Pangea Software is a video game developer based in

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 ...

, owned and operated by Brian Greenstone. The company began with

Apple IIGS The Apple IIGS (styled as II) is a 16-bit personal computer produced by Apple Inc., Apple Computer beginning in September 1986. It is the fifth and most powerful model of the Apple II family. The "GS" in the name stands for "Graphics and Sound" ...

games in 1987, then moved to

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

and later iOS. Pangea found its primary success with a series of 3D games, when 3D hardware accelerators first began to appear on the Macintosh, beginning with '' Nanosaur'' in 1998 and extending into the early 2000s. '' Bugdom'' was included with new iMac models. In addition to games, Pangea also provides

panoramic photography Panoramic photography is a technique of photography, using specialized equipment or software, that captures images with horizontally elongated field of view, fields of view. It is sometimes known as ''wide format photography''. The term has also ...

services.

History

Pangea Software began as a developer of

games, with the first (and most notable) being ''Xenocide'', which was commercially published by Micro Revelations in 1989. Between 1989 and 1990, they introduced so-called "24 Hour Games" shareware, a proof of concept of what could be accomplished in a limited time. In 1991, they switched to

development; notable titles included '' Power Pete'', '' Nanosaur'', '' Bugdom'', '' Cro-Mag Rally'', and '' Otto Matic''. In 1995, Pangea made a deal with Apple to bundle their games with Macintosh computers; this deal ended in 2006, when Apple transitioned to Intel CPUs and decided to stop bundling third-party software. Since 2008, the company has mostly ceased developing Mac games and instead chosen to focus on iOS games, due to the latter being a more lucrative market.

Games

Apple IIGS

*'' Xenocide'' (1989) *''Grackle'' (1989) *''Copy Killers'' (1989) *''Quadronome'' (1989) *''Senseless Violence: Survival of the Fetus'' (1989) *''Orbizone'' (1989) *''Senseless Violence II: You Use, You Die'' (1990) *''Cosmocade'', with: ''Journey to Calibus'' and ''Naxos'' (1990)

Macintosh

*''Firefall Arcade'' (1993) *''Bloodsuckers'' (1993) * ''Power Pete'' / ''Mighty Mike'' (1995) *''Gerbils'' (1996) *''Weekend Warrior'' (1996) *'' Nanosaur'' (1998) *'' Bugdom'' (1999) *'' Cro-Mag Rally'' (2000) *'' Otto Matic'' (2001) *'' Bugdom 2'' (2002) *'' Enigmo'' (2003) *''Billy Frontier'' (2003) *'' Nanosaur 2: Hatchling'' (2004) *'' Enigmo 2'' (2006) *''Pangea Arcade'', with: ''Firefall'', ''Warheads'', and ''Nucleus'' (2006) *''Leaf on the Wind'' (2014)

Published

*''Runic'' (Macintosh, 2007), developed by CodeTurbine

Other products

In 1990, ''Xenocide'' was ported to the IBM PC by Manley & Associates without the involvement of Pangea Software. In 1993, Brian Greenstone programmed and co-designed '' Harley's Humongous Adventure'' for the

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 ...

. In 2004, Greenstone wrote ''The Ultimate Game Programming Guide'', a book about programming a 3D

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 ...

for

Mac OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

. Since 2006, Pangea has also provided a

service, allowing customers to have a 360˚ view of an area that can be navigated and interacted with via a cursor.

References

External links

*
Brian Greenstone's website
{{Authority control Macintosh software companies Video game companies of the United States Apple Design Awards recipients