Companies long gone that you miss...

[SckizoBoy]

Simple as that really...

What companies, regardless of what they produced, that no longer exist or operate under their name from their glory days do you miss?

Me, and this is a tad random, but Maybach AG... some of their cars from the 1920's were sweet, granted their 'comeback' in the early 00's wasn't that good. Still, if only because I'd love to chuck a 23l V12 HL210 in a car and see what happens. -_-

 

[Generalissimo]

Dynamix. creators of the earthsiege series, i'd like to know who owns their properties now. i suspect it's 2k, but i'm not sure. in any case, i miss them greatly.

 

[Frezzato]

Cool choice.

In the spirit of cars, I'd have to say Bantam for myself (American Bantam Motors). I believe Bantam had only 12 employees when there was a call for vehicle prototypes at the start of WWII. They made a working 4WD prototype in just 45 days, which would later go on to become the Jeep we know today. It had reversible headlamps for blackout conditions and rims that were built in halves and bolted together so tires could be changed in the field. Their design was taken and given to larger manufacturers for the war effort unfortunately. Not bad for a little company from Pennsylvania.

 

[Albino Boo]

Hispano-Suiza, they were a Spanish/Swiss luxury car maker between the wars. Produced some fantastic cars, like this one from 1938

Dynamix. creators of the earthsiege series, i'd like to know who owns their properties now. i suspect it's 2k, but i'm not sure. in any case, i miss them greatly.

I think its activision. Dynamix was bought by sierra which in turn was bought by Vivendi Universal. Vivendi Universal games IPs and studios was transferred to activision when the Vivendi(Vivendi Universal's parent company) bought 40% of activision.

Cool choice.

In the spirit of cars, I'd have to say Bantam for myself (American Bantam Motors). I believe Bantam had only 12 employees when there was a call for vehicle prototypes at the start of WWII. They made a working 4WD prototype in just 45 days, which would later go on to become the Jeep we know today. It had reversible headlamps for blackout conditions and rims that were built in halves and bolted together so tires could be changed in the field. Their design was taken and given to larger manufacturers for the war effort unfortunately. Not bad for a little company from Pennsylvania.

I doubt you would have thought it was unfortunate, if you were waiting to evaced with a wound, that Willys and Ford mass produced 1000s rather than relying on a small factory in Pennsylvania.

 

[Dragonclaw]

Man, there are soooo many....

KB Toys (Damn you Mitt Romney!)

Woolworths

Mervyn's

Montgomery Wards (Christmas isn't the same without the toy catalog...)

Squeezers Burger Factory (A small burger chain started by one of the guys from Atari...it was AMAZING)

Tower Records

The Gundam Store (at the Metreon in SF)

 

[Frezzato]

I doubt you would have thought it was unfortunate, if you were waiting to evaced with a wound, that Willys and Ford mass produced 1000s rather than relying on a small factory in Pennsylvania.

Actually, I meant to say that it was unfortunate that out of three companies (including Ford), only Bantom was able to design and build something new, and according to spec. Then they disappeared into history, while everyone refers to the Jeep as the Willy's Jeep, a name they didn't even invent. It's almost like the idea of the cookie brand Hydrox versus the Oreo name. Hydrox was first, but Oreo is the one name everyone remembers. Cookies aren't really important though.

In retrospect, I also think that the people who drafted the RFQ for the design of the first Jeep should be admired. It's kind of cool to know that, even back then, they realized they would need reversible headlamps because the reflection could be spotted by airplanes.

Regarding the OT, I'd also like to add Delphine Software, creators of the original Flashback game.

 

[MarsProbe]

I miss Woolworths...I did my work experience in one of their branches back when I was in high school, so that was my first ever experience of the "wonderful" world of work. As a company, they managed to fill that middle ground between WH Smith and Poundland - it wasn't as slick a store as WH Smith but you didn't really get the same repulsive waste product of society shopping there like you do in Poundland.

Music Zone Direct (think that was the name) - I don't this was actually a chain of shops so not sure if you can call it a company as such, but there was one on a street in town. The only indication it even existed was a small door with a picture of a cartoon bulldog above it (the shops logo) that led up some stairs - it was one of those cool independent music stores. I remember it closing and re-opening about half a dozen times before it finally folded for good. It certainly didn't go without a fight, that's for sure...

I also miss Borders...for a good number of years, I basically lived in those places, especially the ones that also happened to have both a Starbucks and Game concession in them. Good times...

 

[SecondPrize]

Tiltall - They still technically exist but the quality of their tripods has gone to shit since they were bought out by the CHinese.
SSI -Strategic Simulations inc. I dunno how many hours I spent playing both their DnD games and strategy stuff like roadwar.
Kesmai-Air Warrior was the shit. 20 years later and nobody is doing stuff like letting you fully crew a B-17 with people in every seat or servers with hundreds of pilots in a 3 way battle for a huge persistent map. Fuck you EA.

 

[Gnmish]

There are a lot of dead gaming studios that I miss,

Origin

Bullfrog

Westwood

Mythic

Maxis

R.I.P

Last year I heard that Bioware was seriously assaulted by the same serial killer and is now on life support, but no one seems to want to do anything about him

 

[ffs-dontcare]

Westwood and Georgie Pie (the latter being a fast food venture), of course!

 

[xPixelatedx]

Capcom, Rare and Square Soft would be my top choices.

While some might argue that these still exist because an entity happens to be using the name, Calling myself Elvis Presley doesn't mean he's alive and well right now.

 

[teebeeohh]

do you guys actually miss companies?
because if anything, i tend to miss good products some company happened to make and really couldn't give a fuck about the company that made it. And, as some people here love to point out whenever companies screw over their customers, their one and only purpose is to make money, so why would you just miss another bunch of guys making money?

 

[Muspelheim]

The time when everything was the "Royal" somethingsomething.

It just sounds better. Rather than ridiculous words that just feels nice with only a slight hint of what they actually do, like "Teledawn" or "Freepharma" with some awful postmodern jumble of shapes and colour supposed to be a logo. With the royal whatever, like the royal telegraph office or royal post, you know what they're supposed to be doing, and that it's good enough for the king, at the very least.

Now, with that tangent out of the way, I will resume polishing my spiked helmet and continue growing a preposterous mustache.

(It also gives you a marvellous excuse to put little crowns on everything in sight. The royal banana import company? Yes, let's put a little bling on there.)

 

[shrekfan246]

Rare

Why'd you have to steal my answer? D:

Spoiler: Face the wrath of the Kyary-Cannon!

Now, I don't know anything about cars in the slightest, but that's a damn sexy vehicle.

OT: Yeah, Rare. Microsoft gutted them and turned them into a Kinect shovelware studio. And turned Banjo-Kazooie into a game about Lego cars...

 

[Tom_green_day]

Cadbury's. They tasted so much nicer when I knew they were made up the road and not in China.

 

[New Troll]

Sir-tech and more recently Hostess.

 

[Ebonrul]

Black Isle and Bullfrog back when the strategy RPG really got it's hooks in me.

Also, I miss McDonalds fries made with animal fat. Maybe they're not healthy in the first place, but cooking them in superheated space-age polymers prolly isn't adding many vitamins.

 

[White_Lama]

Elixir Studios.


Damn I want another Evil Genius game

 

[Kuilui]

I miss square soft. Even some of the higher ups said the Enix merger was the worst thing they could have ever done. I miss good final fantasy games..

 

[mechalynx]

<_< Silicon Knights. I really mean that.

Slightly more on topic: [url = "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Orion_Pictures_films"]Orion Pictures[/url]

Miss them tons.