The history of Animation Magic feels like that moment in Rocky IV when a tired and beat up Sylvester Stallone proudly announced the end of the frictions between the USA and USSR by screaming, "Everyone can change!" But, well, that was a few years before the actual end of the Cold War; the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the USSR in 1992, but never mind. All those history-changing events seemed to immerse the world into a (long-lost) optimism for the future, and also probably influenced the creation of Animation Magic.

Animation Magic was originally a multimedia company, founded in 1992 by the late Dale DeSharone, under his own name, who sadly passed away in 2008. He had been working at Spinnaker Software, designing, programming and writing the editing tools and engines for its Philips CD-i games. As he recalls, in an interview with John Szczepaniak from 2006 published on the Hardcore Gaming 101 blog, "I had originally planned to be at Spinnaker only one year, as Philips was planning to release the machine in 1988. Then one year turned into four, due to constant delays, I think the launch was closer to 1991."

In the end, with the machine's limitations being very evident and CD technology being more and more veered towards PC and Mac, Dale mentioned Philips did not feel the console was made for games and noticed "a subtle hostility" towards the medium. The company came about also thanks to funding from AIM (American Interactive Media, Philips' American publishing company), with most of the previous team from Spinnaker joining as well. Igor Razboff, Dale DeSharone's partner, explains. "We had actors, writers, game designers, audio engineers, composers, artists and animators on staff in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The entire staff at the time was around 12 people, so there were not a lot of us. Actors were hired on a project basis when voices were needed."

And that is how the first big job for Animation Magic came about, through the same Dutch company. "Philips was comfortable working with Dale and that is how we got the Nintendo deal. They had an agreement to licence five characters from Nintendo, from what I recall," explains Igor. Animation Magic pitched that it could maximise the quality by developing a single engine to be used with both games. But with a small full-time staff, at the time, Igor mentions that the company was definitely cutting it close to be working on two games at the same time. The games were also going to be both launched on the same day, 10 October 1993.

To make matters worse, Philips mentioned that, somehow, in the budget of the games it wanted to include computer animation. And that is how Dale DeSharone met Igor Razboff. Igor had been living in the United States since 1982, and remembers meeting his future partner through a mutual friend. "Dale told me about his work with Animation Magic and the small budget they were working...