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59-549: The Codemasters Software Company Limited ( trade name : Codemasters ) is a British video game developer and former publisher based in Southam , England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts and managed under the EA Sports division. Founded by brothers Richard and David Darling in October 1986, Codemasters is one of the oldest British game studios, and in 2005

118-742: A freelance basis. Products developed using this strategy include G-Man and Danger Zone by Mike Clark, Terra Cognita by Stephen Curtis, Super Robin Hood and Ghost Hunters by the Oliver Twins , Super Stuntman by Peter Williamson, Lazer Force by Gavin Raeburn, and ATV Simulator by Timothy R. Miller. By April 1987, Codemasters started seeking programmers that would create platform conversions of Codemasters' games in exchange for four-digit sums, via placements in Popular Computing Weekly . As

177-624: A 29.5% stake in Codemasters. Through placings in June and November 2019, Codemasters welcomed new institutional shareholders to the register whilst providing Reliance with a highly satisfactory exit and thus ending their nine-year relationship with them. Codemasters acquired Slightly Mad Studios , the developers of the Project CARS titles, in November 2019 for about US$ 30 million . The acquisition brought

236-420: A DBA must be registered with a local or state government, or both, depending on the jurisdiction. For example, California, Texas and Virginia require a DBA to be registered with each county (or independent city in the case of Virginia) where the owner does business. Maryland and Colorado have DBAs registered with a state agency. Virginia also requires corporations and LLCs to file a copy of their registration with

295-467: A DBA statement, though names including the first and last name of the owner may be accepted. This also reduces the possibility of two local businesses operating under the same name, although some jurisdictions do not provide exclusivity for a name, or may allow more than one party to register the same name. Note, though, that this is not a substitute for filing a trademark application. A DBA filing carries no legal weight in establishing trademark rights. In

354-476: A contract, invoice, or cheque, they must also add the legal name of the business. Numbered companies will very often operate as something other than their legal name, which is unrecognizable to the public. In Chile , a trade name is known as a nombre de fantasía ('fantasy' or 'fiction' name), and the legal name of business is called a razón social (social name). In Ireland , businesses are legally required to register business names where these differ from

413-717: A device called the Game Genie , which came out of the lockout bypass work to play unlicensed games. It was a cheat cartridge for the NES, released in the US by Galoob and in Canada and the UK by Camerica. In the case Galoob v. Nintendo , Game Genie was determined not to violate Nintendo's copyright under fair use. In an effort to establish themselves in the United States, they announced that they would launch

472-657: A game distribution agreement with Codemasters to distribute the company's titles in North America. Also in April, Codemasters launched the massively multiplayer online role-playing game , The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar in Europe on behalf of Turbine . In June, Codemasters were purchased by equity group Balderton Capital and they changed their logo to an interlocked metallic C and M. Later that month they released

531-593: A game-making tool that would later be sold commercially. The Darling brothers found success in making these games, gaining £ 200,000 by the time they were 16 and 17 respectively. In 1985, the two owned a 50% stake in Mastertronic, which they proceeded to sell in March 1986 when they decided to become independent. By October 1986, the Darling brothers, with help from their father, had founded Codemasters. They initially worked out of

590-429: A mid-height ball close to the net, or if he manages to return, call in a long lob, leaving the opponent with no chances of returning the ball. With harder-hitting characters, it is possible to make strong and accurate returns after the serve, which the computer-controlled player rarely manages to return. While managing to make perfect use of the lob and spinning shot aim is essential to play the game, top spins can be more

649-494: A new development studio in Oakhurst, using offices that were abandoned by Sierra On-Line and hiring much of Yosemite Entertainment's laid off staff in mid-September 1999. Between 1998 and 2003, Codemasters teamed up with Jester Interactive Limited to publish their range of music creation software, for PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and PC, MUSICtm , Music 2000 , MTV Music Generator and MTV Music Generator 2 . In 2003 this partnership

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708-499: A nuisance than helpful. Since it shares the same button as dives, and a good top spin shot requires additional power control (by either pressing up or down), Sega 's 8-direction pads, if broken or dirty, or even simply if the user's finger slipped, top spin shots often ended up turning into a dive, the ball passing uselessly by the helpless player. The only real tennis player is Pete Sampras . All players, however, have different ratings for base line, service, speed and volleys, and there

767-413: A popup racket on the net, some powerups increase the size of the ball or allow direct control of its path, and there is even a cameo from Dizzy , who walks on the net and works as a piñata . After five hits Dizzy breaks, giving several points to the last player who hit the ball. Players can get points from hitting the ball, breaking Dizzy and winning the point, which aggregates all the points played since

826-401: A preferred name cannot be registered, often because it may already be registered or is too similar to a name that is already registered. Using one or more fictitious business names does not create additional separate legal entities. The distinction between a registered legal name and a fictitious business name, or trade name, is important because fictitious business names do not always identify

885-460: A statement, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick said that Codemasters' racing games would fit well with its own roster of sports games. However, Take-Two's bid was subsequently trumped by Electronic Arts in December 2020, which offered to buy all outstanding shares at £6.04 for an offer valued at about US$ 1.2 billion , about 14% higher than Take-Two's offer. Codemasters' board of directors agreed to

944-413: A trade name is known as a nombre de fantasía ('fantasy' or 'fiction' name), and the legal name of business is called a razón social (social name). In Brazil , a trade name is known as a nome fantasia ('fantasy' or 'fiction' name), and the legal name of business is called razão social (social name). In some Canadian jurisdictions , such as Ontario , when a businessperson writes a trade name on

1003-520: Is a noticeable difference between left- and right-handed players. Not all players can be used in the World Tour mode, as some of them are actual opponents. There are only three surfaces to choose from (Grass, Hard and Clay). Although the surfaces are not sufficiently differentiated to impinge on AI or player tactics, the bounce of the ball is lowest on Grass and highest on Clay, with Hard intermediate. There are several places where matches and tournaments in

1062-406: Is a one set only, composed by 18 rounds across the globe. Some of the players are not available (Sampras included) since they are opponents during the tournament. Since the game is easy, this mode can be beaten in few days. Crazy Tennis is one arcade-ish mode where players get points from simply hitting the ball. There is one overall sense of wackiness in this mode, as some lower balls are blocked by

1121-536: Is also possible to aim the ball by pressing any direction on the D-Pad before there is contact between the racket and the ball. Expert players are able to win against any computer player without giving a point away, since the AI isn't very well developed (and there are no difficulty options) and it's hard to miss a ball. The most usual tactic is to lure the opponent into the net (by making low shots), and then expect he bounces against

1180-584: Is called a razón social . Pete Sampras Tennis Pete Sampras Tennis is a sports video game developed by Zeppelin Games and published by Codemasters for the Sega Genesis and Game Gear in 1994. A Master System version was cancelled in development. It was followed by Sampras Tennis 96 for the Genesis and Pete Sampras Tennis '97 . While Pete Sampras Tennis uses all three control pad buttons,

1239-533: The 8-bit computer market diminished, Codemasters turned to develop for the 8-bit and 16-bit console markets, as well as moving away from their budget title legacy to more full-price games on the 16-bit computers — 1992 saw the last title in the Dizzy series , Crystal Kingdom Dizzy , released at full-price rather than budget price. They had major success with the Micro Machines series and Pete Sampras Tennis on

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1298-448: The PC , PlayStation 3 , and Xbox 360 in 2010. On 8 April 2008, Sega announced the closure of Sega Racing Studio . The studio's only release had been Sega Rally Revo , which was greeted with fairly positive reviews but poor sales figures. At a later time Sega announced none of the employees were folded into internal studios. On 25 April 2008, Codemasters bought Sega Racing Studio. The studio

1357-746: The Sega Mega Drive . Both franchises featured the J-Cart , allowing two extra controllers to be attached to the game cart without requiring Electronic Arts ' 4 way play or SEGA 's four-player adaptor. Codemasters is notable for making the large majority of games published by Camerica , which bypassed Nintendo 's lock-out chip by glitching it and produced unlicensed NES games. These NES games were known for being shiny gold and silver cartridges . Many Codemasters titles were also featured on Camerica's Aladdin Deck Enhancer . In 1990, Codemasters developed

1416-459: The United Kingdom , there is no filing requirement for a "business name", defined as "any name under which someone carries on business" that, for a company or limited liability partnership, "is not its registered name", but there are requirements for disclosure of the owner's true name and some restrictions on the use of certain names. A minority of U.S. states, including Washington , still use

1475-568: The free-to-play version of Lord of the Rings Online . While originally scheduled for 10 September, it was delayed due to contractual reasons and launched on 2 November. In May 2011, Codemasters transferred control of the European Lord of the Rings Online to Turbine. In May 2011, Codemasters signed a North American distribution deal with THQ . In March 2012, Codemasters renewed its American distribution deal with Warner Bros. On 3 June 2011,

1534-551: The "Codemasters Racing" label. Dirt: Showdown and F1 2012 were the first racing titles to receive the new label name. The label was discontinued in 2016, as Codemasters' subsequent racing games, Dirt Rally and F1 2016 are branded with the regular Codemasters logo. On 9 June 2013, Reliance Entertainment increased its stake in Codemasters from 50% to 60.41%, making it the majority owner. In April 2015 Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens left to join Jagex , leaving COO Frank Sagnier as

1593-575: The Beaumont Business Centre in Banbury , where their elder sister Abigail managed the front desk. Codemasters' first game was BMX Simulator , a successor to BMX Racers . According to David Darling, the company aimed at making budget-priced games with the quality of full-priced games, as they would gain a larger customer base that would subsequently create better exposure. To produce more games in less time, Codemasters started hiring developers on

1652-596: The Clue Bender Society for DS, and Wild Earth: African Safari , Our House and Cake Mania for Wii. In May, it was announced that Codemasters had won the rights to the Formula One licence after Sony 's deal ran out and thus ending Psygnosis and Sony's Formula One series. The first resulting game, F1 2009 , was released on the Wii and PlayStation Portable in November 2009, and another similar game, F1 2010 , on

1711-593: The Codemasters EVO development division were made redundant and the division was shifted to a support role for other titles. Codemasters held an initial public offering to list the company on the London Stock Exchange 's Alternative Investment Market on 1 June 2018. The company's shares were valued at 260 pence during trading bringing in a total of £185 million . As a result of the IPO, Reliance Entertainment held

1770-478: The Codemasters.com website was breached. It is believed that the attacker was able to gain access to the personal information of registered users with Codemasters accounts. Codemasters notified its users about the attack via email on 10 June 2011, after which their websites were pulled down and users redirected to their Facebook page. In mid-2012, it was announced that Codemasters' racing games, whether about to be produced or developed, would begin to be branded under

1829-675: The EA deal, which closed by the first quarter of 2021. Take-Two formally withdrew its offer in January 2021, ceding to EA's bid, while Codemasters' board signed off on EA's bid later that month. The acquisition was completed on 18 February 2021, with all shares transferred to Codex Games Limited, a subsidiary of EA. EA's Andrew Wilson said they plan to keep Codemasters as a standalone entity within EA similar to Respawn Entertainment. Codemasters announced in July 2021 that CEO Frank Sagnier and CFO Rashid Varachia will depart

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1888-473: The Huge Tour take place, and they are accurate on the kind of surface that tournament actually uses: London ( Wimbledon ) is played on grass, Paris ( Roland Garros ) on clay, New York ( Flushing Meadows ) on hard court, etc. Each surface has three different sets, with the scoreboard on the left, right or middle. This is probably one indication of the court in use: most games during Huge Tour tournaments are played in

1947-418: The U.S., trademark rights are acquired by use in commerce, but there can be substantial benefits to filing a trademark application. Sole proprietors are the most common users of DBAs. Sole proprietors are individual business owners who run their businesses themselves. Since most people in these circumstances use a business name other than their own name, it is often necessary for them to get DBAs. Generally,

2006-473: The World Tour), and if the J-Cart is in use, 4 players can play simultaneously. Tournament is the "party" mode. From four to eight players can compete head to head in a knockout competition until the best two matchup in the final. Although it is not possible to change the match length (5 sets only), each player can choose a handicap, from none to three sets. The single-player only game mode, called World Tour,

2065-446: The company at the end of the month, as part of the EA acquisition plan. Special vice president of product development Clive Moody and of publishing Jonathan Bunney will take over leadership of Codemasters following this. In May 2022, EA merged Codemasters subsidiary Codemasters Cheshire into Criterion Games , an existing subsidiary of EA, as to support effort on the Need for Speed series as

2124-522: The county or city to be registered with the State Corporation Commission. DBA statements are often used in conjunction with a franchise . The franchisee will have a legal name under which it may sue and be sued, but will conduct business under the franchiser's brand name (which the public would recognize). A typical real-world example can be found in a well-known pricing mistake case, Donovan v. RRL Corp. , 26 Cal. 4th 261 (2001), where

2183-428: The entity that is legally responsible . Legal agreements (such as contracts ) are normally made using the registered legal name of the business. If a corporation fails to consistently adhere to such important legal formalities like using its registered legal name in contracts, it may be subject to piercing of the corporate veil . In English , trade names are generally treated as proper nouns . In Argentina ,

2242-422: The game play remains simple yet realistic, for its time. While serving, the A button sends the ball automatically, and B allows the player to control the ball speed and direction, and is the only way to score aces against the best players. During play, A lobs, B sends a normal shot and C, if pressed alone performs a top spin shot, if in conjunction with left or right on the D-Pad the player dives in that direction. It

2301-459: The help of Heibert. An advertisement placed in the magazine Popular Computing Weekly caught the attention of Mastertronic , a British software publisher, and the two brothers quit their education to pursue development of budget-priced games for the company. These games included Space Walk , BMX Racers , Jungle Story , Orbitron , Sub Hunt and Pigs in Space . They also developed The Games Creator,

2360-458: The highest rewarded a minimum place in the ranking is required. In order to win the Australian Open (the season opener) one must first complete a season first. Up to eight players can compete at the same time, the match length is the official: five sets for men, three for women. Next Generation gave the Genesis version of the game two stars out of five, commenting that Pete Sampras Tennis

2419-410: The last service (which is done automatically by a machine, instead of a player). The game is timed, and both players must achieve the target score - if one of them reaches the timer without the required score, the game ends and the player with the higher score is declared winner. The Huge Tour mode is a complete competition, nearly a season simulation. There are both men, women and mixed tournaments, for

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2478-663: The latest in the Colin McRae Rally series, Colin McRae: Dirt . They also published Overlord and Clive Barker's Jericho . Following the death of Colin McRae on 15 September 2007, Codemasters released a public statement expressing their sorrow and support for the family. In March 2008, Codemasters announced a new partnership with Majesco Entertainment which would focus on titles for DS and Wii , including Nanostray 2 , Toy Shop , Cake Mania 2 and Nancy Drew: The Mystery of

2537-402: The law is to protect the public from fraud, by compelling the business owner to first file or register his fictitious business name with the county clerk, and then making a further public record of it by publishing it in a newspaper. Several other states, such as Illinois , require print notices as well. In Uruguay , a trade name is known as a nombre fantasía , and the legal name of business

2596-461: The named defendant, RRL Corporation, was a Lexus car dealership doing business as " Lexus of Westminster ", but remaining a separate legal entity from Lexus, a division of Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. . In California , filing a DBA statement also requires that a notice of the fictitious name be published in local newspapers for some set period of time to inform the public of the owner's intent to operate under an assumed name . The intention of

2655-446: The new temporary CEO. In April 2016, Codemasters announced that they had hired most of the staff of racing game developer Evolution Studios after Sony closed the company. The first Codemasters title for eighth generation consoles was F1 2015 , launched in July 2015. In October 2015 they released Overlord: Fellowship of Evil , their first non-racing game since 2011. After the disappointing sales of Onrush , several members of

2714-481: The phrase " doing business as " (abbreviated to DBA , dba , d.b.a. , or d/b/a ) is used, among others, such as assumed business name or fictitious business name . In Canada , " operating as " (abbreviated to o/a ) and " trading as " are used, although " doing business as " is also sometimes used. A company typically uses a trade name to conduct business using a simpler name rather than using their formal and often lengthier name. Trade names are also used when

2773-445: The rights to use the title Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising (2011), but have parted with the original developer Bohemia Interactive Studio . In spite of this, Codemasters released Operation Flashpoint: Elite , developed by Bohemia, for Xbox in October 2005. The year 2005 also saw the appointment of Rod Cousens, formerly of Acclaim , as managing director. In December 2006, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment entered into

2832-653: The school's computer room outside of hours through one of the school's janitors. Additionally, on weekends, they were allowed to use the Commodore PET computer owned by their father, James, to create a text version of Dungeons & Dragons . Later on, the two brothers and school friend Michael Heibert, whose family possessed a VIC-20 computer, founded Darbert Computers and created video game clones of popular games, such as Galaxian and Defender . The Darling brothers later returned to England, where they acquired their own VIC-20 and founded Galactic Software, again with

2891-491: The sided scoreboard courts, except the final. The game has three main modes: Challenge match, Tournament and World Tour. By inserting the Zeppelin password, two extra modes are unlocked: Crazy Tennis and Huge Tour. Challenge matches are simple head-to-head matches, where everything can be customized, from game length (1/3/5 sets), location and the kind of game (singles or doubles). All players can be chosen (including opponents in

2950-454: The surname(s) of the sole trader or partners, or the legal name of a company. The Companies Registration Office publishes a searchable register of such business names. In Japan , the word yagō ( 屋号 ) is used. In Colonial Nigeria , certain tribes had members that used a variety of trading names to conduct business with the Europeans. Two examples were King Perekule VII of Bonny , who

3009-469: The term trade name to refer to "doing business as" (DBA) names. In most U.S. states now, however, DBAs are officially referred to using other terms. Almost half of the states, including New York and Oregon , use the terms assumed business name or assumed name ; nearly as many, including Pennsylvania , use the term fictitious name . For consumer protection purposes, many U.S. jurisdictions require businesses operating with fictitious names to file

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3068-493: The total staff at Codemasters to about 700 people. The studio acquired the exclusive license to the World Rally Championship series in June 2020 which will begin as a five-year deal in 2023, with plans to release their first game in 2024. Codemasters announced in November 2020 that it had been approached to be acquired by Take-Two Interactive as a buyoff offer valued at £739.2 million . Codemasters said its board

3127-514: The two companies were already working together on a new title in the series together for months, then later that year in October, announcing a new title called Need for Speed Unbound , which was released on 2 December 2022. In December 2023, an unknown number of employees at Codemasters were laid off by EA. Ego is a modified version of the Neon game engine that was used in Colin McRae: Dirt and

3186-472: Was developed by Codemasters and Sony Computer Entertainment using Sony Computer Entertainment's PhyreEngine cross-platform graphics engine. The Ego engine was developed to render more detailed damage and physics as well as render large-scale environments. Trade name In a number of countries, the phrase " trading as " (abbreviated to t/a ) is used to designate a trade name. In the United States ,

3245-646: Was dissolved, with Jester releasing their own Music 3000 product. Codemasters released their final music based product, MTV Music Generator 3 in 2004. Codemasters have since continued to release titles for later generation systems, such as the Brian Lara Cricket series, Colin McRae Rally and Dirt series, Dizzy series, F1 series, Grid series, LMA Manager series, Micro Machines series, Operation Flashpoint series, Overlord series, Project CARS series and TOCA series. They owned

3304-573: Was headed by Guy Wilday, who was involved in the Colin McRae Rally games and was formerly the series producer. In the 2008 Queen's Birthday Honours , the Darlings were appointed Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to the video game industry. On 5 April 2010, Reliance Big Entertainment , an Indian company acquired a 50% stake in the company. Later in 2010, Codemasters launched

3363-545: Was known as Captain Pepple in trade matters, and King Jubo Jubogha of Opobo , who bore the pseudonym Captain Jaja . Both Pepple and Jaja would bequeath their trade names to their royal descendants as official surnames upon their deaths. In Singapore , there is no filing requirement for a "trading as" name, but there are requirements for disclosure of the underlying business or company's registered name and unique entity number. In

3422-508: Was named the best independent video game developer by magazine Develop . It formerly also published third-party games. Codemasters Group Holdings plc was the holding company of Codemasters, which was publicly traded and owned Codemasters until being purchased by EA in 2021 for $ 1.2 billion. While attending school in Vancouver , Richard Darling and his elder brother, David Darling , had learned programming with punch cards and had access to

3481-444: Was ready to approve the deal, pending the required regulatory approvals and Take-Two's own commitment once those approvals were granted. In the same month, both Take-Two and Codemasters agreed to a Take-Two buyout of Codemasters in a stock and cash deal around US$ 994 million , which was expected to be completed by early 2021. Following the acquisition, Codemasters would have operated within the 2K label under its existing leadership. In

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