Distinctive Software

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Distinctive Software

Industry	Video games
Founded	1982; 42 years ago (1982)
Defunct	1991 (1991)
Fate	Merged into EA Canada
Successor	EA Canada
Headquarters	Burnaby, British Columbia , Canada
Key people	Don Mattrick Jeff Sember Paul Lee Tarrnie Williams Bruce McMillan
Products	Test Drive series 4D Sports series
Parent	Electronic Arts

Distinctive Software, Inc. was a Canadian video game developer established in Burnaby, British Columbia, by Don Mattrick and Jeff Sember after their success with the game Evolution.^[1] Mattrick (age 17) and Jeff Sember approached Sydney Development Corporation, who agreed to publish Evolution in 1982.^[2] Distinctive Software was known in the late 1980s and early 1990s for their racing and sports video games, including the Test Drive series, Stunts, 4D Boxing, and Hardball II. In 1991, Distinctive was acquired by Electronic Arts in a deal worth US$10 million and became EA Canada, which is where the most EA Sports branded games are developed.^[3][1]

In 1989, programmers Pete Gardner and Amory Wong of Distinctive, under the pseudonym USI (Unlimited Software, Inc.), converted Sega's arcade game Out Run for MS-DOS. They used several software libraries they had developed for Test Drive II. Consequently, Accolade charged that Distinctive violated a working agreement, and sued. Accolade sought a preliminary injunction against the distribution and sale of Out Run. Distinctive Software argued that it had only used source code that did routine functions, such as clearing the video screen and that Accolade did not own a copyright on those functions. Accolade argued that their contract for Test Drive II gave them the ownership and copyright of the final product—the game—and the source code used to create it. Distinctive Software won; the court ruled that "the licensing agreement transfers to Accolade the copyright to the concept and design of the video game but not the underlying source code." The court also found that Accolade had failed to demonstrate that the balance of hardships was in its favor.^[4]

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