Western Technologies Inc.

Moby ID: 3129

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Western Technologies, Inc. was an early pioneer in development tools for gaming systems. It was founded by Jay Smith who also owned Smith Engineering as a sole proprietorship. (Smith Engineering was Mr. Smith's private company under which he could patent his own designs, projects or inventions, such as the Microvision, one of the earliest hand-held game consoles.)

Western Technologies developed the Vectrex console system, licensed and distributed first by General Consumer Electric (GCE), and then by Milton Bradley Company after their purchase of GCE. In addition, the company developed sound applications and algorithms for system speech in games and other software.

Initially the company developed games for the Atari, Genesis and Nintendo, and later for the Game Gear, Playstation, DOS and Windows released under the Adrenalin Entertainment, Inc. division, also founded by Smith.

Western Technologies was acquired by Wanderlust Interactive in February 1997.

Credited on 17 Games from 1982 to 1995

Spider-Man (1995 on Genesis)
World Series Baseball (1994 on Genesis)
Spider-Man (1994 on SNES)
Trivial Pursuit Interactive Multimedia Game (1994 on Windows 3.x, SEGA CD)
X-Men (1993 on Genesis)
Math Blaster: Episode One - In Search of Spot (1993 on DOS, Windows, SNES...)
NFL Football '94 starring Joe Montana (1993 on Genesis)
Outback Joey (1993 on Genesis)
Menacer 6-Game Cartridge (1992 on Genesis)
NFL Sports Talk Football '93 Starring Joe Montana (1992 on Genesis)
Art Alive (1991 on Genesis)
Joe Montana II: Sports Talk Football (1991 on Genesis)
Entombed (1983 on Atari 2600)
M.A.D. (1983 on Atari 2600)
Picnic (1983 on Atari 2600)
Towering Inferno (1982 on Atari 2600)
Q*bert (1982 on DOS, Game Boy, NES...)

History +

February 4, 1997

The company is acquired by Wanderlust.

Trivia +

Western Technologies, Inc. was the original developer of the Vectrex home arcade system, which was popular during the early to mid 1980's in the US and Germany.

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