Time Warner Interactive

Background

In 1994, Time Warner purchased Atari Games (Atari Corporation's former arcade gaming unit, which spun off from the parent company in 1984), renaming it to Time Warner Interactive. Its Tengen subsidiary was also folded into the unit, as well as the assets of an earlier company with the same name, Time Warner Interactive Group. The company also held operations in Europe and Japan.

In 1996, the company was dissolved by Time Warner, with the company selling the US division's assets to Midway Games; as a result, the arcade unit went back to the Atari Games name. The European division was merged with Warner Interactive and gained the latter's name before being sold to GT Interactive Software the following year, while the Japanese unit ceased operations after the publication of Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru.

1st Logo (August 1994-1995)

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Visuals: On a black background, there is a cloudy box with a transparent curve, and on the right is a blue half of an eye, making it resembling the Warner eye's outline. A red sphere is inside the logo. Below it was the text "TIME WARNER" and underneath is the text "INTERACTIVE" in a Serif Gothic font, with a red line separating the words, and enclosed into a gold rectangle. Underneath that is the text "· PRESENTS ·".

Trivia: The "Time Warner Eye" logo is based on the logo from Time Warner Cable.

Variants:

• On Red Zone, the clouds is realistic and lacks the box.
• On the Game Boy game of Primal Rage, the logo is in black and white.
• On Generations Lost for the Genesis, the text and box is white and the line is blue, making it resembling the following logo.
• On the Genesis game of Mega SWIV, "· PRESENTS ·" was in gold.
• On Sylvester and Tweety in Cagey Capers, there is no eye as half of the screen is occupied by the Warner Bros. Consumer Products logo. Sylvester and Tweety then jump onto the logo.

Technique: A still, computerized graphic. Sprite-based animation for the Sylvester and Tweety variant.

Audio: None or the opening theme of the game.

"Availability: Seen on many Genesis and SNES games from the period, like the Genesis game of Sylvester and Tweety in Cagey Capers, The Lawnmower Man, Generations Lost, Red Zone, Kawasaki Superbike Challenge and Mega SWIV, as well as the Genesis, 32X, Game Gear and Game Boy versions of Primal Rage and the SNES games of Wayne Gretzky and the NHLPA All-Stars and Super R.B.I. Baseball.

2nd Logo (August 1994-1996)

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Visuals: There is a slowly spinning scarlet sphere, while the camera zooms out and reveals the distorted picture of the same logo from the previous logo. Two curve lines form the Warner eye's outline, and the logo takes its right position. A rectangle with clouds and the sky occupies the upper left corner of the eye. The words "TIME WARNER" with "INTERACTIVE" in a different font, with a blue line separating the words.

Variants:

• The logo sometimes appear on a white background, with black text, and black eye.
• A still version exists.
• On Primal Rage for DOS and PSX, the logo is sped up.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: None.

Availability: The normal animated logo was seen on Primal Rage for the 3D0, PlayStation and DOS. The still version appears on the Atari Jaguar CD version of Primal Rage, as well as the 32X game of T-Mek and the DOS game of Striker '95.

3rd Logo (October 1994-1996)

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Visuals: On a black background is the Atari Games logo in gold. Then the logo zooms in as the gold color turns to a cloudy sky. A blue curve moves and then draws to reveal an eye, and a scarlet sphere flies in, and then a white curve line draws in, and form the Warner eye's outline, and the logo takes its right position The words "TIME WARNER" with "INTERACTIVE" in the box below are seen zooming out, with two copies, and a blue line separates the words, and then the logo flashes. The end result looks like the print logo.

Variants:

• A still version exists.
• The logo sometimes appears on a white background.
• On the Game Gear game of Rise of the Robots, the word "A" and "PUBLICATION" appear above and below the logo.

Technique: 2D animation.

Audio: None. On Tama: Adventures Balll in Giddy Labyrinth on Sega Saturn, an ominous, 4-note music is played.

Availability: The animated version can only be found on the arcade laserdisc game of Cops. The still version can be found on other games during the era, such as the PlayStation game of Zero Divide and the Sega Saturn version of Digital Pinball: Last Gladiators and Time Warner Interactive's VR Virtua Racing on the Sega Saturn, RBI Baseball 95 for the Sega 32X, Primal Rage and Kawasaki Superbike Challenge for the SNES, the Genesis version of Wayne Gretzky and the NHLPA All-Stars, the Game Gear version of Rise of the Robots and the PlayStation and Saturn versions of Race Drivin'.

4th Logo (June 1995)

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Visuals: On a white background is the Time Warner eye logo from the previous logos sliding in, and the name from the previous logo wipes over the logo.

Technique: 2D animation.

Audio: None.

Availability: Only seen on the Atari Jaguar game of Power Drive Rally.

5th Logo (September 1995-April 12, 1996)

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Visuals: There is a comet flying around the planet Earth, then it moves over the sea to the horizon and makes a light splash there. The comet's trace on the sky becomes an outline of the Warner eye. After this, the 3D words "TIME" and "WARNER" slide from left and right respectively, and "INTERACTIVE" zooms out into a white box. A blue line then draws on top of the box and a "TM" symbol fades in to the right of the box.

Variants:

• The arcade version of Area 51 has a shorter version of the logo that starts with the comet hitting the planet.
• A videotaped version was found on Time Warner's release trailer for Endorfun.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A new-age fanfare with drums and a xylophone.

Availability: Seen on the arcade port of Area 51, Return Fire for PlayStation, the DOS version of Wayne Gretzky and the NHLPA All-Stars and the release trailer for Endorfun.

6th Logo (January 17, 1997)

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Visuals: It's only the text part of the Time Warner Interactive logo, with "PRESENTS" fading in under it.

Technique: A still, computerized graphic.

Audio: None.

Availability: This logo appeared "posthumously" on a Japanese Sega Saturn game named Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru.

◄ Atari Games Tengen Time Warner Interactive Group

Time Warner Interactive

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