Evryware is a video game developer based in Olympia, Washington, US. It was founded in California in 1980 by two engineers, Dave Murry and Joe Gargiulo, with Dave's siblings, Barry Murry and Dee Dee Murry joining a few years later. They are best known for the Manhunter games and The Ancient Art of War series.
Evryware created three games for Sierra On-Line: Sierra Championship Boxing in 1985, Manhunter: New York in 1988, and Manhunter: San Francisco in mid 1989.
They took a break from game designing and started their own web design firm. The founders went on to create Prime Web Design and Great Big Island Records.
History[]
Evryware began developing games for popular CP/M home computers in the early 1980s. These games' early graphical work utilized a variety of alphanumeric characters in different combinations. Moving on to the IBM PC as soon as it was introduced, they created Sierra Championship Boxing in 1985. This game featured animation that were advance for its time.
Evryware designed the first two Ancient Art of War strategy games for Broaderbund in 1984 and 1987, winning multiple honors.
The darkly themed Manhunter: New York was developed by Evryware and published by Sierra On-Line in 1988. Because of the game's success, they decided to make a sequel, Manhunter 2: San Francisco in mid 1989. The Manhunter games were recognized for their "real-world" settings and distinctive gameplay. Manhunter: New York was named Game of the Year in 1988. Manhunter 3: London was meant to be the third and final game in what would have been a trilogy, but this never came into fruition.
In the early 1990s, Evryware created several games for MicroProse: 1992's The Ancient Art of War in the Skies, and 1994's SpaceKids. The latter was one of the earliest games that have full-screen pseudo-3D animation, complete audio dialog, and automated game play — the process grew simpler after repeated failed tries. This game was followed by Space Dude in 1996, which aimed towards pre-teens.
In 1997, Evryware's created Pyrosaurus as their first online games. For this game, They created a custom rendering engine that smoothly warped the original picture to simulate extremely realistic dinosaur motions. Players had to train fire-breathing dinosaurs then dispatch them to assault the other teams of players.
The company took a took a hiatus from game designing to start their own web design firm while remaining current with gaming technology, although they did create a small online game (Little Yellow Town) for the Rickie Lee Jones website. Evryware's founders went on to create Prime Web Design and Great Big Island Records.
Evryware returned to gaming in 2014 with The Ancient Art of War 2. The game can to downloaded for free on their website.
Games[]
Released | Title | Platform | Publisher |
---|---|---|---|
1980 | Invasion | Heath/Zenith 89 | Evryware |
1981 | Missile Control | Heath/Zenith 89 | Evryware |
1981 | Galactic Warrior | Heath/Zenith 89 | Evryware |
1982 | Y-Wing Fighter | Heath/Zenith 89 | Evryware |
1982 | Space Odyssey 1 | Heath/Zenith 89 | Evryware |
1982 | Six Micro Stories (Microsoft BASIC game) | Heath/Zenith 89 | Evryware |
1982 | Dragons of Hong Kong | Apple II, CP/M, Heath/Zenith H8/H89, TRS-80 | Evryware |
1982 | His Majesty's Ship Impetuous | Heath/Zenith 89 | Evryware NCaps |
1983 | Zeedle Deet | Heath/Zenith 89 | Evryware |
1983 | Exterminator | Heath/Zenith 89 | Evryware |
1983 | EVRYDIET: A Diet and Nutrition Guide | DOS | Evryware |
1983 | Sierra Championship Boxing | Apple II, Commodore 64, Macintosh, PC Booter | Sierra On-Line |
1984 | The Ancient Art of War | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari ST, DOS, Macintosh, PC-88, PC-98, GameTap | Broderbund |
1987 | The Ancient Art of War at Sea | Apple II, DOS, Macintosh, PC-98, GameTap | Broderbund |
1988 | Manhunter: New York | MS-DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, Apple II, Apple IIGS | Sierra On-Line |
1989 | Manhunter: San Francisco | MS-DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, Mac OS | Sierra On-Line |
1992 | The Ancient Art of War in the Skies | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS, GameTap | MicroProse |
1994 | SpaceKids | DOS | MicroProse |
1996 | Space Dude | DOS | FormGen |
1997 | Pyrosaurus | DOS | Evryware |
2014 | The Ancient Art of War 2 | Android, iPad, iPhone, Macintosh, Windows | Evryware |