The video game publisher Black Legend was founded in Switzerland in 1992 by Richard M. Holmes. Holmes lived in Uster in the Canton of Zurich, had grown up here and had just graduated from KZO Wetzikon. The 20-year-old young entrepreneur wanted to produce games for Amiga computers and launch them on the market. He looked around in Switzerland for fellow campaigners, but soon found good contacts in England and finally emigrated to produce some well-performing games for Amiga and PC with his label Black Legend for the Kompart distribution company in the following years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Richard M. Holmes grew up in Switzerland – in the Zurich Oberland – but also held British citizenship from his father. He was good at mathematics and began programming and designing games as a teenager. After finishing the Kantonsschule Z\u00fcrcher Oberland (KZO) in Wetzikon, he was involved in the demoscene for a while and came into contact with the development of video games. In 1992, he founded the company Black Legend<\/em> in Uster to publish games. Holmes was convinced that there were enough developers with appealing concepts with which he could produce games. He concentrated on the Amiga computer, which was reaching its peak at the time. He tried to use his contacts in the demoscene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Start in Switzerland<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time he was in contact with developers from Aargau who were making a role-playing game. But he can’t remember the details, he says in a conversation in 2024[1]<\/a>. After some more questions, it became clear that he was referring to the people from Nightmare Productions<\/em>[2]<\/a> from the Aarau\/Oberentfelden area: Michael Wyler, Kjell Droz, Olivier Schraner, Stefan Degen, Daniel Chour, Kari Stadler and Berny Meyer. They designed the Amiga game Antares – reaching for the stars<\/em>, which was programmed in Modula 2 (!) in 1990 and released in 1991 by the German distributor Bomico<\/em> Entertainment Software<\/em>. Antares<\/em> is a classic role-playing game in the style of Bard’s Tale<\/em>, set in a science fiction scenario. Space explorers are lost in the Antares <\/em>system in the year 2280. A search party is attacked and must land on the planet Kyrion and find out more about what happened. Holmes wanted to release another role-playing game with the crew from Nightmare Productions<\/em>, which was also already being planned. He can no longer remember the name himself. The sound designer from back then, Berny Meyer, on the other hand, still remembers the unfinished project, which, like Antares<\/em>, should also have been published by Bomico<\/em>. The 1991 prototype was called \u201cTrumble<\/em>\u201d. Berny Meyer says in 2022: \u201cBut we had started another project called \u2018Trumble\u2019<\/em>, but because of the Bomico <\/em>contract frustration (80 cents or so per copy sold) nothing more came of it.\u201d[3]<\/a> The project was abandoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Black Legend finds developers in Eastern Europe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Black Legend <\/em>(fig.1) was a latecomer to the Amiga scene and first appeared in 1992 and 1993. The PC had already taken over a considerable part of the market by then. Nevertheless, Amiga was at the peak of game production. By Christmas 1993, four games had been launched on the market. Holmes had looked around the Eastern European countries that had recently ceased to be under Soviet control. And he had found what he was looking for in Croatia, Hungary and Estonia. There was a burgeoning and untapped scene for computers like the Amiga with a thriving demo scene and lots of potential. The working atmosphere was not so hectic. Many of the developers who went on to work for Black Legend<\/em> did so part-time or as freelancers. They stayed in their home country, where the costs of work and living were much lower than in Switzerland or London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 1: Black Legend\u2019s logo in use from 1993 to 1996. Source: mobygames<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of Black Legend<\/em>’s first successful games was a collaboration with the Hungarian studio I\/O Product<\/em>. The game was comically named Fatman: The Caped Consumer<\/em> (1993) and was a ‚Euro-platformer‘ (fig.2), a standard ‚collect-em-up platformer‘ in which players play an original superhero: Fatman (fig.3). This is the alias for Roy Fat, a mild-mannered inventor who loves his food. Most of his inventions revolve around food and his stomach. Perhaps his most amazing invention is a food duplicator that can make a copy of any food. This invention made Roy Fat’s Restaurant famous all over the world. As soon as he squeezes himself into his superhero costume, he is known as Fatman, the terror of all slimming farms. The music was particularly convincing. The gameplay was okay to fun, and the whole thing was very humorous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 2: Fatman, the Caped Comsumer (1993), title screen of the humoristic platformer. Source: mobygames<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 3: The game box of Fatman, the Caped Consumer (1993) with simple graffiti lettering. Source: Suter<\/p>\n\n\n\n With Moscow Nights<\/em> (1993), Black Legend released a compilation of 20 Russian puzzle games from various Russian developers on MS-DOS. It was not well received by critics and sales were limited. However, it did at least contain the game Drop-Drop <\/em>(fig.4), the original version of a game that was later licensed to Data East<\/em>, where it mutated into the all-time classic puzzler Magical Drop<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 4: In Drop Drop, you have to stack five symbols on top of each other to make a row dissolve. Drop Drop was one of the 20 puzzle games in Moscow Nights (1993). Source: PC Player<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another compilation was also not really successful. Hungary for Fun<\/em> (1993) was a compilation of three puzzle games from Hungary: Logic, Zarcan and Kid Pool. Logic is a game with chips like in Four Wins<\/em>, which is played on several levels. In Zarcan you have to connect atoms and in Kid Pool you can play pool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Black Legend <\/em>had also tried its hand at a 3D shooter designed by the Norwegian studio Offence Software<\/em>. Hyperion<\/em> (1993) was considered by critics to be either a Virus<\/em> imitation or a Zarch<\/em> clone, albeit a very playable one. Players are given 10 missions to complete as pilots in a vector graphic planetary world full of enemies, and they are always difficult (fig.5).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 5: Hyperion (1993), a 3D vector graphics shooter with difficult controls. Source: Youtube, screenshot Suter<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another Black Legend puzzle game was Statix <\/em>(1994) from the German studio 7th-Sign<\/em>. Although it is another game in which 3 objects must be connected, it is quite original. The blocks also must balance a swing while being arranged (fig.6). The old Tetris concept is paired with a simple balancing mechanic that makes the game challenging and interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure. 6: Statix (1994) combines an old Tetris concept with a seesaw that has to be balanced when you arrange the rock formations. Source: Youtube, screenshot Suter<\/p>\n\n\n\n Black Legend also released a dungeon crawler RPG. Crystal Dragon<\/em> (1994) (fig.7) was developed by the British studio Magnetic Fields and was a visually successful and fairly difficult game that found its followers. The critics, however, were not so convinced and gave good ratings for gameplay but mediocre ratings for graphics and sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure. 7: Crystal Drgon (1994) was a popular dungeon crawler RPG in Great Britain. Source: Suter<\/p>\n\n\n\n As early as 1993, Holmes launched the two C64 games Summer Camp<\/em> and Winter Camp<\/em> of Thalamus<\/em> for the Amiga with Black Legend<\/em> and Kompart<\/em>. Lodestone Designs for Creative Materials<\/em> (Pete Petriv and David Lowe) and Softeyes<\/em> (Peter Opdam) were responsible for the conversions. The London-based Swiss graphic artist Oliver Frey had already created the cartoonish design and packaging for the C64 versions that came out in 1990 and 1992. His graphics with the sporty mouse Maximus were also used for the cover of the Amiga version \u2013 with an additional frame that branded the game for Black Legend <\/em>(fig.8). The reviews for the \u2018Mice Olympics\u2019 were not exactly uplifting, but at least Winter Camp<\/em> (1993) received good ratings for its fun and humorous gameplay, with polar bears, pinguins and tourists constantly getting in the way of mouse hero Maximus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 8: The Amiga version of Winter Camp (1993). The box comes with a frame by Black Legend and uses the original illustration of the C64 version by Oliver Frey. Source: mobygames.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Success with football games<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The real success for Holmes\u2019 Black Legend<\/em> came with the football game Football Glory<\/em>, which he had designed in Switzerland and was finally able to realize and launch on the market with the Croatian studio of Croteam<\/em> in 1994. Shortly before this, Black Legend<\/em> had already launched Tactical Manager<\/em> (1994), a football management game in England in which you could take over the management of a team in the top two English divisions and had control over transfers, tactics and training plans. The game could be played with up to 40 people as a turn-based multiplayer game. The success of this game made further sequels possible, five in total. There was also a successful German version entitled Der Trainer<\/em> (1994), which was distributed by Leisuresoft,<\/em> branded with the Black Legend<\/em> logo (fig.9).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 9: The German version of Tactical Manager (1994) was called Der Tainer (1994) and was a successful football management game in the UK and Germany. Source: Suter<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Football Glory<\/em> (1994) (fig.11) and its German version Fussball Total<\/em> (1994) were even more successful. Here you could actually perform actions on the football pitch with a team: tackling, passing the ball, dribbling and shooting from all angles. The gameplay was great fun because unusual scenes were possible, and an unusually high number of goals were scored (fig.10).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 10: In the heart of the game in Football Glory (1994): small scurrying pixel figures, but lots of fun with unusual moves, maneuvers, actions and unexpected events. Source: youtube<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 11: Fussball Total (1994) was the German version of the very successful game Football Glory (1994), which Richard M. Holmes had developed with Croteam from Croatia. Source: Suter<\/p>\n\n\n\n To realize his concept, Holmes found the aforementioned Croatian studio of Croteam<\/em>[4]<\/a> <\/em>in the suburb of Utrina in Zagreb. Roman Ribaric, Davor Hunski, Dean Sekulic and Davor Perovic had all gone to the same school; they were active in the demoscene and knew how to code. They had already made various non-commercial games for the ZX Spectrum and the Amiga \u2013 mainly for their own fun. After Black Legend<\/em> contacted Croteam<\/em>, the team doubled in size. Allen Ladavac, Tomislav Pongrac, Admir Elezovic and Marko Sekulic joined Croteam <\/em>(fig.12). The collaboration with Black Legend<\/em> was a catalyst for the Croatian scene. Other Croatian studios were formed, some of which then also worked for Black Legend<\/em>. And the developers from Croteam<\/em> themselves went on to design several more games for Black Legend, such as Embryo<\/em> (1994) and Spherical Worlds<\/em> (1996).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 12: The contract for Football Glory went to developers from Croatia. Black Legend thus initiated a Croatian video game history. Here is the DOS title screen with their names. Source: mobygames<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time, Richard M. Holmes was looking for young talent all over Eastern Europe. Word had gotten around. He says: \u201cIt worked well. You had a combination of people who had very good computer skills and talent, because they had worked on older systems for a long time and therefore didn’t waste their bits and bytes everywhere.\u201d (Suter 2024) And further: \u201cWe tried to work a bit more closely with them so that they didn’t just copy games but came up with their own designs. And that resulted in good games. I then had three number 1 hits in the UK[5]<\/a>, and this also worked with licenses in German-speaking countries \u2013 and everywhere else.\u201d (ibid.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tactic Manager <\/em>was launched in July 1994, Football Glory<\/em> in November 1994. But the end of Commodore was already looming. It was also a difficult time with different machines, storage media and peripherals. Holmes says: \u201cIt was the last years of the Amiga. The 1200 came out, we then took part in the Commodore bundles for the 1200. We were still in the last bundle \u2013 and then Commodore went downhill. And we had to switch to the PC. The problem in the UK was also that Virgin<\/em> had entered the industry and produced a major project for the PC with The 7th Guest<\/em> (1993) with over 100 people involved. It looked super cool, but you have more fun if you just play with a brick. But it had looked so cool and my business partners, who were ten years older than me, were convinced we couldn’t keep up \u2013 and by 1996 they had gutted the company [Black Legend]. That’s how it was back then. And I, the 22-year-old, didn’t realize that. And the next thing I knew, the place went bust.\u201d (ibid.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n At that time, Domark\/Eidos Interactive<\/em> was interested in acquiring Black Legend<\/em>. Eidos<\/em> was already listed on the stock exchange. \u201cAnd I was perplexed [about the unexpected end] and thought to myself, now I may need to go back to Switzerland to study. But then my partner said to me: what about Eidos<\/em>? They were very interested. Why don’t you give them a call? Then I called Ian Livingstone[6]<\/a>. He asked: how are you? I said: not so good, we’re going out of business on Monday! And he said: then you’ll join us on Tuesday. And then I was the European Product Manager at Eidos Interactive<\/em> for a year and contributed a few games during that time.\u201d (ibid.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Switzerland, a high-price island<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n By then, however, Holmes was already fully integrated into the British games industry. Switzerland was a thing of the past. It had not been possible for him to establish himself in Switzerland as a publisher despite his contacts. He says: \u201cThe problem back then in Switzerland was the cost: the very high costs and wages in Switzerland. And the young programmers always thought, I won’t work for that little money, I might as well go and work at Migros.\u201d It wasn’t profitable for either the developer or the publisher. \u201cAs a publisher, it depended on how much you bought a game for. For a game that cost \u00a325 in the store, we got \u00a312 or \u00a310. Or even less later. And you had to deduct all the production costs from that: Cartridges, CDs, boxes, everything. You couldn’t then pay out 40,000 or 50,000. And in Switzerland you couldn’t put a game together for the same amount. That wasn’t possible. That was the problem. The high-price island. And there was no domestic market for the games in Switzerland either.\u201d (ibid.) There were also not many games available at the points of sale. \u201cYou had about five Amiga games to choose from at Manor. You usually ordered your games by mail order and then later online. But nobody was interested in where these games came from. Manor didn’t have any Swiss products in its small range either. Nobody there knew anything about Swiss games either. No store displayed or sold them.\u201d (ibid.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Holmes did not necessarily regard the Black Legend<\/em> games as Swiss games. He hadn’t given them that thought. He continues: \u201cWe started everything in Switzerland at first, but then continued elsewhere. I emigrated on or shortly after August 1, 1993. Some of the games were already in production and some of the game designs had already been created. For example, I had already written the game Football Glory<\/em>[7]<\/a> before I had even started developing it.\u201d (ibid.) Football Glory<\/em> (1994) is one of the three games by Black Legend<\/em> that made it to the top of the bestseller lists in the UK. The game probably sold around 100,000 copies. Retrogamers still seem to enjoy it to this day, and one of them, Kim Justice, recently posted an enthusiastic review on YouTube, in which he also looked at the history of Holmes and Black Legend<\/em> and the development team from Croatia. [8]<\/a> The big dilemma in Switzerland has always been labor costs and the cost of living. The Aargau developers from Nightmare Productions<\/em>, with whom Holmes wanted to work in the early 1990s, also failed in the end because of that. They had been working on a second RPG but had not found a publisher with good terms and ultimately had to give up. The production costs could not be paid in Switzerland at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you think about what the minimum wage was in Switzerland back in 1991, 1992, it’s still higher than the minimum wage in the UK now [today]! 30 years later! You have to imagine that! […] As a marketing manager, I earned more than I do now in England. That hasn’t changed. You simply notice it more today because you have the information and can easily look online to see what costs how much and where. If a programmer wanted 25 Swiss francs an hour, you simply couldn’t pay that as a guaranteed wage. That was the problem for many people back then.\u201d (ibid.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat is why it wasn’t easy to produce games in the 1990s in the high-price island of Switzerland\u201d, says Holmes. \u201cAnd I wasn’t the only one who emigrated.\u201d (ibid.) He also met a few other Swiss people at the trade fairs [for example the ECTS in London] and exhibitions elsewhere, including Markus Grimmer from LINEL, and discussed and talked about Switzerland with them. Unfortunately, there was never a deal with LINEL. However, he can no longer remember why. Holmes assumes that the cost issue was the decisive factor here too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Black Legend games<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A list of Black Legend games that have already been developed by Holmes in Switzerland or otherwise have a Swiss connection includes the following thirteen games that were released in 1993 and 1994:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Summer Camp<\/em> (1993), (P) Amiga, Lodestone Design for Creative Materials, Black Legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Winter Camp<\/em> (1993), (P) Amiga, Softeyes, Black Legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moscow Nights<\/em> (1993), Compilation, Black Legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hyperion<\/em> (1993), Offence Software, Black Legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hungary for Fun <\/em>(1993), Compilation, Black Legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fatman, the Caped Consumer<\/em> (1993), I\/O Product, Black Legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mega Motion<\/em> (1994), Extended Design, Black Legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Statix <\/em>(1994), 7th Sign, Black Legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Crystal Dragon<\/em> (1994), Magnetic Fields, Black Legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Exploration <\/em>(1994), DOS, Software 2000, Black Legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Embryo<\/em> (1994), Beyond Arts, Black Legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tactic Manager<\/em> (1994), Talking Birds, Black Legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Football Glory<\/em> (1994), Croteam, Black Legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two very successful football games were simultaneously published as separate editions in German and distributed by Leisuresoft throughout the German-speaking world for Amiga and PC:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Der Trainer<\/em> (1994), Talking Birds, Black Legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fussball Total<\/em> (1994), Croteam, Black Legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shortly after founding Black Legend<\/em> in 1992, Holmes met Steven Bailey from Kompart<\/em>. Kompart <\/em>was a British distribution company that had worked with Domark<\/em> and Activision<\/em>, among others, and had established well-functioning distribution channels in Northern and Eastern Europe. In August 1993, Black Legend<\/em> became part of Kompart. The two companies were given three joint managing directors: Holmes, Bailey and Duncan Lothwian, who was Bailey’s business partner. This was also the time when Black Legend <\/em>officially moved from Uster in the Canton of Zurich to St. Albans in England. Kompart<\/em> now took over sales, marketing and public relations, allowing Black Legend<\/em> to concentrate on acquiring and producing the games. [9]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 13: Voyages of Discovery (1994), UK version of Christopher Columbus (1994), a Software 2000 game released by Black Legend on PC. Source: mobygames<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first games from Black Legend<\/em> and Kompart<\/em> received mixed reviews. Fatman, the Caped Consumer<\/em> was quite popular and sold well in various countries, but Moscow Nights<\/em> did not. Success came with the two football games in the second half of 1994, followed by major collaborations with other publishers such as Sid Meier’s Civilization<\/em> for Microprose<\/em> and Christopher Columbus<\/em> and Exploration, Voyages of Discovery <\/em>(fig.13)(same game)for Software 2000<\/em>. In 1994 Black Legend<\/em> moved to Welwyn, Hertfordshire and opened a second office in Germany, in M\u00fclheim an der Ruhr, with former Blue Byte staff. Black Legend<\/em> had already produced one or two games for PC but had mainly focused on games for Amiga. However, the days of Amiga systems were gradually coming to an end. Both offices were closed in 1996 after Black Legend<\/em> went bankrupt. And the story of the game publisher Black Legend<\/em> was over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n IncaGold<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n But not the story of Richard M. Holmes as a game producer and game publisher. With IncaGold<\/em>[10]<\/a>, Holmes founded his own company on March 9, 1998 (GmbH) in Uster (Canton of Zurich) (fig.14) and again in 1999 (plc)[11]<\/a> in England, the purpose of which was to produce games and introduce them to the market. After gaining further experience as product manager at Eidos Interactive<\/em>, he produced around ten more games in 1999 and 2000 that are relevant to the CH-Ludens project. In the years that followed, however, he and his company and several subsequent companies launched numerous commercial games for the games market, most of them for the PC (Windows), but some also for consoles. Games with an IncaGold <\/em>Switzerland connection include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Midnight Racing<\/em> (1999), IncaGold Development, Brightstar Entertainment (fig.15).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Traitors Gate<\/em> (1999), Daydream Software AB, IncaGold GmbH.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rat Attack <\/em>(1999),Pure Entertainment Games, IncaGold GmbH.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nelson Piquet\u2019s Grand Prix: Evolution<\/em> (2000), N-Side Software, IncaGold GmbH.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Missing on Lost Island<\/em> (2000), Riki Computer Games, IncaGold GmbH.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Supercross Kings<\/em> (2000), The Dawn Interactive, IncaGold GmbH.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 14: Logo of IncaGold, which was used in the years 1998 – 2000. Source: mobygames<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 15: IncaGold and BrightsStar\u2019s Midnight Racing (1999) in a CD box. Source: Suter<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, according to Holmes, this also includes some games that he produced for the American market, initially with the publisher ValuSoft<\/em>, which also distributed Shovelware in some cases. However, some of these games were also launched on the European market under the IncaGold<\/em> and BrightStar <\/em>labels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turkey Hunt 3D<\/em> (1998), Fusion Digital Games ltd. and IncaGold ltd., ValuSoft Inc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deer Hunt 3D<\/em> (1998), Flair Software and IncaGold ltd., ValuSoft Inc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fishing USA<\/em> (1999), Flair Software and IncaGold ltd., ValuSoft Inc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jungle Legend <\/em>(1999) Flair Software and Fusion, IncaGold ltd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Autobahn Total<\/em> (1999), IncaGold ltd., Brightstar Entertainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 16: The CD jewel box from Autobahn Total (1999) in a large box Source: Suter<\/p>\n\n\n\n The racing game Autobahn Total <\/em>(fig.16) had the same name in the USA and was also sold under the same title in the German-speaking market a little later. It was based on the German autobahn with no speed limit. Here you could race without fear of consequences. The game was advertised on the box as follows: \u201cHaven’t you always wanted to show what you’re made of on the autobahn without having to worry about annoying speed limits? At last, you can. Autobahn Total<\/em> gives you the opportunity to speed down Germany’s highways without restraint, regardless of the traffic. The other drivers will only have one wish when they see how you drive: To get home with their skin intact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two hunting games Turkey Hunt 3D<\/em> and Deer Hunt 3D<\/em> (fig.17) were only launched in the USA in 1998. They have the same structure. Players choose a rifle, their clothing and a location where they then go hunting in nature from a first-person perspective. Players can turn 360 degrees and move in all directions. Ambient sounds are used as a gameplay element. Once you have shot the turkey or stag, you can hang the trophies on the wall in the hunting lodge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 17: After a long wait and stalking, the deer is in the crosshairs. Deer Hunt 3D (1998) was only distributed by ValuSoft in the USA. Source: Youtube, screenshot Suter<\/p>\n\n\n\n The game Fishing USA<\/em> (1999) works in a similar way. Here you can go fishing in three different locations in the USA. The back cover advertises the game as the most realistic fishing experience you can have outside of a boat Quote: \u201cAdd a secret weapon to your tackle box with Fishing USA<\/em>. Designed to provide the most realistic fishing experience you can have without having to get in a boat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jungle Legend (1999) is also a 3D first-person action game \u2013 this time set in the jungle and spiced with an adventure plot. A strange disease is spreading through the jungle, killing the flora and driving the fauna mad. In the adventure game, the players, as jungle dwellers, have to find out what is going on, find four magic stones and restore balance to the land. There is also a hunting element. Using simple weapons, you must defend yourself against the attacks of the crazy animals. The game was released in a version for the USA (fig.18) and one for Germany with a different cover. Unfortunately, the reviews were not good at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 18: Jungle Legend (1999), a 3D action-adventure game for the\u2019 jungle Rambo\u2019. Here the American version in a plastic folding box with a cardboard cover sleeve. Source: Suter<\/p>\n\n\n\n IncaGold <\/em>consisted of the two companies of the same name in Zurich and on the Isle of Man. At times, their games catalog consisted of 1000 titles, which they sold worldwide. At times they had additional offices in Bratislava, Brazil, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. Brightstar Entertainment Ltd.<\/em> was a sister company that mostly acted as a distribution company for IncaGold<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Holmes stepped down as CEO of IncaGold<\/em> in 2009 and founded other companies with Play Sunshine<\/em> and Lolly<\/em>. IncaGold Limited<\/em> on the Isle of Man was dissolved in 2011. Since 2009, the remaining IncaGold GmbH<\/em> in Uster has been a ’shell company‘ that has remained in the possession of the Holmes family (cf. footnote 11).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Richard M. Holmes himself (fig.19) is still active today with his company Lolly. To date, he has launched over 400 products worldwide in his career and is a recognized expert in the sales and marketing of video games. His IncaGold plc<\/em> was listed on the London Stock Exchange from 2005 to 2009. He was the founder of Stiki Digital<\/em>, a Silicon Valley startup, and has used videogames and social media apps to promote major brands such as Nestl\u00e9, Kellog’s and Yokohama. From 2009 to 2012, he was founder and director of the computer and video games development and publishing company Play Sunshine Ltd.<\/em> in the UK and Bucharest, Romania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 19: Richard M. Holmes in a short promo video for Lolly Global Ltd. in 2024 Source: Website lolly, screenshot Suter<\/p>\n\n\n\n His active company Lolly Global ltd.<\/em>[12]<\/a> is the successor to Play Sunshine<\/em> (2009-2013) and
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