Beam Software
Melbourne House is a game development studio owned by Atari and based in Melbourne, Australia. They were founded in 1980 under the name Beam Software by Alfred Milgom and Naomi Besen. The name, Beam, is a contraction of Alfred and Naomi's initials.
They are known for the early games The Way of the Exploding Fist (Commodore 64) and The Hobbit (1982) (ZX Spectrum). Melbourne House is one of the longest surviving game development companies in the world and for most of its existance has been the largest game development studio in Australia.
In the early 90s Melbourne House found success in their home country with releases such as Aussie Rules Footy and International Cricket for the NES. In the mid-to-late 90s, Melbourne House found further success with PC titles Krush Kill 'n' Destroy (KKND), and the sequel KKND2: Krossfire. Unfortunately, they released KKND2 in South Korea well before they released it in the American market, and pirated versions of the game were available on the internet before it was available in stores in the U.S. They also helped produce SNES games such as WCW Super Brawl, Super Smash TV and an updated version of International Cricket titled Super International Cricket. They ported the Sega Saturn game Bug! to Windows 3.x in August, 1996.
The studio developed racing games DethKarz and GP500 shortly before being acquired by Infogrames and cementing a reputation as a racing game developer with Test Drive: Le Mans and Looney Tunes: Space Race (both Dreamcast and PlayStation 2), followed by the technically impressive Grand Prix Challenge (PlayStation 2), before a disastrous venture into third-person shooters with Men In Black II: Alien Escape (PlayStation 2, GameCube).
In 2004 the studio released Transformers: Armada for the PlayStation 2 games console and based on the toy franchise of the same name. The game reached #1 on the UK PlayStation 2 games charts, making it Melbourne House's most successful recent title.
The studio is currently working on PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable ports of Eden's next-generation Xbox 360 title Test Drive: Unlimited.
Games List
| Game Title | Year | System |
|---|---|---|
| Bedlam | Amstrad CPC | |
| Fist 2: The Legend Continues | Amstrad CPC | |
| Lord of the Rings | Amstrad CPC | |
| Rock n' Wrestle | Amstrad CPC | |
| Fighting Warrior | Amstrad CPC | |
| Starion | Amstrad CPC | |
| The Hobbit | Amstrad CPC | |
| Way of the Exploding Fist | Amstrad CPC | |
| The Hobbit | Apple IIe | |
| Crack of Doom | Apple IIe | |
| The Hobbit | BBC Micro | |
| Way of the Exploding Fist | BBC Micro | |
| Asterix and the Magic Cauldron | Commodore 64 | |
| Aussie Games | Commodore 64 | |
| Bazooka Bill | Commodore 64 | |
| Bedlam | Commodore 64 | |
| Castle of Terror | Commodore 64 | |
| Crack of Doom | Commodore 64 | |
| Fighting Warrior | Commodore 64 | |
| Fist + | Commodore 64 | |
| Fist 2 The Legend Continues | Commodore 64 | |
| Grand Larceny | Commodore 64 | |
| Horace Goes Skiing | Commodore 64 | |
| Horace and the Spiders | Commodore 64 | |
| Lord of the Rings | Commodore 64 | |
| Melbourne Draw | Commodore 64 | |
| Mugsy | Commodore 64 | |
| Penetrator | Commodore 64 | |
| Rock n' Wrestle | Commodore 64 | |
| Shadows of Mordor | Commodore 64 | |
| Sherlock Holmes | Commodore 64 | |
| Street Hassle | Commodore 64 | |
| The Hobbit | Commodore 64 | |
| Way of the Exploding Fist | Commodore 64 | |
| Usagi Yojimbo | Commodore 64 | |
| The Hobbit | Dragon 32 | |
| Dungeon Master | FM Towns | |
| Crack of Doom | Macintosh | |
| Lord of the Rings | Macintosh | |
| Shadows of Mordor | Macintosh | |
| The Hobbit | MSX | |
| Way of the Exploding Fist | MSX | |
| 720 Degrees | Nintendo NES | |
| Aussie Rules Footy | Nintendo NES | |
| Back to the Future | Nintendo NES | |
| Back to the Future II | Nintendo NES | |
| Back to the Future III | Nintendo NES | |
| Bad Street Brawler | 1989 | Nintendo NES |
| Battle Chess | Nintendo NES | |
| Big Foot | Nintendo NES | |
| Bo Jackson's Baseball | Nintendo NES | |
| Dash Galaxy | Nintendo NES | |
| Days of Thunder | Nintendo NES | |
| Defender of the Crown | Nintendo NES | |
| Family Feud | Nintendo NES | |
| Fisher Price - I Can Remember | Nintendo NES | |
| Fisher Price – Perfect Fit | Nintendo NES | |
| Ian Botham's Cricket ‘96 | Nintendo NES | |
| International Cricket | Nintendo NES | |
| Power Punch II | Nintendo NES | |
| Last Ninja II | Nintendo NES | |
| Mickey's Chaos in Number City | Nintendo NES | |
| Mickey's Safari in Letterland | Nintendo NES | |
| MLBPA Baseball | Nintendo NES | |
| NBA All-Star Challenge | Nintendo NES | |
| Nightshade | Nintendo NES | |
| Road Blasters | Nintendo NES | |
| Road Runner | Nintendo NES | |
| Rocket Ranger | Nintendo NES | |
| Smash TV | Nintendo NES | |
| Star Wars | 1991 | Nintendo NES |
| The Hunt for Red October | Nintendo NES | |
| The Punisher | Nintendo NES | |
| The Three Stooges | Nintendo NES | |
External links
- Melbourne House official web site - "under development" as of May, 2006
- Information at Sinclair Infoseek
- Melbourne House to be sold off Next-Gen
- Melbourne House profile on MobyGames
- Melbourne House profile on Sumea