Acclaim Studios Austin

Acclaim Studios Austin (originally Iguana Entertainment) was a video game developer operating from 1991 to 2004 in Santa Clara, California, Sunnyvale, California, and Austin, Texas in the USA, and Teesside, England. They were best known for developing the Turok, Aero the Acro-Bat 2, NBA Jam, NFL Quarterback Club, Side Pocket and South Park video games.

Company history

Iguana Entertainment logo from 1991 to 1999

Acclaim Studios Austin was first incorporated in Sunnyvale, California on August 14, 1991 by Jeff Spangenberg called Iguana Entertainment. Other founders include Mary Beth Campbell (later Mrs. Beth Spangenberg), John Carlsen, James Moon (known to most as J. Moon), and brothers Darrin Stubbington and Matt Stubbington.

Prior to incorporating Iguana Entertainment, Mr. Spangenberg had run Punk Development. Based in Sunnyvale, Punk Development was the product development arm of RazorSoft, Inc., an Oklahoma-based video game distributor. All of the founders and many early employees worked for Punk Development.

Iguana Entertainment's major clients included Acclaim Entertainment and Sunsoft.

In September 1993, Iguana Entertainment moved to Austin, Texas, becoming Austin's second-largest developer of computer games, smaller only than Origin Systems, which was already part of Electronic Arts. Iguana Entertainment became a Texas corporation on December 10, 1993.

The original pet iguanas could not be easily moved between states and were given away. Once in Texas, a new tank and iguanas were added to the lobby. Cyrus Lum created an updated company logotype (featuring a portrait of the new iguana named Killer) and animation that appears in many Iguana games.

Also in 1993, the company acquired Optimus Software Ltd of Teesside, England which became Iguana UK. Iguana UK proved a valuable resource, both for "porting" arcade games including NBA Jam to home video game consoles and for recruiting and preparing employees for transfer to the US office.

In 1995, owners Jeff and Beth Spangenberg sold Iguana Entertainment to Acclaim Entertainment.^[1] In the following years, the two Iguana studios became Acclaim Studios Austin and Acclaim Studios Teesside.

In 2000, Jason and Darren Falcus left to form Atomic Planet Entertainment Ltd., Acclaim Entertainment made a sharp cut in the number of employees at Acclaim Studios Teesside, which was finally closed in 2002, with many staff being relocated to Acclaim Cheltenham.

When parent company Acclaim Entertainment went bankrupt in September 2004, most employees of Acclaim Studios Austin found out when they showed up for work but the building's manager had locked them out of their offices. Acclaim Studios Austin was closed and subsequently liquidated.

Games developed

During its 13-year history, Iguana Entertainment developed many games under both the Iguana Entertainment name (for both US and UK studios) and the Acclaim Studios Austin name.

As Iguana Entertainment

As Acclaim Studios Austin

See also

• Acclaim Entertainment
• Electronic Arts
• Acclaim Studios Teesside
• Retro Studios
• SunSoft
• Turok

References

• "Minutes of Organizational Meeting of Iguana Entertainment Incorporated -- A California Corporation" (August 14, 1991)
• "Articles of Merger of Domestic and Foreign Corporations" (December 10, 1993)

External links

• MobyGames article on Iguana Entertainment
• Acclaim Entertainment Inc · S-3 · On 6/2/95 (on SEC Info.com)

Spin-offs

• Iguana Entertainment Limited
• The Animation Farm
• Big Sesh Studios
• Gemini School of Visual Arts and Communication
• Midway (Austin studio formerly Inevitable Entertainment)
• Retro Studios
• Syncopated Software (oddgods.com)
• Nagle Research, Inc.