SimHQ Revists Origin (March 14, 2011)

[ChrisReid]

Klavs tipped us off about a new SimHQ article about the canceled Jane's A-10 Warthog sim. In addition to talking about the game, the author also talks about the Origin culture and their Austin campus in the late '90s, which makes this piece a pretty good read. Check it out here.

Perched on a hill after crossing the Pennybacker Bridge over Lake Austin, the glass-encased, modern office building added to the charisma of 1990s Austin. While the purveyors of doom were warning the flight simulations heyday was coming to a end, that it had crested and was on the slope downward, the offices still conveyed a feeling of excitement — at least for me. Perhaps I was so awe struck and overwhelmed that I was *there* at the location where Longbow was created that I, like a lot of flight sim fans, was in denial about the indicators that flight sims had peaked and were starting to wind back down in activity.

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Original update published on March 14, 2011

 

[JasonRocZ]

So Origin owned Janes Combat Simulations at some point? This I did not know. Nor do I see Origin noted on any of the Janes Combat Sims Boxes I have, Specifically USAF nor Fighters Anthology

 

[ChrisReid]

EA published the Janes Combat Sims in the '90s. Origin made the Longbow ones.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

The Jane's stuff is confusing because EA did *so much* with it for the five years they licensed the brand... and they treated it as a continuation of their 'fighters' series (USNF, ATF--in fact there were ATF reprints where it was Jane's ATF)... which was itself a 'spiritual' continuation of EA's early flight sims (Yeager, LHX).

They actually had five studios working on Jane's games at the same time, in locations all over the world: the Yeager/Fighters team in California, Origin Skunkworks in Austin, a studio in Maryland staffed by Microprose vets, a studio in Israel and another one that did the ship-specific games.

(Adding more confusion, two other companies have since licensed the Jane's name to do a pair of more 'arcade' like games.)

Of all these studios, two of them were 'Origin' by name--

"Origin Skunkworks" was located at Origin in Austin (on the top floor of the building) and run by Andy Hollis (who took over Wing Commander in 1998). They did Longbow, Longbow Gold, Longbow 2, Longbow 2 Gold and the aborted A-10 game. These were the only games that listed Origin on the box, IIRC.

... but the team working in Baltimore, mostly former Microprose vets who did old sims with Hollis, was alternatively referred to as 'Origin Baltimore' or 'EA Baltimore' at times. If you look at Origin press releases from back then you'll see the stock description of the company mentions they have 'further offices in Hunt valley, Maryland'--that Jane's team is what they're referring to. They did the pure fighter sims, F-15 and F/A-18.

When I, a terrified teenager, went to visit Origin just before Prophecy Gold shipped, they brought me in to spend an hour talking to Andy Hollis who had just taken over the brand. I asked him what Jane's was working on now that Longbow 2 Gold had shipped. He said he couldn't tell me... but if I looked around at the office's decorations I could probably figure it out, wink wink.

I can very clearly see in my head the huge posters of A-10s, the models on his desk, the big printout cutaways of them in the hallways and so on today... but at the time I *absolutely couldn't make the connection* somehow. I think I just smiled and nodded.