written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . september 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message tantalus media type proprietary limited company industry computer and video games founded 1994 founder andrew bailey trevor nuriden arthur kakouris headquarters melbourne australia key people tom crago ceo joss ellis director of development products see complete products listing number of employees 20 to 30 contractors website http www.tantalus.com.au tantalus media formerly tantalus interactive is an australian video game developer based in melbourne australia founded in 1994 by former beam software programmers trevor nuridin tim bennett and andrew bailey . in the mid 90 s tantalus was partly owned by uk developer perfect entertainment which secured contracts with psygnosis for ports of their popular playstation games to the sega saturn . during this time tantalus was known as tantalus entertainment but reverted to tantalus interactive after they became independent when separating from perfect in 1998 . the company changed its name to tantalus media in 2007 following investment from private equity company netus . 1 in 2010 following the completion of the ds & psp title megamind the blue defender ceo tom crago re acquired the business from netus . tantalus media are best known for licensed platform conversions and have created over 40 games for the xbox sega saturn dreamcast super nintendo entertainment system nintendo gamecube game boy advance nintendo 64 playstation playstation 2 playstation portable and pc nintendo 3ds wii u and ios . contents 1 history 2 games by tantalus media 2.1 developer 2.2 publisher 3 studios 4 references 5 external links history edit their first original title was south park rally completed for four platforms in just 7 months . their first handheld game was atv quad power racing for the game boy advance and they released space race their first ps2 game that same year . they used two cross platform engines cris for handhelds with skinned mesh rendering and the mercury engine for new generation consoles in its early years . 2 cris character render interactive system was developed by andrew bailey for use on the gba . using a unique procedure it was able to render 3d mesh on the handheld system . a game engine that allows the full power of skinned mesh rendering on the gba . cris does away with traditional pre drawn sprite sequences replacing them with character images generated in real time 3d . the result is a level of visual quality and physics realism previously unattainable on a handheld gaming device . cris was used mainly in the 2003 gba title top gear rally . released to high critical acclaim it showed the power of a system at it peak while raising the bar for racing games on hand held systems . 3 tantalus won best game at the 2003 australian game developer awards in melbourne for its effort . 4 in addition to licensed video games the developer released two original titles trickstar and black market bowling . in 2005 tantalus had two prominent original ip titles that never managed to attract publisher interest . metal shell was developed into a playable demo originally a vehicle shoot em up on the ps2 in 2003 the feature making it popular was deformable terrain as vehicles and shells exploded . in 2005 new concepts and a short promotional video were developed in house by the art team shown at e3 that year it was promoted as a battlefield 1942 type game set in the future . however the 2003 promotional video was seen by players of the toronto based games producer longbow digital arts treadmarks tank combat and racing game and several issues were flagged up leading to graphical comparisons drawn in a side by side fashion ; they were incredibly alike in one case down to exact sprite design . tom crago was contacted directly on the issue and denied any infer of copying or trying to copy treadmarks despite tantalus allegedly holding treadmarks source material for a short while . archived video footage of both titles can be found and compared on youtube . 5 anaka was first pitched as a jump n run title for the gba in 2003 while only a document existed featuring loose details . in 2005 . an animation feature short was made with the help of act3animation as part of a pilot for television . 6 in 2006 a touch only nintendo ds demo was created players could control the character indirectly by touching the screen where they wanted them to go . it was a mix between a jump n run and a traditional adventure game . the developer s best performing title was the 2007 girl s horse riding simulator pony friends for the nintendo ds which sold more than 1 million copies making it the largest selling single format game developed in australia . 7 by 2008 tantalus was running two studios and during that time the studio worked on cars race o rama and mx reflex for the nintendo ds and psp as well as pony friends 2 for the wii & nintendo ds and legend of the guardians the owls of ga hoole for the latter system . shortly after completion of cars race o rama in 2009 the brisbane studio started work on the company s first digitally distributed title drift street international for the nintendo dsi . meanwhile the melbourne office began work on megamind for psp and ds while also prototyping demos for 360 iphone and ps3 . games by tantalus media edit developer edit stargate snes 1994 area 51 saturn ps pc 1995 wipeout saturn 1996 krazy ivan ps saturn pc 1996 manx tt superbike saturn pc 1997 wipeout 2097 saturn 1997 the house of the dead saturn pc 1998 south park rally dc n64 ps pc 1999 atv quad power racing ps gba 2000 looney tunes space race dc 2000 ps2 2002 men in black ii alien escape gc ps2 2002 woody woodpecker in crazy castle 5 gba 2002 monster truck madness gba 2003 unreal ii the awakening xbox 2003 top gear rally gba 2003 the polar express gba 2004 the adventures of jimmy neutron boy genius attack of the twonkies gba 2004 spongebob squarepants the yellow avenger ds psp 2005 trick star gba 2006 mx vs. atv on the edge psp 2006 cars mater national championship gba ds 2007 mx vs. atv untamed ds psp 2007 pony friends ds 2007 the legend of spyro dawn of the dragon ds 2008 pony friends 2 wii ds pc 2009 mx vs. atv reflex psp ds 2009 cars race o rama psp ds 2009 legend of the guardians the owls of ga hoole ds 2010 megamind video game psp ds 2010 super speed machines ds 2010 ben 10 galactic racing ds 2011 funky barn 3ds wii u 2012 pony trails ios 2012 zombi ps4 xbox one pc 2015 the legend of zelda twilight princess hd wii u 2016 8 publisher edit amf bowling 2004 black market games xbox 2003 black market bowling black market games ps2 2005 heat shield black market games ios 2009 drift street international tantalus dsi 2010 funky barn download tantalus wii u 2012 studios edit tantalus first office was in elizabeth street in melbourne s cbd from 1994 to 2000 . they then moved to the tea house at south wharf victoria in south melbourne where they stayed until late 2011 . in december 2011 they relocated their headquarters to fitzroy a suburb of melbourne . in december 2008 tantalus established an office in kelvin grove brisbane supporting a small team to increase development capacity . at that time tantalus employed just over 70 staff across the two offices with 5 titles in production across 5 platforms . the studios were equipped to handle mutable projects with 3 4 titles were being developed at any one time . during the last half of 2009 due to a shift in the games industry in australia tantalus media closed its brisbane office while also making much of the staff in the melbourne office redundant . during the first half of 2010 the company was reduced to a staff of under 18 at a time when many australian development studios were closing . 9 by december 2012 the company was in development of two new titles and is currently focusing on digital distribution developing for the nintendo 3ds wii u iphone ipad and android devices . references edit sydney morning herald screenoplay developer dreams tantalus media pty ltd top gear rally gamesopt top gear rally award metal shell treadmarks anaka on nicktoons sydney morning herald local hero in real life a hd remake of twilight princess is being developed in australia . kotaku.co.au . 2015 11 12 . retrieved 2015 11 12 . http www.tsumea.com australasia australia news 130510 ign editorial on the state of the australian games industry external links edit official website v t e the legend of zelda series main series console games the legend of zelda the adventure of link a link to the past ocarina of time 3d majora s mask 3d the wind waker hd four swords adventures twilight princess hd skyward sword breath of the wild handheld games link s awakening oracle of seasons and oracle of ages four swords the minish cap phantom hourglass spirit tracks a link between worlds tri force heroes spin offs lcd games cd i games faces of evil and wand of gamelon zelda s adventure satellaview games freshly picked tingle s rosy rupeeland link s crossbow training irozuki tincle no koi no balloon trip hyrule warriors universe characters link princess zelda ganon navi epona tingle midna recurring enemies triforce i am error it s dangerous to go alone media cartoon comics gamebooks hyrule historia symphony of the goddesses people eiji aonuma hidemaro fujibayashi yoshiaki koizumi koji kondo y ichi kotabe toru minegishi shigeru miyamoto tadashi sugiyama kensuke tanabe takashi tezuka companies nintendo animation magic capcom dic entertainment flagship grezzo tantalus media team ninja vanpool book category portal retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title tantalus media & oldid 729106662 categories video game companies of australiavideo game development companieshidden categories use dmy dates from august 2015use australian english 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