Lankhor was a French video game developer based in Clamart, France. The company was founded in 1987 by Jean-Luc Langlois and Kyilkohr. Lankhor was known for developing Mortville Manor, the first video game to feature speech synthesis during gameplay.[1]
| Industry | Video games |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1987 |
| Founder | Jean-Luc Langlois and Kilkhor |
| Defunct | October 2, 2002 |
| Headquarters | , France |
Key people | Jean-Luc Langlois, Daniel Macre |
| Revenue | 345'075'848 (1998) |
| 388'116'196 (1992) |
In 1998, the company won the award for the Best French Company by the magazine Génération 4.[2]
History
editLankhor was founded in 1987 as a result of the merger between Kyilkohr creations and Béatrice & Jean-Luc Langlois. Lankhor gained fame with productions such as the arcade game Wanderer (1987) by the Langlois siblings and, above all, the adventure games Mortville Manor and Maupiti Island. Mortevielle by Gourier and Bernard Grélaud was published for the first time in 1986 on the Sinclair QL platform, but in the refreshed version of Lankhor (with a new title board and speech synthesizer) was successful a significant commercial success, repeated by Maupiti Island.[3][4] Another commercial success for Lankhor was the racing game Vroom, simulating the competition during Formula 1.[5][6] Mortevielle, Maupiti Island and Vroom were awarded Tilt d'Or statuettes, awarded by the industry magazine Tilt.[4][5]
From 1994, the company abandoned its publishing activities to devote itself solely to development. At the beginning of 1996, Daniel Macré having joined Jean-Luc Langlois in the company management, signed a development contract for Formula 1 games under FIA license with the British publisher Eidos Interactive. In 2000, Lankhor was developing video games for Microïds including Ski Park Manager which was released in 2002.[7] The company however experienced a difficult financial situation which started at the end of the same year; this situation led the company to cancel its contract with Video System, a Japanese video game distribution house. At the end of 2001, Lankhor announced its closure which came to pass on October 3, 2002.[3]
Games
edit| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 1987 | Mortville Manor |
| 1987 | No (Never Outside!) |
| 1987 | Wanderer |
| 1988 | Elemental |
| 1988 | G.Nius |
| 1988 | Killdozers |
| 1988 | Rody & Mastico |
| 1988 | Troubadours |
| 1990 | Maupiti Island |
| 1990 | Raiders |
| 1990 | Saga |
| 1990 | Sdaw |
| 1990 | La Secte Noire |
| 1991 | Alive |
| 1991 | Alcantor |
| 1991 | Burglar |
| 1991 | Fugitif |
| 1991 | Infernal House |
| 1991 | La Crypte Des Maudits |
| 1991 | La Malédiction |
| 1991 | Le Trésor D'Ali Gator |
| 1991 | Mokowe |
| 1991 | Outzone |
| 1991 | Vroom |
| 1992 | Silva |
| 1992 | Survivre |
| 1993 | Black Sect |
| 1993 | F1 |
| 1995 | Kawasaki Superbike |
| 1998 | New Order Liberation |
| 1999 | Official Formula One Racing |
| 2000 | F-1 World Grand Prix |
| 2000 | Warm Up! |
| 2002 | Ski Park Manager |
References
edit- ^ ACE Magazine Issue 13. ACE. October 1988. p. 104.
- ^ "Récompenses 4 d'or de l'année 1988 - ABANDONWARE FRANCE". Abandonware (in French). 1998. Retrieved 2023-05-07.
- ^ a b "Lankhor - Grospixels". Grospixels (in French). Retrieved 2023-05-17.
- ^ a b Jankowski, Filip (2019-12-30). Reckoning with the historical past of France on the example of Lankhor's games (in Polish). Vol. 6. Replay. The Polish Journal of Game Studies. pp. 28–29. doi:10.18778/2391-8551.06.02.
- ^ a b Blottière, Olivier (April 1992). "Vroom test". Obligement (in French). Retrieved 2023-05-20.
- ^ Ribault 2019.
- ^ "Ski Park Manager: Zbuduj swoje Zakopane PC" [Ski Park Manager: Build your Zakopane PC]. GRY-Online Poland (in Polish). Retrieved 2023-05-17.
Bibliography
edit- Ribault, Thomas (2019). Épopée: Tales from French Game Developers. New Jersey: Hardcore Gaming 101. ISBN 9781798244968.
External links
edit- lankhor.net: an unofficial tribute site (in French)