''Bit Managers'', formerly known as New Frontier, was a

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a larg ...

based in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...

(

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

). It was co-founded by Alberto Jose González, who composed the music for all of their games (except "''Bang!''"—a coin-operated arcade machine).

History

Founding

The company was founded in 1988 as "New Frontier", initially programming games for

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the S ...

and

MSX MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by Microsoft and ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. It was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Eastern sector, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, then vice-p ...

computer systems. The company at first met with only modest success. In 1992, the company changed its name to Bit Managers and began to make games for Nintendo consoles (especially for

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 te ...

). It focused on creating innovative games based on Franco-Belgian comics such as ''

Asterix ''Asterix'' or ''The Adventures of Asterix'' (french: Astérix or , "Asterix the Gaul") is a '' bande dessinée'' comic book series about a village of indomitable Gaulish warriors who adventure around the world and fight the Roman Repub ...

'', ''

The Smurfs ''The Smurfs'' (french: Les Schtroumpfs; nl, De Smurfen) is a Belgian comic franchise centered on a fictional colony of small, blue, humanoid creatures who live in mushroom-shaped houses in the forest. ''The Smurfs'' was first created and i ...

'' or ''

The Adventures of Tintin ''The Adventures of Tintin'' (french: Les Aventures de Tintin ) is a series of 24 ''bande dessinée'' albums created by Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one of the most popular European com ...

'' for a client company,

Infogrames Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA) is a French video game holding company headquartered in Paris. Its subsidiaries include Atari Interactive#Infogrames subsidiary, Atari Interactive and Atari, Inc. (1993–present), Atari, Inc. It ...

. In 1997, Bit Managers was chosen by

Acclaim Entertainment Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game publisher based in Glen Cove, New York. Originally formed by Greg Fischbach, Robert Holmes and Jim Scoroposki out of an Oyster Bay storefront in 1987, the company established a worldwide ...

to develop some game of the ''

Turok Turok is a fictional character who first appeared in American comic books published by Western Publishing through licensee Dell Comics. He first appeared in ''Four Color Comics'' #596 (October/November 1954). After a second ''Four Color'' appea ...

'' series for Game Boy. In 1998, the year of the launch of

Game Boy Color The (commonly abbreviated as GBC) is a handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on October 21, 1998 and to international markets that November. It is the successor to the Game Boy and is part of the Game ...

, Bit Managers was the first third-party developer to finish two Game Boy Color titles ('' Turok 2'' and ''Sylvester & Tweety'').

Company acquired by third party

That same year, the company was bought by a Spanish arcade video-gaming company,

Gaelco Gabinete Electrónico Consultivo, S.A. (which translates to ''Electronic Consultative Cabinet''), but is trademarked and better known as Gaelco, S.A., is a Spanish company that develops and publishes arcade games and video games. As of 2007, Gael ...

. Bit Managers also

ported In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a Computing platform, computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) ...

the Gaelco arcade game, ''

Radikal Bikers ''Radikal Bikers'' is a racing arcade game developed by the Spanish company Gaelco in 1998, with also a conversion for PlayStation developed instead by Bit Managers, it is only released in Europe. The spiritual successor to this game was '' Smas ...

'', to

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a di ...

shortly afterward.

Original associates

In 2001, the former principals of Bit Managers re-purchased the company. Bit Managers continued their relationship with

, developing several games for

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...

New business partners

In 2005, the Spanish video game company Virtual Toys, bought Bit Managers. That business relationship continues and Bit Managers is a subsidiary of Virtual Toys Barcelona.

Games

Bang!

''Bang!'' is a

wild west The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara ...

game created for the Gaelco GG-1v machine, and released by

in 1998. It featured cartoon graphics;

single-player A single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. A single-player game is usually a game that can only be played by one person, while "single-player mode" is usuall ...

and 2-player modes, and offered the use of a

light gun A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games, typically shaped to resemble a pistol. Early history The first light guns were produced in the 1930s, following the development of light-sens ...

and control button inputs.''Bang!''
a
Arcade History
retrieved .

References

External links

Bit Managers website

Virtual Toys website
{{Authority control Defunct video game companies of Spain Video game companies established in 1988 Video game companies disestablished in 2005 Video game development companies