Casady & Greene Says "Goodnight"

powderhound writes "Longtime Mac software publisher Casady & Greene have said their final 'Goodnight.' The publisher of many notable Mac titles such as SpellCatcher, InfoGenie, iData, and Glider Pro, have decided to close the doors on July 3rd. Their web site contains the details of their decision. They will be sorely missed."

Comments

Crystal Quest ruled

[dozer]

Crystal Quest used the mouse better than any other game until the FPSes came along. That was a fun game.

As for the rest of the stuff C&G published, well, I never needed any of it...

Did Apple kill them?

[gamgee5273]

I was one of the first Mac users out of my circle of friends and coworkers to use SoundJam (in fact, my 6500/225 still has it installed). I can understand why Apple bought it and turned it into iTunes, but I almost wonder if, when they bought it, did Apple kill C&G?

After OS X came out, I stopped using Conflict Catcher, too (which, yes, is still on my 6500).

Just thinking this through: Apple definitely dealt a mjor blow buying SoundJam off of C&G, but does anyone think of C&G as an OS X developer?

Oh, well. Farewell, C&G. We'll miss you.

Sad to see them go

[Nick of NSTime]

I lament the passing of the old-guard Mac publishers. Some are reborn, some fade away forever, and some are eulogized.

I think as Mac OS X becomes more ubiquitous, we'll witness a renaissance of Mac development and publishing. It's already showing with products like Transmit and Hydra (to name just a couple).

why?

[trillian42]

I'm pretty new to the Mac world -- an OS X convert... so I've never heard of these guys. But it sounds like the timing might have followed that of the introduction of the new OS. Was their inability to keep going due to something about OS X?

I love this operating system, but I sometimes wonder how much all the goodies that come with it (X11, iTunes, iPhoto, iChat, Safari, Mail.app, Address Book.app, and iCal are all in my Dock) are hurting independent developers who innovated for the platform before Apple got around to incorporating those functions into the OS.

Re:why?

[jellomizer]

Well that is a tough call. A lot of these smaller companies are going out of business because their main focus was making products that filled the gap of the OS. Say a lack of an IM client or a calendar. Now that Apple is coming back they are putting more functionality in their OS to be competitive. So a lot of little guys may be wiped out because they worked on fixing all the small missing apps that the OS should have. I don't think that Apple was trying to find a way to kill the little development companies but it just happened because they were trying to make a better product. As a small software company you have to keep in mind of what you nitch market is, and change when you see you nitch expanding to other competition. So you will have to find a way to transaction to a new type of nitch.

i have to wonder

[burns210]

if apple is shooting itself with the many free programs that come bundled with macos X... The whole sherlock vs. watson thing, where apple made a product VERY similar to a competing program, or their new font management system in Jaguar, which someone said "companies made a living off of", and now that business is gone, integrated into the macos. Jaguar is awesome, and the software that comes with it is top notch, but when do you draw the line between building software in house, and relying on developers to write software for you?

Re:i have to wonder

[faust2097]

their new font management system in Jaguar, which someone said "companies made a living off of", and now that business is gone, integrated into the macos

as much as I liked C&G, I am not a fan of Extensis. Their updates were continuously late, often buggy and their support was spotty at best. Entire companies used to have to wait months for OS upgrades because they were waiting for new versons of Suitcase. They've gotten their act more together recently but their acquisition of Diamondsoft just seems anticompetitive to me. Besides, Apple hasn't improved their font management at all since they added the font folder back in OS 8 (or was it 9?), it was due for an overhaul.

Now I just need to save up for OpenType fonts to replace my old Type 1s.

dealings with C&G

[presearch]

We contacted them when we were looking for a publisher.
They wanted 85%, wanted to delay payments to us for up to 180 days,
if they wanted new "features" either we had to implement them or
they would pay to have it done and -we- would have the cost deducted
from royalties. We said no thanks.

When talking to them, the SoundJam/iTunes thing happened a few months earlier
and I asked the guy about it. He said that Apple approached them,
with a fixed price. They advised them to take it, or get buried by an Apple product.
He wouldn't say how much they got, but it wasn't a huge number, plus they had
to relinquish the programmers as part of the deal. I like Apple, and I like iTunes
and what it's become, but Apple sort of rolled over them and they never recovered.

My summer job at C&G

[superflippy]

I worked for Casady & Greene one summer during college. I typed product registration info into the database, answered phones, beta tested, stuck labels on disks (OK, that should date me), whatever needed to be done. Working there was great - everyone really was like family, and the programmers' dedication to their craft was inspiring. I was always amazed that software created in a little storefront next to the pizza parlor in my neighborhood was so globally popular (my friends in college played Crystal Quest and Glider).

Some random memories of C&G:
- Seeing my first IBM computer with a full-color monitor and GUI. The PC tech support guy was amused that I thought all IBM's had green screens.
- Beta testing a paint program that simulated natural media. It was at least as good as Aldus SuperPaint, the Mac favorite at the time, but for some reason I never heard of it again.
- The intraoffice instant messaging system that one of the programmers built. Everyone spent so much time sending messages to each other, the boss shut it down after just a few days.