Sony Electronic Publishing

Background

Sony Imagesoft (formerly "CSG Imagesoft") was founded in 1989 and purchased by Sony in 1992. The division published games for 16-bit consoles. Later, it was renamed to "Sony Electronic Publishing" and expanded to PC products. Soon after, it was closed due to Sony's attention on the arrival of the PlayStation.

Sony Imagesoft

1st Logo (1992-November 1, 1994)

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Nicknames: "The Red Feather", "The Sony Feather"

Logo: A stylized red feather is seen standing on a surface and emitting light rays from its point. The background is black. This box is included into another white box, where "SONY" (in its corporate font) is above, and "IMAGESOFT" is below.

Variants:

• On Last Action Hero, the logo is stretched to screen.
• On SNES games, the logo is darker.
• On the Game Gear version of Cliffhanger, the logo is on a yellow background.
• On some NES games, the logo is on a gray background.
• On the Game Gear and Game Boy versions of Last Action Hero, the logo is surrounded by a striped border. On the latter, there is a drop shadow.
• There is an animated version of this logo, which is seen on Bram Stoker's Dracula (the Sega CD port at least). It carries out like the next logo with some differences: the feather drops slower and points all the way to the right corner, while remaining red throughout the logo, and the box coasts to the center as it appears.
• A different animated version is seen on the Sega CD port of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The feather noticably swirls a little more before pointing dead center, and the box just rotates up after a bright flash.

FX/SFX: None. The feather falling and the flash on the animated versions.

Music/Sounds: None.

Music/Sounds Variants:

• The Dracula animated version features a distorted low-pitched version of the next logo's music.
• The Frankenstein animated version has a low-tempo vibrato theme playing throughout.

Availability: Seen on Cliffhanger, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Last Action Hero, as well as other games.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (March 1993-May 26, 1995)

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Nicknames: "The Red Feather II", "The Sony Feather II"

Logo: Against a black background, the feather from before falls from the top, swirling and making the place with its point down. Colored light rays are emitted from the point, like in the previous logo.

Variants:

• A later animated version has improved look and quality.
• The still version is more graphic and has shadows.
• There is a print version of this logo made in blue (or green) colors and similar to the previous logo.
• There is a simple version used on Gear Works where the blue rectangular part is gone, leaving only the feather and the rays.
• The feather animation is superimposed against the studios of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune on PC versions of those shows' video game adaptations.
• On ESPN Speed World, the logo is inside a white rectangular box. Plus, the logo is crushed by the game's title logo.

FX/SFX: The flying feather and light rays. None for the still versions.

Music/Sounds: A soft orchestral tune with piano. None or the game's opening theme on the still versions.

Availability: The still version is common and seen on various games like Frankenstein, Mickey Mania, No Escape, Hook, Wheel of Fortune, and ESPN series. The animated version was used on several Sega CD games and Johnny Mnemonic for PC. The blue version can be found on Skyblazer.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (August 1, 1994)

Nicknames: "The Red Feather III", "The Sony Feather III"

Logo: It's similar to the regular logo from the era, but the background is more purplish with the colors in the feather over it more gradually fading, the light rays are shown as black cuts, and the company name is in 3D. The logo gets crushed in from the title screen.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Used on ESPN National Hockey Night for Sega CD.

Editor's Note: None.

Sony Electronic Publishing

1st Logo (November 1994-1995)

Nicknames: "The Print Feather", "The Sony Feather IV"

Logo: This is an enhanced print version of the Sony Imagesoft logo, except "IMAGESOFT" is replaced with "ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING", with "PUBLISHING" in spaced-out letters underneath "ELECTRONIC".

FX/SFX: Probably the same animation as before, but generally it's still.

Music/Sounds: None for the still version.

Availability: Very rare due to its short life span. Seen on Ghosts for PC and Mega Turrican (UK version) and Morph for Sega Genesis.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (December 31, 1994)

Nicknames: "The Print Feather II", "The Sony Feather V"

Logo: Same as the 2nd Sony Imagesoft logo, only it starts on a blue background, there is no flash, the rays are simpler, and the logo reads "ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING" in place of "IMAGESOFT."

FX/SFX: The feather falling, the rays spreading out. Basically the same as the 2nd logo, but far simpler.

Music/Sounds: Same as the 2nd logo.

Availability: Extremely rare. So far, this is only known to appear on the 1995 Jeopardy! PC game. It appears to be unused, but the file (SONYLOGO.MOV) can be accessed in the "MOVIES" folder on the disc.

Editor's Note: None.