A TRIBUTE TO
AFTER FORMING IN GERMANY IN 1987, FACTOR 5 GRACED THE AMIGA WITH THE TURRICAN SERIES AND WOWED CONSOLE GAMERS WITH ITS ROGUE SQUADRON GAMES. COFOUNDER JULIAN EGGEBRECHT REMEMBERS THE GAMES THAT THE STUDIO BUILT ITS REPUTATION ON
WORDS BY RORY MILNE ounded in Cologne in early 1987, Factor 5 first released its accomplished Amiga R-Type clone Katakis before tackling the official Amiga R-Type conversion. An Amiga adaptation of Manfred Trenz’s intense C64 run-and-gun Turrican followed, which garnered acclaim and led to a popular series that later moved from the Amiga to the SNES and Mega Drive in the early to mid-Nineties. Before then, Factor 5 pushed Commodore’s 16-bit computer with its Ballblazer sequel Masterblazer and its conversion of Bonk’s Adventure – BC Kid. As the Nineties progressed, the firm impressed with Indiana Jones’ Greatest Adventures for the SNES, and the Game Boy ports of Animaniacs and Contra: The Alien Wars. It then transitioned into PlayStation development with the best-seller Star Wars: Rebel Assault II and the underrated Ballblazer Champions. In 1998, Factor 5 revisited the Star Wars franchise with its flight combat title Rogue Squadron, which received two popular sequels in the subsequent decade. Its year 2000 N64 titles Indiana Jones And The Infernal Machine and Star Wars: Episode I – Battle For Naboo also did well.
50 | RETRO GAMER
Following Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III – Rebel Strike’s 2003 launch, Factor 5 had several projects cancelled, including two Rogue Squadron titles, Porco Rosso, Animal Wars and a Superman game. The studio got its dragon combat title Lair published in 2007, but not before unwanted changes were made to it. After closing its doors in 2009, Factor 5 returned in 2017, and since then the renowned studio has focussed on producing remastered versions of its Turrican games for modern platforms.
» [Wii] Here’s an image from Factor 5’s cancelled Wii Star Wars game, showing a lightsaber duel with Darth Vader.
JULIAN EGGEBRECHT Q Soon after starting his first games project with Internal Byte Systems in 1989, Julian jumped ship to publisher Rainbow Arts, where he stayed until 1991 before joining Factor 5. Julian is still a driving force behind the studio to this day, and is also the director of Netflix’s Technology Research Group.