Appendix


This section contains some additional information on 'historical' items such as old hardware architectures and companies I worked for in the past (life-cycles of IT companies can be rather short, often only leaving a trail of broken web-links).



Cornerstone Technology

Cornerstone Technology was founded in 1989 in the Netherlands and is currently active in parsing and automated programming language conversion technologies (maintenance of legacy systems).



Dreams Interactive

Dreams Interactive was founded in 2000 and worked on Lejendary Adventures Online. They were forced to move back to Finland in 2003 after running in financial troubles.



Euro-Partners Informatici

Euro-Partners Informatici orignally started as a general IT and web-services oriented company in the Netherlands. One of its major spin-offs was Gamegate.com before it went under in the turmoil of the dot-com bubble in 2000.



Gamegate.com

Gamegate.com started originally as a sub-division of Euro-Partners Informatici under the name 'New Media'. Their core business were websites and (custom) Java games. After it ran in financial troubles in 2001, the core of developers left and started the succesful Zylom Media Group, leaving what remained to be sold (technologies and applications) to a company called Wildape.



MSX

A home-computer system that was popular between early 1980s to mid 1990s in popular in Asia, South America and a large part of Northern Europe. Many variations have been produced by various companies such as Philips, Sony and Panasonic. Many game development companies have debuted on this system and/or acquired great fame such as Konami. The most successful and widespread has been the MSX 2 home system, here are some of its most common systems specifications:


CPU Zilog Z80A 3.579 MHz (8-bit)
Memory 128 kB RAM (paged)
Storage 3 1/2 inch floppy, 720 kB
Graphics Yamaha V9938
  • 128 kB VRAM.
  • 32 hardware sprites, 16x16, 2 colors per sprite line, 64 sprite bitmaps.
  • Only vertical hardware scroll
  • Graphics modes (most used)
    • 80x23 text mode, 4 colors out of 512.
    • 40x23 character-based mode, 16 fixed colors.
    • 40x23 character-based mode, 16 colors out of 512, 2 colors per character line.
    • 256x212 pixel-based mode, 16 colors out of 512.
    • 258x212 pixel-based mode, 256 fixed colors.
  • Hardware blitter for copying video memory with optional logical operations.
Sound 3 sound channels, nothing more than frequency setting with limited distortion and/or effects.

Common extensions modules: MSX-Audio and MSX-Music.




MSX-Audio

An expansion module for MSX home-computers for upgraded sound features. The MSX-Audio is also known as: Music-Module.


  • Yamaha YM-8950 OPL1 FM sound synthesizer (mono), comparable to 'Sound Blaster 16'.
  • 9 channels FM synthesis sound.
  • 1 ADPCM sample channel (32 kB sample RAM).


MSX-Music

An expansion module for MSX home-computers for upgraded sound features. The MSX-Music is also known as: FM-PAC.


  • Yamaha YM-2413 chipset (mono), comparable to 'Sound Blaster 16'.
  • 9 channels FM synthesis sound without drums or,
  • 6 channels FM synthesis sound with 5 FM drums.


Triumph Studios

Triumph Studios was founded in 1997 in the Netherlands and has been active on the international market ever since. Best known for their Age of Wonders and Overlord series.



Vanguard Entertainment Group

Vanguard Entertainment Group is the result of a merger between Woedend! Games and Karami in 2010. Best known for Greed Corp and Gattling Gears.