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EXPERITEC Co.

Experitec logo

EXPERITEC Co. Logo

EXPERITEC Co., also known as Experi-Technologies Co. and Experience Soft, Co., was an American video game publisher that released various titles for video game consoles and home computers. Founded in 1974, the company initially focused on personal computer software before expanding into video games, publishing, and computer hardware. EXPERITEC went bankrupt in 1997 after the release of the EXPERIBOX home console in 1996.

EXPERIBOX

EXPERIBOX logo

EXPERIBOX Logo

EXPERITEC began development on the EXPERIBOX in 1993 following the release of the 3DO. Founder Adam Bryant was impressed by the technology and poured EXPERITEC’s already flagging finances into the project. The EXPERIBOX released in 1994 to bad reviews. Many pointed out that it was a 3DO clone, had only a few titles available, and did not reliably work.1 Combined with its limited promotion and the oversaturated console market, the EXPERIBOX failed to lift EXPERITEC out of its inevitable bankruptcy.

Using a 32-bit ARM810 processor at clock rate 72 MHz and performing at 84 MIPS, the EXPERIBOX could reliably run fairly advanced 3D polygonal graphics at acceptable framerates for its time. Its most divisive feature was its keyboard and mouse support. Although the EXPERIBOX came with a typical controller, two ports along its right edge allowed players to plug in their personal keyboard and mouse. These ports were highly unreliable, frequently disconnecting and requiring a full restart before regaining functionality. Only two games for the EXPERIBOX took advantage of this feature, one of which was Deeptower made by Mipsco Co..

  1. Gaming journalists won’t tell you this, but EXPERITEC did not have a working prototype of the EXPERIBOX until a month or two before it was supposed to ship. Just a monumental failure in production. Deeptower tried to work with the limits of the console and then important people got fired over it. ↩