Designing Demons
Inspired by the great success Activision is enjoying in its early years producing games for the Atari VCS/2600, Los Gatos-based Imagic becomes the second third-party software manufacturer. Former Atari vice president of marketing Bill Grubb forms the company under a $2 million business plan, founded on July 17 1981. He is joined by Dennis Koble, who in 1976 was one of the first programmers hired by Atari. Also part of the founding team is ex-Mattel Electronics alums, Jim Goldberger and Brian Dougherty. Dougherty asks Pat Ransil, a classmate of his from U.C. Berkeley, to come along for the ride. Imagic Corporation’s staff is initially made up of 10 employees, consisting mostly of former Atari and Mattel crew. The list of programmers includes Rob Fulop, who at the tender age of 21 had been hired by Atari in 1979.
While toiling in obscurity at the company, in 1980 Fulop created a VCS version of the 1978 arcade hit Night Driver. He also pumped out a version of Space Invaders for Atari’s 400/800 computers the same year. Next came his masterful adaptation of Missile Command to the VCS in 1981, into which he also hid his initials as an easter egg for astute gamers to find.
That same year Fulup leaves Atari to join Imagic, and there he designs Demon Attack over a five-month period. It debuts at the 1982 Winter CES in Las Vegas as one of the three initial cartridge offerings from the company, along with Star Raiders knock-off Star Voyager and pool game Trick Shot. Demon Attack becomes the best-selling Imagic cartridge, moving over one million units and ported to numerous video game and computer platforms. It also plucks the 1983 Videogame of the Year award from the pack, awarded in the pages of Electronic Games magazine. Out of the “gamestorming” sessions held to create new game ideas, Fulop also creates hit Cosmic Ark for Imagic, along with the idea of linking the game with Koble’s Atlantis; when the player loses at the end of Atlantis they’ll notice a ship taking off amid the destruction. This is the Ark from Cosmic Ark, charged with collecting species from new planets to help the Atlanteans repopulate. Fulup also populates the Imagic catalog with the lesser-known Fathom and a very rare Rubik’s Cube game called Cubicolor. Also on board at Imagic is VCS Video Pinball creator Bob Smith, whose output for the company includes Riddle of the Sphinx and Dragonfire.
The Imagic’s Over
Although their formation as a third-party video game manufacturer had been inspired by Activision, Imagic doesn’t have quite as successful a transition through the great video game crash, a result of overreaching, underperforming and just plain bad timing. Looking to raise capital to maintain their ambitious game release schedule, in late 1982 the company files with the SEC to make a public offering of stock in the company. The problem is that during the review period for the IPO, Warner Communications makes its fateful announcement that Atari has underperformed in the fourth quarter of the year. This sends a shockwave through the markets and Warner shares plummeting. This has such a detrimental effect on Imagic’s financial footing that the IPO filing has to be pulled.
Just kidding, it’s actually great news. Imagic ad, 1982
JUMP: The Great Video Game Crash
Sources (Click to view)
1983 image of Rob Fulop holding his Imagic games, and other information from Electronic Fun With Computer and Games, “Phil Wiswell’s Gamemakers: Demon Designer”, interview by Phil Wiswell, pgs. 78-81, 86, Aug 1983. “‘E.F.: How long did Demon Attack take to create?’. ‘RF [Rob Fulop]: Five Months.'”. Retrieved from the Internet Archive, EFWCG collection, Sep 9, 2015.
Martinez, Ron. “Night-Trapped.” Comp. William Hunter. Wired Oct. 1994: 76. Print. 1994 image of Rob Fulop next to mystic seer
WallyWonka. “Odyssey 2 3D Boxes Pack.” EmuMovies. N.p., 12 June 2017. Web. 18 Aug. 2020. Image of Odyssey 2 Demon Attack game box
Videogaming and Computergaming Illustrated, “Behind the Scenes: Tragic Imagic” by Leonard Herman, pgs. 25-27, Dec 1983. “In October, spokesman Margaret Davis announced that Imagic had been forced to lay off most of its work force. It was revealed that, henceforth, Imagic would be solely a game design house.” “During the third and fourth quarters of 1982, the powers-that-be at Imagic decided that they wanted to make a public offering of their stock.” “Just prior to, or during, the period of Imagic’s review, Atari’s stock plummeted in the wake of an announcement of hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues…” “There is evidence to suggest that, during this time, Imagic agreed to buy millions of their old games back in order to obtain shelf space for their new games. Shortly following, Imagic had to sell $12 million worth of its privately held stock in order to raise the revenues to pay the storage fees on its old cartridges.” Retrieved from the Internet Archive, Videogaming Illustrated collection, Sep 18 2015.
Imagic and TI join forces. (1983, September). Electronic Entertainment, 7. …Texas Instruments and Imagic disclosed an aggressive long-term cooperative venture….
Video segment from local California, Bay Area TV show “Just Kidding”, featuring a look behind the scenes at Imagic in 1983, with Pat Ransil
Staples, Betsy. “What’s New for ’82, Video Games, Imagic.” Creative Computing May 1982: 70. “Imagic, the newest producer of cartridges for the Atari VCS and Intellivision, made its debut with three game cartridges for the Atari system.” Creative Computing Magazine (May 1982) Volume 08 Number 05. Internet Archive. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.
RetroNi. “Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer 3D Boxes Pack.” EmuMovies. N.p., 26 Feb. 2020. Web. 20 Aug. 2020. Image of box for TRS-80 CoCo version of Demon Attack
Video Games, “Video Games Interview: Bill Grubb and Dennis Koble”, by Steve Bloom, pgs. 22 – 24, 29, 81, Vol. 1 Num. 4, Jan 1983
“Imagic.” The Video Game Update , Aug 1982, p. 1.
The first offering for the Atari computer will be the very popular game, DEMON ATTACK.
