Ratbag Games

Company

Ratbag Games

Company type	Private
Industry	Video games
Founded	1993 in Adelaide, Australia
Founder	Richard Harrison, Greg Siegele
Defunct	15 December 2005 (2005-12-15)
Fate	Acquired and shut down by Midway Games^[1]^[2]
Number of employees	60(2001)^[3]

Ratbag Games Pty Ltd was an Australian developer of video games such as Powerslide, The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee and World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars 2002.

History

Ratbag was founded in 1993 in Adelaide, South Australia, by Richard Harrison and Greg Siegele. Known initially as "Emergent Games", the company took three years to prototype their first title Powerslide. Following its acquisition by Midway Games on 4 August 2005, the company was known as "Midway Studios - Australia".^[4]^[5] On 13 December 2005, employees at the studio were told that Ratbag was going to be closed by its parent company. Two days later, on the 15th, the studio was closed, leaving the staff there without jobs. Subsequently, Krome Studios rehired many of the Ratbag staff and established Krome Studios Adelaide.

Games

Ratbag made a name for itself with its debut title Powerslide. The arcade racer, set in a post-apocalyptic future, is powered by a highly advanced rendering system for its time, allowing for up to 300,000 polygons on-screen at once. Powerslide was met with critical if not commercial success, receiving a lot of publicity from the Australian gaming media. Several PC racing titles followed over the years, and before too long Ratbag found itself "typecast" as a simulation racing developer.

With the arrival of the PlayStation 2 in late 2000, Ratbag saw an opportunity to move into the lucrative console market. World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars 2002 was the first of several PlayStation 2 titles developed and released, with a handful of titles going unpublished, most notably the follow-up to Powerslide, Powerslide: Slipstream.

The last title developed by Ratbag (prior to their acquisition) was The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee for the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox. The "Adventure/Racing" title was the first Ratbag title to break from the simulation tradition set forth by previous titles and features simple "on-foot" gameplay in addition to various story-driven racing missions. Coming after a wave of similar mission-based driving games and with a rushed development, The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee received a lukewarm response from the gaming press.

List

Powerslide – Windows
Dirt Track Racing – Windows
Dirt Track Racing: Sprint Cars – Windows
Dirt Track Racing 2 – Windows
Leadfoot – Windows
Dirt Track Racing: Australia – Windows
World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars 2002 – PS2, Windows
Saturday Night Speedway – PS2, Windows
The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee – PS2, Xbox

References

^ Wallis, Alistair (2 November 2006). "Q&A: Krome Studio's Robert Walsh on Melbourne House Acquisition". www.gamasutra.com. Archived from the original on 28 June 2020. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
^ Dominguez, James 'DexX' (24 April 2015). "The fall of the great Australian video games studio". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 3 January 2021. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
^ "Infogrames, Inc. Unleashes 'World of Outlaws(R) Sprint Cars 2002' For PlayStation(R)2 Computer Entertainment System". Business Wire. Berkshire Hathaway. 20 August 2001. Archived from the original on 4 October 2001. Retrieved 29 June 2019 – via Yahoo.com.
^ "Midway Acquires Australian Developer Ratbag". Business Wire. Berkshire Hathaway. 4 August 2005. Retrieved 29 June 2019.^{[dead link]}
^ Jenkins, David (4 August 2005). "Midway Acquires Australian Developer Ratbag". Gamasutra. Retrieved 29 June 2019.^{[dead link]}

External links

Ratbag Games Last version of Ratbag Games official website reproduced by Australian video game website Sumea for archive purposes.
Midway shafts Ratbag Studios Employee's account of company closure