Lobotomy Software
| Industry |
Computer and video games Interactive entertainment |
|---|---|
| Founded |
Redmond, Washington, U.S. (1993) |
| Defunct | 1998 |
| Headquarters | Redmond, Washington, U.S. |
| Products | Powerslave (game) |
Lobotomy Software was an American video game company, best known for the game PowerSlave (Exhumed in Europe) as well as the successful Sega Saturn ports of Duke Nukem 3D and Quake.
The company is no longer active.
Formation
Lobotomy Software was founded in 1993, when a group of friends working at Nintendo of America left to form their own company, becoming the Creative department of Lobotomy, with the engineering talent coming from Manley and Associates[1] (a company later acquired by Electronic Arts in 1996, and subsequently shut down years after). They originally worked out of co-founder Paul Lange's apartment, but soon set up an office in Redmond, Washington. They began working on various demos there, one of which became the first-person shooter PC game, PowerSlave.
PowerSlave and ports
PowerSlave was similar to Doom, though it featured an Egyptian theme. The PC version ran on 3D Realms' Build engine (the same engine that ran the PC version of Duke Nukem 3D).
PowerSlave received enough success to help Lobotomy Software secure a contract to port the game over to the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation. Lobotomy Software originally wanted to port PowerSlave from the PC to the Saturn and PlayStation with no changes. However, the consoles' weaker hardware made this impossible. Instead, Lobotomy Software decided to recreate the game with new level designs and wrote their own engine known as SlaveDriver. The console versions of PowerSlave were a success.
Shortly after PowerSlave was released, Sega secured the rights from GT Interactive to publish Duke Nukem 3D and Quake. Sega originally handed the projects to two other developers, but they were unhappy with their work. Once the media buzz around PowerSlave started to heat up, Sega saw potential in Lobotomy Software and let them work on the two games.
The Sega Saturn ports of Duke Nukem 3D and Quake both used the SlaveDriver engine and were well received. Lobotomy Software had ported Quake to the PlayStation but could not find a publisher, which exasperated their financial troubles.[2]
Acquisition
Lobotomy Software was eventually acquired by Crave Entertainment in 1998 and renamed Lobotomy Studios. The team worked on a Caesar's Palace gambling game for the Nintendo 64, but after a year of development the game was postponed and eventually cancelled. At that point, Lobotomy Studios was closed and employees were let go or given the option to be relocated to another position at Crave Entertainment. The next title the team would have worked on was a sequel to PowerSlave.[3]