Company:Argonaut Games

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Argonaut Games
FormerlyArgonaut Software Limited (1982–1999)
TypePublic limited company
IndustryVideo games
FateLiquidated (original incarnation)
Founded
  • 23 February 1982; 44 years ago (1982-02-23) in Colindale, London (original)
  • 28 August 2024; 18 months ago (2024-08-28) (relaunch)
FounderJez San
Defunct1 October 2004; 21 years ago (2004-10-01) (original)
Headquarters
  • Edgware, London, UK
  • Mike Arkin (co-CEO)
  • Gary Sheinwald (co-CEO)
DivisionsArgonaut Sheffield (2002–2004)
Subsidiaries
Websiteargonautgames.com

Argonaut Games is a British video game developer founded in 1982. It was known for the Super NES video game Star Fox and its supporting Super FX chip, and for Software:Croc: Legend of the Gobbos and the Starglider series. The company was liquidated in late 2004, and ceased to exist in early 2007. It was relaunched in 2024.

History

I told them that this is as good as it's going to get unless they let us design some hardware to make the SNES better at 3D. Amazingly, even though I had never done any hardware before, they said YES, and gave me a million bucks to make it happen.

—Argonaut founder and Super FX codesigner, Jez San[3]

Founded as Argonaut Software by teenager Jez San in 1982,[4] the company name is a play on his name (J. San) and the mythological story of Jason and the Argonauts.

Its head offices were in Colindale, London,[5] and later in the Argonaut House in Edgware, London.[6] Its U.S. head office was in Woodside, California in the San Francisco Bay Area.[5]

In 1990, Argonaut collaborated with Nintendo during the early years of the NES and SNES, a notable incident being when Argonaut submitted a proof-of-concept method of defeating the Game Boy's copyright protection mechanism to Nintendo.[7] The combined efforts from Argonaut and Nintendo yielded a prototype of the game Star Fox, initially codenamed "SnesGlider" and inspired by their earlier Atari ST and Amiga game Starglider, that they had running on the NES and then some weeks later on a prototype SNES. Jez San told Nintendo that his team could only improve performance or functionality of the demonstration if Nintendo allowed Argonaut to design custom hardware to extend the SNES to have true 3D capability. Nintendo agreed, so San hired chip designers and made the Super FX chip. They originally codenamed it the Mathematical Argonaut Rotation I/O, or "MARIO", as is printed on the chip's surface.[3][8] So powerful was the Super FX chip used to create the graphics and gameplay, that they joked that the Super NES was just a box to hold the chip.[9]

After building the Super FX, Argonaut designed several different chips for other companies' video game machines, which were never released. These include machines codenamed GreenPiece and CD-I 2 for Philips, the platform codenamed VeggieMagic for Apple and Toshiba, and Hasbro's "virtual reality" game system codenamed MatriArc.[10]

In 1995, Argonaut Software was split into Argonaut Technologies Limited (ATL) and Argonaut Software Limited (ASL). With space being a premium at the office on Colindale Avenue, ATL was relocated to an office in the top floor of a separate building. The building was called Capitol House on Capitol Way, just around the corner. There, they continued the design of CPU and GPU products and maintained "BRender", Argonaut's proprietary software 3D engine. They won a chip design project with LSI Logic for a potential PlayStation 2 design. LSI Logic became a minor investor in Argonaut.

In 1996, John Edelson was hired as the company General Manager. John Edelson ran the group for two years. Capital was raised in 1996–1998 from Tom Teichman and Apax Partners. According to Jez San, Argonaut remained an independent developer by choice, and had turned down several buyout offers.[11]

In 1997, the two arms of the company once again shared an office as the entire company was moved to a new building in Edgware. In September 1997, Software:Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was released by Fox Interactive for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. A PC version of the game was also later released in 1998.

In 1998, ATL was rebranded ARC after the name of their main product, the Argonaut RISC Core, and became an independent company spun off to the same shareholders. ARC was an embedded IP provider. Bob Terwilliger was engaged as the President.

Argonaut Software Limited became Argonaut Games and was floated in 1999.

In early October 2004, Argonaut Games called in receivers David Rubin & Partners, laid off 100 employees, and was put up for sale.[12] Many former employees would join newly established developer Rocksteady Studios. A lack of a consistent stream of publishing deals had led to cash-flow issues and a profit warning earlier that year. In 2005, the company entered liquidation and was dissolved in early 2007.

Reopening (2024–present)

On 28 August 2024, Jez San reopened Argonaut Games as a boutique publisher that would focus on re-releasing and remastering Argonaut's existing franchises alongside the publication of third-party independent titles. Its first release is a remaster of Croc: Legend of the Gobbos,[13] which had previously been teased by San the previous year.[14][15]

On 25 September 2024, Argonaut announced they had made a strategic investment in Ancient Machine, the developer of the forthcoming PC narco-thriller VICE Undercover.

BRender

BRender (abbreviation of "Blazing Renderer") is a development toolkit and a realtime 3D graphics engine for computer games, simulators, and graphic tools. It was developed and licensed by Argonaut Software.[16] The engine supports Intel's MMX instruction set and Windows, MS-DOS, and PlayStation platforms. Support for 3D hardware graphics accelerator cards was added.[17] Software made with BRender includes Carmageddon,[18] Software:Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, FX Fighter,[19] I-War,[20] and 3D Movie Maker. It was released as free and open-source software under the MIT License on 3 May 2022.[21][22]

Titles

Games developed

Year Title Platform(s) Publisher(s) Note(s)
1984 Skyline Attack Commodore 64 Century Software
1986 Starglider Atari ST, Amiga Rainbird
1988 Starglider 2
1990 Days of Thunder MS-DOS Mindscape
1992 Game Boy
Race Drivin'[lower-alpha 1] Game Boy THQ
A.T.A.C. Microsoft Windows MicroProse
Birds of Prey Amiga, MS-DOS Electronic Arts
X Game Boy Nintendo Co-developed with Nintendo R&D1
1993 Star Fox Super Nintendo Entertainment System Co-developed with Nintendo EAD[lower-alpha 2]
King Arthur's World Jaleco
1994 Vortex Electro Brain, Pack-In-Video, Sony Imagesoft
Stunt Race FX Nintendo Co-developed with Nintendo EAD[lower-alpha 2]
Creature Shock MS-DOS Virgin Interactive Entertainment
The Ren & Stimpy Show: Fire Dogs Super Nintendo Entertainment System THQ
1995 FX Fighter MS-DOS GTE Entertainment
Alien Odyssey Philips Media
Scooby-Doo Mystery Super Nintendo Entertainment System Acclaim Entertainment
1996 FX Fighter Turbo MS-DOS GTE Entertainment
1997 Software:Croc: Legend of the Gobbos PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Microsoft Windows Fox Interactive
1998 Buck Bumble Nintendo 64 Ubi Soft
1999 Croc 2 PlayStation, Microsoft Windows Fox Interactive
2000 Croc Game Boy Color[23] THQ Co-developed with Virtucraft
Software:Red Dog: Superior Firepower Dreamcast Sega, Crave Entertainment
The Emperor's New Groove PlayStation, Microsoft Windows Sony Computer Entertainment, Disney Interactive
Disney's Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge
Alien Resurrection PlayStation Fox Interactive
2001 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone[lower-alpha 3] Electronic Arts
2002 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Software:Bionicle: Matoran Adventures Game Boy Advance Electronic Arts, Lego Interactive
2003 Bionicle PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Microsoft Windows Co-developed with Argonaut Sheffield
Software:SWAT: Global Strike Team PlayStation 2, Xbox Vivendi Universal Games
I-Ninja PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox Namco Hometek, Sony Computer Entertainment
2004 Microsoft Windows Zoo Digital Publishing
Carve Xbox Global Star Software
Malice PlayStation 2, Xbox Evolved Games, Mud Duck Productions
Powerdrome Additional development for Argonaut Sheffield
Catwoman: The Game[24] PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Microsoft Windows Electronic Arts
2017[lower-alpha 4] Star Fox 2 SNES Classic Edition Nintendo Co-developed with Nintendo EAD
  1. ↑ Race Drivin' was ported from the arcade.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Argonaut Games provided assistance in programming with the FX Chip.
  3. ↑ Known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in North America.
  4. ↑ Star Fox 2 was originally planned for release on SNES in 1996 (build date: 12 September 1995). However, the game was not officially released until 2017 when it was included in the Super NES Classic Edition.

Games published

Year Title Platform(s) Developer(s) Note(s)
2025 Software:Croc: Legend of the Gobbos (remaster)[13] Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch Titanium Studios and Big Boat Interactive
Croc Game Boy Color TBC Physical GBC re-release, digital release platforms currently unconfirmed

Cancelled games

Cancelled games by Argonaut Games
Title Development period Platform
8-Kings[25] N/A N-Gage
Crash vs. Spyro Racing[26] 2004 Xbox
Orchid[27][28][29] 2003 GameCube, PS2, and Xbox
Bionicle: City of Legends[30][31] 2004 Xbox, PS2
I-Ninja 2[32] 2004 PS2, Xbox, GameCube
Zero Hour[33] 2004 PS2, PSP
Cash on Delivery[34] PS2
Croc 3 (rumored)[citation needed] 2001 Xbox
Kanaan[35] PC
Unnamed Yoshi game[citation needed] 1995 N64
Transformers: Generation 2[36] 1994 SNES

References

  1. ↑ McFerran, Damien (September 13, 2022). "Jez San On Argonaut, Star Fox And Working With Nintendo". https://www.timeextension.com/features/jez-san-on-argonaut-star-fox-and-working-with-nintendo?page=2. 
  2. ↑ Troughton, James (2023-09-25). "An Unreleased Crash Vs Spyro Racing Game Has Been Found" (in en). https://www.thegamer.com/crash-bandicoot-vs-spyro-the-dragon-cancelled-racing-game-found/. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Bolton, Syd. "Interview with Jez San, OBE". http://www.armchairempire.com/Interviews/jez-san-interview.htm. 
  4. ↑ Brookes, Jason; Bielby, Matt (May 1993). "Superplay interview: Jez San, Argonaut". Super Play (United Kingdom: Future Publishing). https://archive.org/details/Superplay_Issue_07_1993-05_Future_Publishing_GB/page/n25/mode/2up. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Company Summary" (Archive). Argonaut Games. 29 October 1996. Retrieved on 21 May 2016. "Argonaut Technologies Limited Capitol House, Capitol Way, Colindale, London, NW9 ODZ, United Kingdom" and "Argonaut USA Rich Seidner – Head of US Operations 210 Grandview Drive, Woodside, California, 94062, USA"
  6. ↑ "Argonaut Contact information". Argonaut Games. 13 January 1998. http://www.argonaut.com/html/body_argonaut_has_moved_.htm. "Argonaut House 369 Burnt Oak Broadway Edgware Middlesex HA8 5XZ" 
  7. ↑ McFerran, Damien (22 June 2014). "Born slippy: the making of Star Fox". Eurogamer. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-07-04-born-slippy-the-making-of-star-fox. 
  8. ↑ "Of argonauts, vectors, and flying foxes: The rise of 3D on Nintendo consoles". http://blamethecontrolpad.com/argonaut/argonaut2.htm. 
  9. ↑ "Interview with Jez San". http://www.arwinglanding.net/articles.php?page=writeups/jezsan. 
  10. ↑ "Feature: Jez San On Star Fox, Super FX And Teaching Nintendo How To Fly". https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/12/feature_jez_san_on_star_fox_super_fx_and_teaching_nintendo_how_to_fly. 
  11. ↑ Rider, David; Semrad, Ed (December 1997). "British Invasion". Electronic Gaming Monthly (Ziff Davis) (101): 170. https://retrocdn.net/images/1/15/EGM_US_101.pdf. 
  12. ↑ Jenkins, David (3 November 2004). "Remaining Argonaut Development Staff Laid Off". https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/remaining-argonaut-development-staff-laid-off. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Romano, Sal (2024-08-28). "Croc: Legend of the Gobbos remaster announced for consoles, PC alongside Argonaut Games revival" (in en-US). https://www.gematsu.com/2024/08/croc-legend-of-the-gobbos-remaster-announced-for-consoles-pc-alongside-argonaut-games-revival. 
  14. ↑ McFerran, Damien (7 June 2023). "Croc HD Is In Development, Says Argonaut Founder Jez San". Hookshot Media. https://www.timeextension.com/news/2023/06/croc-hd-is-in-development-says-argonaut-founder-jez-san. 
  15. ↑ @aerobatic (June 6, 2023). "I have news but it's a little premature to announce it. a 'Croc HD' has started early development." (in en). https://twitter.com/aerobatic/status/1666119518949715969. 
  16. ↑ "BRender Web page". Argonaut Software. http://www.argonaut.com/brender/index.html. 
  17. ↑ "The Wave Report on Digital Media Issue 606 8/16/96". 4th WAVE, Inc.. http://www.3dlinks.com/waveissue.cfm?issue=606#voodoo. 
  18. ↑ "NG Alphas: Carmaggedon". Next Generation (25): 125–6. January 1997. https://archive.org/details/NEXT_Generation_25/page/n125/mode/2up. 
  19. ↑ "3D Graphics Help". GamePro (IDG) (80): 139. May 1995. https://archive.org/details/GamePro_Issue_070_May_1995/page/n139/mode/2up. 
  20. ↑ "NG Alphas: I-War". Next Generation (34): 104. October 1997. https://archive.org/details/NEXT_Generation_34/page/n107/mode/2up. 
  21. ↑ Turing, Foone [@Foone] (2022-05-03). "I just got approval from Jez San, former CEO of Argonaut Games, to open source the BRender engine.". https://twitter.com/Foone/status/1521574394761383936. 
  22. ↑ Wright, Steven (2022-05-04). "At last, Microsoft 3D Movie Maker is now open-source... Wait, what?" (in en). https://www.inputmag.com/gaming/microsoft-3d-movie-maker-croc-carmageddon-open-source. 
  23. ↑ "Argonaut Games plc 2000". 2000-11-01. http://www.argonaut.com/crocgb.htm. 
  24. ↑ Bramwell, Tom (30 January 2004). "EA bags Catwoman". https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/news300104catwoman. 
  25. ↑ Gasking, Frank (9 November 2020). "8-Kings". Games That Weren't. https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2020/11/8-kings/. 
  26. ↑ Bailey, Dustin (25 September 2023). "A prototype for the unreleased and unannounced Crash vs Spyro Racing has been found and preserved online". https://www.gamesradar.com/a-prototype-for-the-unreleased-and-unannounced-crash-vs-spyro-racing-has-been-found-and-preserved-online/. 
  27. ↑ "Argonaut unveils Orchid". https://www.gamespot.com/articles/argonaut-unveils-orchid/1100-2836766/. 
  28. ↑ Fahey, Rob (30 May 2003). "Blow for Argonaut as Malice and Orchid are canned". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/blow-for-argonaut-as-malice-and-orchid-are-canned. 
  29. ↑ "Orchid". 8 January 2002. https://www.ign.com/articles/2002/01/08/orchid. 
  30. ↑ "LEGO Bionicle 2 : City of Legends". 30 October 2012. http://ptoponline.com/?p=747. 
  31. ↑ "BIONICLE 2: City of Legends (Xbox Beta) ISO Release", BioMedia Project, 1 February 2014
  32. ↑ "I-Ninja 2: PS2/Xbox/GameCube – Cancelled", Unseen64, 12 March 2009
  33. ↑ "Zero Hour, PSP – Cancelled", Unseen64, 26 November 2009
  34. ↑ "Cash on Delivery, PSP – Cancelled", Unseen64, 27 July 2009
  35. ↑ Unseen64 (2016-05-11). "Kanaan (Argonaut) [PC - Cancelled"] (in en-US). https://www.unseen64.net/2016/05/11/kanaan-argonaut-pc-cancelled/. 
  36. ↑ McFerran, Damien (November 3, 2015). "No, SNES Super FX Title Vortex Was Never A Transformers Game". https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/11/no_snes_super_fx_title_vortex_was_never_a_transformers_game. 

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