Argonaut Games: История британского разработчика видеоигр

British video game developer

Argonaut Games PLC was a British video game developer founded in 1982. It was known for the Super NES video game Star Fox and its supporting Super FX chip, and for Croc: Legend of the Gobbos and the Starglider series. The company was liquidated in late 2004, and ceased to exist in early 2007.

quote box | align=right | width=30% | quote=I told them that this is as good as it's going to get unless they let us design some hardware to make the SNES better at 3D. Amazingly, even though I had never done any hardware before, they said YES, and gave me a million bucks to make it happen.|source=—Argonaut founder and Super FX codesigner, Jez San the company name is a play on his name (J. San) and the mythological story of Jason and the Argonauts. Its head offices were in Colindale, London, and later in the Argonaut House in Edgware, London. Its U. S. head office was in Woodside, California in the San Francisco Bay Area. The combined efforts from Argonaut and Nintendo yielded a prototype of the game Star Fox, initially codenamed "SnesGlider" and inspired by their earlier Atari ST and Amiga game Starglider, that they had running on the NES and then some weeks later on a prototype SNES. Jez San told Nintendo that his team could only improve performance or functionality of the demonstration if Nintendo allowed Argonaut to design custom hardware to extend the SNES to have true 3D capability. Nintendo agreed, so San hired chip designers and made the Super FX chip. They originally codenamed it the Mathematical Argonaut Rotation I/O, or "MARIO", as is printed on the chip's surface. So powerful was the Super FX chip used to create the graphics and gameplay, that they joked that the Super NES was just a box to hold the chip. After building the Super FX, Argonaut designed several different chips for other companies' video game machines, which were never released. These include machines codenamed GreenPiece and CD I 2 for Philips, the platform codenamed VeggieMagic for Apple and Toshiba, and Hasbro's "virtual reality" game system codenamed MatriArc. In 1995, Argonaut Software was split into Argonaut Technologies Limited (ATL) and Argonaut Software Limited (ASL). With space being a premium at the office on Colindale Avenue, ATL was relocated to an office in the top floor of a separate building. The building was called Capitol House on Capitol Way, just around the corner. There, they continued the design of CPU and GPU products and maintained "BRender", Argonaut's proprietary software 3D engine. They won a chip design project with LSI Logic for a potential PlayStation 2 design. LSI Logic became a minor investor in Argonaut. In 1996, John Edelson was hired as the company General Manager. John Edelson ran the group for two years. Capital was raised in 1996–1998 from Tom Teichman and Apax Partners. According to Jez San, Argonaut remained an independent developer by choice, and had turned down several buyout offers. In 1997, the two arms of the company once again shared an office as the entire company was moved to a new building in Edgware. In September 1997, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was released by Fox Interactive for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. A PC version of the game was also later released in 1998. In 1998, ATL was rebranded ARC after the name of their main product, the Argonaut RISC Core, and became an independent company spun off to the same shareholders. ARC was an embedded IP provider. Bob Terwilliger was engaged as the President. Argonaut Software Limited became Argonaut Games and was floated in 1999. In early October 2004, Argonaut Games called in receivers David Rubin & Partners, laid off 100 employees, and was put up for sale. Many former employees would join newly established developer Rocksteady Studios. A lack of a consistent stream of publishing deals had led to cash flow issues and a profit warning earlier that year. In 2005, the company entered liquidation and was dissolved in early 2007.

BRender (abbreviation of "Blazing Renderer") is a development toolkit and a realtime 3D graphics engine for computer games, simulators, and graphic tools. It was developed and licensed by Argonaut Software. The engine supports Intel's MMX instruction set and Windows, MS DOS, and PlayStation platforms. Support for 3D hardware graphics accelerator cards was added. Software made with BRender includes Carmageddon, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, FX Fighter, I War, and 3D Movie Maker. It was released as free and open source software under the MIT License on May 3, 2022.

++Released games by Argonaut GamesTitleOriginal releasePlatformSkyline Attack1984Commodore 64Starglider1986ST, AmigaStarglider 21988ST, AmigaDays of Thunder1990DOS, Game BoyRace Drivin'1992Game BoyA. T. A. C.1992PCBirds of Prey1992AmigaX1992Game BoyStar Fox1993SNESKing Arthur's World1993SNESVortex1994SNESStunt Race FX1994SNESCreature Shock1994PCThe Ren & Stimpy Show: Fire Dogs1994SNESFX Fighter1995PCAlien Odyssey1995PCScooby Doo Mystery1995SNESFX Fighter Turbo1996PCCroc: Legend of the Gobbos1997PC, PS1, SATBuck Bumble1998N64Croc 21999PC, PS1Croc2000GBCThe Emperor's New Groove2000PC, PS1Alien Resurrection2000PS1Red Dog: Superior Firepower2000DCDisney's Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge2000PC, PS1Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone2001PS1Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets2002PS1Bionicle: Matoran Adventures2002GBABionicle2003GameCube, PC, PS2, XboxI Ninja2003GameCube, PC, PS2, XboxSWAT: Global Strike Team2003PS2, XboxCarve2004XboxMalice2004PS2, XboxPower Drome2004PS2, XboxCatwoman: The Game2004GameCube, PC, PS2, XboxStar Fox 22017SNES

++Cancelled games by Argonaut GamesTitleDevelopment periodPlatform8 KingsN GageCrash vs. Spyro Racing2004XboxOrchid2003GameCube, PS2, and XboxBionicle: City of Legends2004Xbox, PS2I Ninja 22004PS2, Xbox, GameCubeZero Hour2004PS2, PSPCash on DeliveryPS2Croc 32001PS1KanaanPCUnnamed Yoshi Game1995N64Transformers: Generation 21994SNES