PonyCanyon Inc.
PonyCanyon Inc. is the developer and/or publisher of multiple Ultima game ports in Japan as well as multiple other related items. The company in its current form came into being when Pony merged with Canyon Records in 1987. The label FCI is also part of PonyCanyon - due to Nintendo's licensing rules in North America at the time - and they didn't even bother to hide it by using the same logo.
History with Ultima[edit]
After the computer ports of Ultima II and Ultima III by StarCraft in 1984 had not been the success in Japan which Origin had hoped for, a second attempt was made once it came to creating console ports of the games. In 1986, Origin came together with PONY, which one year later would merge into PonyCanyon, for the NES-port of Ultima III. The port was a massive success in Japan, which would result in PonyCanyon also being responsible for future console releases - though the one for Ultima V was never released in Japan - as well as the translation of all Ultima games to Japanese computer systems - though, PonyCanon was unable to do so for the FM Towns, where hardware owner Fujitsu did the porting and distribution.
After Electronic Arts took over Origin in late 1992, they were insisting on doing everything in-house and thus they let the contract with PonyCanyon expire, though the computer and console ports of Savage Empire as well as the console port of Ultima VII were still part of the old contract, allowing PonyCanyon to develop those even after the take-over of Origin by EA.
List of Ultima-Works by PonyCanyon[edit]
Computer Ports
- Computer Ports of Ultima I (1988) (MSX2, PC-88, PC-98)
- Computer Ports of Ultima II (1989) (MSX2, PC-88, PC-98)
- Computer Ports of Ultima III (1989) (MSX, PC-88, PC-98)
- Computer Ports of Ultima IV (1987) (MSX, PC-88, PC-98, FM-7, X68000)
- Computer Ports of Ultima V (1990) (PC-98, X68000)
- Computer Ports of Ultima VI (1991/92) (PC-98, X68000)
- Computer Ports of Savage Empire (1993) (PC-98, X68000)
Console Ports
- NES-port of Ultima III (as PONYCA) (1987)
- NES-port of Ultima IV (as FCI) (1989)
- NES-port of Ultima V (1991)
- SNES-port of Ultima VI (1992)
- SNES-port of Savage Empire (1995)
- SNES-port of Ultima VII (1994)
Other Items
- Ultima III - Perfect Solution
- Exodus "Ultima Mix" CD
- Ultima Legend (board game, mainly from Bandai)
- Exodus t-shirt and wrist watch
- Ultima VII boomerang
Logo Gallery[edit]
Logo in 1987
Logo from 1987 - 2006
Logos in the NES-port of Ultima V
External Links[edit]
| Companies involved with the Ultima series | |
|---|---|
| The Main Studio | Origin Systems Inc. |
| Western Companies | California Pacific Computer Co. ☥ Electronic Arts ☥ Looking Glass Studios ☥ MicroProse ☥ Mindscape ☥ Sierra On-Line, Inc. |
| Japanese Companies | Fujitsu Ltd. ☥ PonyCanyon Inc. ☥ StarCraft Inc. |