Ballistic

From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum


Background

Ballistic was a division of Accolade, formed in 1991 to publish games for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. It was formed presumably due to contract issues with Nintendo, allowing the company to publish more games for its competitor than Nintendo would have otherwise allowed. Ballistic and other Accolade titles for the Genesis during this period were unlicensed, as they did not want to pay the costs of having a game licensed through Sega; they did this via reverse-engineering the code to allow the Genesis to accept their unlicensed titles. This resulted in Sega suing them, arguing that Accolade's reverse engineering was an infringement on their copyright. Initially, Sega won the lawsuit, but when Accolade appealed it and argued their reverse-engineering fell under fair use, the decision was overturned. In the meantime, the Ballistic label began publishing games for other platforms like the SNES and TurboGrafx-16. The two companies eventually reached a settlement on the matter, with Accolade becoming an official licensed publisher for Sega. Ballistic stopped publishing its own titles in early 1993, eventually becoming an American reissue label for various Genesis games until 1996.



1st Logo (June 1991-1992)

Visuals: Over a black background, a face appears in orange with a eye on the left. Then, a red explosion with a dark half on the right appears piece by piece. Orange, red and yellow triangles appear toward the screen, forming an explosion shape. The word "BALLISTIC" in a yellow font scrolls up with the red word "PRESENTS..." shown below the logo.

Variants:

  • A still version of the logo appears on the TurboGrafx-16 port of Turrican.
  • On the unfinished SNES version of Universal Soldier, another still version exists with the red word without "PRESENTS..." shown below the logo.

Technique: Sprite animation.

Audio: The opening theme of the game. On HardBall! and Mike Ditka Ultimate Football, an announcer reads out the company name.

Availability: Seen on the Genesis versions of HardBall!, Mike Ditka Ultimate Football and Turrican. It also appeared on the TurboGrafx-16 version of the latter. It also appears on the Genesis and the unreleased SNES version of Universal Soldier as well.

2nd Logo (July 1991)

Visuals: Over a black background, the logo starts with the relief red words "BALLISTIC" in the same style as the previous logos. The face from the previous logo, now in black, with rainbow colors moving toward the face irises in. The colors change. The word "PRESENTS" in pink appears below. The colors on the face continues changing.

Technique: Sprite animation.

Audio: None.

Availability: Seen on Star Control for Sega Genesis.

3rd Logo (September 1991)


Visuals: Over a black background, the logo starts with the face from before appears. The triangles appear piece by piece, and then the face changes colors, and the word "BALLISTIC" in the same style as before appears letter-by-letter as the face changes color. Then the face turns blue and the word "PRESENTS..." appears below the logo.

Technique: Sprite animation.

Audio: None.

Availability: Seen on Onslaught! for the Sega Genesis.

4th Logo (December 1991)

Visuals: On a black background, the face from the previous logo is shown. Two pieces of the triangular explosion appears, first on the left side, and then on the bottom side. The colors start to change, and the relief red word "BALLISTIC" appears below. The word "PRESENTS" in spaced out letters, and in red, appears below the logo.

Technique: Sprite animation.

Audio: The synth tune from the later DOS variant of the Accolade logo.

Availability: Seen on Winter Challenge for Sega Genesis.

5th Logo (April 1992-1993)

Visuals: Over a black background is the enhanced version of the face from the previous logos, although it was colored in pink and purple, and the bottom half of the face was blue tinted. Below it is the word "BALLISTIC" in red gradient color with a shadow drop. The tiny word "PRESENTS" is seen below, also in red gradient. Under these, "ARCADE BLOCKBUSTERS" appears, also in red gradient, with a drop shadow.

Technique: A sprite animated graphic.

Audio: None.

Availability: Seen on Double Dragon and Ivan "Iron Man" Stewart's Super Off Road for Sega Genesis.

6th Logo (October 1992)

Visuals: Over a black background, the logo starts with the face from the previous logos already formed. Below it is the rainbow text "BALLISTIC" in the same style as before, with the word "PRESENTS" in italics shown below the logo. The colors on the face change and the colors on the text slide.

Variant: On the SNES version of The Duel: Test Drive II, the text was in pink.

Technique: Sprite animation.

Audio: A male announcer says "Ballistic presents..."

Audio Variant: On the SNES version, the opening theme of the game plays over it instead.

Availability: Seen on the SNES and Genesis versions of The Duel: Test Drive II.

7th Logo (December 1992)

Visuals: Over a black background, the logo starts with the face like it was in the previous logos, spinning up toward the screen. The face was in a fire colored palette. The word "BALLISTIC" from the previous logo appears below, alongside the word "PRESENTS..." in a small font below it. The face glows.

Technique: Sprite animation.

Audio: At the end of the logo, a man says "Ballistic presents..."

Availability: Seen on WarpSpeed for SNES.

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