Virgin Interactive

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Virgin Interactive
Virgin Interactive.png
Founded 1983
Closed 2003
Headquarters London, England, UK
Other Names
  • Arcadia Systems
  • Virgin Games
  • Virgin Mastertronic
  • Virgin Interactive Entertainment
  • Avalon Interactive
  • Gang of Five

Virgin Interactive Entertainment was the video game publishing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group. It started off making home computer titles in the UK and a game development team called "Gang of Five", until it was dropped for a studio in London in the 1990s. It also had operations in the US, and it was best known for remembered games, like Cool Spot, Disney's Aladdin, The Lion King, and Westwood's titles from 1992 until its US operations sale to Electronic Arts in 1998.

For Virgin's U.S. unit, if a game does not have in-game credits, like Prince of Persia (NES), then the credits would be seen in the game's manual, unlike Activision, which shows the developer's names in the game manual.

Games

Music Development

NES

For Spot: The Video Game (NES), Virgin used Sculptured Software's sound driver by Ken Moore. The game's composer, Ken Hedgecock, only remembers using a piece of software by Yamaha to compose the music. Interestingly, despite the driver coming from Sculptured Software, this was the first game to use it.

For M.C. Kids (NES), Charles Deenen programmed his own sound driver on the NES and wrote in 6502 assembly directly onto the NES.

For Color A Dinosaur (NES), Tommy used Tommy T's Play Me Sound Editor, which may have been programmed by Ed Magnin.

SNES

The company used sound drivers by Chip Level Designs and Bitmasters. For The Jungle Book (SNES), the company used Sculptured Software's BMus by Steve Aguirre. For Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Allister Brimble used his own driver.

GEN

The company used GEMS. For some games, they often used Shaun Hollingworth's driver.

GB

The company used a driver by Ed Magnin. Various companies, including the UK unit used different composers.

SMS/GG

Virgin used Shaun Hollingworth's sound driver.

Audio Personnel

Links