Viridus

Background: Viridus was a video game developer founded around 1993 or 1994, not far from the Phillips USA offices. They helped developed a few titles, including the infamous Zelda's Adventure, the only one of the LoZ trio of games with FMV and a live-action look. However, due to the inexperienced staff, as well as the failure of the CD-i, most of their other games were buggy and not released, and after a few more games on PC, they closed down in 1996. Other than a few sources, there's very little info on the developer.

(June 5th, 1994-June 19, 1995)

Nicknames: "Parchment and Gold", "The Logo That Appears Before Zelda's Adventure"

Logo: On a black background, a golden chakram-like ring, along with 4 dark green cubes revolving around the top of the ring, moves into frame. Each side of the green cubes have a golden diagonal line on them. The cubes eventually meet in the center of the ring as it moves from the center, and flips to the bottom right of the screen. It then flips several times, each time "launching" a cube to the left center of the screen, creating a green square with a golden "V" on it. As the square finishes up, the ring then flies off-screen and the background fades to something that looks like a green piece of parchment. The dark green text "IRIDUS" fades in beside the square, creating "VIRIDUS", and "Produced By" appears just above the left side of the logo in dark green.

FX/SFX: The ring spinning, the cubes flying, the background change.

Music/Sounds: A simple bass/snare drum beat, ending with a new-age synth theme.

Availability: Extremely rare. Seen so far once, and only once, on Zelda's Adventure for the CD-I.

Editor's Note: Compared with the rest of the game it appeared on, it's well-animated for the time.