Sony Imagesoft

Background

Sony Imagesoft (formerly "CSG Imagesoft") was founded in 1989 under the CBS/Sony Group and was purchased by Sony's North American division in 1991. The division published games for 16-bit consoles. In 1994, it started using the name of its parent company, Sony Electronic Publishing, when they expanded to PC products. Soon after, it was merged with the development branch of Sony Computer Entertainment into Sony Interactive Studios America, due to Sony's shifting attention on the arrival of the PlayStation.

1st Logo (1992-November 1, 1994)

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Logo: A stylized red feather is seen standing on a surface and emitting light rays from its point. The background is black. This box is included into another white box, where "SONY" (in its corporate font) is above, and "IMAGESOFT" is below.

Variants:

• On Last Action Hero, the logo is stretched to screen.
• On SNES games, the logo is darker.
• On the Game Gear version of Cliffhanger, the logo is on a gold background.
• On some NES games, the logo is on a gray background.
• On the Game Gear and Game Boy versions of Last Action Hero, the logo is surrounded by a striped border. On the latter, there is a drop shadow.
• Most Game Boy games have a thinner "SONY" text.
• There is an animated version of this logo, which is seen on Bram Stoker's Dracula (the Sega CD port at least). It carries out like the next logo with some differences: the feather drops slower and points all the way to the right corner, while remaining red throughout the logo, and the box coasts to the center as it appears.
• A different animated version is seen on the Sega CD port of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The feather noticably swirls a little more before pointing dead center, and the box just rotates up after a bright flash.

Technique: None. The feather falling and the flash on the animated versions.

Music/Sounds: None.

Music/Sounds Variants:

• The Dracula animated version features a distorted low-pitched version of the next logo's music.
• The Frankenstein animated version has a low-tempo vibrato theme playing throughout.

Availability: Seen on Cliffhanger, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Last Action Hero, as well as other games.

2nd Logo (March 1993-May 26, 1995)

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Logo: Against a black background, the feather from before falls from the top, swirling and making the place with its point down. Colored light rays are emitted from the point, like in the previous logo.

Variants:

• A later animated version has an improved look and quality.
• The still version is more graphic and has shadows.
• There is a print version of this logo made in blue (or green) colors and similar to the previous logo.
• There is a simple version used on Gear Works where the blue rectangular part is gone, leaving only the feather and the rays.
• The feather animation is superimposed against the studios of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune on PC versions of those shows' video game adaptations.
• On ESPN Speed World, the logo is inside a white rectangular box. Plus, the logo is crushed by the game's title logo.

Technique: The flying feather and light rays. None for the still versions.

Music/Sounds: A soft orchestral tune with piano. None or the game's opening theme on the still versions.

Availability: The still version is common and seen on various games like Frankenstein, Mickey Mania, No Escape, Hook, Wheel of Fortune, and ESPN series. The animated version was used on several Sega CD games and Johnny Mnemonic for PC. The blue version can be found on Skyblazer.

3rd Logo (August 1, 1994)

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Logo: It's similar to the regular logo from the era, but the background is more purplish with the colors in the feather over it more gradually fading, the light rays are shown as black cuts, and the company name is in 3D. The logo gets crushed in from the title screen.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Used on ESPN National Hockey Night for Sega CD.