time for some obscure game preservation history

back in the 80s, Distinctive Software was known for some of their heavy hitters like Hardball, the 4D Sports series, and Test Drive. (at the time, i had no idea they were a canadian studio based out of burnaby, BC.)

in 1990, DSI was bought by EA and became EA Canada, relegated to defecating EA Sports sequels for eternity.

last week, i noticed a weird EA sticker on a copy of Ultima VI that i’d never seen before. curiosity got the better of me, and i bought it just to find out the sticker was about.

as it turns out, this copy of Ultima VI sat in DSI’s physical library for years. these libraries existed to let developers play their own company’s (and often the competition’s) games, use them as references, etc.

when EA bought DSI, EA suddenly owned all of their assets, and - interestingly - their company’s internal software library. the DSI label got an EA library logo stickered over it. There’s even a referencing number for whatever internal library referencing system EA/DSI used.

wish we had some photos of EA’s library in the 90s. i bet it was pretty massive.

#gamePreservation #history #canada #ultima