Melbourne House

Background

Melbourne House was an Australian video game company that began in 1977. The same year, Beam Software was founded as its subsidiary. In 1987, the Melbourne House brand was sold to Mastertronic, which used it until 1989, when it was folded into Virgin Interactive and the Melbourne House brand was shut down. In 1996, Virgin managed to put off the brand and it was picked up by Beam Software, the former subsidiary to Melbourne House, to be used as a publishing name for some of their games. Its first reappearance was in 1997, but the two names were always used separately. In 1999, Melbourne House was sold to Infogrames and was renamed "Infogrames Melbourne House". Beam Software soon went out of gaming business. In November 2006, Melbourne House was acquired by Krome Studios and became "Krome Studios Melbourne", but closed down in 2010.

Melbourne House

Contents

1st Logo (1984-1987)	2nd Logo (1987-1989)	3rd Logo (5 March 1997-13 October 1999)

Infogrames Melbourne House

Contents

1st Logo (13-27 November 2000)	2nd Logo (22 June 2001-8 April 2003)	3rd Logo (22 November 2002)	4th Logo (25 February 2004-13 April 2007)

Melbourne House

1st Logo (1984-1987)

Visuals: Usually in-credit, it shows a TV-tube shape made up of several multi-colored segments, with a large typewriter "M" at the bottom of it in white. No company name can be seen.

Variants:

The colors of the logo differ for each game.
On some games, the "M" is bigger and only the top half of the tube is present.
At the end of Redhawk, the logo is seen in monochrome and the text "MELBOURNE HOUSE" is seen stacked below it.

Technique: A still, sprite-based graphic.

Audio: None or the opening theme of the game.

Availability: Seen on several C64 and ZX Spectrum games from the time, like Gyroscope, Rock N Wrestle, and The Shadows of Mordor.

2nd Logo (1987-1989)

Visuals: On a black background, a beveled stone grey rectangle is seen with a coarse texture, with a large red sphere embedded into the top of it. Below, the text "MELBOURNE HOUSE" can be seen stacked below it.

Variant: Sometimes, the logo can be seen in-credit.

Technique: A still pre-rendered image.

Audio: None.

Availability: First seen on Roadwars for the Amiga, and can be seen on the PC versions of Magic Johnson's Fast Break, Xenon, War In Middle Earth, among others.

3rd Logo (5 March 1997-13 October 1999)

Visuals: Starting off on a screen filled with static, it zooms out to reveal a dark blue eye, with the static inside of a TV that acts like the iris. Above it, 5 dark blue lashes are seen with the 3rd and 4th lashes being gold and red respectively, and "Melbourne House" is seen below. The eye then blinks, turning the static screen dark blue. Everything casts a shadow.

Variants:

On KKND2: Krossfire, the entire logo is recreated in CGI. After the normal animation occurs, 4 bullet holes appear around the eye as it looks in surprise, with the static returning in the eye as result. It then grows a pair of legs and arms, puts a match in its "mouth", and pulls out a pair of guns to shoot back at whatever's off-screen.
An later version has the logo altered to be a brighter blue color, the eye is smaller and more smooth in appearance (without a screen either), and the text moved to the bottom while also becoming larger. The animation is changed to have the name fade in below first, followed by the eye appearing by a slight shine to it.
- On Dethkarz, the eye is shown in full 3D and on a full set of wheels, driving on-screen before stopping and blinking once. It then drives around the reflective room before skidding out and cross-fading to the final result, with a ding for the shine appearing.

Technique: 2D animation. CGI for the variants.

Audio: The sound of static plays throughout as a drone plays for the logo zooming out, and a chime for the logo blinking. The variants have extra sound effects correlating with the actions, and the later version has no static.

Availability: Seen on Dethkarz, GP 500 and on the KKND game series.

Infogrames Melbourne House

1st Logo (13-27 November 2000)

Visuals: On a white surface illuminated by a spotlight, the Infogrames shield is seen at the top left, with "Melbourne House" aligned to the right below it. At the bottom right, a blue armadillo with a abstract red/white scale pattern on its back is seen walking, with its blue footprints trailing from the logo.

Technique: A still 3D graphic.

Audio: None.

Availability: It was only used on 2 Dreamcast games, Test Drive Le Mans/Le Mans 24 Hours, and Looney Tunes: Space Race.

2nd Logo (22 June 2001-8 April 2003)

Visuals: On a white background, the camera zooms out from the back of an old-fashioned cartoon-style CRT TV monitor and pans out to reveal a pale pink short-whiskered armadillo playing video games on the TV, mindlessly hitting buttons and rocking the joystick on the (Atari 2600 reminiscent) controller on a blue/bright purple globe. Everything is upside-down at first, but the camera cuts to a view of a kangaroo copying the same deed the armadillo is currently doing, viewed right-side up. The animals sit on opposite hemispheres of the globe. The kangaroo sits on the top of the globe, and vice-versa. However, everything is upside down yet again when the stacked words "MELBOURNE HOUSE" in an odd cartoon font appear over it, each word going around the globe from opposite directions. Suddenly, the animals freeze and look at the screen frighteningly, as the globe rotates 180 degrees and change poles. After the animals blink a couple times, the "MELBOURNE HOUSE" text revolves around the world (a la the Universal Pictures logo) and the text "INFOGRAMES", in the same style behind the globe, joins in. Despite this, the animals continue playing on their consoles until the logo fades out.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: The sound of tapping buttons with a bouncy cartoon synth soundtrack that stops when the animals stop and resumes when the text rotates. Comical sound effects are also included.

Availability: Appears on the PlayStation 2 ports of Le Mans 24 Hours and Space Race (and the PC port of the former title), and Men in Black ll: Alien Escape for the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube.

3rd Logo (22 November 2002)

Visuals: On a black background, a tire is seen spinning quickly as it zooms out and fades it, with flames beginning to line the inside of the tire, briefly turning the rims orange. The tire then burns some flames, with more of them appearing behind it, and the entire thing flashes to form the Melbourne House Racing logo. It features a monochrome drawing of a tire in a white box, with a red backing filling the rest of it. Below, "RACING" can be seen on the tire, as well as "MELBOURNE HOUSE}}" below in the white box.

Technique: 2D computer animation.

Audio: Racing car sounds, followed by a crowd cheering, which is all cut off by a cut-off "boom" noise.

Availability: It was only used on Grand Prix Challenge for the PlayStation 2.

4th Logo (25 February 2004-13 April 2007)

Visuals: On a black background, blue neon lines flow through the darkness before they start to glow brightly, eventually shining brightly to fill it with ocean blue and white as it swings to the right. The flash causes the background to turn white, and the object settles into place, revealing itself as the new Melbourne House logo. It consists of a rounded ocean blue rectangle with a oddly-shaped "MH" in white on it, and "melbourne house" is seen to the bottom right of it.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: An ethereal synth chime sounder with whooshes.

Availability: Seen on Transformers (the 2004 game based on the Armada series) for PlayStation 2 and the PSP and PlayStation 2 versions of Test Drive Unlimited.