FarSight Studios
 | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 1988 |
| Founder | Jay Obernolte |
| Headquarters | , |
| Website | farsightstudios |
FarSight Studios (formerly FarSight Technologies) is an American video game developer established in 1988 by Jay Obernolte.
History
[edit]Jay Obernolte founded FarSight in 1988 while still a student at Caltech.[1] He first learned to program on an Apple II as a child and went to college to study computer engineering. While there, Obernolte was hired by Nintendo, who had recently entered the American video game console market and needed English-language programmers to create games. FarSight Studios' first release was a coloring and animation application, Videomation, for the NES in 1991.[2] They then released a similar game for Sega, Art Alive![3] In 1992, the company moved to Big Bear.[4] During the 1990s, FarSight Studio's initial success was based on a series of first party football games for Sega. In 2002, the NFL decided to limit the licenses for their brand, forcing FarSight's publisher Konami to stop producing NFL games.[1]
In the 2000s, FarSight transitioned to creating a series of games based on sports and arcade activities. In 2003, they partnered with publisher Crave Entertainment to create the rolling puzzle game Mojo![5] While reviews were mixed, FarSight studios were able to leverage Mojo's game engine to create a series of games that recreated existing pinball machines.[5][6][1] They subsequently released Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection in 2004, Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection in 2008, their best-known pinball game The Pinball Arcade in 2012, and Stern Pinball Arcade in 2016.[7][8] For licensing work on The Pinball Arcade, vice president of product development Bobby King, and CEO Jay Obernolte were named in 2012 on Game Developer Magazine's "Power 50" list.[9]
By 2013 the company had grown to over 30 employees with a two-story building in Big Bear Lake. As of 2024, Obernolte still headed the company, but no longer oversees day to day operations.[2]
Pinball games
[edit]FarSight Studios has released four video games that have recreated dozens of pinball machines. The re-creation of pinball machines was described as a form of curation and preservation.[10][11] For their first game they sought the licenses to existing pinball machine designs, citing a hesitance to develop original pinball designs when existing games already had the necessary creativity and complexity to be successful.[11] FarSight met with Pinball Hall of Fame founder, Tim Arnold, who advised that Gottlieb would be the easiest and most affordable company to obtain licenses from.[1] Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection was developed and released in 2004 (two years before actual the Pinball Hall of Fame opened). FarSight again partnered with Crave Entertainment to publish the game.[7] Surprised at how successful this was they obtained the more expensive Williams license and released Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection in 2008. This received positive critical reviews, but had limited commercial success with disappointing sales.[1]
Bobby King was the lead designer for The Pinball Arcade and this was the first game FarSight Studios self-published in February 2012.[12] For this a more extensive licensing agreement was agreed with Williams, the Gottlieb contract was extended, and a new license was signed with Stern.[1] To cover the $55,000 licensing fee to recreate The Twilight Zone pinball machine, FarSight launched a Kickstarter campaign that raised $75,000 from more than 2,300 backers. The additional funds were used to acquire more licenses.[13] Unlike prior games, The Pinball Arcade used ROM emulation to recreate the original software. Designers also disassembled physical pinball machines to photograph individual parts as part of the digital conversion.[10] The first season of the game included 22 tables.[14] By 2013 The Pinball Arcade had been downloaded over 7,000,000 times.[1] In 2014, King stated that the company was exploring creating original pinball games.[11]
They are an official licensed developer for numerous home and handheld consoles including the Sony PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and Move, PlayStation 2, PSP, and PlayStation Vita;[15] the Microsoft Xbox, Xbox 360, and Kinect; as well as the Nintendo Wii, Wii U, DS, and 3DS. In September 2018, FarSight announced that they will also be developing several pinball tables for the Oculus Rift.[16]
Stern Pinball Arcade was released in 2016, with tables from Stern Pinball.[17][8] Users could play Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for free while additional games, including Starship Troopers and Ripley's Believe It or Not!, would be priced at $5 to $10 per game.[17]
In May 2018, FarSight announced that they would no longer produce games licensed from Williams and Bally, leading to a loss of 61 tables from The Pinball Arcade catalog,[18] and announced they will focus mainly on tables under the Stern Pinball license.[19][20]
Other games
[edit]Game Party was developed in 2007, incorporating classic games of skill. It was originally developed by Midway Games who entered a publishing agreement with FarSight to design the actual game. The development process took six months[4]
FarSight Studios have also released official games based on PBA Pro Bowling from 2019,[21][22] Cornhole in 2023, and Pickleball in 2024.[23][24]
Games
[edit]This is a sortable table of computer and video games produced by FarSight Studios, in alphabetical order.
| Title | Publisher(s) | Release | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Action 52 | Active Enterprises | 1993 | SMD |
| ACL Pro Cornhole | FarSight Studios | 2023 | PC |
| Art Alive! | Sega | 1991 | SMD |
| Backyard Baseball '09/'10 | Atari | 2008-9 | PS2, PC, X360, Wii |
| Backyard Football '08/'09/'10 | Atari | 2007-9 | PS2, PC, DS, Wii ('10: PS2, X360, Wii) |
| Brunswick Pro Bowling | Crave Entertainment | 2007 | X360, PS3 |
| Color a Dinosaur | Virgin Games | 1993 | NES |
| David Crane's Amazing Tennis | Absolute Entertainment | 1993 | SMD |
| ESPN NFL PrimeTime 2002 | Konami | 2001 | PS2, Xbox, PC |
| Game Party (series) | Midway Games | 2007-9 | Wii |
| Game Party: In Motion | Warner Bros. Interactive | 2010 | X360 |
| Golden Tee Golf: Home Edition | Radica Games | 2006 | |
| Hard Rock Casino | Crave Entertainment | 2006 | PS2, PSP |
| Hotel for Dogs | 505 Games | 2009 | PS2, PSP |
| Jibbi | Radica Games | 2006 | |
| Mojo! | Crave Entertainment DreamCatcher Interactive (PAL) |
2003 2004 (PAL) |
PS2, Xbox |
| NASCAR Road Racing | EA Sports | 1999 | PC |
| NCAA Football 98/99 | EA Sports | 1997, 1998 | PC |
| NFL '95 | Sega | 1994 | SMD |
| NFL Prime Time '98 | Sega | 1997 | SMD |
| Orbals | FarSight Studios | 2021 | PC |
| PBA Pro Bowling (series) | FarSight Studios | 2019-2026 | PC (PS4, XONE for 2019 version only) |
| The Pinball Arcade | FarSight Studios | 2012 | PC, X360, PS3, VITA, PS4, XONE |
| Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection •Gottlieb Pinball ClassicsEU |
Crave Entertainment | 2004 2005 (PSP) 2010 (Wii) |
PS2, NGC, Xbox, PSP, Wii |
| Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection | Crave Entertainment | 2008 2009 (PS3, 360) |
PS2, PSP, X360, PS3, Wii, 3DS |
| Play TV (series) | Radica Games | 2004-6 | |
| PPA Pickleball Tour 2025 | FarSight Studios | 2024 | PC |
| Prime Time NFL Starring Deion Sanders | Sega | 1995 | SMD |
| Scarface: Money. Power. Respect. | Sierra Entertainment | 2006 | PSP |
| Stern Pinball Arcade | FarSight Studios | 2016 | PC, PS4, XONE |
| Vacation Isle: Beach Party | Warner Bros. Interactive | 2010 | Wii |
| Videomation | THQ | 1991 | NES |
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Joosten, Jonathan; Rubens, Paul (2013). "The Pinball Arcade: Interview with Bobby King". Pinball Magazine. No. 2. pp. 166–176.
- 1 2 Schreier, Jason (August 9, 2024). "How a Video Game Developer Wound Up in Congress". Bloomberg.
- ↑ Weiss, Brett (July 9, 2018). Classic Home Video Games, 1989-1990: A Complete Guide to Sega Genesis, Neo Geo and TurboGrafx-16 Games. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-9231-2.
- 1 2 Charles, Brian (December 12, 2007). "It's not all fun and games". Big Bear Grizzly.
- 1 2 Navarro, Alex (August 26, 2003). "Mojo! Review". GameSpot. Retrieved March 31, 2026.
- ↑ Dunham, Jeremy (July 29, 2003). "Mojo!". IGN. Retrieved March 31, 2026.
- 1 2 Hill, Murray (January 9, 2005). "Pinball Hall of Fame best of its genre". Saskatoon Sun. p. 7. Retrieved April 1, 2026.
- 1 2 "Stern & FarSight in Partnership Deal". www.pinballnews.com. September 26, 2015. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
- ↑ "Game Developer Magazine's Power 50". Game Developer. November 10, 2012. Retrieved May 24, 2026.
- 1 2 Hamilton, Kirk (February 21, 2012). "The Painstaking Process Behind 'The Best Pinball Video Game Ever Made'". Kotaku. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
- 1 2 3 Rubens, Paul (February 3, 2014). "Virtual games bring pinball to new audiences". BBC News. Retrieved March 31, 2026.
- ↑ Dyer, Mitch (April 5, 2012). "The Pinball Arcade Review". IGN. Retrieved January 6, 2019.
- ↑ Downes, Larry; Nunes, Paul (2014). Big Bang Disruption: Strategy in the Age of Devastating Innovation. Penguin. pp. 94–95. ISBN 978-1-59184-690-1.
- ↑ Workman, Robert (January 3, 2014). "Farsight Studios shows its wizardry with 'The Pinball Arcade'". Lexington Herald Leader. p. 19. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014.
- ↑ Workman, Robert (March 15, 2013). "FarSight Studios Officially Bringing The Pinball Arcade To PlayStation 4". Prima Games. Retrieved January 6, 2019.
- ↑ "Stern Pinball and FarSight Studios to Release New Stern Pinball Arcade Tables for Oculus Rift". prnewswire.com. September 25, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2019.
- 1 2 Graham, Meg (June 10, 2016). "Stern takes full-tilt shot at virtual reality pinball". Chicago Tribune.
- ↑ Lawson, Aurich (May 8, 2018). "The Pinball Arcade is losing its classic tables; grab them while you can". Ars Technica. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
- ↑ Santa Maria, Alex (May 7, 2018). "Pinball Arcade Losing Over 50 Bally and Williams Tables On June 30th". Gaming News, Reviews, and Articles – TechRaptor.net. Retrieved January 6, 2019.
- ↑ Grosso, Robert (June 22, 2018). "Juggling Multiball: FarSight Studios and the Loss of Pinball Licenses". Gaming News, Reviews, and Articles – TechRaptor.net. Retrieved January 6, 2019.
- ↑ "review-pba-pro-bowling-nintendo-switch". Digitally Downloaded. October 24, 2019. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
- ↑ Donaldson Former, Alex (December 20, 2025). "PBA Pro Bowling 2026 is an earnest, accurate sports sim that feels like it fell out of 2010. I love it". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
- ↑ Schreier, Jason (July 17, 2024). "Video-Game Firm Started by Congress Debuts Pickleball Title". Bloomberg.
- ↑ "Review: PPA Pickleball Tour 2025 (Nintendo Switch)". Digitally Downloaded. August 8, 2024. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
External links
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