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Rogue Entertainment, Inc. was a privately held video game development company based in Dallas, Texas and was active in the late 1990s. They are known for their development of Quake expansion packs and ports and their failed attempt at making Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.

History[]

Formation and early work[]

Rogue Entertainment was formed by three former employees of Cygnus Studios. Development on their first title, Strife, was originally started at Cygnus Studios after id Software specifically requested that they develop a game using the Doom engine.[1] To enable better cooperation between id Software and Cygnus Studios, Cygnus Studios was relocated from Chicago to an office next to id Software in Texas.[2]

However, during early development, internal conflicts arose and Cygnus employees mutinied against the company founder Scott Host.[1][2] Following this mutiny, Scott Host relocated Cygnus Studios from Texas back to Chicago and cancelled Strife.[1][3] Jim Molinets, Steve Maines and Rich Fleider left the company and formed Rogue Entertainment in Mesquite, Texas with the assistance of id Software on December 14, 1994 and resumed development on Strife.[2][4][5]

Since their office was originally in the same building as id Software, all of their earlier games utilized game engines created by id and they were the primary choice of developer for id Software for ports or expansion packs.[4]

The first project that Rogue Entertaimment was offered by Valve Software was in fact Half-Life: Opposing Force. However, Rogue turned down this offer to work on the Nintendo 64 version of Quake II instead.[6]

Rogue Entertainment relocated their office to Dallas, Texas in late February 2000 as they no longer had enough room in their old offices for the growing company.[7]

Setbacks and closure[]

After finishing American McGee's Alice on schedule, Rogue Entertainment began development on the Playstation 2 port of the game. However, Electronic Arts, the publisher of the title, decided to cancel the title in January 2001 and Rogue Entertainment suddenly found themselves without a project to work on.[8]

Rogue Entertainment approached various companies and secured a deal to develop Counter-Strike: Condition Zero in April 2001.[8][9] However, after only about a month of development, Jim Molinets informed of his decision to leave the company and Valve Software responded to the news by removing Condition Zero from their hands.[8]

These setbacks took their toll on the company and numerous employees left the company.[8] Although Rogue Entertainment tried securing another project,[8] these attempts fell through and on October 1, 2001 the company was acquired by United Developers.[10]

Games[]

  • 1996 – Strife
  • 1997 – Quake Mission Pack 2: Dissolution of Eternity
  • 1998 – Quake II: Ground Zero
  • 1999 – Quake II (Nintendo 64 version)
  • 2000 – American McGee's Alice
  • 2001 – Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (never published, development restarted by Gearbox Software)

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Host, Scott (2002-05-30). "Who owns the rights to Raptor". 3D Realms Forums. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Romero, John (2015-04-23). "More goodies from Romero (DoomEd source, maps, graphics)". Doomworld Forums. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  3. Stoddard, Samuel (2005-09-30). "[2.7.1] What is Apogee's relationship with id?". The Apogee FAQ. Retrieved 2017-05-17.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Vangie, Beal (2000-10-21). "Get Personal - Interview with Rich Fleider". Sharky Games. Archived from the original on 2000-11-09. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  5. Molinets, Jim (1999-12-15) ".plan Update by Jim Molinets (at Rogue) on Dec 15 1999, 11:41:10 (ET)". .plan File for Jim Molinets. Retrieved 2017-05-17.
  6. ValveTime (2016-12-06). "#DidYouKnow Rogue Entertainment turned down the opportunity to develop Half-Life: Opposing Force? #halflife". Twitter. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  7. Fleider, Rich (2000-02-22) ".plan Update by Rich Fleider (at Rogue) on Feb 22 2000, 16:22:47 (ET)". .plan File for Rich Fleider. Retrieved 2017-05-17.
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Mathews, Jack (2001-05-17). "More on Rogue-Valve Fallout". Shacknews. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  9. Callaham, John (2001-04-13). "Rogue Working On New Game". STOMPED. Archived from the original on 2001-11-14. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
  10. United Developers (2001-10-01). "United Developers Officially Announced: Adds Rogue Entertainment as Affiliate Company". Blue's News. Retrieved 2017-05-15.

External links[]

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