Acclaim Entertainment/Summary

 Background : Acclaim Entertainment, Inc., was founded in 1987 in Oyster Bay, New York. Over the next 17 years, the company became a leading worldwide developer, publisher and mass marketer. The company's headquarters were located in Glen Cove, New York, and their common stock publicly traded on the US Stock Exchange (NASDAQ symbol AKLM). In later years, Acclaim started to make negatively-received games, but they balanced it out with more beloved series like NBA Jam (originally an arcade game developed by Midway before Acclaim bought the rights), NFL Quarterback Club, and Turok. In 2004, Acclaim filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings, leading to its closure. All of its divisions and studios were closed and assets liquidated by the end of the year.

1st Logo
(1987-2000)

 Nickname : "The Acclaim Arrow"

 Logo : On a black background, we see the word "Acclaim" in the gray-gradient color, on top of an rainbow gradient arrow-like line facing the left with the "C's" made of "less than" signs [<]. Under the logo is "entertainment, Inc." spaced to fit the width of the logo. Sometimes, "entertainment, inc." is spaced to fit the width of "Acclaim".

 Trivia : On Frank Thomas' Big Hurt Baseball, NBA Jam and NBA Jam: Tournament Edition, the Acclaim logo can be seen on some posters and walls. Also, the intro to The Simpsons: Bartman Meets the Radioactive Man has the logo on a comic book.

 Variants :
 * An animated version exists where the arrow-line is gray or sometimes black. Then the rainbow gradient arrow-line slides into the logo.
 * Sometimes, the "Acclaim" text is white.
 * On Warlock on Sega Genesis, the logo falls into view themed on an avalanche.
 * On Revolution X, the logo is in 3D style.
 * On Jupiter Strike, the logo is smaller than the original version and the rainbow-colored line shines.
 * On Super Smash T.V., and George Foreman's KO Boxing for SNES, the blue-gradient lines appear above and below the screen respectively.
 * On some games like the Game Boy version of Cutthroat Island, "entertainment, inc." is gone.

 FX/SFX : The arrow sliding into the logo.

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

 Music/Sound Variant : On the SNES versions of Super Smash T.V. and George Foreman's K-O Boxing, a mystical chime sound is heard.

 Availability : Seen on Acclaim games from the time, including Mortal Kombat 1 and 2. This can be also seen on the company's very early PlayStation and Sega Saturn games. It even also appeared on UK releases of Mortal Kombat 3 for Game Boy and Game Gear and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for SNES and Genesis since Acclaim distributed the titles internationally.

2nd logo
(1995-2000)

 Nicknames : "Shooting Letters", "The Acclaim Arrow II", "CGI Acclaim Arrow"

 Logo : On a black background, each letter in the word, "Acclaim", flies in and hit the screen, leaving blue fire traces. Everytime a letter hits the screen, the arrow line flashes in blue. When all the other letters come along including "entertainment, inc.", the blue arrow line becomes rainbow colored as usual, and the logo shines with rainbow colors, becoming 3D and grey. After the logo forms, the logo shines while the light starts to shine from beyond the logo.

 Variants :
 * On the PlayStation port of Alien Trilogy, the logo runs at 30fps.
 * On Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball, NFL Quarterback Club '97, and All-Star Baseball '97 featuring Frank Thomas for Sega Saturn, the logo is shot in widescreen.
 * On Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, The letters shoot in like the regular logo and the letters have a brown texture with the gray border around them. After all the letters form, the arrow-line wipes in from the right. Then "entertainment, inc." appears through the flames and is a bit smaller and not in spaced-out letters.
 * On Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, the letters in the logo are placed incorrectly. Then bullets shot from the Iguana fly around and form the logo the correct way. Then he cackles. This also happens in the original demo version of Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion, but minus Iguana's cackle.
 * On Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion, the logo, rotates through. Plus, the letters are plain brown.
 * On Iggy's Reckin' Balls, the arrow-line appears. Suddenly, the letters of "Acclaim", along with the "(R)" symbol, are bouncing in to get to their standard positions. When the letters and the "(R)" get in their position, the fireworks appear and "entertainment, inc." appears through the fireworks effect.
 * On South Park, the logo is already formed and in metallic letters and it takes place in a space background. A green comet flies past through the logo. Also, the URL, "WWW.ACCLAIM.NET" is shown under the logo and "entertainment, inc." is gone.
 * On Extreme-G, the background takes place at night with the water making waves. On there is a green light. The Acclaim logo appears zooming out. Then it turns around as the background and waves disappear. As the logo forms, "ENTERTAINMENT, INC." and the "(R)" symbol, appears wiping in and the blue light appears under "m". The word, "Acclaim" has blue and white texture this time.
 * On Extreme-G 2, the arrow-line zooms through from the view and zooms out in high speed. As the arrow-line turns around, the word "Acclaim" appears letter-by-letter. After the logo forms, the shine appears making the dot on the "i" appear and "ENTERTAINMENT, INC." along with "(R)", appears wiping in. The "Acclaim" text is blue line in the Extreme-G variant. Then a red G-bike drives through above the logo.
 * On Bubble Bobble: Featuring Rainbow Islands and Fantastic Four for PlayStation, the standard logo is sped up a little, except for the PAL versions which is in standard speed.
 * On DragonHeart, the logo appeared in flame.

 FX/SFX : CGI. Different animation depending on each variant.

 Music/Sounds : Sounds of letters flying, ending with the descending tune.

 Music/Sounds Variants :
 * The opening theme of the game in Extreme-G and Turok 3 is heard.
 * On South Park and the PAL version of Bust-A-Move 3, it's silent.

 Availability : The standard version appears on almost every Acclaim game for PlayStation, Saturn and PC like NFL Quarterback Club '96 and  '97  (The former title was never released for PlayStation), College Slam, NBA Jam Extreme, Space Jam, WWF In Your House, and The Crow: City of Angels, among others. The variants can be seen on games for Nintendo 64 as well like the Turok series (Except for Turok: Rage Wars and Turok: Evolution, which both have the Acclaim Studios Austin logo), South Park and Extreme-G and its sequel, Extreme-G 2. Some of the N64 variants also appear on the PC version of said N64 titles as well.

3rd logo
(1994-2004)

 Nickname : "The Acclaim Arrow III"

 Logo : We see the similar Acclaim logo from the 1st logo, but the word Acclaim is bold and is in plain white. Also, "entertainment, inc.", or "entertainment" is under the logo like before.

 Variants :
 * On some titles since 1998, "entertainment, inc." is absent. Sometimes, the website URL, www.acclaim.net, later changed into www.acclaim.com in 1999, is under the logo.
 * Sometimes the word "Acclaim" is black and the background is white.
 * On Realtime Associates' developed games like WWF Raw for Game Gear, the background and letters are white. The background is black on Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball while Iron Man/X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal has the text in gray.
 * On some games for PlayStation, Saturn, and PC, which was from 1995 to 1998 like Rise [of the Robots] 2, College Slam, NFL Quarterback Club '96 and Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball for SNES and Genesis, the logo is in 3D style and the words, "Acclaim" and "entertainment, inc", are dark blue. Also, it has a light blink on it. On Genesis versions, there is no light blink on it. On Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball for Genesis, the arrow colored line slides in from the right like in the first logo.
 * On some games like Machines, Trickstyle, Burnout 2: Point of Impact and Shadow Man, the logo is high-quality 3D, and the word "Acclaim" is a bit green and has metallic shine. But on Shadow Man, it's on a background.
 * On XGRA, the logo appears on racing track.
 * On Legends of Wrestling, each letter in the word "Acclaim", are wiped to the screen letter-by-letter. It has "PRESENTS" below. Plus, the rainbow arrow-line is absent.
 * On Dakar 2, the logo appears from the transition of the Acclaim Studios Cheltenham logo. Plus the shine travels through the arrow-line.

 FX/SFX : Depending on variant.

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

 Availability : Once again, seen on Acclaim games from the time.

4th logo
(2000-02)

 Nicknames : "The Acclaim Arrow IV", "CGI Acclaim Arrow II", "The Light Traveling Arrow"

 Logo : The Acclaim logo turns and zooms in with the spotlight rays traveling through the word, "Acclaim". Then as the lights reach the "cc" part of the logo, the colors on the arrow-like appear via the glow-light color, forming the logo. Then the logo zooms back while the lights slowly dim out a few seconds later.

 FX/SFX : The light traveling through the logo.

 Music/Sounds : TBA.

 Availability : Appears on RC Revenge Pro and Paris Dakar Rally for PS2.

5th logo
(2002-04)

 Nicknames : "Pinball-Shot Acclaim Logo", "The Acclaim Arrow V", "CGI Acclaim Arrow III"

 Logo : The word "Acclaim" is being shot letter-by-letter by lightning sparks. Every letter shines a second after being formed. Two "c"'s are created by the shots from downside, then follow the dot and arrow-line. The word "entertainment" appears, and strike comes down the arrow-line.

 Variants :
 * On All-Star Baseball 2005, "entertainment" is gone.
 * On Shadow Man: 2econd Coming for PS2, the logo was made of polygons and had a dark background with two volcanoes. After being shot, the logo shines and transforms to the normal white Acclaim logo with rainbow line.

 FX/SFX : CGI.

 Music/Sounds : Loud shot sounds.

 Availability : Can be seen on ZooCube for GameCube. Also appears on Freestyle Street Soccer, SX Superstar and All-Star Baseball 2005 for PS2 and Xbox and the American version of Worms 3D for GameCube, PS2 and PC (the Xbox and European versions were published by Sega).

6th logo (2003-04)
 Nicknames : "Laser Writing", "The Acclaim Arrow VI", "The Laser Writing Acclaim Arrow"

 Logo : The Acclaim logo from before is being written in a blue laser lines. After completion, it shines and glows blue.

 FX/SFX : Laser writing the letters.

 Music/Sounds : Laser carving sounds ending with an orchestral hit mixed with the synth bass note.

 Availability : Seen on Acclaim's final titles, among them the unreleased demo version of Red Star for Xbox (which eventually got released in 2007, as a PlayStation 2 title published by XS Games) and Juiced (early demo; this title was later picked up by THQ).