LJN

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

LJN was founded in 1970 by Jack Friedman (who later founded toy companies THQ 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, 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. Other companies that utilized such tactics included Konami with their division Ultra. Unlike Ultra who was just a brand name of Konami, LJN was 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 who published several titles for the Super NES. Also, whether for the NES or Super Nintendo, it must be noted that there is no known game that have been developed by LJN themselves even though many of their video 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 Sega Dreamcast.

Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.