Aspyr Media, Inc. is an Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

 based company that specializes in porting

Porting

In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...

 Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

 games to Mac OS

Mac OS

Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...

. It has been in business since 1996, and as of 2003 owns 60 percent of the Mac entertainment market. Aspyr has worked with partners like Universal, Paramount

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

, Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

, LucasArts

LucasArts

LucasArts Entertainment Company, LLC is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was once famous for its innovative line of graphic adventure games, the critical and commercial success of which peaked in the mid 1990s...

, Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...

, Activision

Activision

Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...

 and Eidos

Eidos Interactive

Eidos Interactive Ltd. is a British video game publisher and is a label of Square Enix Europe. As an independent company Eidos plc was headquartered in the Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton....

.
In recent years, it has begun porting console games to Windows and Game Boy Advance

Game Boy Advance

The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...

 and publishing games, such as Wideload

Wideload Games

Wideload Games is an American game developer located in Chicago, Illinois.It was founded in 2003 by Alexander Seropian—the co-founder of Bungie and head behind the games Halo: Combat Evolved, Myth, and Marathon—and 6 other former Bungie Studios employees 3 years after Bungie's acquisition by...

's Stubbs the Zombie in "Rebel Without a Pulse", for Mac OS, Windows, and the Xbox

Xbox

The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...

. In addition, Aspyr has produced and distributes several albums and documentaries.

Copy protection

Aspyr used SecuROM

SecuROM

SecuROM is a CD/DVD copy protection and digital rights management product developed by Sony DADC. SecuROM aims to resist home media duplication devices, professional duplicators, and attempts at reverse engineering software. It is most often used for commercial computer games running under the...

 copy protection on PC game discs, such as in Stubbs the Zombie and Dreamfall

Dreamfall

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is an adventure video game with elements of action-adventure. It was released for the Windows and Xbox platforms on 17 April 2006 by Norwegian developer Funcom...

.

Copy Protection-Free Era

As of the year 2010, Aspyr has published DRM

Digital rights management

Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...

-free games which include:

• Star Wars The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition
• Call of Duty 2
  Call of Duty 2
  Call of Duty 2 is a first-person shooter video game and the second installment in the critically acclaimed Call of Duty series. It was developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It was released on October 25, 2005 for Microsoft Windows and on November 22, 2005 as a launch game for the...
  
  
• Call of Duty 4
• Call of Duty (video game)
• Civilization IV: Colonization
  Civilization IV: Colonization
  Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization is a remake of the 1994 turn-based strategy game Sid Meier's Colonization. Players control settlers from one of four European nations, Spain, England, France, or the Netherlands, that are trying to conquer/colonize the New World in the time period between...
  
  
• Civilization IV
  Civilization IV
  Sid Meier's Civilization IV is a turn-based strategy, 4X computer game released in 2005 and developed by lead designer Soren Johnson under the direction of Sid Meier and Meier's studio Firaxis Games. It is the fourth installment of the Civilization series...
  
  
• Civilization IV: Warlords
  Civilization IV: Warlords
  Civilization IV: Warlords is the first official expansion pack of the critically acclaimed turn-based strategy video game Civilization IV.-Features:Warlords added many new features to the original game...
  
  
• Civilization V
  Civilization V
  Sid Meier's Civilization V is a turn-based strategy, 4X computer game developed by Firaxis, released on Microsoft Windows in September 2010 and on Mac OS X on November 23, 2010...
  
  
• Defense Grid: The Awakening
  Defense Grid: The Awakening
  Defense Grid: The Awakening is a tower defense video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment for Windows and Xbox Live Arcade on the Xbox 360. The game was one of the titles promoted by Microsoft during their Game Developers Conference keynote speech on February 20, 2008...
  
  
• 4x4: Hummer
  4x4 Hummer
  4x4 Hummer is a road simulation computer game developed by Avalon Style Entertainment. It is published in the European Union by 505 Games, by Aspyr Media in North America, and by 1C Company in Russia.- Gameplay :...
  
  
• Cryostasis
  Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason
  Cryostasis has received mixed reviews, scoring 69/100 on Metacritic based on 28 reviews. Resolution Magazine praised the game as "tense, frequently innovative and attractive," and claimed that "its shortcomings are definitely outweighed by its strengths," awarding it 78%...
  
  
• Death to Spies: Moment of Truth
  Death to Spies: Moment of Truth
  Death To Spies: Moment Of Truth is a third-person stealth action PC game set during World War II. Produced by 1C Company along with Haggard Games, Moment of Truth is a sequel to the stealth action title Death to Spies.- Game Overview :...
  
  
• Death Track: Resurrection
  Death Track: Resurrection
  Death Track: Resurrection is a computer racing game developed by SkyFallen Entertainment and published by 1C Company. It is the sequel to the 1989 game Deathtrack. Outside of the CIS, the game was published by 505 Games in the European Union and Aspyr Media in North America, which was released DRM...
  
  
• futureU
  FutureU
  futureU is an educational video game developed and published by Aspyr Media on November 5, 2008 for Windows, Mac OS X, and the Nintendo DS, and created in association with test preparation company Kaplan, Inc.-Gameplay:...
  
  
• Hotel for Dogs
• Made Man
• Men of War
  Men of War
  thumb|Gameplay screenshotMen of War ) is a real-time tactics video game and the sequel to the 2006 game Faces of War , developed in partnership with Best Way and published by 1C Company, 505 Games, and Aspyr Media.The single player campaign takes place during World War II and features battles set...
  
  
• Men of War: Red Tide
  Men of War: Red Tide
  Men of War: Red Tide is a real-time strategy and real-time tactics video game and the sequel to the game Men of War, developed in partnership with Best Way by Digitalmindsoft and published by 1C Company. Game concept and scenario are elaborated by Alexander Zorich, modern Russian writer and...
  
  
• NecroVision
  Necrovision
  is World War I "alternate" history horror first-person shooter developed by Polish developer The Farm 51 and published by 505 Games. It was released for the Microsoft Windows platform on 20 February 2009. The game was also published by Aspyr Media in the United States, on May 25, 2009, and Canada...
  
  
• Paraworld
  Paraworld
  ParaWorld is a real-time strategy PC game released on September 25, 2006. It was developed by the German company SEK , based in Berlin. The game features more than 50 prehistoric animals, especially dinosaurs and Pleistocene mammals...
  
  
• Puzzle Quest: Galactrix
  Puzzle Quest: Galactrix
  Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, or Galactrix, is a puzzle video game developed by Infinite Interactive for the PC, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network service....
  
  
• XIII Century Gold Edition

External links

• Aspyr Home Page
• Aspyr's profile from MobyGames
  MobyGames
  -Platforms not yet included:- Further reading :* Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson, High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media; 2 edition , ISBN 0-07-223172-6...