Jeffery Spangenberg is an American retired

video game producer A video game producer is the top person in charge of overseeing development of a video game. History The earliest documented use of the term ''producer'' in games was by Trip Hawkins, who established the position when he founded Electronic Art ...

and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

who founded

video game developer A video game developer is 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 large business with em ...

s Punk Development,

Iguana Entertainment Iguana Entertainment, later known as Acclaim Studios Austin, was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by Jeff Spangenberg, previously lead designer for Punk Development, and originally locat ...

, Retro Studios, and Topheavy Studios.

Biography

Spangenberg skipped college to learn

computer programming Computer programming or coding is the composition of sequences of instructions, called computer program, programs, that computers can follow to perform tasks. It involves designing and implementing algorithms, step-by-step specifications of proc ...

, and later served as lead designer and president for Punk Development, the development team of publisher RazorSoft, headquartered in

Sunnyvale, California Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real (California), El Camino Real and U.S. Route 101 in California, Highway 1 ...

. In 1991, Spangenberg founded his own company in Santa Clara,

, and hired 20 staff, including friends of his. Iguana, who would later move to

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

due to the elevated costs of living in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

, wound up bought by

Acclaim Entertainment Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game publisher based in Glen Cove, New York. Originally founded by Greg Fischbach, Robert Holmes, and Jim Scoroposki from a storefront in Oyster Bay in 1987, the company built a global develop ...

in 1995, and Spangenberg was promoted to an executive position in which he overlooked all of Acclaim's software studios. Spangenberg was fired from Acclaim in 1998, leading him to sue the company for breach of contract and fraud. The suit was settled in 2000. Following his dismissal, Spangenberg launched a new company, Retro Studios, in October 1998. He then approached

Nintendo of America is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi founded the company to p ...

to establish a partnership. Nintendo accepted to fund the studio, hoping the new developer could provide games aimed at mature audiences for their upcoming console, the

GameCube The is a PowerPC-based home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the suc ...

, just like Iguana did with the

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. As the successor to the Super Nintendo E ...

title '' Turok: Dinosaur Hunter''. The studio immediately began work on four projects for the GameCube.

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, video game producer, producer and Creative director#Video games, game director at Nintendo, where he has served as one of its representative directors as an executive since 2002. Widely regarded as one o ...

was impressed with the studio's ''Action-Adventure''

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor. The "engine" terminology is akin to the term " software engine" u ...

and suggested that Retro could use it to develop a new title in the ''

Metroid is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the power of the parasitic M ...

'' series. All titles were eventually cancelled so Retro could focus all their effort onto '' Metroid Prime''. On May 2, 2002, months before ''Prime'' was released, Nintendo bought out Spangenberg's $1 million worth of Retro Studios, and reclassified the company as a first party developer and division of Nintendo. Spangenberg's departure was attributed to frequent absenteeism and using Retro's servers to host a website that featured pictures of scantily clad women. Spangenberg would then create Topheavy Studios, who developed '' The Guy Game'', released in 2004. The game would result in a lawsuit from one of the featured women who was underage, leading to a temporary injunction prohibiting the further production of copies of the game. The game was later re-released as an interactive DVD with the woman from the lawsuit's scenes dropped. ''The Guy Game'' was the only game developed by Topheavy Studios.Games Database - The Guy Game
/ref>

Credits

Programming

*''Advanced Basketball Simulator/Slam-Dunk'' (1988,

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

) *''

Space Harrier is a third-person arcade rail shooter game developed by Sega and released in 1985. It was originally conceived as a realistic military-themed game played in the third-person perspective and featuring a player-controlled fighter jet, but techni ...

'' (1988,

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

port) *''

After Burner is a rail shooter arcade video game developed and released by Sega in 1987. The player controls an American Grumman F-14 Tomcat, F-14 Tomcat fighter jet and must clear each of the game's eighteen unique stages by destroying incoming enemies. Th ...

'' (1989, Amiga port) *''

After Burner II is a rail shooter arcade video game developed and released by Sega in 1987. The player controls an American Grumman F-14 Tomcat, F-14 Tomcat fighter jet and must clear each of the game's eighteen unique stages by destroying incoming enemies. Th ...

'' (1989, Amiga port) *'' Death Duel'' (1992,

Sega Genesis 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 Sys ...

) *''

Side Pocket is a pocket billiards simulation released as an arcade video game by Data East in 1986. It was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy, while an enhanced remake was later released on the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo Entertainm ...

'' (1993,

Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...

port) *''

Aero the Acro-Bat ''Aero the Acro-Bat'' is a 1993 video game developed by Iguana Entertainment and published by Sunsoft. It was released for both the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis. Aero the Acro-Bat, a red anthropomorphic bat, was created by ...

'' (1993, SNES and Genesis) *'' NFL Quarterback Club'' (1994, SNES and Genesis)

Producer

*''

Rampart Rampart may refer to: * Rampart (fortification), a defensive wall or bank around a castle, fort or settlement Rampart may also refer to: * LAPD Rampart Division, a division of the Los Angeles Police Department ** Rampart scandal, a blanket ter ...

'' (1991,

Master System The is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console manufactured and developed by Sega. It was originally a remodeled export version of the Sega Mark III, the third iteration of the SG-1000 series ...

port) *''Aero the Acro-Bat'' (1993) *''

Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel ''Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel'', released years later in Japan as is a video game developed by Iguana Entertainment and published by Sunsoft. It is a spin-off/sequel of the ''Aero the Acro-Bat'' series. The game was released in 1994 for the Sega ...

'' (1994, SNES and Genesis) *''

Aero the Acro-Bat 2 is a platform game developed by Iguana Entertainment, and published by Sunsoft as the sequel of ''Aero the Acro-Bat''. It was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in November 1994 and then for Sega Genesis in January 1995. The ga ...

'' (1994, SNES and Genesis) *''

The Pirates of Dark Water ''The Pirates of Dark Water'' is an American fantasy animated television series created by David Kirschner and produced by Hanna-Barbera. The series premiered as a five-part miniseries on Fox Kids early 1991, simply entitled ''Dark Water''. The ...

'' (1994, SNES and Genesis) *''NFL Quarterback Club'' (1994) *'' Turok: Dinosaur Hunter'' (1997, Windows and

) *'' The Guy Game'' (2004, Windows,

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

and

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spangenberg, Jeff Living people American video game businesspeople American video game programmers American video game producers Year of birth missing (living people)