WEBVTT - Winter is Coming: The Early Days of Blizzard 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:14.120 How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:16.960 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer for 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.360 I Heart Radio and I love all things tech. And 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:23.360 you know, in the world of computer games, there are 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:26.840 few companies that have as big a claim to fame 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:30.600 as Blizzard. I think Valve might be the best comparison, 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:33.320 but these days Valve is known more for its Steam 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:37.760 platform than for making games. Blizzard would swoop in to 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:42.880 redefine the genre of massively multiplayer online role playing games, 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:46.800 taking the torch away from pioneers like ever Quest and 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:50.880 Ultimate Online and becoming the dominant presence with the truly 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:54.840 enormous hit of World of Warcraft. And it would also 0:00:55.120 --> 0:01:00.280 court some major controversies and criticisms in twenty nineteen, would 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:05.319 involve politics and globalization. But where did the company come 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:08.759 from and how has it evolved over time? How has 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:13.600 its acquisition by Activision changed things. In the next two episodes, 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:17.119 we're going to explore the story of Blizzard Entertainment. Now, 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:20.240 I should point out that way back in the day, 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.120 Chris Palette and I did an episode about Blizzard that 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:27.120 episode published all the way back on December nineteen, two 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:31.240 thousand eleven. Not only has a lot happened since then, 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:34.480 text Stuff itself is a very different show from what 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:37.319 it was like back in those early years, So I 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:41.080 figured this one merits a full revisit. The history of 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:44.440 Blizzard Entertainment can be traced back to the computer lab 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:48.440 at the University of California, Los Angeles. Now, one day, 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:52.160 in this computer lab, there was an electrical engineering student 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:55.880 named Mike Moreheim and there was a computer science student 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:59.280 named Alan Adam, and they were sitting next to each other. 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:01.360 They didn't really know each other, they just happened to 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:04.400 both be sitting in the computer lab. Now, Alan Adam 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:08.079 sent a job to a printer. But here's the crazy thing. 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:11.360 The printer was on a different floor from the computer 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:13.160 lab they were in, so he was going to have 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:15.480 to leave his computer, walked to a different floor of 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:17.800 the building, and go retrieve his print out. So he 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:21.520 locks his computer terminal like a good responsible computer user, 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:25.240 and heads off to retrieve the print out in question. Now, 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:28.560 Moreheim said that after about ten minutes of him being gone, 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:35.400 Adam's computer unlocked automatically. So Moreheim relocked it, and to 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:37.960 do that he had to put in a brand new password. 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:42.400 He chose the word Joe j O E all lower case. 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:44.880 He figured it was both responsible for him to do this, 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:49.959 because otherwise Adam's terminal would remain locked or unlocked while 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:51.920 he was gone and anyone could use it. But he 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:54.240 also could do this as a prank, right, he could 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:56.839 lock this with a brand new password, a very simple one, 0:02:57.440 --> 0:03:01.160 and when Adam would return, he would himself unable to 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:04.120 get back into his computer session. Ha ha ha prank. 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:07.760 So Adam finally returns with his print out, He sits 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:10.840 down at his computer and he types in his password 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:14.320 and he's right back into the computer session. So Moreheim 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:17.200 is shocked he had changed the password. So how did 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:20.400 Adam know what he changed the password to? Or was 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:22.880 it possible that Allan Adam had had some other tricks, 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:27.359 some sort of administrative level password, some uber password, a 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:32.120 skeleton key. So Moreheim asks Adam, how did you do that? Well, 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:35.040 Allan Adam e's he's confused, says, I don't know, I 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:38.800 don't know what you mean. So then Moreheim says, well, 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:41.360 what was your password? And Adam says, well, I'm not 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:43.560 I'm not going to tell you my password. That's I mean, 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:45.960 that's against the whole point of having a password. So 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:51.600 Moreheim says it was Joe, wasn't it. Well, I'd surprise Adam, 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:54.840 and Moreheim came clean with his intended prank, saying no, no, 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:56.960 I tried to change your password to Joe, and the 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:00.360 two laughed about how they both just coincidentally picked Joe 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:03.520 as a quick password, and then they continued to have 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:07.320 a conversation and it was the beginning of a close friendship. Now. 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:10.440 During summer breaks when he was in school, Alan Adam 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.520 had taken up temp jobs working for various video game 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:17.120 development studios. He provided code for different video games and 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:20.040 he loved games. He loved playing them, he loved working 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:22.600 on them. He had already set a goal for himself 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:26.560 to work on video games professionally after he graduated college, 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:29.200 and he was ambitious. He didn't want to just work 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:32.920 for some other studio and grind out code based on 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:35.680 their wants and needs. He wanted to make games of 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:38.840 his very own. So he graduated u c l A 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:42.560 about six months ahead of Moreheim, and when Moreheim graduated, 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:45.760 he took on a job at a company called Western Digital. Now, 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:48.360 his main job at the time was to build test 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:51.880 software for network cards, which I'm sure was just as 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:55.480 exciting as it sounds. But Allan Adam kept in touch 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:58.760 with Moreheim and invited him to help form a brand 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:02.520 new video game devel element company. Now, this took some convincing, 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:06.400 but Moreheim eventually agreed after talking to one of his cousins. 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:08.640 His cousin essentially said, hey, you're young. If it all 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:12.479 goes pear shaped, you can get another job. So he said, 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:15.320 all right, I'm on board now. Meanwhile, Alan Adam also 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:19.760 tapped his buddy Frank Pierce, whom he had also met 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:22.000 back in You See l A. So he was another 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:24.800 college friend of his. When it comes to the founders, 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:27.440 Frank Pierce tends to be the one that people talk 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:31.080 about the least. Uh. He just is one of those 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:33.880 people who tends to be kind of quiet and in 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:36.760 the background for a lot of these sorts of things. 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:40.080 But in the end, Frank Pierce would spend twenty eight 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:44.400 years with the company spoiler Alert, and he was incredibly 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:47.400 important in the development of many of Blizzards big games. 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.920 He's a more soft spoken founder of the company than 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:55.039 the other two, but he would be just as important. Now. 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:57.400 I say this because a lot of company histories tend 0:05:57.440 --> 0:06:00.440 to gravitate more toward Moreheim, who Sir of the sort 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:03.760 of the face of the company. He would lead the company, 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:07.480 and he was the most forward facing of all of 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:11.080 the three founders. Now, they formed a company that they 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:15.400 originally called Silicon and Synaps, and they founded it on 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:21.400 February eighth, n in Coasta Mesa, California. Their original office 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:25.599 was a thirty six hundred square foot office space, and 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:28.360 Frank Pierce would later say that Allan Adam was really 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:31.039 the founder of the company. He was the one with 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:34.000 the drive to make games, and he was the one 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:37.960 with the powerful personality that would attract Pierce and Moreheim, 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:40.680 and they were on board largely because Alan Adam was 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:44.600 just so passionate and enthusiastic about making video games. Moreheim 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:46.760 said he met Pierce on the first day of the 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:50.120 company's existence. He had not crossed paths with Frank Pierce 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:52.599 when they were all in college, and while Moreheim and 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:56.080 Pierce were both uncertain about the prospects of the company, 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:58.800 Allan Adam maintained that if you just got the right 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:03.760 skills and talent. Together, success would surely follow. Alan Adam 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:05.920 would take on the job of president of the company, 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:09.160 Mooreheim's role was vice president, and Frank Pierce would become 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.280 the lead programmer. Now before long they hired on a 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:16.880 small staff of programmers to join them and some game designers, 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:19.280 and Pierce would later say you could fit the entire 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:22.600 company in two or three cars in those early days. 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:27.440 The first game that they developed was called RPM Racing 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:32.760 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System or SNSs RBM in 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:37.520 this case stood for Radical Psycho Machine because the nineties 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:41.440 were totally radical, y'all. Silicon and Synapps landed a deal 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:44.560 with a video game publisher called Interplay for that title. 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:47.560 This was one of the companies that Adam had actually 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.760 worked for over his summer breaks while he was attending 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:52.520 u c l A, so he knew some of the 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.440 people over there, and he already had some previous relationships. 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:59.680 RPM Racing would be the very first Super Nintendo Entertainment 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:04.480 System title from an American video game studio, so that's 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:07.800 two first that the game can claim. It was the 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:11.120 first game from what would become Blizzard Entertainment, and the 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:14.040 first American S and E S video game cartridge. The 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:17.960 title was a racing game, obviously, in which players controlled 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:21.160 a vehicle from a third person perspective, looking at the 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:25.200 track from an isometric point of view, so isometric being 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.640 kind of above and sort of an angle to the 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:32.840 playing field, so you weren't inside the vehicle. It wasn't 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:35.720 a first person view, and you weren't directly behind the vehicle. 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:39.320 It's sort of this weird overview and uh, to me, 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:41.679 that always made racing games hard. It was just kind 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:44.439 of difficult to judge when you were supposed to turn. 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.400 I could never quite get the spatial relationships right in 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:49.800 those type of games. Now, a couple of other things 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:53.560 set that title apart from many of its contemporaries. For one, 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:56.440 it ran in a high resolution mode on the S 0:08:56.480 --> 0:08:59.040 and E S, or at least higher resolution than the 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:02.560 standard sick team bit games of the time. But that 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:04.960 mode also limited the number of colors that could be 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:07.760 shown on the screen at one time, so it did 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:11.040 come at a price. In the game, winning a race 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:14.000 would net you a prize purse. You would win money 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:16.880 depending upon how you placed in a race. Then you 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.040 could use that money to upgrade your vehicle or pay 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:24.280 to enter more advanced races which had bigger purses. And finally, 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:27.800 the game came with a track editor, which allowed players 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:31.160 to create their own race courses, complete with hills, dips, 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:35.599 and turns. Now all that being said, the general consensus 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:39.640 was that the game wasn't really that good and had 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:42.680 no real sense of speed. The cars just seemed to 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:46.439 plod along, but did feature some innovative options that helped 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:48.920 it stand out, even if the actual gameplay was a 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:53.920 little lackluster. The development for RPM Racer took about five months, 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:58.400 with the game coming out in late nineteen. After completing 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:01.760 work on the title, the fled dgling company divided its 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:06.720 attention on two different strategies. One was to continue developing 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:10.319 new games. The next original title from Silicon and Synapse 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:12.880 was The Lost Vikings, which I'll talk about more in 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.840 just a moment. The second strategy was to work with 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:20.319 other studios to port existing games to different platforms. So, 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:23.120 in the world of video games, you've got a lot 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:26.000 of different challenges you have to consider, and one of 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:29.280 the big ones is which platform you're going to develop 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:32.080 for when you start making a new game. Now, you 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:35.960 could try and adapt the game idea you have for 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:40.000 all existing platforms, but that is going to dramatically increase 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:42.439 the amount of time it takes to develop the game 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:44.600 and put it through Q and A testing to make 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:48.000 sure the experience is roughly the same across all the platforms, 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:50.000 or as close as you can make it as possible. 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:53.280 This also requires hiring people with a diverse set of 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:57.480 coding skills, since different platforms require knowledge in specific coding 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:00.439 languages and structures, and some of the tools that are 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.800 used to help port code from one platform to another 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:06.960 they're not perfect, so it requires a little bit of 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:09.240 hands on work to tweak things and make sure it 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:13.080 works properly. Another option is to identify the platform that 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:15.960 you feel will net you the most sales for your title, 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.480 or the platform for which your skill set is best suited, 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:22.680 and then you developed for just that platform. So you 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:26.480 might say, you know what, we have some code developers 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:29.240 who are are great at making games for the PC, 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:32.680 but they don't do so well when developing for the MAC. 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:35.880 So we're just going to focus on making a game 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:39.080 for the PC. Then after the game is finished, you 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:41.920 can either look to port it to other platforms yourself 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:44.679 or you can hire some other studio to do that 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:47.880 work for you. And that's where Silicon and Synapse got 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:50.040 a lot of its early work to act as this 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:53.400 studio that would take some other game developers work for 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:56.760 one platform and adapt for a different one. The company 0:11:56.840 --> 0:11:59.800 landed deals to port games to various platforms, including To 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:03.680 Win Does, the Amiga and the Mac, and they included 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:08.440 games that are some of my favorites from those years, 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:12.320 like Battle Chess, which originally was an Amiga game, and 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:15.079 Silicon and Synapse took the Amiga game imported it to 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:18.600 Windows and the Commodore sixty four. The Amiga version was 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:21.360 superior by the way. Other games included a Lord of 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:24.480 the Rings game, there was a medieval warfare strategy game 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.040 called Castles, and there was a sports game in the 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:30.680 form of micro League Baseball, among others and all the 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:34.559 company ported eight titles to other platforms between nineteen two 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:39.480 and ninetee. Also in nineteen two, the company released The 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:45.160 Lost Vikings, aside scrolling platforming game with a truly odd storyline. 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:49.319 So in the game, three Vikings are kidnapped by aliens 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:53.560 led by the evil Tomatour. They must find their way 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:57.320 back home and the player could control all three vikings 0:12:57.360 --> 0:12:59.520 one at a time. You could cycle through them through 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:03.240 in a level, and each Viking had his own special abilities. 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:07.080 Those abilities were needed to solve different puzzles throughout the levels. 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:09.680 That really helps set the title apart. It showed off 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:13.080 this innovative thinking at the company. It wasn't just another 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:16.520 side scrolling clone of a game like Super Mario Brothers. 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:20.080 The game's art style and sense of humor were much 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:24.160 more indicative of the overall company's culture than the earlier 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:27.600 RBM Racing or the Ports had been. The game also 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:31.400 featured incidental dialogue and cut scenes that would become hallmarks 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:33.840 of Blizzard games in the future. It was also the 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:37.240 first truly original title, as RBM Racing was built on 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:41.280 top of older code for other racing games. Silicon and 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:45.000 Synapse developed the title for several different platforms, including the 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:48.200 S and E S, the Amiga, and later the Genesis. 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:51.720 Like RPM Racing, Interplay would serve as the publisher for 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:55.680 this game. Interplay would also publish the third original title 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:59.640 from Silicon and Synapse, which was Rock and Roll Racing. 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:04.680 Interplay published that game in This was another isometric point 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:06.600 of view. Racing game for the S and E s 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.559 and for the Sega Genesis or the Mega Drive if 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:12.800 you're not in the United States now. Originally this was 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:15.600 supposed to be a direct sequel to RPM Racing, but 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:19.040 Interplay stepped in with a major tweak. The company licensed 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:22.280 music tracks from various rock bands to be included with 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:25.760 the game. The companies decided to name the video game 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:29.640 to reflect this big get, the fact that they were 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:34.720 able to land these licenses. The music consisted of many 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:39.440 orchestrated covers, so they were all instrumental versions of songs, 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:43.280 and they include songs like Born to Be Wild, Bad 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:46.320 to the Bone, and the theme from Peter Gunn, which 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:49.240 was also made famous in the arcade game World by 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:52.880 the video games Spy Hunter. Up to two players can 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:56.880 play simultaneously in this game, and each race has four participants, 0:14:57.040 --> 0:14:59.920 so the non player participants would be controlled by the 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:04.240 games AI. The game also featured vehicle mounted weapons, and 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:07.640 destroying your opponents would net you cash bonuses in a race. 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:11.080 You would respond in a race, so you wouldn't just 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:14.080 get blowed up and then your games over. You would 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:17.000 actually be able to rejoin the race after a brief 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:22.560 period of being you know, evaporated. Real life race announcer 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:26.240 Larry Huffman recorded audio tracks to serve as commentary for 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:30.240 the races. Like RBM Racing, players could dedicate the cash 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:33.200 they want in Racist towards upgrading their vehicles or buying 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:36.960 new ones as an easter egg. The programmers included ohl Off, 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:39.960 the stout from the Lost Vikings as a possible driver, 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:43.120 and he has some pretty boss stats to boot. The 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:47.320 game got pretty good reviews. Both The Lost Vikings and 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.600 Rock and Roll Racing were hits for the Young studio, 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:53.880 but modest ones. It did set them up pretty nicely 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:57.160 for n which was the year where things would really 0:15:57.280 --> 0:15:59.960 come together for the company. I'll explain more in a second, 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:10.200 but first let's take a quick break. So let's close 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:16.000 out before we get to the big four. That year, 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:20.200 Video Games Magazine would name Silicon and Synaps as the 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:23.960 Developer of the Year, but internally, the three founders were 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:27.800 reconsidering the company's name. According to Moreheim, the problem was 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:31.600 that they were having issues pitching games because no one 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:34.800 knew what a synapse was, so they were having real 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:38.400 problems landing business deals with publishers and potential clients. They 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:41.440 wanted to get more traction, and they decided that rebranding 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:44.760 was the way to go, and originally they renamed themselves 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:49.960 Chaos Studios. There was just one small problem. There already 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:52.760 was a company with that name in New York, and 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:55.240 the owner of that name was not going to sell 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:57.760 the rights to it for less than a hundred thousand 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:01.720 bucks a princely some that was a bit too steep, 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:05.240 And by too steep, I mean way too expensive for 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:08.560 these guys, because at this stage the company was struggling 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:12.359 to meet overhead, to meet payroll despite its commercial and 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:16.200 critical success. The three founders had resorted to maxing out 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:19.440 their credit cards and asking their parents for loans so 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:22.760 that they could meet payroll for each pay period. Clearly 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:26.560 something needed to change if the company were to remain solvent. Now, 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.760 in the brief period when they were known as Chaos Studios, 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:33.000 they got a heck of an offer. Actually it was 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:36.840 two offers. One offer came from Interplay, the publisher that 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:40.879 had been responsible for actually publishing their games. The second 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:44.520 offer came from a software company called Davidson and Associates, 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:49.680 and both offers were to acquire Chaos Studios. Now, I'm 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:53.040 not sure how much the Interplay offer was for, but 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.720 the founders ultimately turned that one down. It wasn't that 0:17:56.800 --> 0:17:59.520 the money wasn't right, but rather they were worried that 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:03.159 by join Interplay their company would just become one small 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:06.880 part of a larger computer game enterprise and they would 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:09.840 lose their creative freedom as a result, so they would 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:14.640 have to take orders from Interplay. Davidson and associates specialized 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:18.960 in educational software, not video games, so that actually seemed 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:21.639 like a safer bet. It was an acquisition offer that 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:25.720 was worth around ten million dollars or six point seven 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:29.000 five million dollars. It really depends upon which source you're citing. 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:33.320 I've seen all ranges in between those two. Either way, 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:35.600 it would give them the stability they needed to keep 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:38.720 the company going and to develop more games with a 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:43.800 minimum amount of interference from upper level management. Husband and 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:47.600 wife team Bob and Jan Davidson, had founded this educational 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:51.400 software company back in the early nineteen eighties. Jan Davidson, 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:55.560 a teacher, felt that computers could create unique educational opportunities 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:58.800 because using a computer is by its very nature interactive, 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:03.760 so by making lessons and interactive experience, Davidson felt students 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:07.520 would grasp concepts and develop skills much more easily than 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:09.919 if they were to sit in a classroom and passively 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:15.440 experience a lecture. Their company was generating revenues of around 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:18.840 forty million dollars and they wanted to expand into other 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:22.679 types of software. So the idea was that Chaos Studios 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:26.520 would become the entertainment division for the software company. They 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.439 promised Adam Mooreheiman Pierce, and that, you know, they and 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.679 their team of developers would retain autonomy they could develop 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:36.480 the types of games they wanted to make. So Chaos 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:38.960 Studios decided to take that deal, but the name was 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:41.359 going to have to go, so it was back to 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:45.600 the drawing board. They toyed with the idea of renaming 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:49.440 the company Ogre Studios, but that was an early case 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.439 where their new owners weren't that crazy about that idea. 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:56.720 So ultimately, after a quick scan of the dictionary, in 0:19:56.760 --> 0:20:00.200 which the three would debate between seven different words that 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:03.080 were picked more or less at random, they hit upon 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:05.800 what would become the company name from that point forward, 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:10.240 Blizzard Entertainment. Now, during this whole process, the company was 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:15.280 still creating games, so Chaos Studios slash. Blizzard Entertainment developed 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:17.840 a game called Blackthorn for the S and E S 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:21.000 and for the PC, later porting it to other platforms. 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:25.240 This was another side scrolling platform er with cinematics throughout 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:27.840 to tell the story of the game, which featured protagonist 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:32.760 Kyle Blackthorne Vlaros returning to his home planet after having 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:35.919 been sent to Earth for safe keeping, a story pretty 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:40.400 reminiscent of the Superman story. Blackthorn has to overthrow an 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:44.919 evil ruler named Sarlac, guessing they were Star Wars fans. 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:48.359 The game received positive reviews, both for its gameplay and 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:51.320 for its dark tone, which was kind of new to 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.640 video games. To get the animation for Blackthorn, the team 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:58.080 actually shot video of Frank Pierce moving around, and then 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:01.160 they animated on top of this footage in a process 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:05.320 called rhodoscoping, which is frequently used in animation. The company 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:09.960 released the game in December. Around that same time that 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:14.320 they were developing Blackthorn, they were also working on the 0:21:14.400 --> 0:21:18.720 Death and Return of Superman for sun Soft Games, based 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:21.600 off a storyline in d C from back in the 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:24.639 early nineties. This was a beat him up game in 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:27.560 which players would at certain points in The game storyline 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:31.359 control Superman and the various characters who appeared after the 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:35.959 villain Doomsday killed Superman in a comic book storyline that 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:40.320 included characters like Cyborg Superman, or a more hard edged 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:44.879 anti hero version of Superman called the Eradicateur, and a 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:50.600 self made man of Steel named uh Steel. This game 0:21:50.680 --> 0:21:54.280 is one of many largely forgotten superhero video games. It 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:57.880 received mediocre reviews, which is still a lot better than 0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:01.320 a lot of superhero games managed, at least until more 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:05.040 recent titles like the Arkham series. This game came out 0:22:05.080 --> 0:22:09.119 in June. One other game the company worked on around 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:12.800 this time was Justice League task Force, which was another 0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:16.840 DC superheroes fighting game, sort of like techn or Mortal 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:20.520 Kombat d C characters. So this was not a Blizzard 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:24.800 lead project. Rather, the company Sunsoft produced the game and 0:22:24.840 --> 0:22:28.199 Acclaim would act as publisher. Blizzard was credited as a 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:32.120 code developer on the project and worked specifically on the 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:35.160 S and E S version of the game. Now, there 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:38.919 was another party involved in Justice League Task Force, and 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:42.399 that was a company called Condor. Condor was a Bay 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:46.359 area video game company, so in the San Francisco area, 0:22:46.640 --> 0:22:50.080 and it was responsible for this Sega Genesis version of 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:53.439 the video game Condor will become an important part of 0:22:53.480 --> 0:22:55.800 the Blizzard story later, So I thought it'd s been 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:58.400 just a little time giving a bit of background on 0:22:58.520 --> 0:23:03.200 what Condor was now. The founders of Condor Incorporated included 0:23:03.280 --> 0:23:07.560 Max and Eric Schaeffer and David Brevic. The name came 0:23:07.600 --> 0:23:10.959 from a secret project and a digital clip art company 0:23:11.000 --> 0:23:14.480 that Brevick had worked for. Now that company went belly up, 0:23:14.760 --> 0:23:17.480 and Brevic and the Schaefer brothers decided to form a 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:20.600 video game development company, with the goal being to make 0:23:20.960 --> 0:23:24.520 role playing games for computer systems. They took the name 0:23:24.560 --> 0:23:28.160 Condor from that secret project. Their goal was to produce 0:23:28.359 --> 0:23:32.040 the game called Diablo. They were naming it after Mount 0:23:32.080 --> 0:23:35.639 Diablo in California. But they were encountering a lot of 0:23:35.680 --> 0:23:38.719