Odyssey Software was a computer game developer founded in 1987 in

Eastham, Massachusetts Eastham () is a New England town, town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, Barnstable County being coextensive with Cape Cod. The population was 5,752 at the 2020 census. For geographic and demog ...

by Art V. Cestaro III. The company produced games for the

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 ...

and the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

(NES).

History

Odyssey's earliest titles were expanded works based on arcade games popular at that time. ''Byteman'' was based on ''

Pac-Man ''Pac-Man,'' originally called in Japan, is a 1980 maze video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. The pla ...

'', ''Jailbreak'' was based on ''

Arkanoid is a 1986 Block kuzushi, block breaker arcade game developed and published by Taito. In North America, it was published by Romstar. Controlling a paddle-like craft known as the Vaus, the player is tasked with clearing a formation of colorful blo ...

'', ''Deathbots'' was based on '' Berzerk'', and ''Space War'' was based on ''

Asteroids An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

'' as well as the original ''

Spacewar! ''Spacewar!'' is a space combat video game developed in 1962 by Steve Russell in collaboration with Martin Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen, Bob Saunders, Steve Piner, and others. It was written for the newly installed DEC PDP-1 minicomputer at the ...

'' for the

PDP-1 The PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1) is the first computer in Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP series and was first produced in 1959. It is known for being the most important computer in the creation of hacker culture at the Massachusetts ...

. After its early attempts at working as an independent game developer Odyssey began taking contracts from other established companies. In 1990, ''

Moon Ranger ''Moon Ranger'' is an action video game that was developed by Odyssey Software and published by Bunch Games. The player must fly through outer space, destroying meteor A meteor, known colloquially as a shooting star, is a glowing streak o ...

'', was produced under contract with Color Dreams for the NES. Odyssey established a relationship with American Video Entertainment, who contracted ''Deathbots'' for the NES. After ''Deathbots'', Odyssey went on to produce ''Solitaire'' and ''

Blackjack Blackjack (formerly black jack or ''vingt-un'') is a casino banking game. It is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. It uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as " twenty-one ...

'', which American Video Entertainment subsequently published. Three other Nintendo titles (''Backgammon'', ''Cue Stick'', and ''Poker'') were in production but American Video Entertainment went out of business before any of these titles could be published. Odyssey was involved early in the ''

Mad Dog McCree ''Mad Dog McCree'' is the first live-action laserdisc video game released by American Laser Games. It originally appeared as an arcade game in 1990. The game gained considerable attention for its live-action video style, bearing similarities t ...

'' project, doing video cleanup by hand, but were never contracted for the final development of this title. Odyssey Software went out of business in 1995.

Notable employees

Odyssey's original employees were programmers George C. Rucker III, Lane Waters. and Scott Lahteine, and graphic artists Soren Young, Dave Flamburis, John Silano, and Ranjeet Singhal. Around 1990, Mike Smith and Steve Tilton joined the team to work on ''Moon Ranger''. In 1993, Jerry Normandin joined Odyssey for the ''

'' project. Other employees of Odyssey include Mike Davis, Mark Kelly, Monty Eriksin, Dennis St. Aubin, and Tomisa Starr.

Games developed by Odyssey

* ''Byteman'' (1988) * ''Deathbots'' (for

) (1988) * ''Jailbreak'' (1988) * ''Space War'' (1988) * ''Moon Ranger'' (1989) * ''Deathbots'' (for NES) (1990) * ''Solitaire'' (1991) * ''

'' (1992)

Papyrus Design Group Papyrus Design Group, Inc. was a computer game developer founded in 1987 by David Kaemmer and CEO Omar Khudari. Based in Watertown, Massachusetts, Watertown, Massachusetts, it is best known for its series of realistic sim racing games based on th ...

NESWorld Article about American Video Entertainment
was contributed to by Art and Jerry
MobyGames' entry on Tomisa Starr

Dino Wars
was created by Art Cestaro, Ranjeet and Scott before Odyssey was founded Defunct video game companies of the United States

History

Notable employees

Games developed by Odyssey

External links