Factor 5

Factor 5
Founded	1987
Closed	2007
Headquarters	Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany San Rafael, California, U.S.

Factor 5 is an independent software and video game developer. The company was co-founded by five former Rainbow Arts employees in 1987 in Cologne, Germany, which served as the inspiration behind the studio's name.

It is notable for the Turrican franchise, as well as many Star Wars games, and a contractor for LucasArts.

Games

• Games developed by Factor 5.
• Games published by Factor 5.

Music Development

SNES

Chris Hülsbeck developed a custom driver which was used in Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3D. Later, Jens Petersam, Jan Delgado, Rudolf Stember, Dirk Jagalski, Willi Bäcker, Holger Schmidt and Peter Drescher all developed a custom sound driver, TROET Sound System. TROET appears to be MIDI-based, given the dynamic channel allocation.

GEN

Chris Hülsbeck also programmed AUDIOS Wave Slave MD, which he used for Mega Turrican and prototype of Jim Power. This sound driver also used by Rudolf Stember on unreleased Mr. Nutz 2: Hoppin' Mad.

International Superstar Soccer Deluxe uses a variant of TROET, which is credited to Jens Petersam, Willi Bäcker, Thomas Engel, and Dirk Jagalski.

GB/GBC

For their Game Boy games, the company used a custom sound driver by Jens Petersam.

For the Game Boy Color, Thomas Engel and Jens Petersam developed MusyX, a MIDI-based sound driver. While no games from the company used the driver, MusyX was licensed to various developers.

GBA

Jens Petersam developed a variation of MusyX. Like the Game Boy Color before it, MusyX was licensed to various companies.

N64

Thomas Engell developed MusyX audio tools for Nintendo 64, which originally designed by Chris Hülsbeck. They also developed voice compression technology in collaboration with LucasArts, which called MORT. Their tools were used in their own games.

They were also involved in the development of the Angel Studios' N64 port of Resident Evil 2, at the same time, having done the work with the transfer of music and sound. Before them, they helped Angel Studios with audio compression for both baseball games featuring Ken Griffey Jr., that uses an early version of MORT technology.

These tools were licensed to various developers, such as Atari, Eurocom, Avalanche Software and Vicarious Visions. Also, voice compression technology was used by Nintendo on both Pokémon Stadium games.

GameCube

Factor 5 developed MusyX 3D audio software development kit. In collaboration with Dolby Laboratories, MusyX provides motion-based surround sound encoded as Dolby Pro Logic II.

Audio Personnel

• Chris Hülsbeck
• Jens Petersam
• Jan Delgado
• Rudolf Stember
• Dirk Jagalski
• Willi Bäcker
• Holger Schmidt
• Peter Drescher
• Markus Siebold
• Jake Jacobson

Links

• mobygames.com/company/factor-5-gmbh - MobyGames.
• mobygames.com/company/factor-5-inc - MobyGames.