- Ratbag Games
Ratbag Games Pty Ltd was an Australian developer of computer games such as "
Powerslide ", ' and '.About The Company
Ratbag was founded in
1993 inAdelaide ,South Australia by Richard Harrison andGreg Siegele . Known initially as Emergent Games, the company took 3 years to prototype their first title "Powerslide ". Following its acquisition byMidway Games on 4th August 2005, the company was known as Midway Studios - Australia. On 13th December 2005, employees at the studio were told that Ratbag was going to be closed by its parent company. Two days later on the 15th, the studio was closed, leaving the staff employed there without a job.About The Games
Ratbag made a name for itself with its debut title "
Powerslide ". The arcade racer, set in a post-apocalyptic future, is powered by a highly advanced rendering system for its time, allowing for up to 300,000 polygons on-screen at once. Powerslide was met with critical if not commercial success, receiving a lot of publicity from the Australian gaming media. Several PC racing titles followed over the years, and before too long Ratbag found itself "typecast" as a simulation racing developer.With the arrival of the
PlayStation 2 in late 2000, Ratbag saw an opportunity to move into the lucrative console market. ' was the first of several PlayStation 2 titles developed and released, with a handful of titles going unpublished, most notably the follow up to Powerslide, '.The last title developed by Ratbag (prior to their acquisition) was ' for the PlayStation 2 and "
Xbox ". The "Adventure/Racing" title was the first Ratbag title to break from the simulation tradition set forth by previous titles and features simple "on-foot" gameplay in addition to various story-driven racing missions. Coming after a wave of similar mission-based driving games and with a rushed development, ' received a lukewarm response from the gaming press.Games Releases
*
Powerslide PC
* Dirt Track Racing PC
* PC
*Dirt Track Racing 2 PC
* Leadfoot PC
*Holden Dirt Track Racing Australia PC
* PS2
*Saturday Night Speedway -PS2 & PC
* PS2 & Xboxee also
*
Greg Siegele External links
* [http://www.sumea.com.au/SumeaFlashback/Website_Ratbag/index.html Ratbag Games] Last version of Ratbag Games official website reproduced by Australian video game website
Sumea for archives purposes.
* [http://www.gamerwithin.com/?view=article&article=909 News Report] Midway closes Ratbag
* [http://blog.funkyj.com/2005/12/midway-shafts-ratbag-studios.html Midway shafts Ratbag Studios] Employee's account of company closure
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