Underground Development

Background

The company was founded in 1994 as "Z-Axis Games" and in May 2002, it was acquired by Activision. In February 2008, the name was changed to "Underground Development", but later in May, the company closed. However, the studio remained open and moved to a new office in the Redwood Shores area of Redwood City, California in February 2009. In February 2011, Activision closed the studio.

Z-Axis Games

1st Logo (1995-November 15, 1999)

Logo: The logo is designed as the name "Z-AXIS" in a custom font, with the "Z" letter's spine ending in three green points. There are variants for each game developed.

Variants:

On Space Invaders, a spaceship moves below, trying to shoot its target, an alien vessel above, but hits the logo hanging in the center. For the third time, it shoots past the hyphen mark and succeeds, then a man climbs out of the ship and celebrates.
On Alexi Lalas International Soccer, we see a blue cloudy background, with thunder appearing at the center. Electricity then makes part of the "Z", then the other parts of the logo appear and meet. The finished logo glows.
On Thrasher: Skate and Destroy, the logo is seen on the wall of a skate park. 2 skaters skate through, one of them falling off and sending his skateboard flying into the camera and destroying it.

FX/SFX: Depends on the variant.

Music/Sounds: Depends on the variant.

Music/Sounds Variants:

On Alexi Lalas International Soccer, we hear thunder, followed by a whoosh, a synth chord, pounding sounds and a crowd cheering.

Availability: Seen on the games listed above and some others from the time.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (September 14, 2000-December 5, 2003)

Logo: We see the Z-Axis logo from before on a black background, but it's 2D and is in a rounded rectangle. As before, there is a different variant for each game developed.

Variants:

On Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX, the logo appears on a bandage seen on a BMX rider. Then the doctor gets a chainsaw out and cuts to the 2D Z-Axis logo with "Developed by" on the top in a white Arial Black font and the slogan "Bring the Pain." on the bottom also in white. This also appears in the Maximum Remix version of the game.
On Freestyle Motocross: McGrath vs. Pastrana, the logo appears without the rectangle, and then catches on fire.
On Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2, the logo appears normal at first with "Developed By" on the top in white. Then after a split seconds, the text "Rock." appears before cutting to a fast slideshow of pictures of the Z-Axis staff, before finally changing into a video of the company's flag waving on the sky.
On Aggressive Inline, the logo has a quote on the bottom from G.W.F. Hegel that says "Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion" alongside the usual "Developed By" text. This is then followed by an FMV of an employee destroying a computer after it goes wrong.
On BMX XXX, the logo is on the shirt of a girl alongside the "Developed By" text in green, as effects play through the video which include the logo moving quickly to the left.
- The PS2 version of BMX XXX instead features the logo, sans the rectangle zooming onto a white background alongside a quote from Oscar Wilde, which says "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it."

FX/SFX: Depends on the variant.

Music/Sounds: Depends on the variant.

Availability: Seen on the games listed above and some others developed by the company at the time, mainly during their partnership with Acclaim Entertainment.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (November 16, 2005-May 16, 2006)

Nicknames: "Science Man"

Logo: First, a purple vertical rectangle appears, full of microscheme patterns, which flashes out and returns with the picture of a dictator-looking scientist holding his arms around a source of ray light. Under the picture, the name "Z-AXIS GAMES" appears, stylized somewhat similar to the previous logos. The ray light decreases, then flashes again and the logo is gone.

FX/SFX: The flashes and ray tracing over the background.

Music/Sounds: Whooshing sounds.

Availability: Appeared on True Crime: New York City and X-Men: The Official Game.

Editor's Note: None.

Underground Development

(May 27, 2008-December 22, 2009)

Logo: There is a metallic shield in the form of a down-pointing arrow, which has the dark words "UNDERGROUND DEVELOPMENT" over it.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Appeared on Guitar Hero: Van Halen and the PlayStation 3 version of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

Editor's Note: None.