Imagic ( ) was an American video game developer and publisher that created games initially for the Atari 2600. Founded in 1981 by corporate alumni of Atari, Inc. and Mattel, its best-selling titles were Atlantis, Cosmic Ark, and Demon Attack. Imagic also released games for Intellivision, ColecoVision, Atari 8-bit computers, TI-99/4A, IBM PCjr, VIC-20, Commodore 64, TRS-80 Color Computer, and Magnavox Odyssey². Their Odyssey² ports of Demon Attack and Atlantis were the only third-party releases for that system in America. The company never recovered from the video game crash of 1983 and was liquidated in 1986.
History Imagic was the second independent video game publisher in the early days of home programmable video game systems following Activision. Prior to Activision only Atari and Mattel offered games for their respective consoles. In early 1981, Bill Grubb, the founding CEO of Imagic, had recently left his position as the VP of Sales and Marketing at Atari. After witnessing Activision's meteoric success, Grubb began making plans to form another independent Atari game developer and teamed up with Dennis Koble who was managing game development at Atari. By coincidence at the same time, Jim Goldberger, a marketing executive at Mattel, was working on a business plan with Brian Dougherty, a senior engineer at Mattel, to form the first independent game company for the Mattel Intellivision, the second largest game console at the time. Grubb and Goldberger knew each other and on April 1, 1981 had a meeting in which they discussed each others plans. Grubb suggested joining forces which would allow the new company to distinguish itself from Activision by offering games for both platforms. An agreement was reached and Grubb and Dougherty pitched venture capitalist Kleiner Perkins and Merrill Pickard, ultimately raising $2 million in seed capital. The company was organized as a California Corporation on June 1, 1981, with Frank Caufield and Steve Merrill joining the board along with Grubb and Dougherty. Other founders included Bob Smith and Rob Fulop from Atari, Inc., Dave Durran from Mattel as well as Pat Ransil and Gary Kato.
It was Grubb's goal to take Imagic public and to eventually overtake Activision as the number one third-party video game publisher. Like Activision, Imagic had a meteoric rise, in its first 3 quarters of sales in 1982, the company sold $48 million worth of games led by Demon Attack developed by Rob Fulop, which became one of the top selling games in the industry. An Intellivision version was also developed by Gary Kato. Fulop, was previously a programmer at Atari, and claimed in a 2019 interview with Paleotronic Magazine that he left the company in favor of Imagic after being paid for developing the Atari 2600 port of Missile Command with a Safeway coupon for a free turkey rather than the monetary Christmas bonus he had expected. Atari later sued Imagic over the Intellivision version of Demon Attack claiming it was to similar to Phoenix, which Atari had the exclusive home console rights to. The case was later settled out of court.
Imagic filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in November 1982 with underwriters Merrill Lynch, Hambrecht & Quist, and Alex Brown. Grubb and Dougherty, along with CFO Dennis Rowland completed a public offering road show. The offering was well received and the company was set to go public on December 10, 1982. On December 8th, Warner Communications announced that sales at Atari were significantly down for the 1982 Christmas season. This news negatively affected demand for Imagic's stock forcing the offering to be delayed indefinetly.
Imagic was heavily affected by the video game crash of 1983. Following outcry from retailers following the 1982 Christmas season, Imagic implemented a buyback program. Imagic agreed to buy millions of games back from retailers to provide shelf space for new titles. In order to raise money for storage fees on these old games, Imagic reportedly sold $12 million of its own company stock. In early September 1983, the company laid off 40 out of 170 employees. By October, Imagic had laid off most of its workforce and announced that they would exclusively become a "game design house" and discontinue production of their own games.. By November, Bill Grubb had been replaced by Bruce Davis as CEO. Davis had represented the company as legal counsel during the failed IPO launch. After losing confidence in Grubb, the board was drawn to Davis thanks to his accounting background and his previous prediction of the industry crash.
Imagic appeared at the 1984 Consumer Electronics Show with plans for four IBM PCjr games. Imagic was eventually liquidated in 1986. The rights to Imagic's most popular titles have been owned by Activision since the late 1980s, and they have been re-released on several occasions.
Fan club During its height, Imagic ran a fan club for their games, the Numb Thumb Club, which published an annual newsletter. Only two issues were published before Imagic's decline began in late 1983.
Games Imagic 2600 cartridges were distinct from both Activision and Atari cartridges with an extended ridge at the top of the cart. Packaging was distinctive due to the use of reflective silver on the boxes, with a tapered, ridged end intended for an easy grip. The years are for the original versions only, not subsequent ports.
Developed and published Title DesignerReleasedPlatformDemon Attack Rob Fulop Atari 2600, Intellivision, Atari 8-bit (1983), Odyssey 2 (1983), Vic-20 (1983), TI-99/4A (1983), IBM PC (1984), TRS-80 CoCo (1984), Commodore 64 (1984) Star Voyager Bob Smith Atari 2600 Trick Shot Dennis Koble Atari 2600Atlantis Dennis Koble Atari 2600, Intellivision, Vic-20 (1983), Atari 8-bit (1983), Odysssey 2 (1983)Cosmic Ark Rob Fulop Atari 2600Fire Fighter Brad Stewart Atari 2600 Riddle of the Sphinx Bob Smith Atari 2600 Beauty & the Beast Wendell Brown Intellivision Microsurgeon Rick Levine Intellivision, IBM PC (1984), TI-99/4A (1984)Dragonfire Bob Smith Atari 2600, Intellivision, Vic-20 (1983), ZX Spectrum (1984), TRS-80 CoCo (1984) Colecovision (1984), Commodore 64 (1984), Apple II (1984) Swords & Serpents Brian P. Dougherty Intellivision Dracula Alan Smith Intellivision Ice Trek Patrick Schmitz Intellivision No Escape! Michael Greene Atari 2600 Nova Blast Clinton Ballard Intellivision, Colecovision, Commodore 64 (1984) Shootin' Gallery Dennis Koble Atari 2600 Truckin' Rick Levine Intellivision Tropical Trouble Steve DeFrisco Intellivision White Water! Douglas A. Fults Intellivision Solar Storm Dennis Koble Atari 2600 Moonsweeper Bob Smith Atari 2600, Colecovision, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, MSX, TI-99/4A Safecracker Marvin Mednick Intellivision Fathom Rob Fulop Atari 2600, Intellivision, Colecovision (1984), TI99/4A (1984), MSX (1985) Quick Step David Johnson Atari 2600 Subterranea Mark Klien Atari 2600Wing War Michael Greene Colecovision, Atari 2600 (1984), TI-99/4A (1984)Imagic 1-2-3Atari 8-bitCrime and Punishment Jack Kress, Graeme Newman, Rick OliverIBM PCjr, Apple II, Commodore 64 Injured Engine Dave Johnson Commodore 64, Apple II Chopper Hunt Tom Hudson Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64Grand Slam BaseballIBM PCjr
Only published
TitleDesigner Developer Released Platform Laser Gates Dan Oliver VentureVision Atari 2600 Tournament Tennis Steve Kelly D&L Research Colecovision, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, MS-DOS (1985), Atari ST (1985), Amstrad CPC (1985), Sinclair QL (1985), Thompson TO (1985)
Only developed
Title PublisherReleasedPlatform Touchdown Football IBM, EA, Atari Corp. IBM PCjr, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, Atari 7800Sherlock Holmes in "Another Bow" Bantam Books Apple II, Commodore 64, Macintosh, IBM PCjrI, Damiano: The Wizard of Partestrada Bantam Books Apple II, IBM PCjr
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