Synergistic Software

Background
Synergistic Software was a software company founded in Bellevue, Washington in 1978. The company published some of the earliest games on the Apple II computers and published games as the PC gaming business became dominant. Sierra On-Line would acquire the company in 1996 and as part of its restructuring plan, Synergistic would shut down on February 22, 1999.

1st Logo (1988-1990)
Logo: On a black background, we see a rounded rectangle containing two stylized "S"es, overlapping each other, on the left. Next to it is "Synergistic Software", stacked, in a weird-looking font. Above and below are "A" and "PRODUCT", respectively.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Rare.

2nd Logo (1990-November 1993)
Logo: On a light gray marble background, a darker gray marble square rapidly slides in from the right to the middle of the screen. Then a rectangle (in the same coloring as the square) slides in from the bottom and six quarters of a blue sphere fly in from left and right to form inside the square. The top pieces fly from the right and the bottom pieces come from the left. It bounces a bit as the letters "SYNERGISTIC" rapidly fly in from the screen and places themselves on the rectangle. Then the sphere rotates and shows the America continents and a stylized "S" in back. As it rotates, the words "WORLD BUILDERS" (etched in) fades in below the globe. It turns three times and stops on the "S".

Variant: A still version exists where the background is solid.

Technique: The sliding in of the logo, squares, sphere, the letters of the company name flying in, the globe rotating.

Music/Sounds: None.

Music/Sounds Variant: Super Battleship on the SNES has a sonar sound.

Availability: Rare, found on Spirit of Excalibur on Amiga. The still version can be found of Super Battleship on SNES.

3rd Logo (1993-1995)


Logo: The screen scrolls through starry space and nebulas to a red planet with red glowing crackles on the surface. When it reaches the screen, the word "SYNERGISTIC" fades in in a blue and thin futuristic font. The name shimmers from the "R" to the first and last letters and glows, then shimmers back to the "R". The screen then flashes and the red planet turns blue and green with blue (kinda resembling Earth) crackles. The name turns red.

Variants:
 * On The Beverly Hillbillies on PC, it just has the animated crackles and red planet. The name shimmers back and forth.
 * Super Battleship on the Sega Genesis has the red planet (with crackles) on a black background (no starry space skies) and flashes into blue with the company name in blue and it shimmers blue purple and white.

Technique: The crackles of the planet, the "SYNERGISTIC" name glowing and the flash. Impressive 16-bit graphics.

Music/Sounds: It begins with a loud rocket-like humming sound, then when "SYNERGISTIC" appears, a groaning like noise is heard, then an explosion when the logo flashes. The humming then sustains itself.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * Super Battleship on the Sega Genesis just has the bang.
 * Spectre on the SNES has the opening theme of the game, but still has the bang.
 * On The Beverly Hillbillies, it's silent.

Availability: Rare. Seen on Super NES games such as Carrier Aces, Air Cavalry and Spectre. Also appeared on the games described in the variants.

4th Logo (September 9, 1995)


Logo: On a black space background, the Sierra Mountain logo zooms in and eases back as "SIERRA" flips in from the screen from the top and bottom and form next to the logo. "A", "N" and "D" fly in from the left, bottom and right respectively and form the word "AND" underneath. The logo then rotates and flies away logo and letter by letter to the top and bottom. As this happens, the "S" globe from the first logo eases in while letters fly in beneath to form "SYNERGISTIC SOFTWARE" below. "PRESENT" scrolls from the logo and appears below. The words burn away and the "S" globe explodes then a spaceship flies by to transition to the intro of the game.

Technique: The logos and letters flying in and zooming, the "S" globe exploding. The logos part look fine, but as for the explosion, the effects were good for 1995, but it's not anything that has aged well.

Music/Sounds: An ethereal twinkling-like tune with bangs and clangs when the logos and letters zoom and fly. An electronic hissing noise is heard when the words burn away on the "S" globe portion and three explosions when the logo blows up.

Availability: Seen only on the intro of Thexder 95 on the PC.

5th Logo (1997)


Logo: On a black space background where a comet flies diagonally from the bottom-left to the top right, a gold three-way logo revolves and eases in towards the screen. It's the Sierra Mountain with "SIERRA" below, the Synergistic logo from the Thexder 95 intro and the TSR logo (the "TSR" in the shield with the dragon forming the "S" and below that is "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons"). When it gets really close, it fades away to the intro of the game.

Technique: The comet and the three-way logo revolving.

Music/Sounds: Thunder is heard and the revolving noise is heard as the logo gets closer.

Availability: Seen only on Birthright - The Gorgon's Alliance on PC.

6th Logo (1998)


Logo: On a starry background, the Sierra logo is created by a bright splash. Then it burns down to the Synergistic globe and the copyright info for Smacker video appears below.

Technique: The flash and burning.

Music/Sounds: Echoed sounds of rumbling.

Availability: Seen on the Diablo add-on Hellfire.