Company logo until its dissolvement
General Computer Corporation (abbreviated as G.C.C. and alternatively Gencomp), later known as GCC Technologies and GCC Printers, was an American hardware and software company formed in 1981 by Doug Macrae, John Tylko, and Kevin Curran.
The company began as a video game developer and created the arcade games Ms. Pac-Man for Bally Midway and Namco, and Food Fight for Atari as well as designing the hardware for the Atari 7800 console and many of its games. G.C.C. abandoned video game development in 1984, shifting focus towards manufacturing printers and peripherals for the Apple Macintosh. G.C.C. was disestablished in 2015.
History[]
Main article: Ms. Pac-Man
In 1981, a group of MIT students (led by Doug Macrae and Kevin Curran) began operating a small arcade in a dorm room. Noticing low profit drops in the arcade's Missile Command machines, Macrae and Curran - having high programming knowledge - decided to hack the game into an enhanced form. This led to the creation of an "enhancement kit" titled "Super Missile Attack"; this kit would run the newly-developed hack when connected to a Missile Command circuit board. Following Super Missile Attack's creation, the MIT group formed General Computer Corporation to sell the kits.[1]
In August of 1981, Atari gained knowledge of Super Missile Attack; G.C.C. was promptly sued by Atari, with a counter-lawsuit following. Due to various factors, the lawsuit would be dropped; in agreement with Atari, G.C.C.'s team was employed to work at the company. Unknown to Atari, however, G.C.C. was secretly developing a similar enhancement kit for Namco's Pac-Man as well. G.C.C.'s Pac-Man kit was finalized as "Crazy Otto," and was effectively finished for release. However, part of G.C.C.'s settlement with Atari was that they could no longer produce any "enhancement kits" for games, even non-Atari works. As such, Crazy Otto was pitched directly to Bally Midway - the American distributor of Pac-Man at the time - for official release. Midway, became enthusiastic of a Pac-Man related game coming to their attention as Midway had wanted to capitalize on Pac-Man's success with a sequel (even as Namco was producing their own Pac-Man sequel, Super Pac-Man, themselves); the rights to Crazy Otto was acquired by Bally Midway and through collaboration and supervision with Namco, the game became Ms. Pac-Man and released in early 1982.[2] Shortly after release however, the group would initiate a number of legal issues related to the rights for Ms. Pac-Man.
G.C.C. abandoned video game development in 1984, opting to manufacture and sell components for the Apple Macintosh computer and laser printers.[3] The company dissolved through disestablishment in 2015,[4] though rights related to Ms. Pac-Man remained with the individual members of G.C.C. until the sale of the related rights to AtGames in 2019.
List of Pac-Man games developed by General Computer Corporation[]
- Ms. Pac-Man
- Arcade version (1982)
- Atari 2600 version (1982)
- Atari 5200 version (1983)
- Atari 7800 version (1987)
- Jr. Pac-Man
- Arcade version (1983)
- Atari 2600 version (1986)
- Atari 5200 version (unreleased)
Trivia[]
- After creating Ms. Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man, General Computer Corporation had also ported several Namco games to Atari consoles in addition to Pac-Man ports such as the Atari 2600 versions of Galaxian, Dig Dug and Pole Position, as well as the Atari 7800 versions of Galaga, Xevious, Dig Dug and Pole Position II.
Gallery[]
External links[]
References[]
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160303181631/http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3766/atari_the_golden_years__a_.php?page=16
- ↑ https://youtu.be/HlopaTBDYuo?t=2213
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150402192507/http://gccprinters.com/corporate/history.html
- ↑ https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_ma/133124241