FormGen Corporation was a business software, shareware and computer game company that was founded in 1987 by friends Randy MacLean and Robert Van Rycke in Bolton, a neighbourhood in Caledon, Ontario, Canada.
History
It was a software producer and distributor, selling its text-based form generation program through Radio Shack stores in Canada. Van Rycke left the company in October 1988 and was replaced later by James Perkins.
The company advanced rapidly in the early 1990s when it made an agreement with id Software to distribute their new gaming software titles such as Commander Keen, Doom (shareware), and with Apogee Software/3D Realms for Rise of the Triad and Duke Nukem 3D.
The company relocated its head office and manufacturing facilities to Scottsdale, Arizona in 1992, and was later bought out by GT Interactive in 1996.[1]
- Lawsuit
FormGen Inc. was involved in a landmark intellectual property lawsuit, "Micro Star v. FormGen Inc." They claimed that Micro Star's sale of the Nuke It compilation of user-created maps and levels infringed on its copyright of the derivative works of Duke Nukem 3D and won the case on appeal. [2]
References
- ^ Business, Bloomberg (1996-07-11). "Company News; GT Interactive Acquires Humongous Entertainment". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 November 2008.
- ^ Micro Star v. FormGen Inc., 154.F.3d 1107 Archived 2010-05-17 at the Wayback Machine (9th Cir. 1999) (opinion full text).