Digital Eclipse

Name	Digital Eclipse Entertainment Partners Co.
Logo
Former Name	Backbone Emeryville
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video games
Founders	Andrew Ayre Hans Kim John Neil Howard Fukuda
Hq Location City	Emeryville, California
Hq Location Country	US
Key People	Andrew Ayre (CEO) Mike Mika (president)
Parent	Backbone Entertainment Other Ocean Group Atari SA
Website	digitaleclipse.com

History

Digital Eclipse was founded in 1992 by Andrew Ayre, Hans Kim, John Neil, and Howard Fukuda. The company's first offices were opened on a "nondescript, factory-filled" street in Emeryville, California, where Ayre (a native of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador) had moved following his graduation from Harvard University to live with his girlfriend. Initially a technology startup company, Digital Eclipse soon found that their software would be useful in the video game industry, and turned to game development instead. Using their technology, the company opted to produce commercial emulations of arcade games, such as Williams Electronics' Joust, Defender, and Robotron: 2084. For these games, Digital Eclipse developed an interpreter that emulated the games' arcade machines' chipset, including the Motorola 6809 central processing unit. This approach was meant to have the emulations act true to the original versions of these games, and not carry any imperfections direct ports could have introduced. All three emulated games were released as part of The Digital Arcade series for Mac OS in 1995.

Digital Eclipse found further success when the Game Boy Color was released; the new handheld console included a central processing unit based on the architecture of the Zilog Z80, the processor used in a number of older arcade machines. While other developers were moving on to develop for the more powerful PlayStation home console, Digital Eclipse developed about 60 games for their niche market on the Game Boy Color. These games included Klax, Spy Hunter, Moon Patrol, Paperboy, Joust, Defender, and 720°, as well as an original game, Tarzan, which Digital Eclipse produced for Activision. Digital Eclipse also opened a second studio in Vancouver, Canada. In February 2001, the company announced their move into the games market for "wireless Web" devices, hiring Scott Nisbet as director of wireless gaming, as well as Bruce Binder as Nisbet's consultant.

In 2003, Digital Eclipse merged with ImaginEngine, creating Backbone Entertainment; while ImaginEngine remained an independent studio within that structure, Digital Eclipse's studios became Backbone Emeryville and Backbone Vancouver, respectively. By this point, Digital Eclipse had produced 70 games on 11 different platforms. In February 2006, Backbone opened another subsidiary studio, Backbone Charlottetown, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, under the lead of Ayre. In May 2007, the new studio, including Ayre and several former Digital Eclipse employees, spun off from Backbone and became Other Ocean Interactive, aiming at showcasing Digital Eclipse's former traits in a smaller fashion.

Backbone Vancouver was mostly dismantled in September 2008 and closed entirely in May 2009, while Backbone laid off the majority of its Emeryville-based staff in October 2012. On June 8, 2015, after acquiring the Digital Eclipse name, Other Ocean's parent company, Other Ocean Group, announced that it had reformed Digital Eclipse as part of its Other Ocean Emeryville studio. Co-founders include Ayre, Mike Mika—who had acted as technical director for the original Digital Eclipse—and former Gamasutra writer Frank Cifaldi. The new Digital Eclipse laid its focus on video game preservation, and Cifaldi became the studio's "head of restoration", a title which Cifaldi noted was an industry first. At the time, Cifaldi also stated that Digital Eclipse aimed at becoming the video game equivalent of The Criterion Collection. Cifaldi would leave Digital Eclipse around 2020 to work on the Video Game History Foundation full time.

Atari SA announced it would acquire Digital Eclipse in October 2023 for $4 million in cash and newly issued ordinary shares worth $2.5 million, alongside a possible earn-out of up to $13.5 million. Atari closed the deal by November 6, 2023.

Eclipse Engine

Part of Digital Eclipse's work include their own Eclipse Engine, a tool that allows them to decompile the code from older games into a machine-readable format that is then used by the Eclipse Engine to play them on modern systems. While it may take some extra work by the company to decompile the older game into the proper format one time, this approach allows them to rapidly port the Eclipse Engine version to any modern gaming system, including personal computers, consoles, and portable and mobile devices, with minimal effort. This engine has been used in Digital Eclipse's Mega Man Legacy Collection and The Disney Afternoon Collection. The Eclipse Engine was primarily developed by Digital Eclipse's studio head, Mike Mika, and Other Ocean engineer Kevin Wilson, branched off from Other Ocean's Bakesale engine.

Games developed

As Digital Eclipse (1992–2004)

As Backbone Entertainment (2004–2012)

Backbone Entertainment

As Digital Eclipse (2015–present)

Notes

References

• Studio Profile: Digital Eclipse, Martyn, Carroll, Retro Gamer, 237, September 1, 2022, Future Publishing, 70–75
• From St. John's to California Gaming ... and back, Jim, McGillivray, 2009, The Andrean, Internet Archive, April 10, 2019
• Q&A: Death, Jr. developer Chris Charla, Curt, Feldman, April 23, 2004, GameSpot, April 9, 2019, May 20, 2018, live
• Other Ocean: Building the past, the future, and the present, VB Staff, September 22, 2017, VentureBeat, April 9, 2019, April 16, 2018, live
• They Do Make 'Em Like They Used To, J. Caleb, Donaldson, August 1, 1995, Wired, April 14, 2019, December 22, 2016, live
• Lords of the Jungle, Peer, Schneider, July 16, 1999, IGN, April 9, 2019, January 31, 2018, live
• Spyro 2: Season of Flame, Craig, Harris, May 28, 2002, IGN, April 9, 2019, November 15, 2021, live
• Playing for Keeps, Peter S., Goodman, March 21, 2001, The Washington Post, April 14, 2019, November 15, 2021, live
• ImaginEngine game studio shuts down (exclusive), Dean, Takahashi, October 12, 2012, VentureBeat, April 9, 2019, December 1, 2018, live
• Foundation 9 Goes Next-Gen, David, Adams, August 19, 2005, IGN, April 9, 2019, November 15, 2021, live
• Foundation 9 To Open New Canadian Studio, Simon, Carless, February 6, 2006, Gamasutra, April 9, 2019, November 15, 2021, live
• Other Ocean: iPhone To Be 'Major Player' In Handheld Market, Brandon, Boyer, April 7, 2008, Gamasutra, April 9, 2019, May 14, 2014, live
• Vancouver's video game family tree, Blaine, Kyllo, January 28, 2009, The Georgia Straight, April 10, 2019, April 10, 2019, live
• Is it Game Over for Vancouver's Video Game Industry? Not quite yet, Terry, Lavender, November 18, 2009, Vancouver Observer, April 9, 2019, December 22, 2015, live
• Layoffs at digital game studio Backbone Entertainment, Mike, Rose, October 9, 2012, Gamasutra, April 9, 2019, December 1, 2018, live
• Digital Eclipse is back with a new mission: preserve classic games, Alex, Wawro, June 8, 2015, Gamasutra, April 9, 2019, March 6, 2019, live
• How 'Mega Man Legacy Collection' Is Teaching the Video Games Industry to Respect Its Heritage, Chris, Schilling, August 28, 2015, Waypoint, April 9, 2019, November 15, 2021, live
• "A True Original" - Digital Eclipse on 'Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story', Yarwood, Jack, March 12, 2024, Time Extension, March 5, 2024, March 5, 2024
• Atari to acquire Digital Eclipse in $20m deal, James, Batchelor, October 31, 2023, October 31, 2023, GamesIndustry.biz
• GlobeNewswire, Atari Closes the Acquisition of Digital Eclipse, November 6, 2023, November 6, 2023
• The new tech making game preservation more authentic and future-proof, Kyle, Orland, August 27, 2015, Ars Technica, April 9, 2019, April 11, 2019, live
• Disney Afternoon Collection Producer Talks Challenges and Nostalgia, Steve, Watts, March 23, 2017, Shacknews, April 9, 2019, June 12, 2018, live
• The original Wizardry has been remastered — and you can play it right now, Andrew, Webster, September 15, 2023, September 15, 2023, The Verge
• Digital Eclipse's next interactive documentary is Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story, December 6, 2023
• Scullion, Chris, Digital Eclipse is releasing a Tetris collection called Tetris Forever, VGC, August 27, 2024, August 27, 2024
• Digital Eclipse, DigitalEclipse, 1867276378284204209, December 12, 2024, Surprise! We've been working with Konami on the Yu-Gi-Oh Early Days Collection this year, too., en, December 12, 2024
• Scullion, Chris, Arcade golf series Golden Tee is getting a retro compilation by Digital Eclipse, VGC, June 17, 2025, June 17, 2025
• Digital Eclipse, DigitalEclipse, 1930384789586018771, June 4, 2025, It started in the arcade, dominated consoles, and became a phenomenon. Now the best fighting games of the 90s return in Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection., en, June 4, 2025

External links