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Broderbund

May 05, 2023

This article is about the software company. For the organization formerly known as the Broederbond, see Afrikanerbond.

Broderbund Software, Inc. (stylized as Brøderbund) was an American maker of video games, educational software, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits Choplifter, Lode Runner, Karateka, and Prince of Persia (all of which originated on the Apple II), as well as The Print Shop—originally for printing signs and banners on dot matrix printers—and the Myst and Carmen Sandiego games. The company was founded in Eugene, Oregon, and moved to San Rafael, California, then later to Novato, California.[1] Brøderbund was purchased by SoftKey in 1998.

Broderbund Software
IndustrySoftware
Founded1980; 43 years ago (1980)
San Rafael, California, US
Founder
Defunct1998
FateAcquired by SoftKey and dissolved.
Education brands went under The Learning Company brand.
Productivity, reference and entertainment brands given to Mindscape division.
SuccessorSoftKey
Headquarters
Key people
Revenue172,000,000 ±1000000 United States dollar (1995) 
ParentThe Learning Company 
Websitebroderbund.com

Many of Broderbund's software titles, such as The Print Shop, PrintMaster, and Mavis Beacon, are still published under the name "Brøderbund". Games released by the revived Broderbund are distributed by Encore, Inc. Brøderbund is now the brand name for Riverdeep's graphic design, productivity, and edutainment titles such as The Print Shop, Carmen Sandiego, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, the Living Books series, and Reader Rabbit titles, in addition to publishing software for other companies, notably Zone Labs' ZoneAlarm.

The company would often release school editions of their games, which contained extra features to allow teachers to use the software to facilitate students' learning.[2]

Etymology

The word "brøderbund" is not an actual word in any language but is a somewhat loose translation of "band of brothers" into a mixture of Danish, Dutch, German, and Swedish.[3] The "ø" in "brøderbund" was used partially as a play on the letter ø from the Dano-Norwegian alphabet but was mainly referencing the slashed zero found in mainframes, terminals, and early personal computers.[4] The three crowns above the logo are also a reference to the lesser national coat of arms of Sweden.[citation needed]

The company's name is pronounced /ˈbruːdərbʌnd/[5] instead of the popularly used /ˈbroʊdərbʌnd/.

History

 
Doug Carlston in 1985

Brøderbund was founded by brothers Doug and Gary Carlston in 1980[6] for the purpose of marketing Galactic Empire,[7] a strategy computer game that Doug Carlston had created in 1979. Before founding the company, Doug was a lawyer and Gary had held several jobs, including teaching Swedish at an American college. Their sister Cathy joined the company a year later from Lord & Taylor.[8] Galactic Empire had many names taken from African languages; a group of merchants was named Broederbond, Afrikaans for "association of brothers". To emphasize its family origin while avoiding a connection with the ethnonationalist Afrikaner organization of the same name, the Carlstons altered the spelling when naming their company "Brøderbund".[9]

By 1982, Brøderbund produced arcade games which, the company told Jerry Pournelle, sold much better than strategy games.[10] Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. invested in the company that year.[8] In 1983, the Carlstons publicly discussed their plans to emphasize home utility software (Bank Street Writer and other "Bank Street" applications), computer literacy with The Jim Henson Company, and edutainment.[11] By early 1984 InfoWorld estimated that Brøderbund was tied with Human Engineered Software as the world's tenth-largest microcomputer-software company and largest entertainment-software company, with $13 million in 1983 sales.[12] That year it took over the assets of the well-regarded but financially troubled Synapse Software. Although intending to keep it running as a business, they were unable to make money from Synapse's products, and closed it down after a year.[13]

Brøderbund's The Print Shop software produced signs and greeting cards. Brøderbund started discussions with Unison World about creating an MS-DOS version. The two companies could not agree on a contract, but Unison World developed a product with similar function and a similar user interface. Broderbund sued for infringement of their copyright. Brøderbund v. Unison (1986) became a landmark case in establishing that the look and feel of a software product could be subject to copyright protection.[14]

Sierra On-Line and Broderbund ended merger discussions in March 1991.[15] By that year Brøderbund had about $50 million in revenue, and 25% share of the education market. Carmen Sandiego had been its first internally developed product, but the company now developed most of its software; Doug Carlston stated that Brøderbund needed "to control our own sources, to control our future". After an unsuccessful initial public offering in 1987, the company executed a private placement for 20% of shares with Jostens.[16] Broderbund became a public company in November 1991 with the NASDAQ symbol BROD.[17][18] When it went public The Print Shop comprised 33% of total revenue, and the Carmen Sandiego series 26%.[19] Brøderbund stock price and market capitalization climbed to $72.50 per share in September 1995,[5] and then fell steadily because of continued losses for several years.

Brøderbund acquired PC Globe in July 1992.[20] It had initially attempted to purchase the original The Learning Company in 1995,[21][22] but was outbid by SoftKey, who purchased The Learning Company for $606 million in cash and then adopted its name. The company then bought Brøderbund in 1998 for about US$420 million in stock[6] and, to rationalize costs, it terminated five hundred employees at Brøderbund the same year (representing 42% of the company's workforce).[23] Doug Carlston explained that in a bid to roll up Broderbund, SoftKey utilised one of their previous acquisitions to weaken the company's stronghold over the industry. They allegedly gave a rebate to Mindscape's PrintMaster, a direct competitor to Brøderbund's Print Shop, that was more than the product was worth.[24] In 1998, Broderbund inked a deal with Nickelodeon to develop CD-ROM games based on its animated cartoons, such as Rugrats.[25]

In 1999, the combined company was purchased by Mattel for $3.6 billion.[26] Mattel reeled from the financial impact of this transaction, and Jill E. Barad, the CEO, ended up being forced out in a climate of investor outrage.[27][28] Mattel sold their game division Mattel Interactive as well as all its assets in September 2000 to Gores Technology Group, a private acquisitions firm, for a share of whatever Gores could obtain by selling the company. During this time, Brøderbund products were owned by The Learning Company Deutschland GmbH, located in Oberhaching, Germany. Headed by Jean-Pierre Nordmann, the company was a subsidiary of The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey), which itself was a wholly owned subsidiary of Gores Technology Group.[29] The company published games under two logos: Blue (Brøderbund) and Red (The Learning Company). The "Brøderbund" label was used for "high-quality infotainment, design and lifestyle titles such as Cosmopolitan My Style 2 and PrintMaster", while "The Learning Company" label was used for children's software.[30]

In 2001, Gores sold The Learning Company's entertainment holdings to Ubi Soft, and most of the other holdings, including the Brøderbund name, to Irish company Riverdeep.[31] Many of Broderbund's games, such as the Myst series, are published by Ubisoft. The Brøderbund line of products is published by Encore, Inc. under license from Riverdeep.[32][33] Under the terms of the agreement, Encore now manages the Broderbund family of products as well as Brøderbund's direct to consumer business. In May 2010 Encore acquired the assets of Punch! Software.[34]

In 2014, Doug Carlston donated a collection of Brøderbund's business records, software, and a collection of games that includes Myst, Prince of Persia, and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? to The Strong National Museum of Play. The Strong National Museum of Play forwarded the collection to the ICHEG museum for preservation.[35]

As of 2017, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is offering the Brøderbund, The Print Shop, Calendar Creator, and ClickArt brands for licensing.[36]

Products

Main article: List of Brøderbund products

Brøderbund scored an early hit with the game Galactic Empire, written by Doug Carlston for the TRS-80. The company's first title for the Apple II, Tank Command, was written by the third Carlston brother, Professor Donal Carlston.

The company became a powerhouse in the educational and entertainment software markets with titles like Fantavision, Choplifter, Apple Panic, Lode Runner, Karateka, Wings of Fury, Prince of Persia, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, The Guardian Legend, and Myst, which stayed the highest grossing home video game for years. Brøderbund became one of the most dominant publishers in the computer market of the 1980s, releasing video games for virtually all major computer systems in the United States.[37] Like most early computer gaming developers, Brøderbund began as an Apple II-focused company and began expanding to other platforms as time went along. They released IBM PC ports of a few games very early on, however, it was not until after 1985 that Broderbund would seriously develop for PC compatibles. Due to their strong focus on education titles, they were one of a few developers to actively support the Apple IIGS in the late 1980s. Some of the more popular Broderbund titles were licensed to Western European and Japanese developers and ported to systems in those regions. During the 1990s, Brøderbund mostly concentrated on educational titles for PCs and Macintoshes with a few forays into RPGs and strategy games.

Brøderbund published the Print Shop series of desktop publishing making programs;[38] Family Tree Maker[39] (a genealogy program supported by hundreds of CDs of public genealogy data); 3D Home Architect,[40] a program for designing and visualizing family homes; and Banner Mania, a program for designing and printing multi-page banners. By the end of the 1980s, games represented only a few percent of Broderbund's annual sales, which by then were heavily focused in the productivity arena and early education and learning areas.

Just before being acquired by The Learning Company (formerly SoftKey), Brøderbund spun off its Living Books series by forming a joint venture with Random House Publishing.[41] Despite the success and quality of the Living Books series, the joint venture was only marginally successful and was dissolved with The Learning Company deal.

For a brief time, Brøderbund was involved in the video game console market when it published a few games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) through its New Ventures Division.[42] All of Brøderbund's games for the NES, including the port of its own franchises Lode Runner, Spelunker, and Raid on Bungeling Bay, were developed by third-party Japanese companies. Brøderbund published some titles that were produced by companies that didn't have a North American subsidiary, such as Irem's Deadly Towers, Compile's The Guardian Legend, Imagineer's The Battle of Olympus, and Legacy of the Wizard, the fourth installment in Nihon Falcom's Dragon Slayer series. Brøderbund also developed and marketed an ill-fated motion sensitive NES controller device called the U-Force, which was operated without direct physical contact between the player and the device.[43] Broderbund also served as distributing agent of Irem's North American NES release of Sqoon, because Irem didn't yet have its own American operation.[44] In 1990, Broderbund sold its New Ventures Division, including manufacturing equipment, inventory, and assets, to then-fledgling company THQ.[42][45]

Brøderbund released in the United States Arsys Software's 1986 third-person action RPG shooter WiBArm.[46]

Brøderbund briefly had a board game division, which published Don Carlston's Personal Preference, along with several board game versions of its video games.

See also

References

  1. ^ "." Brøderbund. April 12, 1997. Retrieved on June 3, 2011. "Brøderbund Software, Inc. 500 Redwood Blvd. Novato, California 94948"
  2. ^ . Archived from the original on February 19, 1997. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
  3. ^ McLaughlin, Rus (May 30, 2008). "IGN Presents: The History of Prince of Persia". IGN. p. 1. from the original on December 20, 2008. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
  4. ^ Bergen, Tim (November 19, 2004). (PDF). Computer History Museum. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 26, 2009. Retrieved November 27, 2008.
  5. ^ a b Rifkin, Glenn (September 11, 1995). "Brøderbund Casts Itself as a Studio". The New York Times. p. D7. from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved November 27, 2008.
  6. ^ a b Pelline, Jeff (June 22, 1998). "The Learning Co. buys Brøderbund". CNET Networks. p. 1. from the original on November 26, 2004. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
  7. ^ "Company: Brøderbund Software". Computer History Museum. from the original on March 12, 2009. Retrieved November 27, 2008.
  8. ^ a b Uston, Ken (September 1984). "A family affair; behind the scenes at Brøderbund". Creative Computing. 10 (9): 1. from the original on December 4, 2009.
  9. ^ Wilson, Johnny L. (November 1991). "A History of Computer Games". Computer Gaming World. p. 10. from the original on December 2, 2013. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
  10. ^ Pournelle, Jerry (July 1982). "Computers for Humanity". BYTE. Vol. 7, no. 7. p. 392. from the original on January 5, 2019. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
  11. ^ Barry, David (October 1983). "Profiles: The Carlston Trio". Antic. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  12. ^ Caruso, Denise (April 2, 1984). "Company Strategies Boomerang". InfoWorld. Vol. 6, no. 14. pp. 80–83. from the original on March 16, 2015. Retrieved February 10, 2015.
  13. ^ Hague, James, ed. (1997). "Steve Hales". Halcyon Days: Interviews with Classic Computer and Video Game Programmers. from the original on May 27, 2014. Retrieved June 13, 2014. Synapse was owned by Brøderbund for another year while we tried to sell the Electronic Novels, but the market had already changed too much to make any money, so Brøderbund shut Synapse down.
  14. ^ Galler, Bernard A. (1995). Software and Intellectual Property Protection: Copyright and Patent Issues for Computer and Legal Professionals. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 23. ISBN 0899309747. from the original on July 14, 2014.
  15. ^ "Inside the Industry". Computer Gaming World. June 1991. p. 62. from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
  16. ^ Fisher, Lawrence M. (July 9, 1991). "Software Star Hits the Media Road". The New York Times. pp. D7. from the original on August 12, 2014. Retrieved August 9, 2014.
  17. ^ "Broderbund's Net Up 81%". The New York Times. October 10, 1992. p. 1. from the original on December 7, 2008. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
  18. ^ . Business Week. July 19, 1997. Archived from the original on December 24, 2008. Retrieved November 27, 2008.
  19. ^ "The Print Shop Still Prints Money At Brøderbund Software". Computer Gaming World. No. 103. February 1993. p. 82. from the original on July 2, 2014. Retrieved July 6, 2014.
  20. ^ "Brøderbund Purchases PC Globe". Computer Gaming World. No. 99. October 1992. p. 16. from the original on July 2, 2014. Retrieved July 4, 2014.
  21. ^ Daly, Brenon (June 29, 1998). . MarketWatch. Archived from the original on June 7, 2011. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
  22. ^ Fisher, Lawrence (November 9, 1995). "Learning Accepts New Offer From Broderbund Software". The New York Times. p. 1. from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
  23. ^ "Brøderbund Software". FundingUniverse. from the original on October 20, 2008. Retrieved November 27, 2008.
  24. ^ Doug Carlston Brøderbund, Founder & Author, Global English. YouTube. from the original on July 6, 2017. Retrieved May 24, 2016.
  25. ^ "Nickelodeon, Brøderbund in Animation Deal". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
  26. ^ Malik, Om (December 15, 1998). "The investing game". Forbes. p. 1. from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
  27. ^ Doan, Amy (April 3, 2000). "Mattel To Ditch The Learning Company". Forbes. p. 1. from the original on April 4, 2009. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
  28. ^ "The rise and fall of the company behind 'Reader Rabbit' and all your favorite educational games". from the original on November 6, 2018. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  29. ^ . www.learningcompany.de. Archived from the original on November 7, 2001. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
  30. ^ . www.learningcompany.de. Archived from the original on November 7, 2001. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
  31. ^ Norr, Henry (August 27, 2002). "Irish group buys Broderbund software firm". San Francisco Chronicle. p. 1. from the original on April 4, 2009. Retrieved November 27, 2008.
  32. ^ . Reuters (Press release). October 19, 2009. p. 1. Archived from the original on November 6, 2015.
  33. ^ "Encore, Inc & Riverdeep Sign Expanded License Agreement". Press Release. Archived from the original on January 29, 2013. Retrieved May 2, 2011.
  34. ^ "Encore, Inc. Acquires Punch! Software". Press Release. Archived from the original on January 29, 2013. Retrieved May 2, 2011.
  35. ^ Tach, Dave (March 4, 2014). "Brøderbund founder donates collection including Myst, Prince of Persia to Museum of Play". polygon.com. from the original on June 12, 2014. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
  36. ^ "Licensing Opportunities". Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. from the original on January 18, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  37. ^ . GameFAQs. Archived from the original on September 5, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2010.
  38. ^ Shannon, L.R. (September 14, 1993). "Peripherals – For desktop advice, a publishing wizard". The New York Times. from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved November 27, 2008.
  39. ^ Biersdorfer, J.D. (May 13, 1999). "News watch – Family Tree Maker software now has 1.5 billion names". The New York Times. p. 1. from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved November 27, 2008.
  40. ^ "Company news – Brøderbund shares jump on late earnings report". The New York Times. June 23, 1994. p. 1. from the original on July 28, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2008.
  41. ^ Adelson, Andrea (September 11, 1993). "Company news – Random House children's books headed for PC's". The New York Times. p. 1. from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
  42. ^ a b Carlsen, Clifford (September 10, 1990). "Brøderbund Software Inc. jettisons Nintendo, games". San Francisco Business Times (San Francisco, California). p. 1.
  43. ^ Pollack, Andrew (January 9, 1989). "Trade show's hottest item: the TV set". The New York Times. p. 1. from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved November 27, 2008.
  44. ^ "Index By Game Manufacturers". The Official Nintendo Player's Guide. Nintendo of America. 1987. p. 161.
  45. ^ Carlsen, Clifford (September 10, 1990). "Brøderbund Software Inc. jettisons Nintendo, games. (THQ Inc. buys New Ventures division from Broderbund)". San Francisco Business Times. from the original on January 27, 2013. Retrieved November 10, 2012.
  46. ^ Szczepaniak, John. "Retro Japanese Computers: Gaming's Final Frontier". Hardcore Gaming 101. p. 4. from the original on January 13, 2011. Retrieved March 16, 2011. Reprinted from "Retro Japanese Computers: Gaming's Final Frontier". Retro Gamer. No. 67. 2009.

External links

May 05, 2023
broderbund, this, article, about, software, company, organization, formerly, known, broederbond, afrikanerbond, software, stylized, brøderbund, american, maker, video, games, educational, software, productivity, tools, best, known, video, game, hits, choplifte. This article is about the software company For the organization formerly known as the Broederbond see Afrikanerbond Broderbund Software Inc stylized as Broderbund was an American maker of video games educational software and productivity tools Broderbund is best known for the 8 bit video game hits Choplifter Lode Runner Karateka and Prince of Persia all of which originated on the Apple II as well as The Print Shop originally for printing signs and banners on dot matrix printers and the Myst and Carmen Sandiego games The company was founded in Eugene Oregon and moved to San Rafael California then later to Novato California 1 Broderbund was purchased by SoftKey in 1998 Broderbund SoftwareIndustrySoftwareFounded1980 43 years ago 1980 San Rafael California USFounderDoug CarlstonGary CarlstonDefunct1998FateAcquired by SoftKey and dissolved Education brands went under The Learning Company brand Productivity reference and entertainment brands given to Mindscape division SuccessorSoftKeyHeadquartersEugene Oregon US San Rafael California US Novato California USKey peopleDoug Carlston chairman CEO Gary Carlston Cathy Carlston Brisbois Edmund AuerRevenue172 000 000 1000000 United States dollar 1995 ParentThe Learning Company Websitebroderbund wbr comMany of Broderbund s software titles such as The Print Shop PrintMaster and Mavis Beacon are still published under the name Broderbund Games released by the revived Broderbund are distributed by Encore Inc Broderbund is now the brand name for Riverdeep s graphic design productivity and edutainment titles such as The Print Shop Carmen Sandiego Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing the Living Books series and Reader Rabbit titles in addition to publishing software for other companies notably Zone Labs ZoneAlarm The company would often release school editions of their games which contained extra features to allow teachers to use the software to facilitate students learning 2 Contents 1 Etymology 2 History 2 1 Products 3 See also 4 References 5 External linksEtymology EditThe word broderbund is not an actual word in any language but is a somewhat loose translation of band of brothers into a mixture of Danish Dutch German and Swedish 3 The o in broderbund was used partially as a play on the letter o from the Dano Norwegian alphabet but was mainly referencing the slashed zero found in mainframes terminals and early personal computers 4 The three crowns above the logo are also a reference to the lesser national coat of arms of Sweden citation needed The company s name is pronounced ˈ b r uː d er b ʌ n d 5 instead of the popularly used ˈ b r oʊ d er b ʌ n d History Edit Doug Carlston in 1985 Broderbund was founded by brothers Doug and Gary Carlston in 1980 6 for the purpose of marketing Galactic Empire 7 a strategy computer game that Doug Carlston had created in 1979 Before founding the company Doug was a lawyer and Gary had held several jobs including teaching Swedish at an American college Their sister Cathy joined the company a year later from Lord amp Taylor 8 Galactic Empire had many names taken from African languages a group of merchants was named Broederbond Afrikaans for association of brothers To emphasize its family origin while avoiding a connection with the ethnonationalist Afrikaner organization of the same name the Carlstons altered the spelling when naming their company Broderbund 9 By 1982 Broderbund produced arcade games which the company told Jerry Pournelle sold much better than strategy games 10 Burr Egan Deleage amp Co invested in the company that year 8 In 1983 the Carlstons publicly discussed their plans to emphasize home utility software Bank Street Writer and other Bank Street applications computer literacy with The Jim Henson Company and edutainment 11 By early 1984 InfoWorld estimated that Broderbund was tied with Human Engineered Software as the world s tenth largest microcomputer software company and largest entertainment software company with 13 million in 1983 sales 12 That year it took over the assets of the well regarded but financially troubled Synapse Software Although intending to keep it running as a business they were unable to make money from Synapse s products and closed it down after a year 13 Broderbund s The Print Shop software produced signs and greeting cards Broderbund started discussions with Unison World about creating an MS DOS version The two companies could not agree on a contract but Unison World developed a product with similar function and a similar user interface Broderbund sued for infringement of their copyright Broderbund v Unison 1986 became a landmark case in establishing that the look and feel of a software product could be subject to copyright protection 14 Sierra On Line and Broderbund ended merger discussions in March 1991 15 By that year Broderbund had about 50 million in revenue and 25 share of the education market Carmen Sandiego had been its first internally developed product but the company now developed most of its software Doug Carlston stated that Broderbund needed to control our own sources to control our future After an unsuccessful initial public offering in 1987 the company executed a private placement for 20 of shares with Jostens 16 Broderbund became a public company in November 1991 with the NASDAQ symbol BROD 17 18 When it went public The Print Shop comprised 33 of total revenue and the Carmen Sandiego series 26 19 Broderbund stock price and market capitalization climbed to 72 50 per share in September 1995 5 and then fell steadily because of continued losses for several years Broderbund acquired PC Globe in July 1992 20 It had initially attempted to purchase the original The Learning Company in 1995 21 22 but was outbid by SoftKey who purchased The Learning Company for 606 million in cash and then adopted its name The company then bought Broderbund in 1998 for about US 420 million in stock 6 and to rationalize costs it terminated five hundred employees at Broderbund the same year representing 42 of the company s workforce 23 Doug Carlston explained that in a bid to roll up Broderbund SoftKey utilised one of their previous acquisitions to weaken the company s stronghold over the industry They allegedly gave a rebate to Mindscape s PrintMaster a direct competitor to Broderbund s Print Shop that was more than the product was worth 24 In 1998 Broderbund inked a deal with Nickelodeon to develop CD ROM games based on its animated cartoons such as Rugrats 25 In 1999 the combined company was purchased by Mattel for 3 6 billion 26 Mattel reeled from the financial impact of this transaction and Jill E Barad the CEO ended up being forced out in a climate of investor outrage 27 28 Mattel sold their game division Mattel Interactive as well as all its assets in September 2000 to Gores Technology Group a private acquisitions firm for a share of whatever Gores could obtain by selling the company During this time Broderbund products were owned by The Learning Company Deutschland GmbH located in Oberhaching Germany Headed by Jean Pierre Nordmann the company was a subsidiary of The Learning Company formerly SoftKey which itself was a wholly owned subsidiary of Gores Technology Group 29 The company published games under two logos Blue Broderbund and Red The Learning Company The Broderbund label was used for high quality infotainment design and lifestyle titles such as Cosmopolitan My Style 2 and PrintMaster while The Learning Company label was used for children s software 30 In 2001 Gores sold The Learning Company s entertainment holdings to Ubi Soft and most of the other holdings including the Broderbund name to Irish company Riverdeep 31 Many of Broderbund s games such as the Myst series are published by Ubisoft The Broderbund line of products is published by Encore Inc under license from Riverdeep 32 33 Under the terms of the agreement Encore now manages the Broderbund family of products as well as Broderbund s direct to consumer business In May 2010 Encore acquired the assets of Punch Software 34 In 2014 Doug Carlston donated a collection of Broderbund s business records software and a collection of games that includes Myst Prince of Persia and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego to The Strong National Museum of Play The Strong National Museum of Play forwarded the collection to the ICHEG museum for preservation 35 As of 2017 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is offering the Broderbund The Print Shop Calendar Creator and ClickArt brands for licensing 36 Products Edit Main article List of Broderbund products Broderbund scored an early hit with the game Galactic Empire written by Doug Carlston for the TRS 80 The company s first title for the Apple II Tank Command was written by the third Carlston brother Professor Donal Carlston The company became a powerhouse in the educational and entertainment software markets with titles like Fantavision Choplifter Apple Panic Lode Runner Karateka Wings of Fury Prince of Persia Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego The Guardian Legend and Myst which stayed the highest grossing home video game for years Broderbund became one of the most dominant publishers in the computer market of the 1980s releasing video games for virtually all major computer systems in the United States 37 Like most early computer gaming developers Broderbund began as an Apple II focused company and began expanding to other platforms as time went along They released IBM PC ports of a few games very early on however it was not until after 1985 that Broderbund would seriously develop for PC compatibles Due to their strong focus on education titles they were one of a few developers to actively support the Apple IIGS in the late 1980s Some of the more popular Broderbund titles were licensed to Western European and Japanese developers and ported to systems in those regions During the 1990s Broderbund mostly concentrated on educational titles for PCs and Macintoshes with a few forays into RPGs and strategy games Broderbund published the Print Shop series of desktop publishing making programs 38 Family Tree Maker 39 a genealogy program supported by hundreds of CDs of public genealogy data 3D Home Architect 40 a program for designing and visualizing family homes and Banner Mania a program for designing and printing multi page banners By the end of the 1980s games represented only a few percent of Broderbund s annual sales which by then were heavily focused in the productivity arena and early education and learning areas Just before being acquired by The Learning Company formerly SoftKey Broderbund spun off its Living Books series by forming a joint venture with Random House Publishing 41 Despite the success and quality of the Living Books series the joint venture was only marginally successful and was dissolved with The Learning Company deal For a brief time Broderbund was involved in the video game console market when it published a few games for the Nintendo Entertainment System NES through its New Ventures Division 42 All of Broderbund s games for the NES including the port of its own franchises Lode Runner Spelunker and Raid on Bungeling Bay were developed by third party Japanese companies Broderbund published some titles that were produced by companies that didn t have a North American subsidiary such as Irem s Deadly Towers Compile s The Guardian Legend Imagineer s The Battle of Olympus and Legacy of the Wizard the fourth installment in Nihon Falcom s Dragon Slayer series Broderbund also developed and marketed an ill fated motion sensitive NES controller device called the U Force which was operated without direct physical contact between the player and the device 43 Broderbund also served as distributing agent of Irem s North American NES release of Sqoon because Irem didn t yet have its own American operation 44 In 1990 Broderbund sold its New Ventures Division including manufacturing equipment inventory and assets to then fledgling company THQ 42 45 Broderbund released in the United States Arsys Software s 1986 third person action RPG shooter WiBArm 46 Broderbund briefly had a board game division which published Don Carlston s Personal Preference along with several board game versions of its video games See also Edit San Francisco Bay Area portal Oregon portal Companies portal Video games portalList of companies based in Oregon Red Orb Entertainment Broderbund s game publishing division later supported by MindscapeReferences Edit About Broderbund Broderbund April 12 1997 Retrieved on June 3 2011 Broderbund Software Inc 500 Redwood Blvd Novato California 94948 What s in a School Edition Archived from the original on February 19 1997 Retrieved March 5 2017 McLaughlin Rus May 30 2008 IGN Presents The History of Prince of Persia IGN p 1 Archived from the original on December 20 2008 Retrieved November 26 2008 Bergen Tim November 19 2004 Oral History of Douglas Carlston PDF Computer History Museum p 10 Archived from the original PDF on February 26 2009 Retrieved November 27 2008 a b Rifkin Glenn September 11 1995 Broderbund Casts Itself as a Studio The New York Times p D7 Archived from the original on December 5 2008 Retrieved November 27 2008 a b Pelline Jeff June 22 1998 The Learning Co buys Broderbund CNET Networks p 1 Archived from the original on November 26 2004 Retrieved November 26 2008 Company Broderbund Software Computer History Museum Archived from the original on March 12 2009 Retrieved November 27 2008 a b Uston Ken September 1984 A family affair behind the scenes at Broderbund Creative Computing 10 9 1 Archived from the original on December 4 2009 Wilson Johnny L November 1991 A History of Computer Games Computer Gaming World p 10 Archived from the original on December 2 2013 Retrieved November 18 2013 Pournelle Jerry July 1982 Computers for Humanity BYTE Vol 7 no 7 p 392 Archived from the original on January 5 2019 Retrieved October 19 2013 Barry David October 1983 Profiles The Carlston Trio Antic Retrieved July 1 2021 Caruso Denise April 2 1984 Company Strategies Boomerang InfoWorld Vol 6 no 14 pp 80 83 Archived from the original on March 16 2015 Retrieved February 10 2015 Hague James ed 1997 Steve Hales Halcyon Days Interviews with Classic Computer and Video Game Programmers Archived from the original on May 27 2014 Retrieved June 13 2014 Synapse was owned by Broderbund for another year while we tried to sell the Electronic Novels but the market had already changed too much to make any money so Broderbund shut Synapse down Galler Bernard A 1995 Software and Intellectual Property Protection Copyright and Patent Issues for Computer and Legal Professionals Greenwood Publishing Group p 23 ISBN 0899309747 Archived from the original on July 14 2014 Inside the Industry Computer Gaming World June 1991 p 62 Archived from the original on December 3 2013 Retrieved November 17 2013 Fisher Lawrence M July 9 1991 Software Star Hits the Media Road The New York Times pp D7 Archived from the original on August 12 2014 Retrieved August 9 2014 Broderbund s Net Up 81 The New York Times October 10 1992 p 1 Archived from the original on December 7 2008 Retrieved November 26 2008 Broderbund Software Inc Business Week July 19 1997 Archived from the original on December 24 2008 Retrieved November 27 2008 The Print Shop Still Prints Money At Broderbund Software Computer Gaming World No 103 February 1993 p 82 Archived from the original on July 2 2014 Retrieved July 6 2014 Broderbund Purchases PC Globe Computer Gaming World No 99 October 1992 p 16 Archived from the original on July 2 2014 Retrieved July 4 2014 Daly Brenon June 29 1998 The Learning Company buys Broderbund 6 22 98 MarketWatch Archived from the original on June 7 2011 Retrieved November 26 2008 Fisher Lawrence November 9 1995 Learning Accepts New Offer From Broderbund Software The New York Times p 1 Archived from the original on December 5 2008 Retrieved November 26 2008 Broderbund Software FundingUniverse Archived from the original on October 20 2008 Retrieved November 27 2008 Doug Carlston Broderbund Founder amp Author Global English YouTube Archived from the original on July 6 2017 Retrieved May 24 2016 Nickelodeon Broderbund in Animation Deal Wired ISSN 1059 1028 Retrieved November 17 2021 Malik Om December 15 1998 The investing game Forbes p 1 Archived from the original on December 5 2008 Retrieved November 26 2008 Doan Amy April 3 2000 Mattel To Ditch The Learning Company Forbes p 1 Archived from the original on April 4 2009 Retrieved November 26 2008 The rise and fall of the company behind Reader Rabbit and all your favorite educational games Archived from the original on November 6 2018 Retrieved November 5 2018 TLC The Learning Company www learningcompany de Archived from the original on November 7 2001 Retrieved March 5 2017 Unsere Labels www learningcompany de Archived from the original on November 7 2001 Retrieved March 5 2017 Norr Henry August 27 2002 Irish group buys Broderbund software firm San Francisco Chronicle p 1 Archived from the original on April 4 2009 Retrieved November 27 2008 Announcing the Release of Broderbund s PrintMaster 2 0 Reuters Press release October 19 2009 p 1 Archived from the original on November 6 2015 Encore Inc amp Riverdeep Sign Expanded License Agreement Press Release Archived from the original on January 29 2013 Retrieved May 2 2011 Encore Inc Acquires Punch Software Press Release Archived from the original on January 29 2013 Retrieved May 2 2011 Tach Dave March 4 2014 Broderbund founder donates collection including Myst Prince of Persia to Museum of Play polygon com Archived from the original on June 12 2014 Retrieved August 13 2014 Licensing Opportunities Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Archived from the original on January 18 2017 Retrieved January 17 2017 Broderbund Company Information GameFAQs Archived from the original on September 5 2011 Retrieved December 9 2010 Shannon L R September 14 1993 Peripherals For desktop advice a publishing wizard The New York Times Archived from the original on December 5 2008 Retrieved November 27 2008 Biersdorfer J D May 13 1999 News watch Family Tree Maker software now has 1 5 billion names The New York Times p 1 Archived from the original on December 5 2008 Retrieved November 27 2008 Company news Broderbund shares jump on late earnings report The New York Times June 23 1994 p 1 Archived from the original on July 28 2018 Retrieved November 27 2008 Adelson Andrea September 11 1993 Company news Random House children s books headed for PC s The New York Times p 1 Archived from the original on December 5 2008 Retrieved November 26 2008 a b Carlsen Clifford September 10 1990 Broderbund Software Inc jettisons Nintendo games San Francisco Business Times San Francisco California p 1 Pollack Andrew January 9 1989 Trade show s hottest item the TV set The New York Times p 1 Archived from the original on December 5 2008 Retrieved November 27 2008 Index By Game Manufacturers The Official Nintendo Player s Guide Nintendo of America 1987 p 161 Carlsen Clifford September 10 1990 Broderbund Software Inc jettisons Nintendo games THQ Inc buys New Ventures division from Broderbund San Francisco Business Times Archived from the original on January 27 2013 Retrieved November 10 2012 Szczepaniak John Retro Japanese Computers Gaming s Final Frontier Hardcore Gaming 101 p 4 Archived from the original on January 13 2011 Retrieved March 16 2011 Reprinted from Retro Japanese Computers Gaming s Final Frontier Retro Gamer No 67 2009 External links EditOfficial website Profile at MobyGames Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Broderbund amp oldid 1144408679, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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