Acclaim Entertainment

Background
Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. was founded in 1987 as a Delaware corporation. Over the next 17 years, the company became a leading worldwide developer, publisher, and mass marketer. The company's headquarters were located in Glen Cove, New York, and their common stock publicly traded on the US Stock Exchange (NASDAQ symbol AKLM). In later years, Acclaim had a reputation for bad-quality games, save for some exceptions such as the NBA Jam series (which was originally an arcade game developed by Midway before Acclaim bought the series), the NFL Quarterback Club series, and the Turok series. In 2004, Acclaim has filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings which caused it to be closed. All of its divisions and studios were closed and assets liquidated by the end of 2004.

1st Logo (March 12, 1987-1997)
Nickname: "The Acclaim Arrow"

Logo: On a black background, we see the word "Acclaim" in a gray-gradient color, on top of an rainbow gradient arrow-like line facing the left with the "C's" made of "less than" signs or left arrows [<]. Under the logo is "entertainment, Inc." spaced to fit the width of the logo. Sometimes, "entertainment, inc." is spaced to fit the width of "Acclaim".

Trivia: In Frank Thomas' Big Hurt Baseball, NBA Jam, and NBA Jam: Tournament Edition, the Acclaim logo can be seen on some posters and walls. Also, in the intro for The Simpsons: Bartman Meets the Radioactive Man, you can find a comic book in the game with the Acclaim logo on it.

Variants:


 * The animated version is when the arrow-line is gray or sometimes black. Then the rainbow gradient arrow-line slides into the logo.
 * Sometimes, the "Acclaim" text is white.
 * On Warlock for Sega Genesis, the logo falls into view themed on an avalanche.
 * On Revolution X (SNES and Sega Genesis versions), the logo is in a 3D style.
 * On Jupiter Strike, the logo is smaller than the original version and the rainbow-colored line shines.
 * On Super Smash T.V., and George Foreman's KO Boxing for SNES, the blue-gradient lines appear above and below the screen respectively. Later versions of latter have the blue-gradient lines removed.
 * On some games like the Game Boy version of Cutthroat Island, "entertainment, inc." is gone.FX/SFX: The arrow sliding into the logo. In other cases, none or depending on variant.

Music/Sounds: None, or the opening theme of the game.

Music/Sound Variant: On the SNES versions of Super Smash T.V. and George Foreman's K-O Boxing, a mystical chime sound is heard.

Availability: Seen on Acclaim games from the time, including Mortal Kombat 1 and 2. This is also seen on the PlayStation and Sega Saturn games Street Fighter: The Movie, WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game, Bust-A-Move 2 Arcade Edition and Psychic Force. It even also appeared on UK releases of Mortal Kombat 3 for Game Boy and Game Gear and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for SNES and Genesis since Acclaim distributed the titles outside the USA.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (February 29, 1996-2000)
Nicknames: "Shooting Letters", "The Acclaim Arrow II", "CGI Acclaim Arrow" Logo: On a black background, each letter in the word, "Acclaim", flies in and hit the screen, leaving blue fire traces. Every time a letter hits the screen, the arrow line flashes in blue. When all the other letters come along including "entertainment, inc.", the blue arrow line becomes rainbow colored as usual, and the logo shines with rainbow colors, becoming 3D and grey. After the logo forms, the logo shines while the light starts to shine from beyond the logo. Variants:

FX/SFX: Letters flying, the rainbow effects.
 * On the PS1 port of Alien Trilogy, the logo runs at 30 fps.
 * On Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball, NFL Quarterback Club '97, and All-Star Baseball '97 featuring Frank Thomas for Sega Saturn, the logo is shot in widescreen.
 * On Bubble Bobble: Featuring Rainbow Islands and Fantastic Four for PlayStation, the standard logo is sped up a little, except for the PAL versions which is in standard speed.
 * On Constructor, the logo is still.

Music/Sounds: Sounds of letters flying, ending with the descending tune. Music/Sounds Variant: On the PAL version of Bust-A-Move 3 (not Bust-A-Move 3 DX/Bust-A-Move 99), the logo is silent.

Availability: It was first used on Alien Trilogy, and has appeared on many PlayStation, Saturn and PC games released by the company like V-Tennis, Jeremy McGrath Supercross 98, Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball, NFL Quarterback Club '96 and '97 (the former title was never released for PlayStation), College Slam, NBA Jam Extreme, Space Jam, WWF In Your House and The Crow: City of Angels among others. By 1998, this logo was rarely used (instead using the 4th logo) and the last game to feature this was RC De Go! on the PlayStation.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (1995-1998)
Nickname: "The Acclaim Arrow III"

Logo: We see the same Acclaim logo, but the Acclaim typeface is in a 3D style and "entertainment, inc", is in dark blue. A light blink appears behind, shining on the logo.

Variant:


 * On Genesis games, there is no light blink and the logo is more blue.
 * On Batman and Robin, the logo is set behind the game's opening.
 * OnFrank Thomas Big Hurt Baseballfor Genesis, the arrow colored line slides in from the right like in the animated variant of the first logo.

FX/SFX: Just the fade in and out.

Music/Sounds: None or the opening theme of the game.

Availability: Seen on Acclaim titles from this time period, in tandem with the previous and next logos. Games that have this variant include NBA Jam: Tournament Edition (Sega 32X, PlayStation, Saturn, PC and Atari Jaguar versions), NFL Quarterback Club (Sega 32X Version), Rise 2: Resurrection, D, Revolution X (PlayStation, Saturn and PC versions), Batman Forever: The Arcade Game, the SNES and Sega Genesis versions of Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball, NFL Quarterback Club 96 andCollege Slam, X-Men: Children of the ATOM (PlayStation and Saturn versions),and Batman and Robin for PlayStation.

Editor's Note: None.

4th Logo (1997-2003)
Nickname: "The Acclaim Arrow III"

Logo: We see the similar Acclaim logo from the 1st logo, but the word Acclaim is bold, is in plain white, and the "C" arrows are straighter. Also, "entertainment, inc.", or "entertainment" is under the logo like before.

Variants:

FX/SFX: Depending on variant.
 * On some titles since 1998, "entertainment, inc." is absent. Sometimes, the website URL, www.acclaim.com in 1999, is under the logo.
 * Sometimes the word "Acclaim" is black and the background is white.
 * On Realtime Associates' developed games like WWF Raw for Game Gear, the background and letters are white. The background is black on Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball while Iron Man/X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal has the text in gray.
 * On some games like Machines, Trickstyle, Burnout 2: Point of Impact and Shadow Man, the logo is in high-quality 3D, and the word "Acclaim" is a bit green and has metallic shine, but on Shadow Man, it's on a background.
 * On Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance, the "entertainment inc." text is bold, and in italics.

Music/Sounds: None or the opening theme of the game.

Availability: Seen on various Acclaim games at the time.

Editor's Note: None.

5th Logo (2000-2001)


Nicknames: "The Acclaim Arrow IV", "CGI Acclaim Arrow II", "The Light Traveling Arrow"

Logo: The Acclaim logo turns and zooms in with the spotlight rays traveling through the word, "Acclaim". Then as the lights reach the "cc" part of the logo, the colors on the arrow-like appear via the glow-light color, forming the logo. Then the logo zooms back while the lights slowly dim out a few seconds later.

FX/SFX: The light traveling through the logo.

Music/Sounds: A synth sounder with a ding at the end.

Availability: It only appears on RC Revenge Pro and Paris Dakar Rally for the PlayStation 2.

Editor's Note: None.

6th Logo (2002-2004)
Nicknames: "Pinball-Shot Acclaim Logo", "The Acclaim Arrow V", "CGI Acclaim Arrow III"

Logo: The word "Acclaim" is being shot letter-by-letter by lightning sparks. Every letter shines a second after being formed. Two "c"'s are created by the shots from downside, then follow the dot and arrow-line. The word "entertainment" appears, and strike comes down the arrow-line.

FX/SFX: Letters being shot.

Music/Sounds: Loud shot sounds.

Availability: Fairly rare, It can be seen on ZooCube for GameCube, Speed Kings, Freestyle Street Soccer and the North American version of Worms 3D for GameCube, PlayStation 2, and PC (the Xbox and European versions were published by Sega).

Editor's Note: None.

7th Logo (2003)


Nicknames: "The Acclaim Arrow VI", "The Circles, Lines and Cubes"

Logo: We see blue circles and lines moving to the left with a 3D Acclaim logo. Then Cubes appear through it as the logo turns into color and becomes 2D.

FX/SFX: All the animation in the logo.

Music/Sounds: Robotic sounds, ending with swooshes.

Availability: Only seen on NBA Jam for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

Editor's Note: None.

8th Logo (2003-2004)
Nicknames: "Laser Writing", "The Acclaim Arrow VII", "The Laser Writing Acclaim Arrow"

Logo: The Acclaim logo from before is being written in a blue laser lines. After completion, it shines and glows blue.

FX/SFX: Laser writing the letters.

Music/Sounds: Laser carving sounds ending with an orchestral hit mixed with the synth bass note.

Availability: On publicly released games, this logo only appeared on AFL Live Premiership Edition, Showdown: Legends of Wrestling and WCR: World Championship Rugby. On un-released games, it was seen on the Xbox version of The Red Star (when it was released in 2007, it was published by XS Games and only the PlayStation 2 version was publicly released) and the Acclaim version of Juiced (the final game was published by THQ after Acclaim went bankrupt).

Editor's Note: None.