Fox Interactive

Background
Fox Interactive was a video game publisher and developer owned by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, formed in May 1994. It mainly focused on titles based on their properties, though they were also involved with original titles, including Croc: Legend of the Gobbos and No One Lives Forever. It was the successor to Fox Video Games, which was formed in 1982 but was soon shut down due the the video game crash of 1983. The company stopped publishing its own games in 2001, and gave their titles to other publishers. In 2003, Fox Interactive was acquired by Vivendi Universal Publishing, and was quietly shut down in 2006. New games based on 20th Century Studios titles are now in the hands of other publishers, and simply use the current 20th Century logo instead.

1st Logo (1992)


Logo: A fair reproduction of the "regular zero" variant of the original 1953-1987 20th Century Fox movie logo, with white searchlights and stormy blue clouds in the background. Then the copyright screen appears as the logo fades out.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: It was only used on Predator 2 for Sega Genesis.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (November 23, 1994-1996)
Nicknames: "Fox Globe", "The X-Cross Searchlights"

Logo: On a white background, we see a still image of the Fox Interactive logo, enclosed in a black rectangle. It consists of a blue globe on top of a black structure with two gold lines, with "FOX" curved across it in the movie logo's font, and four searchlights in the back forming an X-cross-like formation, all against a sky blue background. Below it is the white text "INTERACTIVE", and underneath the rectangle is the byline "A UNIT OF FOX, INC.".

Variants:


 * On the Genesis version of The Pagemaster, the logo has a white border on it, and the background is black.
 * On the Game Boy version of The Pagemaster, the print logo is shown instead, and it's seen on a black background (like the Genesis version).

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: A 16-bit (8-bit for Game Boy) rendition of the full 20th Century Fox fanfare. The fanfare sounds different on each game that uses this logo.

Availability: Can be only seen on The Pagemaster on Game Boy, SNES and Genesis, and The Tick on SNES and Genesis.

Editor's Note: This logo (in terms of its general design) is pretty unique among Fox logos at the time, having enough elements to differentiate itself from its other subsidiaries, but nonetheless having enough elements that make it distinctly a Fox logo. The synthesized version of the movie fanfare is also pretty cool too.

3rd Logo (October 31, 1995)


Logo: Same as the domestic 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment logo from the time, but with some differences. The logo starts with a very slow fade-in, and it's still before animating; then, after fully animating, it freezes before fading out. The logo is also darker and slower.

Variant: There's also a still bitmap of the end of the normal logo, found in the game's files in the menus directory.

Trivia: The way this logo fades and freezes is rather similar to the version found on the Widescreen Series promo on some 1996 Fox tapes.

FX/SFX: Same as the 1995-2008 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment logo.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: It was only used on Icebreaker for PC.

Editor's Note: A true oddity. This was probably used as a placeholder for the next logo.

4th Logo (February 29, 1996-June 30, 2003)
Nicknames: "Fox Globe II", "The CGI Fox Globe", "The X-Cross Searchlights II"

Logo: On a black background, we see a globe floating in the center of a gold-bordered box, against a blue/purple/yellow sky background. Four searchlights move behind the globe, causing it to rotate, and a huge explosion of yellow fireworks to appear behind it. The gold-lined structure from the 2nd logo appears underneath the globe, and the glowing text "FOX", in the same font as the 2nd logo, flies in from the top of the globe and moves into its usual position. The searchlights also move into their normal crossed position, and after it does so, the globe stops moving. As the logo animates, the gold border slowly grows at the bottom to make room for the white text "INTERACTIVE", which flashes in as the logo completes. The "FOX" text, along with the gold border, then shines.

Trivia: On Die Hard Arcade on Sega Saturn and Die Hard Trilogy on Sega Saturn, PlayStation and PC, some of the soft drink health pickups you find in the game have the Fox Interactive logo on the can. Also, In Team Losi: R/C Racer on PlayStation, at some tracks, the Fox Interactive logo can be seen on some posters & walls.

Variants:


 * On Die Hard Arcade for Sega Saturn, the logo zooms-out and is already formed.
 * On some games, such as Croc: Legend of the Gobbos for Sega Saturn (the PlayStation and PC versions of the said game have the normal logo), the logo is still.
 * On the PC version of Croc: Legend of the Gobbos and The Simpsons Wrestling, the logo is in slow speed.
 * On the PlayStation version of Die Hard Trilogy, the logo is sped-up a little, then freezes. However, the European PlayStation version of Die Hard Trilogy has the logo at normal speed.
 * On some games, there is a still artwork version of the logo similar to the 2nd logo, but with some differences. The sky color is the same as the animated logo instead of blue and the searchlights are a bit skinnier like in the animated logo.
 * On Planet of the Apes for Game Boy Advance, a spaceship flies past the logo, along with the Ubi Soft Entertainment logo.
 * On The X-Files Game, a flying saucer flies by at the end of the logo.
 * On The Simpsons Cartoon Studio, the logo cuts to the title screen. Also, the logo's color is a bit revised.
 * On a trailer for the game Independence Day, the logo appears over the background of the game.

FX/SFX: The searchlights, the fireworks, the globe moving, and the logo shining.

Music/Sounds: The second half of the 1994 20th Century Fox fanfare with rumbling, an explosion, and some whooshes (which pans from the right to left speaker if listened in stereo). The fanfare abruptly ends as the logo shines.

Music/Sound Variants:


 * The still variants are silent or use the opening theme of the game.
 * On the trailer for ID4: The Game, the second half of the 1981 20th Century Fox Fanfare without any sound effects is heard.
 * On The X-Files Game, the explosion sound effect is different.
 * On Alien vs. Predator, Alien vs. Predator 2 and Alien vs. Predator: Classic 2000 Edition, the 20th Century Fox fanfare that plays during the logo segues ominously into the score from Alien.
 * Sometimes, the second half of the 1997 Fox fanfare (with the same sound effects intact) can be heard in an extremely few releases, though this remains unconfirmed.

Availability: Common. Seen on games such as Die Hard Trilogy, ID4: The Game, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, Croc 2, The Simpsons Wrestling, Anastasia: Adventures with Pooka and Bartok, World's Scariest Chase Scenes, Team Losi: R/C Racer, the PC version of The Operative: No One Lives Forever, and Alien vs. Predator (the first game to use this logo), among other games. The still artwork version can be seen on some games like The Simpsons: Road Rage and Ice Age (the latter is the logo's final official appearance).

Editor's Note: A very nicely-done logo for the period.

5th Logo (April 18, 2002-March 14, 2006)
Nicknames: "The Searchlights", "CGI Searchlights", "Fox Structure", "Changing Structure", "Shapeshifting Structure"

Logo: We see the 20th Century Fox logo in its 1994 form. Then, the camera turns around the structure. Smoke appears in the leftmost and rightmost searchlights as we slowly see the structure transform into the stacked text "FOX INTERACTIVE", separated by two lines and in the Fox font. We can also see that the structure is now perched next to and upon several circular, futuristic buildings with colorful lights, which illuminate once the camera settles down. We can also see some pods or small spaceships moving around in the buildings.

Variants:
 * A still variant exists, which is brighter than the animated variant, and the sky being more clearly during a sunset.
 * The logo is a still shot on Robots for Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS, and Ice Age 2: The Meltdown for Game Boy Advance, set over the game's intro.

FX/SFX: The camera rotating around the structure.

Music/Sounds: The 1997 Fox fanfare.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * In its first year, it used the 1994 Fox fanfare.
 * Like before, none or the opening theme of the game for still variants.

Availability: The normal version can be seen on games from the company from the era, such as No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M's Way, Futurama, Die Hard: Vendetta, the PS2 version of The Operative: No One Lives Forever, console versions of Robots, Predator: Concrete Jungle, and The Simpsons: Hit & Run. The first still variant can be found on a prototype build of The Simpsons Skateboarding meant for exhibition at the 2002 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) dated May 10, 2002, and the other can be found on the GBA and DS versions of Robots. This logo was last seen on Ice Age 2: The Meltdown for Game Boy Advance, but on all other versions, no 20th Century Fox logo appears at all, skipping right to the Blue Sky Studios logo of the era.

Editor's Note: A very nicely-done logo for the period, and the first to include the 20th Century Fox structure since 1995 (as the TCFHE logo).

Final Note
Starting with all versions of Fantastic Four, Eragon and Family Guy Video Game!, all Fox video games began using the 20th Century Fox theatrical or television logo.