Psygnosis

Background : Psygnosis Limited was a prolific UK-based game company, most notable for its Lemmings and Wipeout series and other quality games. Psygnosis became a legendary company, and its "owl-ball" logo is still fairly well-known around in the gaming world. It was acquired by Sony in 1993, but stayed autonomic until 1998, when its activity was divided to Eidos and 989 Studios. The Psygnosis brand and logo were used until 2000 (for Sony internal studios as well), when Sony incorporated all European studios into its internal structure. In 2000, Sony discontinued the Psygnosis brand, closed all their US studios and renamed their UK studios, with the main company later renamed to SCE Studio Liverpool, which was unfortunately closed on August 22, 2012. Former employees of the company then formed 2 independent studios, Firesprite and Playrise Digital.

1st Logo (1986-1996)

Nicknames : "The Owl-Ball", "Psygnosis Owl", "Psygnosis Owl-Ball"

Logo : On a black background, the text "PSYGNOSIS" is seen at the top of the screen, all of it in a custom futuristic font colored with chrome-blue tones and sometimes features motionless pings. Below it is a silver ring, and a geometric owl is seen in mid-flight on the left side of it. On the bottom right is the "Owl-Ball", a white ball with an abstract looking owl head, with most of the details in turquoise and lines coming out of the owl's eyes, which are black and yellow.

Trivia : The logo was designed by Roger Dean.

Variants :
 * On earlier titles, the logo was either missing the Owl-Ball or just had the text on the title screen.
 * Sometimes, "PRESENTS", in the same font as "PSYGNOSIS", is under the logo.
 * There's another variant where we see only the "PSYGNOSIS" text with "PRESENTS" underneath.
 * There's another variant where it only shows the "Owl-Ball" and under it is the "PSYGNOSIS" text.
 * On the Game Boy port of Bram Stoker's Dracula, the background is white.
 * Depending on the platform, the color scheme may vary.

FX/SFX : None.

Music/Sounds : None or the opening theme of the game.

Music/Sounds Variant : On the Amiga and Atari ST versions of Blood Money, an announcer said "And now, Psygnosis presents..."

Availability : Common on older games presented by Psygnosis. The variant without the owl appeared on Puggsy, the Amiga and Atari ST versions of Blood Money, Deep Space, and Dropzone for SNES. The variant with Owl-Ball and the name below was seen on Mickey Mania for Playstation, Lemmings 3D, Destruction Derby for Saturn and Discworld. The standard version debuted on Shadow of the Beast.

Editor's Note : While its pretty well-designed and cool-looking, the text is very hard to read, especially the "G", which makes it looks like "PSYCNOSIS".

2nd Logo (1994-1996)

Nicknames : "The Tunnel", "The Dark Tunnel", "Psygnosis Owl II", "Psygnosis Owl-Ball II"

Logo : We are in a very dark tunnel, when then brights out a second later. While we zoom through it, the "Owl-Ball" quickly zooms out from the viewer and backs away with it's smoke effect behind it. As the tunnel's texture changes, the spotlight appears quickly from behind and onto the viewer causing the screen to flash, revealing the Psygnosis logo from before in the green tone, but without the Owl-Ball on it. The tunnel background quickly swirls away. After the tunnel disappears, the logo's tint changes into purple and the Owl-Ball appears again.

Variants :
 * There is a slow variant of the logo that appeared on Mary Shelly's Frankenstein for Sega CD.
 * On Wipeout for Saturn, the logo is ghostly green and lacks the small picture of the owl-ball.

FX/SFX : The zooming of the tunnel, the Owl-Ball zooming out, the flash.

Music/Sounds :
 * 1994: A deep synth theme with some ticking sounds, and two whoosh sounds, one when the Owl Ball zooms out, and one when the logo flashes into the Psygnosis logo.
 * 1995-1996: Hollow wind blowing sounds and whooshes.

Availability : Appears on Mary Shelly's Frankenstein for Sega CD (With the First Theme), and Wipeout, Krazy Ivan and Adidas Power Soccer for PlayStation (With the Second Theme). The logo also appears on Saturn and PC versions of Wipeout as well.

Editor's Note : None.

3rd Logo (1996-2000)

Nicknames : "The Tunnel II", "Psygnosis Owl-Ball III"

Logo : On a dark screen, we see a diamond moving. It zooms away, and we zoom travel through a diamond-shaped tunnel, with the Owl-Ball spinning and rotating towards the tunnel (Using the Same Textures As the Previous Logo). The tunnel and owl-ball continues moving, until the tunnel disappears, and we see a cloudy sky that appears, and a the black circle hole fades in over the cloudy sky and the lens on it, the Owl-Ball appears spinning surrounding it with the black circle outline. After it finishes, the Owl-Ball changes into it's normal style (But it's light blue this time) and the purple rectangular shape with "PSYGNOSIS" on the bottom black half of the shape, appears with the white outline as the background fades out. Then the spotlight-textured background appears behind the logo. "PRESENTS" then fades in, spaced under the logo.

Variants :
 * A more common short version exists where the logo stars with the Owl-Ball spinning.
 * Sometimes, the words "PRESENTS" is absent.
 * On Ecstatica II, the normal version is still and has the words "PRESENTS" in a different font.
 * Sometimes, the logo is still on the black background or the white background. This happened on The City of Lost Children, where the picture possessed some grains, as it was scanned.
 * On Formula 1, the still logo fades in at the beginning of the opening intro movie.
 * On the end of the Formula 1 demo (Found on Interactive CD Sampler Vol. 3 for PlayStation), the still logo is seen on the right along with the 1996 Bizarre Creations logo (see here) on the left. Above and below the logos are "A Bizarre Creations Production" and "Published by Psygnosis" in a Franklin Gothic Bold Italic font respectively. This also appears on the PC demo version of said title as well.
 * Since 1997, there's another variant where the words, "PSYGNOSIS PRESENTS" with the dots between the name in the circle text wrap effect appears zooming in one-by-one three times during the logo's animation (in the same style as the successor). Also, two the same words are in the front side of the logo spinning in different speed and the logo is superimposed on the game's opening intro.

FX/SFX : The tunnel moving, the Owl-Ball spinning, the logo forming. Sometimes, None.

Music/Sounds : A synth theme with drums when the tunnel appears, ending in a synth drone with drum beats. The game's opening theme is heard, or none.

Availability : Still common, particularly on Psygnosis games through the era like Lemmings series, Formula 1, Rascal, Wipeout XL (Known as Wipeout 2097 in UK), Professional Underground: League of Pain, Eliminator and Discworld II: Mortality Bytes!. The later variant appears on titles like Formula 1: Championship Edition (Known as Formula 1 '97 in the UK), Colony Wars, and Shadow Mater. Still variant on black background appeared on The City of Lost Children, Wipeout 64 and Rush Hour. The Full Version is Extremely Rare, as it was Seen on Adidas Power Soccer for Windows, Assault Rigs for Saturn, and Krazy Ivan for Windows and PC.

Editor's Note : None.

4th Logo (1997-2000)

Nicknames : "The Tunnel III", "Psygnosis Owl-Ball IV"

Logo : We zoom through a long dimensional tunnel with different stylish textures decorated around. The words, "PSYGNOSIS PRESENTS" with the dots between the name in the circle text wrap effect appears zooming in one-by-one three times during the logo's animation. Two the same words are in the front side of the logo spinning in different speed. Then the green glowing circle zooms out from the viewer and the Owl-Ball eventually appears spinning in it's same animation from before. As the tunnel slowly fades away, the rest of the logo's animation from the last logo plays, except the spotlight background is completely different.

Variants :
 * There's a rare version of the logo where the "PSYGNOSIS PRESENTS" text is absent, while the logo is animating. This can be seen on Rollcage and its sequel.
 * On Formula 1 '98, when the logo forms, the background fades out and then the background with the black-white checkered finishing flag fades in waving slowly. Then the logo fades out leaving the background intact, causing the Formula 1 Administration (FIA) logo to appear with "Under official license" under it, which was misspelled as "licence", then the ViSOS logo, and of course, the Visual Sciences logo.
 * Like before, there is a still version of the logo.
 * On Formula One '99, the still logo appears on the opening intro movie with "PRESENTS" below the logo.
 * On Sentinel Returns, there is a still version of the logo with it's spotlight background intact.

FX/SFX : Same as before, but with the tunnel animation added.

Music/Sounds : An ominous sequence with chimes, synths and drums, ending in a triumphant horn note. Sometimes it's the opening theme of the game. None for the still version.

Availability : Rare. Appears on games through the era like WipeOut 3, Formula 1 '98, Rollcage, Colony Wars: Vengeance, Sentinel Returns and Adidas Power Soccer '98.

Editor's Note : None.