biovision; Music Driver: Chip Level Designs
- Muhammad Ali Heavyweight Boxing (unreleased) (Virgin)
- NFL Football (US/JP Publisher: Konami)
- NHLPA Hockey 93 (US Publisher: Electronic Arts)
- Pigskin Footbrawl (unreleased) (RazorSoft)
- Originally contracted to Knight Technologies, this got caught up in Park Place's implosion, which led to RazorSoft suing for breach of contract. [20] RazorSoft then brought in programmer Glen Volk to write a new version; he finished it, but the game's release was canceled.
- Road to the Cup Hockey '94 (unreleased) (Electro Brain)
- Super Slam Dunk / Magic Johnson no Super Slam Dunk (US/JP Publisher: Virgin)
NFL Quarterback Club was originally being developed by Park Place, but the company's problems at the time (as detailed above) forced Acclaim to hand it off to Iguana Entertainment. [21]
Windows
- Beat the House (US Publisher: Interplay)
- Beat the House 2 (game design) (US Publisher: Interplay)
- Developer: CetaSoft
- Caesars Palace series (game design) (US Publisher: Interplay)
- Developer: CetaSoft
- Dvorak on Typing (US Publisher: Interplay)
- Galles Indy Extreme (unreleased)
- Jeopardy! Deluxe Edition (US Publisher: GameTek)
- Wheel of Fortune Deluxe Edition (US Publisher: GameTek)
