Gaming Ads: 7th Level, 21st Century Entertainment, Capstone, Electromedia, FormGen, and id Software

This is a lot of companies to cover in one post but most of them are small and none have more than three ads. It's a backfilling post with new publisher albums because when I first moved from Flickr to Facebook I decided not to give an album to any publisher that only had one ad. However, I've since acquired more ads for each one and so now I'm going back and creating albums. I'll also have an album soon for all the companies with only one ad. I'm going to keep most of these write-ups as brief as possible.

7th level was founded in 1993 and based in Dallas, Texas. In 1997 it merged with Pulse Entertainment and its last games released in 1998. 21st Century Entertainment was founded in 1991 and based in England, and later opened a publishing branch in New York that appears to have only released a few pinball games for home computers. Capstone was a Miami-based subsidiary of IntraCorp and was in business from 1984 to 1996. It published many games featuring movie, TV, or other licenses, such as Home Alone, LA Law, Wayne's World, The Beverly Hillbillies, Terminator 2, and William Shatner's TekWar. I'm not seeing any useful information on Electromedia which I believe is unrelated to a current technology company that uses the same name. Based on the ads I'd say it was a distributor of computer games during the mid-'90s. Founded in 1987 and originally based in Canada, FormGen later moved to Scottsdale, Arizona. It was acquired by GT Interactive in 1996.

Before id Software was founded, a group of developers that included John Carmack, John Romero, and Adrian Carmack worked under the name Ideas from the Deep as a side gig and created the Commander Keen series for Apogee Software. In 1991 id Software was founded and continued to work with Apogee, as well as the aforementioned FormGen. Of course, id is best known for its first-person shooters which began in 1992 with the release of Wolfenstein 3d, then Doom in 1993, and finally Quake in 1995. All three of those game series are still active as is id Software which was acquired in 2009 by ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks.

7th Level albums: Facebook - Google Photos

21st Century Entertainment albums: Facebook - Google Photos

Capstone albums: Facebook - Google Photos

FormGen albums: Facebook - Google Photos

id Software albums: Facebook - Google Photos

Gaming Ads: GT Interactive Software

GT Interactive Software was founded in 1993 as a division of GoodTimes Home Video. If you played computer games in the '90s you've likely encountered GT Interactive as it was involved in the publishing or distribution of many high profile series. The original Doom from id Software was GT's first game product as it was the distributor of the shareware title. It also published and/or distributed a number of games from 3D Realms (Duke Nukem), Epic Games (Unreal), Midway (Mortal Kombat) and Oddworld Inhabitants (Oddworld series) among others. In 1996 GT Interactive acquired both WizardWorks, a publisher that specialized in value priced software (Deer Hunter), and Humongous Entertainment, a publisher and developer of educational games for children (Pajama Sam, Spy Fox). It also began expanding into Europe in 1996 and continued to make acquisitions for a few years.

In 1999 GT Interactive posted its first quarterly losses due to restructuring and lower game sales, and debt began to mount. That year Infogrames S.A. purchased 70% of the company and renamed it Infogrames, Inc. Infogrames had also acquired the Atari name and in 2003 changed Infogrames, Inc. to Atari, Inc., and in 2008 took full control of the company formerly known as GT Interactive. Some of this overlaps with the previous Atari ads post and will likely come up again when I get to Hasbro Interactive and Infogrames.

GT Interactive Software albums: Facebook - Google Photos

Wolfenstein 2d to 3d

With the upcoming release of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus this Friday I thought it would be fun to take a look at some reviews of id Software's first Wolfenstein game. Since I've said numerous times that I do aim for a family friendly environment at Vault 1541 I should point out that the most recent Wolfenstein games are rated M largely due to violence. The first release of Wolfenstein 3d and the games I'll mention from the '80s do pre-date the ESRB and that's what I am focusing on here but all of the games are violent as they are set during World War II.

Well before there was id's Wolfenstein 3d, developer Muse Software released a game called Castle Wolfenstein in 1981 and a sequel, Beyond Castle Wolfenstein, in 1984. Muse's games are what inspired id but they play quite differently as the two Muse games are viewed from a 2D side perspective and while you can shoot enemies, the best course of action is typically to blend in and sneak past the enemy guards whenever possible. Developed by id and published by Apogee Software in 1992 for DOS computers, Wolfenstein 3d is a first-person shooter where players control Allied soldier B.J. Blazkowicz. Both of Muse's games, as well as Wolfenstein 3d, require players to escape from the castle.

Wolfenstein 3d has since appeared on numerous platforms, including the Macintosh computer, Atari Jaguar, 3DO, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) during the '90s. Later the game was ported to the Game Boy Advance, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and mobile platforms. I've got one review each for the DOS, SNES, and 3DO versions, and two for the Jaguar. As is often the case, I did some edits on the scans from Electronic Gaming Monthly (to line up with the Review Crew) and Video Games & Computer Entertainment  (multiple pages turned into one).

Video Games & Computer Entertainment - September 1992

Electronic Gaming Monthly #55

Electronic Gaming Monthly #77

Electronic Gaming Monthly #63

GamePro - September 1994