InterAct Accessories

From Sega Retro

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InterAct logo.png
InterAct Accessories
Founded: 1991[1]
Defunct: 2001
Headquarters:
110 Lakefront Drive, Hunt Valley, 21030, Maryland, United States
10945 McCormick Road, Hunt Valley, Maryland, 21031, United States

InterAct Accessories Inc., formerly STD Entertainment (USA) Inc. was a video game peripheral manufacturer founded in 1991 by 23-year-old Todd Hays[1].

The full origins of STD/InterAct are not completely understood, however it is likely STD Entertainment was established to market and distribute video game accessories, manufactured in Hong Kong and China, in North America and Europe (being a subsidiary of the Hong Kong manufacturer). For the first few years of its existence, products were sold under the STD brand, however in 1994 a supplementary brand was created, InterAct Game Products (or InterAct Multimedia Products depending on context).

STD Entertainment's parent company was acquired by Recoton in 1995, and by 1996 had officially renamed to InterAct Accessories Inc. InterAct spent much of the 1990s making successful products, becoming one of the top video game accessory companies in the US. Chief among these was the GameShark line, created when InterAct struck a deal with UK-based Datel to market various Action Replay devices in North America under the name (before going on to produce other GameShark creations, such as the Sega Dreamcast's Massive Memory Card Plus).

For whatever reason, InterAct had a sub-brand known as Performance. It is not currently known whether Recoton bought Performance and merged the two under one name, or whether Performance was merely a brand.

Recoton went bankrupt around 2001-ish, taking InterAct (and Performance) with it. However the GameShark brand was saved and sold to Mad Catz.

Accessories produced

Mega Drive

Game Gear

Saturn

Dreamcast

Gallery

External links

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 http://www.interact-acc.com/corporate/index.html (Wayback Machine: 1998-06-15 08:08)