Access Software: Американдық ойын әзірлеуші компанияның тарихы

American video game developer

Access Software, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Founded in November 1982 by Bruce Carver and Chris Jones, the company created the Beach Head, Links and Tex Murphy series, as well as Raid over Moscow. Access Software was acquired by Microsoft in April 1999, transitioning in name twice before being acquired by Take Two Interactive in October 2004, receiving the name Indie Built. In January 2005, Access Software became part of Take Two's 2K label. Following a poor financial performance at Take Two, Indie Built was closed down in May 2006. TruGolf, a company that develops indoor golf simulators, was formerly a subsidiary of Access Software based on the display technology they had made for the Links games and spun out to its own company during the Microsoft acquisition. Following the closure by Take Two, many of the studio's developers went to TruGolf. Separately, Jones has established Big Finish Games to continue the Tex Murphy series.

In 1982, Bruce Carver, an engineer for Salt Lake City based company Redd Engineering, created a sprite editing program called Spritemaster. He presented the product to Steve Witzel, who operated Computers Plus, a retail computer store in Salt Lake City's Midvale suburb; Witzel provided Carver with several improvement suggestions for the program. After Carver had implemented these changes, he began selling them under the name "Access Software" through Computers Plus. The name was chosen Carver and some of his friends had searched through a dictionary, considering "Action Software" and "Center Soft" before sticking with "Access Software". In its early days, Access Software operated out of Carver's basement. Access divested itself of the TruGolf division and made the company its own entity with Microsoft's purchase. In 2003, Microsoft rebranded Salt Like Games Studio as Indie Games. Take Two had been keen on challenging the dominance of EA Sports, and its acquisition of Indie Built was among $80 million it had spent through 2005 acquiring developers. In early 2005, Take Two Interactive established the publishing label 2K, which would henceforth manage their development studios for sports games, including Indie Built. While part of Take Two, Indie Built created sequels for Amped and Top Spin, but these titles were not strong successes. Take Two's 2006 fiscal year was poor as the company was dealing with both Security and Exchange Commission investigations related to its past reporting, and harsh criticism for the Hot Coffee mod as part of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Indie Built was closed in May 2006 by Take Two as part of a re alignment of their business strategy to overcome the weak fiscal year. Following Indie Built's closure, most of the employees transitioned to TruGolf, helping to improve the golf simulations. Additionally, Jones and Conners established Big Finish Games in 2007, where they planned to continue more narrative games, including expanding the Tex Murphy series.

Year Title 1983 Neutral Zone Beach Head 1984 The Scrolls of Abadon Ollie's Follies Raid over Moscow 1985 Beach Head II: The Dictator Strikes Back 1986 Leader Board Leader Board: Executive Edition 10th Frame 1987 Leaderboard Tournament World Class Leader Board Echelon 1988 Heavy Metal 1989 Mean Streets 1990 Crime Wave Countdown Links: The Challenge of Golf 1991 Martian Memorandum 1992 Amazon: Guardians of Eden Links 386 Pro Microsoft Golf 1993 Microsoft Golf: Multimedia Edition 1994 Under a Killing Moon 1995 Links 386 CD Microsoft Golf 2.0 1996 Links LS 1997 The Pandora Directive Microsoft Golf 3.0 1997 Tex Murphy: Overseer Links LS 1998 1998 Links LS 1999 1999 Links Extreme Links LS 2000 2000 Microsoft Golf 2001 Links LS Classic Links 2001 2001 Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding 2002 Links 2003 2003 Links 2004 Inside Pitch 2003 Amped 2 Top Spin 2005 Amped 3 2006 Top Spin 2