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Creator / Digital Eclipse

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/digital_eclipse_logo.png
Digital Eclipse Entertainment Partners Co. is a video game developer based in Emeryville, California (the same city where Pixar is based) that was founded by Canadian Harvard University graduate Andrew Ayre in 1992. They are known for their commercially successful (and pretty effective) emulations of classic video and arcade games. Much of their emulation work is done via their in-house Eclipse Engine, which is described by Wikipedia as, "[A] tool that allows them to decompile the code from older games into a machine-readable format that is then used by the Eclipse Engine to play them on modern systems. While it may take some extra work by the company to decompile the older game into the proper format one time, this approach allows them to rapidly port the Eclipse Engine version to any modern gaming system, including personal computers, consoles, and portable and mobile devices, with minimal effort."

The current Digital Eclipse is actually the third incarnation of the company and the second to use the name. In 2003, the original Digital Eclipse merged with edutainment game developer ImaginEngine to create Backbone Entertainment, with Digital Eclipse's studios (which included a second studio in Vancouver) becoming Backbone Emeryville and Backbone Vancouver. Another subsidiary studio, Backbone Charlottetown (in the capital and largest city of Prince Edward Island), opened in February 2006 under the lead of Ayre, although he and several former Digital Eclipse employees later spun off that studio in May the following year to become Other Ocean Interactive. Backbone Vancouver was mostly dismantled in September 2008 before closing entirely in May 2009, and the majority of Backbone Emeryville were later laid off in October 2012. Other Ocean's parent company, Other Ocean Group, announced the reformation of Digital Eclipse as part of its Other Ocean Emeryville studio on June 8, 2015, with Ayre, original Digital Eclipse technical director Mike Mika, and former Gamasutra writer Frank Cifaldi being among the co-founders. With Digital Eclipse now focusing on video game preservation, Cifaldi has stated that the studio is aiming to become the video game equivalent of The Criterion Collection; Cifaldi left the company around 2020 to work on the Video Game History Foundation full time. In 2023, Digital Eclipse was purchased by Atari SA.

Digital Eclipse's modern ports and rereleases are notable for containing loads and loads of extras. See M2 for their Japanese equivalent.

Games developed with TV Tropes pages:

As Digital Eclipse (1992–2004)

As Backbone Entertainment (2004–2012)

As Digital Eclipse (2015–present)

All of the current Digital Eclipse's games are compilations of emulated classic games.

Alternative Title(s): Backbone Entertainment

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