Brøderbund
Encyclopedia
Brøderbund Software, Inc. was an American
maker of computer games, educational software
and The Print Shop
productivity tools. It was best known as the original creator and publisher of the popular Carmen Sandiego
games. The company was founded in Eugene, Oregon
, but moved to San Rafael, California
, and later to Novato, California
. Brøderbund was purchased by The Learning Company
in 1998. Many of its popular software titles, such as The Print Shop
, PrintMaster
and Mavis Beacon
, are still published under the name "Broderbund".
, German
, Norwegian
and Swedish
The "ø" in "Brøderbund" was used as a play on the Norwegian and Danish letter ø
and the slashed zero
found in mainframes, terminals and early personal computers. The three crowns above the logo are also a reference to the lesser national coat of arms of Sweden
. But the coat of arms of Denmark also holds three crowns.
The company's name was pronounced icon
instead of the publicly used ˈ.
. The company moved its offices to Marin County, California
before the end of its third year of existence. Before its dissolution, its headquarters were in Novato
, California.
, written by Doug Carlston for the TRS-80
. The company went on to become a powerhouse in the educational and entertainment software markets with titles like Fantavision
, Choplifter
, Apple Panic
, Lode Runner
, Karateka, Wings of Fury
, Prince of Persia, In the 1st Degree
, The Last Express
, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
, The Guardian Legend
, and Myst
, which stayed the highest grossing home computer game for years.
Brøderbund was easily one of the most dominant publisher
s in the computer market of the 1980s, having released video games for virtually all major computer systems in the United States. This included not only the popular IBM PC-DOS
personal computer
, but also the leading home computers from the decade, notably the TRS-80
, the Apple II
(for which their first title was Tank Command, written by the third Carlston brother, Professor Donal Carlston), the Commodore 64
, the Atari 8-bit and the Amiga
. The company even went on licensing some of its titles to Europe
an and Japan
ese companies who ported Brøderbund's games to the different home computers of these regions, such as the Amstrad CPC
, the MSX
and the ZX Spectrum
.
Brøderbund also publishes the Print Shop
series of desktop publishing
making programs, Family Tree Maker (a genealogy program supported by hundreds of CDs of public genealogy data) and 3D Home Architect
, a program for designing and visualizing family homes. By the end of the 1980s, games represented only a few percent of Brøderbund's annual sales, which by then were heavily focused in the productivity arena and early education and learning areas.
Just before being acquired by The Learning Company, Brøderbund spun off its popular Living Books series
by forming a joint venture with Random House Publishing. Despite the success and quality of the Living Books series the joint venture was marginally successful and was dissolved with The Learning Company deal.
For a brief time, Brøderbund was involved in the video game console
market when they published a few games for the Nintendo Entertainment System
(NES), although all of the NES ports of their games, including their own franchises Lode Runner
, Spelunker
and Raid on Bungeling Bay
, were developed by third-party Japanese companies. Brøderbund also developed and marketed an ill-fated motion sensitive
NES controller device called the U-Force
, which was operated without direct physical contact between the player and the device. They also published some titles that were produced by companies that didn't have a North American subsidiary, such as Compile
's The Guardian Legend
, Imagineer
's The Battle of Olympus
, Arsys Software's 1986 third-person action RPG
shooter WiBArm, and Legacy of the Wizard
, the fourth installment in Nihon Falcom's Dragon Slayer series.
Brøderbund also briefly had a board game division, which published Don Carlston's Personal Preference
, along with several board game versions of their popular computer games.
and Gary Carlston in 1980 for the purpose of marketing Galactic Empire
, a computer game that Doug Carlston had created in 1979. Their sister, Cathy, joined the company a year later. Before founding the company, Doug was a lawyer
and Gary had held a number of jobs, including teaching Swedish at an American college.
In 1984, Brøderbund took over the assets of the well-regarded but financially troubled Synapse Software
. Although intending to keep it running as a business, they were unable to make money from Synapse's products, and closed it down after a year.
Brøderbund became a public company
in November 1991; their NASDAQ symbol, no longer operative, was BROD. Their stock price and market capitalization climbed steadily to a maximum of nearly US$
80/share in late 1995, and then fell steadily in the face of continued losses for a number of years.
Brøderbund was purchased by The Learning Company in 1998 for about US$420 million in stock. Brøderbund had initially attempted to purchase the original The Learning Company in 1995, but was outbid by Softkey, who purchased The Learning Company for $606 million in cash and then adopted its name. The Learning Company then bought Brøderbund in 1998 and in a move to rationalize costs, The Learning Company promptly terminated 500 employees at Brøderbund the same year, representing 42% of the company's workforce. Then in 1999 the combined company was bought by Mattel
for $3.6 billion. Mattel reeled from the financial impact of this transaction, and Jill Barad, the CEO, ended up being forced out in a climate of investor outrage. Mattel then gave away The Learning Company in September 2000 to Gores Technology Group, a private acquisitions firm, for a share of whatever Gores could obtain by selling the company. In 2001, Gores sold The Learning Company's entertainment holdings to Ubisoft
, and most of the other holdings, including the Brøderbund name, to Irish
company Riverdeep
. Currently, all of Brøderbund's games, such as the Myst series, are published by Ubisoft.
Broderbund, with an "o" instead of the "ø" character, is now the brand name for Riverdeep's graphic design, productivity, and edutainment
titles such as The Print Shop
, Carmen Sandiego
, Mavis Beacon
, the Living Books series
, and Reader Rabbit
titles, in addition to publishing software for other companies, notably Zone Labs' ZoneAlarm.
The Broderbund line of products is published by Encore, Inc.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
maker of computer games, educational software
Educational software
Educational software is computer software, the primary purpose of which is teaching or self-learning.-Early History, 1940s - 1970s:The use of computer hardware and software in education and training dates to the early 1940s, when American researchers developed flight simulators which used analog...
and The Print Shop
The Print Shop
The Print Shop is a basic desktop publishing software package developed in the early 1980s by Brøderbund. It was unique in that it provided libraries of clip-art and templates through a simple interface to build signs, posters and banners with household dot-matrix printers...
productivity tools. It was best known as the original creator and publisher of the popular Carmen Sandiego
Carmen Sandiego
Carmen Sandiego is a media franchise of educational computer and video games, television programs, books and other media featuring a thieving villain of the same name. The basic premise of the franchise lets the user or protagonists become agents of the ACME Detective Agency, who attempts to thwart...
games. The company was founded in Eugene, Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
, but moved to San Rafael, California
San Rafael, California
San Rafael is a city and the county seat of Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area...
, and later to Novato, California
Novato, California
Novato is a city located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, in northern Marin County. Novato is located about north-northwest of San Rafael, at an elevation of 30 feet above sea level . The 2010 U.S. Census estimated the city population to be about 51,904. Novato is about ...
. Brøderbund was purchased by The Learning Company
The Learning Company
The Learning Company is an American educational software company, founded in 1980. It produced a grade-based system similar to Knowledge Adventure's JumpStart series. The products for preschoolers through second graders feature Reader Rabbit, and software for more advanced students features The...
in 1998. Many of its popular software titles, such as The Print Shop
The Print Shop
The Print Shop is a basic desktop publishing software package developed in the early 1980s by Brøderbund. It was unique in that it provided libraries of clip-art and templates through a simple interface to build signs, posters and banners with household dot-matrix printers...
, PrintMaster
PrintMaster
PrintMaster is a basic desktop publishing software package developed in the early 1990s, under the Brøderbund brand. It was unique in that it provided libraries of clip-art and templates through a simple interface to build signs,greeting cards, posters and banners with household dot-matrix printers...
and Mavis Beacon
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing is an application software program for teaching touch typing. The typing program was initially released in late 1987 by The Software Toolworks and has been published regularly ever since. It was originally created by a team of developers from Software Toolworks...
, are still published under the name "Broderbund".
Etymology and pronunciation
The word "brøderbund" is not an actual word in any language, but is a somewhat loose translation of "band of brothers" into a mixture of DanishDanish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
and Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
The "ø" in "Brøderbund" was used as a play on the Norwegian and Danish letter ø
Ø
Ø — minuscule: "ø", is a vowel and a letter used in the Danish, Faroese, Norwegian and Southern Sami languages.It's mostly used as a representation of mid front rounded vowels, such as ø œ, except for Southern Sami where it's used as an [oe] diphtong.The name of this letter is the same as the sound...
and the slashed zero
Slashed zero
The slashed zero is a representation of the number '0' , with a slash through it. In character encoding terms, it is an alternate glyph for the self-same zero character...
found in mainframes, terminals and early personal computers. The three crowns above the logo are also a reference to the lesser national coat of arms of Sweden
Coat of arms of Sweden
The greater national coat of arms and the lesser national coat of arms are the official coats of arms of Sweden.- Escutcheon :...
. But the coat of arms of Denmark also holds three crowns.
The company's name was pronounced icon
instead of the publicly used ˈ.
Corporate affairs
When the company began in 1980, the headquarters were in Eugene, OregonEugene, Oregon
Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
. The company moved its offices to Marin County, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
before the end of its third year of existence. Before its dissolution, its headquarters were in Novato
Novato, California
Novato is a city located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, in northern Marin County. Novato is located about north-northwest of San Rafael, at an elevation of 30 feet above sea level . The 2010 U.S. Census estimated the city population to be about 51,904. Novato is about ...
, California.
Products
Brøderbund scored an early hit with the game Galactic EmpireGalactic Empire (Brøderbund)
-Summary:This video game launched Brøderbund's lineup of software software. Although this game is little-known today, it exerted a seminal influence on modern space conquest games such as Spaceward Ho! and Master of Orion. Doug Carlston wrote it while working as a lawyer...
, written by Doug Carlston for the TRS-80
TRS-80
TRS-80 was Tandy Corporation's desktop microcomputer model line, sold through Tandy's Radio Shack stores in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The first units, ordered unseen, were delivered in November 1977, and rolled out to the stores the third week of December. The line won popularity with...
. The company went on to become a powerhouse in the educational and entertainment software markets with titles like Fantavision
Fantavision
Fantavision was an animation program written for the Apple II personal computer series in 1985. It was subsequently ported to other platforms such as the Commodore Amiga , Apple IIGS and the IBM PC ....
, Choplifter
Choplifter
Choplifter is a 1982 Apple II game developed by Dan Gorlin and published by Brøderbund. It was ported to other home computers and, in 1985, Sega released a coin-operated arcade game remake, which in turn received several home ports of its own...
, Apple Panic
Apple Panic
Apple Panic is a 1981 platform game for the Apple II programmed by Ben Serki of Brøderbund Software. Apple Panic was inspired by Space Panic.-Description:...
, Lode Runner
Lode Runner
Lode Runner is a 1983 platform game, first published by Brøderbund. It is one of the first games to include a level editor, a feature that allows players to create their own levels for the game. This feature bolstered the game's popularity, as magazines such as Computer Gaming World held contests...
, Karateka, Wings of Fury
Wings of Fury
Wings of Fury is an action game with some minor simulation aspects, in which the player assumes role of pilot of an American F6F Hellcat plane aboard the USS Wasp in the Pacific during World War II....
, Prince of Persia, In the 1st Degree
In the 1st Degree
In the 1st Degree is an interactive legal drama adventure computer game released in 1995 by Brøderbund in which the player plays the role of a prosecutor attempting to convict an artist for grand theft and the first-degree murder of his business partner. The player must first examine evidence, then...
, The Last Express
The Last Express
The Last Express is a video game created by Jordan Mechner and Smoking Car Productions, published in 1997. It is an adventure game that takes place on the Orient Express, days before the start of World War I. It is noted as being one of the few video games that attempts to realistically simulate...
, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? is the title of several edutainment computer games in the Carmen Sandiego series that teach geography. The World games, often marketed as the flagship products of the Carmen series, were created by Brøderbund Software from 1985 to 1996 with another version...
, The Guardian Legend
The Guardian Legend
The Guardian Legend, known in Japan as , is a hybrid action-adventure/shoot 'em up video game developed by Compile for the Nintendo Entertainment System . It is the sequel to the 1986 MSX game Guardic, and was published and released in Japan by Irem in 1988, in North America by Brøderbund in 1989,...
, and Myst
Myst
Myst is a graphic adventure video game designed and directed by the brothers Robyn and Rand Miller. It was developed by Cyan , a Spokane, Washington––based studio, and published and distributed by Brøderbund. The Millers began working on Myst in and released it for the Mac OS computer on September...
, which stayed the highest grossing home computer game for years.
Brøderbund was easily one of the most dominant publisher
Video game publisher
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....
s in the computer market of the 1980s, having released video games for virtually all major computer systems in the United States. This included not only the popular IBM PC-DOS
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
, but also the leading home computers from the decade, notably the TRS-80
TRS-80
TRS-80 was Tandy Corporation's desktop microcomputer model line, sold through Tandy's Radio Shack stores in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The first units, ordered unseen, were delivered in November 1977, and rolled out to the stores the third week of December. The line won popularity with...
, the Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
(for which their first title was Tank Command, written by the third Carlston brother, Professor Donal Carlston), the Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
, the Atari 8-bit and the Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
. The company even went on licensing some of its titles to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese companies who ported Brøderbund's games to the different home computers of these regions, such as the Amstrad CPC
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...
, the MSX
MSX
MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...
and the ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
.
Brøderbund also publishes the Print Shop
Print shop
Print shop may refer to:* Printer , someone providing commercial printing services* The Print Shop, a desktop publishing software...
series of desktop publishing
Desktop publishing
Desktop publishing is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal computer.The term has been used for publishing at all levels, from small-circulation documents such as local newsletters to books, magazines and newspapers...
making programs, Family Tree Maker (a genealogy program supported by hundreds of CDs of public genealogy data) and 3D Home Architect
3D Home Architect
3D Home Architect was a DIY software application for home design, interior design and landscaping.- History :3D Home Architect was created by Chief Architect, Inc. and published by Broderbund in 1993...
, a program for designing and visualizing family homes. By the end of the 1980s, games represented only a few percent of Brøderbund's annual sales, which by then were heavily focused in the productivity arena and early education and learning areas.
Just before being acquired by The Learning Company, Brøderbund spun off its popular Living Books series
Living Books series
The Living Books series is a series of interactive animated multimedia children's books, first produced by Brøderbund and then spun off into a jointly-owned subsidiary, which were distributed on CD-ROM for Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows...
by forming a joint venture with Random House Publishing. Despite the success and quality of the Living Books series the joint venture was marginally successful and was dissolved with The Learning Company deal.
For a brief time, Brøderbund was involved in the video game console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
market when they published a few games for the Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
(NES), although all of the NES ports of their games, including their own franchises Lode Runner
Lode Runner
Lode Runner is a 1983 platform game, first published by Brøderbund. It is one of the first games to include a level editor, a feature that allows players to create their own levels for the game. This feature bolstered the game's popularity, as magazines such as Computer Gaming World held contests...
, Spelunker
Spelunker (computer game)
Spelunker is a 1983 video game developed by Tim Martin and MicroGraphicImage. It is a platform game similar to Pitfall! or Curse of Ra....
and Raid on Bungeling Bay
Raid on Bungeling Bay
Raid on Bungeling Bay was the first video game designed by Will Wright. It was published by Brøderbund for the Commodore 64 in 1984 and the NES and MSX computers in 1985...
, were developed by third-party Japanese companies. Brøderbund also developed and marketed an ill-fated motion sensitive
Motion detection
Motion detection is a process of confirming a change in position of an object relative to its surroundings or the change in the surroundings relative to an object. This detection can be achieved by both mechanical and electronic methods...
NES controller device called the U-Force
U-Force
The U-Force was a game controller made by Brøderbund for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It employed a pair of perpendicular infrared sensor panels to translate the user's hand movements into controller signals.From a print advertisement circa 1989:...
, which was operated without direct physical contact between the player and the device. They also published some titles that were produced by companies that didn't have a North American subsidiary, such as Compile
Compile (software company)
Compile Co., Ltd. was a Japanese video game company established on April 7, 1982, under the name Programmers-3. Founded by Masamitsu Niitani , they were famed for developing shooters and puzzle games such as Aleste and Puyo Puyo.Compile filed for bankruptcy and disbanded in 2003, but the franchise...
's The Guardian Legend
The Guardian Legend
The Guardian Legend, known in Japan as , is a hybrid action-adventure/shoot 'em up video game developed by Compile for the Nintendo Entertainment System . It is the sequel to the 1986 MSX game Guardic, and was published and released in Japan by Irem in 1988, in North America by Brøderbund in 1989,...
, Imagineer
Imagineer (company)
is a Japanese entertainment company headquartered in Nishi-Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan.The name "Imagineer" is a portmanteau, derived from the words "imagination" and "engineer". They started publishing video games in the mid-1980s...
's The Battle of Olympus
The Battle of Olympus
The Battle of Olympus is a side scrolling, action-adventure game for the Nintendo Entertainment System developed by Infinity. It was published on March 28 by Imagineer in Japan for the Famicom and was titled . The North American and European versions were released for the NES in and by...
, Arsys Software's 1986 third-person action RPG
Action role-playing game
Action role-playing games form a loosely defined sub-genre of role-playing video games that incorporate elements of action or action-adventure games, emphasizing real-time action where the player has direct control over characters, instead of turn-based or menu-based combat...
shooter WiBArm, and Legacy of the Wizard
Legacy of the Wizard
is a fantasy-themed action role-playing platform game released for the MSX and Famicom in Japan and for the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States. Legacy of the Wizard is the fourth installment in Falcom's Dragon Slayer series...
, the fourth installment in Nihon Falcom's Dragon Slayer series.
Brøderbund also briefly had a board game division, which published Don Carlston's Personal Preference
Personal Preference
Personal Preference is a 1987 board game created by Donal Carlson that involves guessing the order in which a player prefers foods, activities, people, and other items compared to one another...
, along with several board game versions of their popular computer games.
Corporate history
Brøderbund was founded by brothers DougDoug Carlston
Doug Carlston is the founder and current CEO of Tawala Systems based in San Rafael, California. He was previously CEO, chairman, and co-founder of Brøderbund Software, a major software publishing firm that produced such hit titles as Myst, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and Prince of...
and Gary Carlston in 1980 for the purpose of marketing Galactic Empire
Galactic Empire (Brøderbund)
-Summary:This video game launched Brøderbund's lineup of software software. Although this game is little-known today, it exerted a seminal influence on modern space conquest games such as Spaceward Ho! and Master of Orion. Doug Carlston wrote it while working as a lawyer...
, a computer game that Doug Carlston had created in 1979. Their sister, Cathy, joined the company a year later. Before founding the company, Doug was a lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and Gary had held a number of jobs, including teaching Swedish at an American college.
In 1984, Brøderbund took over the assets of the well-regarded but financially troubled Synapse Software
Synapse Software
Synapse Software Corporation was an American computer game development and publishing company active during the early-1980s. They developed primarily for the Atari 400 and 800 computers, and the Commodore 64 and IBM PCjr...
. Although intending to keep it running as a business, they were unable to make money from Synapse's products, and closed it down after a year.
Brøderbund became a public company
Initial public offering
An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...
in November 1991; their NASDAQ symbol, no longer operative, was BROD. Their stock price and market capitalization climbed steadily to a maximum of nearly US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
80/share in late 1995, and then fell steadily in the face of continued losses for a number of years.
Brøderbund was purchased by The Learning Company in 1998 for about US$420 million in stock. Brøderbund had initially attempted to purchase the original The Learning Company in 1995, but was outbid by Softkey, who purchased The Learning Company for $606 million in cash and then adopted its name. The Learning Company then bought Brøderbund in 1998 and in a move to rationalize costs, The Learning Company promptly terminated 500 employees at Brøderbund the same year, representing 42% of the company's workforce. Then in 1999 the combined company was bought by Mattel
Mattel
Mattel, Inc. is the world's largest toy company based on revenue. The products it produces include Fisher Price, Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox toys, Masters of the Universe, American Girl dolls, board games, and, in the early 1980s, video game consoles. The company's name is derived from...
for $3.6 billion. Mattel reeled from the financial impact of this transaction, and Jill Barad, the CEO, ended up being forced out in a climate of investor outrage. Mattel then gave away The Learning Company in September 2000 to Gores Technology Group, a private acquisitions firm, for a share of whatever Gores could obtain by selling the company. In 2001, Gores sold The Learning Company's entertainment holdings to Ubisoft
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
, and most of the other holdings, including the Brøderbund name, to Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
company Riverdeep
Riverdeep
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Learning Technology originally started as Riverdeep Interactive Learning, is a publishing house for educational online and CD-ROM products based in San Francisco and Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 1995, Riverdeep was principally the creation of the Irish ex-investment banker...
. Currently, all of Brøderbund's games, such as the Myst series, are published by Ubisoft.
Broderbund, with an "o" instead of the "ø" character, is now the brand name for Riverdeep's graphic design, productivity, and edutainment
Edutainment
Edutainment is a form of entertainment designed to educate as well as to amuse.-Overview:...
titles such as The Print Shop
The Print Shop
The Print Shop is a basic desktop publishing software package developed in the early 1980s by Brøderbund. It was unique in that it provided libraries of clip-art and templates through a simple interface to build signs, posters and banners with household dot-matrix printers...
, Carmen Sandiego
Carmen Sandiego
Carmen Sandiego is a media franchise of educational computer and video games, television programs, books and other media featuring a thieving villain of the same name. The basic premise of the franchise lets the user or protagonists become agents of the ACME Detective Agency, who attempts to thwart...
, Mavis Beacon
Mavis Beacon
Mavis Beacon is a fictional female African-American character created for the Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing software.- History :Developed to be a anthropomorphic representation of a Software Toolworks instructional typing program, Mavis Beacon debuted as simply a photo of a model on the software's...
, the Living Books series
Living Books series
The Living Books series is a series of interactive animated multimedia children's books, first produced by Brøderbund and then spun off into a jointly-owned subsidiary, which were distributed on CD-ROM for Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows...
, and Reader Rabbit
Reader Rabbit
Reader Rabbit is an edutainment software franchise created in 1986 by The Learning Company. This series currently makes up the greater part of a franchise of grade-based and subject-based titles, where the games for infancy through second grade feature Reader Rabbit...
titles, in addition to publishing software for other companies, notably Zone Labs' ZoneAlarm.
The Broderbund line of products is published by Encore, Inc.
See also
- Bungeling EmpireBungeling EmpireThe Bungeling Empire was a villainous organization that the players were said to be pitted against in several different games created by Brøderbund.-Summary:...
- a fictional empire created by Brøderbund to provide a villainVillainA villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
for their more action-oriented games - Creative WondersCreative WondersCreative Wonders was an educational software corporation from 1994 to 1999. It created computer games based on children's characters like Madeline, Sesame Street, Arthur, The Baby-sitters Club and Schoolhouse Rock!.-History of the company:...
- Lauren ElliottLauren ElliottLauren Roosevelt Elliott is an American video game designer, internet entrepreneur, publisher and inventor...
— co-creator of Carmen SandiegoCarmen SandiegoCarmen Sandiego is a media franchise of educational computer and video games, television programs, books and other media featuring a thieving villain of the same name. The basic premise of the franchise lets the user or protagonists become agents of the ACME Detective Agency, who attempts to thwart...
External links
- Official Broderbund Website
- Archive of Broderbund website
- History of Brøderbund at Classicgaming.com
- Profile at MobyGamesMobyGames-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...