LJN

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the airport, see Brazoria County Airport

LJN was an American toy company and video game publisher in operation from 1970 to 1994. They created many toy lines and video games that were based on popular movies, television shows, and celebrities.

LJN was founded in 1970 by Jack Friedman (who later founded the toy companies T*HQ and Jakks Pacific). The name LJN was inspired by the initials of Lewis J Norman which is the reverse of Norman J. Lewis Associates, a toy company where Friedman was employed in the 1960s before leaving to form LJN.

In 1986, LJN was acquired by MCA through their Universal subsidiary. LJN ventured for the first time into the video game market and released several titles for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), often based on popular franchises such as movie and cartoon licenses. In late 1988, Acclaim Entertainment acquired LJN from MCA/Universal.

Under Acclaim, LJN pretty much kept the same movie/cartoon direction for their video games as when they were under Universal. Acclaim got rid of LJN's toy division and turned LJN into a video game only company. During the 8-bit gaming era, Nintendo, as a form of quality control, regulated the number of titles to appear on its console, the Nintendo Entertainment System. As a result, companies like Acclaim used divisions such as LJN to produce more products than Nintendo would have traditionally allowed. Konami also utilized such tactics with their division Ultra. Unlike Ultra which was a brand name of Konami, LJN was still a legal company operating independently and at a different location from Acclaim. Even after Nintendo dropped its rule in the early 1990s, Acclaim kept LJN operating which published several titles for the Super NES.

Whether for the NES or Super NES, there is no known video game that has been developed by LJN themselves even though many of their games, especially the pre-Acclaim ones, did not disclose the developer.

LJN, along with the Flying Edge and Arena Entertainment labels (the latter two labels which published Acclaim's games to Sega's consoles) were folded into Acclaim in 1994.

In 2000, LJN made a return in name only when Acclaim used the brand to publish Spirit of Speed 1937, a video game title for the Dreamcast.