Imagic

Type| Private
Industry| Video games
Fate| Liquidation
Founded| 1981
Defunct| 1986
Headquarters|

Los Gatos, California

United States

Key people

| Bill Grubb
Dennis Koble
Jim Goldberger
Brian Dougherty
Bob Smith
Rob Fulop
Dave Durran
Pat Ransil
Gary Kato

Imagic (/ɪˈmædʒɪk/ i-MA-jik) 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.[1] 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.

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Fan club
* 3 Decline
* 4 Games
* 5 References

## 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.[2] In early 1981, Bill Grubb,[3] 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 [4] 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 Intellivion, the second largest game console at the time. Grubb and Goldberger knew each other and soon discovered each other's 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 in the Spring of 1981 Grubb and Dougherty pitched venture capitalist Kleiner Perkins and Merrill Pickard 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.,[5] Dave Durran from Mattel[6] as well as Pat Ransil[7] and Gary Kato.

It was Grubb's goal to take Imagic public[6] and to eventually overtake Activision as the number one third-party video game publisher.[4] 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 Intellivion 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.[8]

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 in early December. Just days before the offering Atari announced that video game console sales were significantly down for the 1982 Christmas season. This news negatively affected demand for Imagic's stock and the underwriters along with the company decided to delay the offering. Unfortunately the industry was in for a prolonged decline and the company never managed to go public.

Atari also sued Imagic over Demon Attack because of its resemblance to Phoenix,[9] to which Atari had the exclusive home-version rights. The case was settled out of court.

## Fan club

During its height, Imagic ran a fan club for their games, the Numb Thumb Club, which published an annual newsletter.[10] Only two issues were published before Imagic's decline began in late 1983.[10]

## Decline

Although Imagic grew quickly in its early years, it was irreparably harmed by the video game crash of 1983. It released 24 games before going out of business by 1986, but the exact time it disbanded is unknown. In 1983, the company laid off 40 of their 170 employees[11] but appeared at the 1984 Consumer Electronics Show with plans for four IBM PCjr games.[12] 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.

## 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.

Title  | Released  | Platform

|
|

Atlantis | 1982  | Atari 2600, Intellivision, Vic-20 (1983), Atari 8-bit (1983), Odysssey 2 (1983)
Cosmic Ark | 1982  | Atari 2600
Demon Attack | 1982  | 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)
Dragonfire | 1982  | Atari 2600, Intellivision, Vic-20 (1983), ZX Spectrum (1984), TRS-80 CoCo (1984) Colecovision (1984), Commodore 64 (1984), Apple II (1984)
Fire Fighter[13] | 1982  | Atari 2600
Beauty & the Beast | 1982  | Intellivision
Microsurgeon | 1982  | Intellivision, IBM PC (1984), TI-99/4A (1984)
Riddle of the Sphinx | 1982  | Atari 2600
Swords & Serpents[10] | 1982  | Intellivision
Star Voyager | 1982  | Atari 2600
Trick Shot | 1982  | Atari 2600
Dracula[14] | 1983  | Intellivision
Fathom | 1983  | Atari 2600, Intellivision
Ice Trek | 1983  | Intellivision
Laser Gates | 1983  | Atari 2600
Moonsweeper[15] | 1983  | Atari 2600, Colecovision, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, MSX, TI-99/4A
No Escape! | 1983  | Atari 2600
Nova Blast | 1983  | Intellivision, Colecovision, Commodore 64 (1984)
Quick Step | 1983  | Atari 2600
Safecracker | 1983  | Intellivision
Shootin' Gallery | 1983  | Atari 2600
Solar Storm | 1983  | Atari 2600
Subterranea | 1983  | Atari 2600
Tropical Trouble | 1983  | Intellivision
Truckin' | 1983  | Intellivision
White Water! | 1983  | Intellivision
Wing War | 1983  | Atari 2600, Colecovision (1984), TI-99/4A (1984)
Chopper Hunt, formerly Buried Bucks from ANALOG Software  | 1984  | Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64
Injured Engine | 1984  | Commodore 64, Apple ii
Touchdown Football | 1984  | IBM PC, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, Atari 7800
Tournament Tennis | 1984  | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Colecovision, MS-DOS (1985), Atari ST (1985), Amstrad CPC (1985), Sinclair QL (1985), Thompson TO (1985)

## References

1. ↑ "Demon Attack". Atari Age. http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=134.
2. ↑ "Classic Gaming Expo Distinguished Guest: Alan Miller". http://www.cgexpo.com/bios/amiller.htm.
3. ↑ Hayes, Thomas C. (22 November 1982). "Imagic Scores in Video Games". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/22/business/imagic-scores-in-video-games.html.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Grubb, Bill; Koble, Dennis (January 1983). "Video Games Interview: Bill Grubb and Dennis Koble". Atari HQ. http://www.atarihq.com/othersec/library/imagic.html.
5. ↑ "Playing Catch Up: Night Trap's Rob Fulop". CMP. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=11832.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "The Making of Atlantis". Enterprise. 1982. PBS - via YouTube.
7. ↑ Just Kidding TV Show - The Making of Imagic's Wing War - via YouTube.
8. ↑ "An Interview with Atari 2600 Developer and Imagic Co-Founder Rob Fulop". 29 March 2019. https://paleotronic.com/2019/03/29/an-interview-with-atari-2600-developer-and-imagic-co-founder-rob-fulop/.
9. ↑ Nobles, Ethan C. (February 19, 2002). "Demon Attack: This Game Is Pure Imagic!". http://www.ataritimes.com/article.php?showarticle=224.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Imagic Titles for Intellivision". Intellivision Productions. http://www.intellivisionlives.com/bluesky/games/credits/imagic.shtml.
11. ↑ "Imagic Layoffs". The New York Times: p. 34. September 17, 1983. https://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/17/business/imagic-layoffs.html.
12. ↑ Cook, Karen (1984-03-06). "Jr. Sneaks PC into Home". PC Magazine: pp. 35. https://books.google.com/books?id=ZhoP0KRkQe4C&pg=PA35.
13. ↑ "Atari 2600 VCS Fire Fighter : Scans, Dump, Download, Screenshots, Ads, Videos, Catalog, Instructions, ROMs". http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-fire-fighter_7648.html.
14. ↑ "Availability Update". The Video Game Update 2 (1). April 1983.
15. ↑ Holyoak, Craig (May 30, 1984). "Here Are ColecoVision's Jewels". Deseret News: pp. 4 WV. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PqZNAAAAIBAJ&pg=7081,6575510.

* v
* t
* e

Atari 2600

Games|

| 1977 launch titles|

* Air-Sea Battle
* Basic Math
* Blackjack
* Combat
* Indy 500
* Star Ship
* Street Racer
* Surround
* Video Olympics

|

Best-selling games|

* Pac-Man
* Pitfall!
* Asteroids
* Missile Command
* Space Invaders
* Demon Attack
* E.T.
* Atlantis
* Adventure
* River Raid
* Kaboom!

Game lists|

* List of Atari 2600 games
* List of Atari 2600 prototype games
* Atari 2600 games
* List of cancelled Atari 2600 games

Game developers|

* Atari, Inc.
* Activision
* Imagic
* Coleco
* CommaVid
* Data Age
* Games by Apollo
* M Network
* Mystique
* Parker Brothers
* Sega
* Spectravideo
* Telesys
* Tigervision
* U.S. Games
* Xonox
* Zimag

Game programmers|

* Steve Cartwright
* David Crane
* Tod Frye
* Rob Fulop
* Larry Kaplan
* Garry Kitchen
* Carla Meninsky
* Alan Miller
* Warren Robinett
* Carol Shaw
* Howard Scott Warshaw
* Bob Whitehead

Hardware|

* Atari 2600 hardware
* Television Interface Adaptor
* Starpath Supercharger
* Coleco Gemini
* CompuMate
* GameLine
* Atari Flashback
* Atari 2700
* Atari 5200
* Atari 7800

Emulation and Ports|

* Stella
* Atari Anthology
* Atari Greatest Hits
* Atari Vault

Related articles|

* Atari 2600 homebrew
* Atari Age magazine
* Racing the Beam
* Atari video game burial

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