Spectrum HoloByte
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| File:Spectrum holobyte.jpeg | |
| Company type | Public (Defunct) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Interactive entertainment |
| Founded | 1983 |
| Defunct | 1998 |
| Fate | Acquired by Hasbro |
| Successor | Hasbro Interactive |
| Headquarters | Alameda, California |
Spectrum HoloByte, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher originally based in Alameda, California.
The company was founded in 1983 and was most famous for its simulation games, notably the Falcon series of flight simulators and Vette!, a driving simulator from 1989. Spectrum Holobyte published games for many platforms, including home computers of the 1980s and early 1990s, IBM PC compatibles, and some video game consoles. The company was the publisher of the Solitaire Royale, the first computer card solitaire program. They were the first to bring Tetris to gamers outside the Soviet Union and Sokoban to gamers outside Japan. It was also the distributor for Domark games before Domark set up its own US operations in San Mateo, California.
In 1993, Spectrum HoloByte acquired MicroProse. For the following years, games from both companies were published under their respective brands, but in 1996 all titles were consolidated under the MicroProse brand.
The merged company was acquired by Hasbro Interactive in 1998, and what had been Spectrum HoloByte ceased to exist when the development studio in Alameda was closed in 1998. Hasbro subsequently sold all the assets of the various Hasbro Interactive studios to Infogrames, now Atari.
The chairman of Spectrum Holobyte, Gilman Louie, also founded Nexa Corporation, a developer of entertainment software, which went on to merge with Spectrum Holobyte.
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