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Absolute Entertainment was an American
video game publishing A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer ...
company. Through its development house,
Imagineering ''Imagineering'' (from "imagination" and "engineering") is the implementation of creative ideas in practical form. The word was registered as a trademark of Disney Enterprises, Inc. in 1990, and forms part of the title of Disney's research and dev ...
, Absolute Entertainment produced titles for the
Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore International, Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and sign ...
, Atari 2600, Atari 7800,
Sega Game Gear The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console released by Sega on October 6, 1990, in Japan, in April 1991 throughout North America and Europe, and during 1992 in Australia. The Game Gear primarily competed with Nintendo's Game Boy, ...
,
Sega Genesis/Mega Drive The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...
, Sega CD,
Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same t ...
,
Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...
, and
Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Eu ...
video game consoles, as well as for the PC. After leaving his position as a video game developer and designer at Activision, Garry Kitchen founded the company in 1986 with his brother Dan Kitchen, along with Alex DeMeo, John Van Ryzin. The company's headquarters was in
Glen Rock, New Jersey Glen Rock is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 12,133, reflecting an increase of 532 (+4.6%) from the 11,601 counted in the 2010 census,New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...
borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...
, Upper Saddle River. While the company was based in New Jersey, David Crane worked out of his home on the West Coast. The company's name was chosen because it was alphabetically above Activision, implying that Absolute Entertainment was superior to Activision. It was the same strategy that Activision chose when the programmers left
Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc., founded in Sunnyvale, Ca ...
. At Absolute Entertainment, Kitchen continued developing games for the Atari 2600 and Atari 7800, as he had done at Activision. However, the
Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...
(NES) had already displaced Atari's dominance of the
video game console A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to ...
market. Kitchen swiftly shifted his focus to the NES, and produced several games for the platform, beginning with '' A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia'' in 1989, and '' Battle Tank'' in 1990. Absolute Entertainment absorbed its studio
Imagineering ''Imagineering'' (from "imagination" and "engineering") is the implementation of creative ideas in practical form. The word was registered as a trademark of Disney Enterprises, Inc. in 1990, and forms part of the title of Disney's research and dev ...
in 1992 to become itself a video game developer for the first time. In the third quarter of 1995, Absolute Entertainment went bankrupt and suspended operations and laid off most of its staff. Since Kitchen had already formed a new company with David Crane called Skyworks Technologies, some of the employees transitioned to the new company.


References

{{Authority control Companies based in Bergen County, New Jersey Video game companies established in 1986 Video game companies disestablished in 1995 Defunct companies based in New Jersey Video game publishers Defunct video game companies of the United States 1986 establishments in New Jersey Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1995