A History of Turok

[Convenient Spider]

This is to give newcomers to the series a history lesson of the Turok franchise from comics to games to film.

It begins as a comic book in the 1950s
Western Publishing Era 1954-1982 - Turok: Son of Stone.
Premise: Two Native American youths Turok and his brother Andar become trapped in an isolated canyon valley populated by dinosaurs. Turok and Andar seek a way out of the canyon. Turok encounters a herd of horses, which he calls "slim-legged creatures," having no word for them, as the horse had not yet been introduced to the Americas by the Spanish), Turok scales the cliffs, and escapes the Lost Valley. He is out, but he returns for Andar, who was wounded. Then an avalanche permanently seals the way out, and the series begins anew.
(These comics would be adapted into the animated film Turok: Son of Stone.)

1991 - Iguana Entertainment is founded in Sunnyvale, California.

Valiant Comics Era 1993-1996 - Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
In this version, the concept and setting were altered.
Premise: Turok and Andar were now 18th century Native Americans. The isolated valley became "The Lost Lands" — a land where Demons, Dinosaurs and Aliens flourish and where "Time has no meaning". A cosmic anomaly causes time in The Lost Lands to move in a self-contained loop (which means that while millions of years pass outside of it, inside it, time barely moves at all). A psychotic super-powered being known as Mothergod, uses the Lost Land as the base of operations. She outfits Dinosaurs with intelligence-boosting implants, turning them into "bionisaurs". In the aftermath of the final battle between Mothergod and Valiant Universe heroes, the Lost Lands begin to disappear. Turok and Andar are tossed into a post-apocalyptic future Earth, and a group of bionisaurs make it to Earth along with them. Following this, they become ruthless hunters trying to contend with the demons and aliens that exist in the future world as well as various Lovecraftian abominations and high-tech future warriors. Mothergod seizes power in this future and, with the help of The Campaigner, The Longhunter, Thunder (a biomechanical Tyrannosaur) and Mantid (a 30-foot robot praying mantis), begins to rebuild her empire and attempt to hunt down and kill Turok and Andar.

1993 - Iguana Entertainment moves to Austin, Texas, becoming Austin's second-largest developer of computer games, smaller only than Origin Systems, which was already part of Electronic Arts. The company acquired Optimus Software Ltd of Teesside, England which became Iguana Entertainment UK. Iguana UK proved a valuable resource, both for "porting" arcade games including NBA Jam to home video game consoles and for recruiting and preparing employees for transfer to the US office.

1994 - Acclaim got ahold of Turok (as well as others like Shadowman, etc) after buying out Valiant Comics for around $60 million USD.

1995 - Jeff and Beth Spangenberg sold Iguana Entertainment to Acclaim Entertainment.

Acclaim Comics Era 1997-2002 - The game comics
In the revamped Acclaim Comics universe, Turok is not the character's name, but rather a title meaning "Son of Stone".
Premise: The Turok must protect the barriers between this dimension and the others—the axis of all worlds being the Lost Lands, a place where creatures from across time and space had been dragged and where "time has no meaning". Joshua Fireseed, the latest Turok, must travel between alternate universes stopping those who would try to conquer the Lost Lands, and thus all of the multiverse with it.
This series inspired the video game series of the same name. For all the good that came out of the games, Acclaim's new comic line severely underperformed, and ceased all non-Turok publishing around the end of 1999...not that it mattered much, because they would only release one more Turok comic in 2002, and that was a one-shot tie-in with Evolution. On top of that, a number of Acclaim's Turok comics allegedly never made it to shelves due to a mix-up with the distribution warehouse.

The Games: Console versions are mentioned only. Handheld versions shared almost to nothing in common with their console counterparts.
1997 - Turok: Dinosaur Hunter: The Campaigner seeks the pieces of the Chronoceptor to rip a hole in space time so he can conquer the universe. Tal'Set collects the pieces and defeats the Campaigner. Tal'Set destroys the Chronoceptor so no one can ever use it. The consequences of the Chronoceptor's destruction are not felt until 100 years later.
(Tal'Set remains the only Turok ever to reach retirement.)
1998 - Turok 2 Seeds of Evil: The Chronoceptor's destruction wakes up the Primagen, an alien entity imprisoned long ago in the wreckage of its spacecraft after attempting to conquer a place called the Lost Lands. Joshua Fireseed must defend five energy totems that keep the Primagen's powers in check and then defeat the Primagen itself. A mysterious entity calling itself Oblivion attempts to thwart Turok's quest by creating false copies of the talisman chamber portals that lead to areas populated by its servants, the Flesh Eaters.
(The development team would later go on to make the N64 port of South Park.)
(Four non-canon Turok novels are written by Michael Teitelbaum and released, dealing with the same storyline as the games. They are titled Way of the Warrior, Seeds of Evil, Arena of Doom, and Path of Destruction.)
1999 - Turok: Rage Wars: Joshua Fireseed competes in the Rage Wars Tournament to win the Light Burden.
(This game is considered non-canon by most. Others are not so sure.)
2000 - Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion: When the Primagen's Lightship was destroyed at the end of Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, the chain reaction it triggered was so powerful that the universe as it existed was completely eradicated, pushing Oblivion, a monstrous cosmic entity that consumes bodies of the living and reigned before the birth of the universe, to the very brink of destruction. Though totally ravaged, Oblivion survived and now desperately seeks a means to punch through the Netherscape that separates the living world from the Lost Lands, a strange and primitive world where time has no meaning. The last shreds of the pure energy source that created the living world and nearly wiped out Oblivion are contained within the Light Burden, the bag that every member of the Turok lineage has carried. Deep within the Lost Lands, Oblivion's henchmen have a massive headquarters from where they assemble their armies and direct their operations. he game begins with the current Turok, Joshua Fireseed, having dreams of a child that must be protected, as he is the last of the Fireseed lineage. During that night, Oblivion Spawns teleport into his home and try to kill Joshua in his sleep. Joshua catches them and fights, but is outnumbered. He then tells his sister Danielle and his brother Joseph to escape, while he stays behind with a bomb in his hand to blow the Spawns away, along with himself. While Danielle and Joseph drive away, they are attacked by a monster, but Adon, a female alien who helped Joshua in the previous game, saves and teleports them to a council meeting to deal with the situation of Oblivion. They decide that either Danielle or Joseph must become the next Turok, and the player must choose.
The trilogy ends on a cliffhanger that is never resolved.

Decline and Revival:

1999 - Turok trilogy developer Iguana Entertainment is renamed Acclaim Studios Austin (US branch).

2000 - Jason and Darren Falcus left to form Atomic Planet Entertainment Ltd., Acclaim Entertainment makes a sharp cut in the number of employees at Acclaim Studios Teesside (UK branch).

2002 - Acclaim Studios Teesside is closed. Many staff members relocated to Acclaim Cheltenham (other UK branch).

2002 or 2003 - Turok Evolution - A prequel telling the events of how Tal'Set accepted his destiny as the Son of Stone after wiping out the army of Lord Tyrannus and defeating General Bruckner, who slaughtered Tal'Set's tribe.

A Turok Evolution sequel is planned. Turok: Resurrection. This installment's storyline was set to begin after the events of Evolution, with Tal'Set, the current Turok, sacrificing himself in a final battle against Lord Tyrannus and the remnants of his Sleg army. Tal'Set is transported to the spirit world, were he's hailed as a hero, but is suddenly resurrected to face-off against a new threat: The Soulless. This new faction has overrun the Lost Land, and its spirit wells. Turok, upon revival, is tasked with cleansing the spirit wells, while battling dinosaur and cyborg foe alike in an effort to stop the Soulless. During his quest, Tal'Set is given mystical abilites by the spirit elders and weaponry enhanced with spirit powers from his fallen ancestors. Due to poor reviews and sales of Turok: Evoltuion, this game is cancelled. The villain Tobias Bruckner from Turok: Evolution lived on through Electronic Gaming Monthly's annual Tobias Bruckner Memorial Awards, which "honored" what they perceived to be the worst in video games, with categories specific to the games released in that year.

2004 - Acclaim goes bankrupt and is sold off in pieces following a string of failed games, lawsuits, and terrible marketing decisions (Name Your Kid Turok!). Most employees of Acclaim Studios Austin found out when they showed up for work but the building's manager had locked them out of their offices. Acclaim Studios Austin was closed and subsequently liquidated.

2006 - Turok: Resurrection's supposed release date before cancellation.

2008 - The animated film Turok: Son of Stone is released to mixed to negative reception.

2008 - Turok, a reboot that has nothing to do with the previous games or comics is developed by Propaganda Games, published by Touchstone Games and distributed by Disney Interactive Studios. Space Marines on a Dinosaur Planet...nuff said. A Mobile version is also released. A sequel is planned and then cancelled.

2008 - A live-action Turok film headed by Adam Beach was slated to begin development in 2008. News regarding the movie has been scarce ever since its announcement, and the film is assumed to be in development hell.

2009 - Dark Horse Comics started an archive series to reprint the original comics.

2010 - Dark Horse Comics' Turok: Son of Stone. The entire line, including Turok, was short-lived, with Turok lasting only four issues.
Synopsis: Turok, wandering warrior from a far land, rescues Andar, son of a Chiricahua chief, from the ruthless King Maxtla and his Aztec horde. Pursued into a vast cavern, prey and predators are swept away by an unimaginable force to a savage, timeless land of nightmares and miracles, where dinosaurs thunder and rampage. Beset by bloodthirsty enemies and beasts, Turok and Andar encounter an even deadlier threat-the fearsome Panther People and their mesmerizing goddess, Aasta.

2011 - Propaganda Games closes down. The Turok reboot was the only game they released.

2012 - Another cancelled Turok film was development with Greg Russo and director Neil Marshall. Rights issues affected its development, and the project was ended.

2014 - Dynamite Comics' Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. The series ended after 12 issues. It revolves around Turok, a Native American warrior who is shunned from his tribe. He lives an isolated life in a forest until his tribe is attacked by dinosaurs. Both of Turok's parents were killed and Turok thinks being alone is better.

2015 - Night Dive Studios remasters Turok: Dinosaur Hunter for PC.

2016 - Turok appears in a mini-series called Gold Key Alliance. The series featured five Gold Key Comics characters: Magnus, Mighty Samson, Solar, Doctor Spektor and Turok.
Premise: In a present day similar to the real world, there are alternate counterparts of four Gold Key original characters who co-exist but live different lives: Magnus is a secret agent monitoring the rise of military artificial intelligence and robotics around the globe, Turok is a reality television star and tribal park ranger in charge of some rare unique specimens, Samson is a homeless man ranting at unseen monsters on the streets of Manhattan, and Solar is a young female doctor on a mission of mercy in a impoverished part of Africa. But one day, each of them is hunted by an alternate counterpart of Doctor Spektor, who warns them about the upcoming destruction of the multiverse.

2016 - DreamWorks Classics currently own the rights to Turok.

2017 - Night Dive Studios remasters Turok 2: Seeds of Evil for PC.

2017 - Dynamite published a second Turok comic series titled Turok, written by Chuck Wendig and illustrated by lvaro Sarraseca. The first issue was released on August 2, 2017 and also featured backup stories starring fellow Gold Key character Doctor Spektor. It is a part of Dynamite's The Sovereigns series.

2019 - Pillow Pig Games and Universal Studios Interactive Entertainment released Turok: Escape from Lost Valley based on the original adventures of Turok and Andar. The game receives negative criticism especially from me and other long time Turok fans for the game's chibi art style.

2019 - A new Turok comic series is published by Dynamite Entertainment.

[Tonkinese]

Well done sir well done!

i have been an avid turok fan for since the 80's and it is nice to see more of us!

[Sirgibsalot]

Nice, but there's a few gaps here, like how Turok transitioned between different companies, that I'd like to bring up.

- Acclaim got ahold of Turok (as well as others like Shadowman, etc) after buying out Valiant Comics in 1994 for around $60 million USD, which was virtually unheard of for a video game company to spend back then.

- For all the good that came out of the games, Acclaim's new comic line severely underperformed, and ceased all non-Turok publishing around the end of 1999...not that it mattered much, because they would only release one more Turok comic in 2002, and that was a one-shot tie-in with Evolution.

- On top of that, a number of Acclaim's Turok comics allegedly never made it to shelves due to a mix-up with the distribution warehouse. Oops!

- Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion ended on a Half-Life 2: Episode 2-style cliffhanger that was never resolved. Acclaim opted to make Evolution instead of continuing the story. Why? lol i dunno

- Most sources I see say Turok Evolution was released in 2002, not 2003. At least for its North American console release.

- While the general reception of Evolution was mixed, Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine took it bad enough that from that point on, it used Tobias Bruckner, Evolution's villain, as the mascot for its annual terrible game awards. Ouch.

- Acclaim went bankrupt in 2004 and was sold off in pieces following a string of failed games, lawsuits, and terrible marketing decisions (Name Your Kid Turok!).

- Propaganda Games closed down in 2011. The Turok reboot was the only game they released.

[Convenient Spider]

Originally posted by Sirgibsalot:

Nice, but there's a few gaps here, like how Turok transitioned between different companies, that I'd like to bring up.

- Acclaim got ahold of Turok (as well as others like Shadowman, etc) after buying out Valiant Comics in 1994 for around $60 million USD, which was virtually unheard of for a video game company to spend back then.

- For all the good that came out of the games, Acclaim's new comic line severely underperformed, and ceased all non-Turok publishing around the end of 1999...not that it mattered much, because they would only release one more Turok comic in 2002, and that was a one-shot tie-in with Evolution.

- On top of that, a number of Acclaim's Turok comics allegedly never made it to shelves due to a mix-up with the distribution warehouse. Oops!

- Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion ended on a Half-Life 2: Episode 2-style cliffhanger that was never resolved. Acclaim opted to make Evolution instead of continuing the story. Why? lol i dunno

- Most sources I see say Turok Evolution was released in 2002, not 2003. At least for its North American console release.

- While the general reception of Evolution was mixed, Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine took it bad enough that from that point on, it used Tobias Bruckner, Evolution's villain, as the mascot for its annual terrible game awards. Ouch.

- Acclaim went bankrupt in 2004 and was sold off in pieces following a string of failed games, lawsuits, and terrible marketing decisions (Name Your Kid Turok!).

- Propaganda Games closed down in 2011. The Turok reboot was the only game they released.

Thanks for all that. I'm surprised that the Acclaim Era had such terrible luck. I also didn't know how Turok 3 ended. All I know is that Danielle Fireseed was pregnant with her late husband's child securing the future of the Turok lineage. I still bought Turok Evolution despite the hate it gets. I thought it was okay except the flying missions. I didn't think EGM would be so harsh. And name your kid Turok? What were they thinking? One last thing is that it makes sense how the bosses in the first Turok game appear in the Valiant comics.

I'll add some of it to the list if I can.

[KingfossilFER]

I wouldnt say they had bad luck, as anybody who read the turok2 comics can tell how awful and dated it is (clinton is a lizard, and turok is a RAD teen with a nerdy jewish sidekick)

[Sirgibsalot]

Originally posted by Convenient Spider:

Thanks for all that. I'm surprised that the Acclaim Era had such terrible luck.

Glad to help.

Though if Acclaim had bad luck, it was themselves who brought it on. They had a long history of bad business decisions and various shady practices that came back to haunt them, even though we got some good games out of it.

Originally posted by Convenient Spider:

And name your kid Turok? What were they thinking?

That was just one of several stupid marketing ploys. There's the one where they tried to rent out gravestones at a churchyard to use as Shadowman ads. There's the entire BMX XXX mess, where they attempted to give their "Dave Mirra BMX" game series a boost by injecting racy content into it. Dave Mirra told them he didn't want any part of it. They continued to use his name and face on ads anyway, after explicitly telling him they would not. He sued.

I should note that most of this insanity was from Acclaim's UK branch. The rest of the world was largely spared from this nonsense and you'd never know of it unless you read about it online.

Originally posted by RiP | FER:

I wouldnt say they had bad luck, as anybody who read the turok2 comics can tell how awful and dated it is (clinton is a lizard, and turok is a RAD teen with a nerdy jewish sidekick)

That's not even getting into the stuff that blatantly contradicts the games. Like Adon being some kind of energy being instead of an alien, who then sacrifices herself to stop some energy field or some such silliness. It was probably for the better that the games basically ignored them. In fact, one of the main reasons I dislike Turok 3 is because they tried to make it closer to the comic storyline. It was an awkward shift in style and tone and I felt completely disconnected by it.

[KingfossilFER]

Didnt Acclaim have some charges for tax evasion or something like that?

[Sirgibsalot]

Originally posted by martu12:

Honestly, I'm looking at a list of Acclaim games right now and it's surprising just how many of their games I played back in the day. They seemed like such a big deal to my young self.

In all fairness, Acclaim truly was a massive company back in the day. In their mid-90's prime, they were making around $500 million USD a year. That might not be so impressive today, but back then it was a huge amount of money for a video game publisher to being raking in. The fact that they went from those heights to being buried in $100 million USD of debt by 2004 makes their story all the more interesting to me.

Originally posted by RiP | FER:

Didnt Acclaim have some charges for tax evasion or something like that?

No tax evasion from what I know, but they got sued for just about anything else you can name. They were sued by their own investors for lying on financial reports, they were sued by Dave Mirra for the aforementioned BMX XXX debacle, they were sued by the Olsen twins for unpaid royalties over their games, they were sued by their Salt Lake City developers for breach of contract. There's not much information how much, if anything, these lawsuits ended for, but it did Acclaim no favors to be mired in so many in such a short span of time.

[Convenient Spider]

History updated: Included more information on Gold Key: Alliance.

[Coyote Knight]

Give this a watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW8uPx_JG5M

[Convenient Spider]

History Updated: more Iguana Entertainment history added.

[operativelm]

A good write-up. A few other things:

- The first issue of the original Son of Stone (Four Color Comics #596) was intended to be another entry in the then-ongoing saga of Young Hawk, a character whose stories appeared in issues of The Lone Ranger. Young Hawk and his friend, Little Buck, were Mandan warriors who adventured across North American in the days before the Spanish. For an unknown reason, the story where they were to get lost in a valley of prehistoric creatures was spun off into a new property, Turok, most likely by creator Gaylord DuBois's editors. The character of Turok was also aged by the comic's artist.

- Bear in mind that I've not read all of the old Gold Key comics, but I'm reasonably certain that even after the renaming described above Andar isn't supposed to be Turok's brother, just his ward. In the Valiant comics, at least, Andar is merely Turok's student.

- Valiant's Dinosaur Hunter comic series had nothing to do with a post-apocalyptic Earth. When the Lost Land collapsed following the defeat of Mothergod (an event that took place before the Dinosaur Hunter series started), Andar was flung back into his own time, while Turok was deposited in the late 1980s. Turok was not the only thing that made it to the "present day," however, and a good portion of the early comic deals with the remnants of Mothergod's Bionosaurs. Turok manages to reunite with Andar, who is now an old man and who asks Turok to take his grandson, Andy, and train him in the old ways. Turok and Andy are joined by Dr. Regan Howell, an anthropologist assigned to Turok by the CIA to keep watch over him and make sure he adapts well to modernity.

- Thunder and the Mantis do not appear in the Dinosaur Hunter comics, and the Campaigner is only a minor villain compared to the Longhunter. The series can basically be summarized as "Teach Andy things, save people from dinosaurs, fight the Longhunter for a bit every x number of issues, repeat".

- Super nitpicky, but Primagen didn't try to conquer the Lost Land, he technically created it (in the Acclaim continuity at least). His Lightship was damaged after he tried to go back in time to see the creation of his universe, and his ship was punched through space-time, destroying his universe and creating our own. As his ship flew through space and time, it picked up random bits of everything, and when it finally stopped between dimensions, everything crashed together and formed the Lost Land. It's why the place is so unstable and why everything from dinosaurs to aliens can be found there. This is also when Oblivion was grievously injured, not at the end of Turok 2.

- I'm not sure where the whole "Rage Wars isn't canon" thing came from, but I see it around quite a bit. The game itself didn't really have any lore to go off of, but the strategy guide had write-ups for each of the playable characters. A few of the bios, such as for Joshua Fireseed and the Oblivion Spawn, set the stage for the then-upcoming Turok 3 while also highlighting the games' increasing departure from Acclaim's comic canon (eg. the Rage Wars strategy guide was the first time that Tal'Set was described as being the first Turok, whereas the comics merely portrayed him as the best in a lineage that went back centuries).

- And to the other person above, Bill Clinton was not a lizard. He was impersonated by one, but the real Bill turned out to be fine. :V

[Convenient Spider]

Originally posted by operativelm:

A good write-up. A few other things:

- The first issue of the original Son of Stone (Four Color Comics #596) was intended to be another entry in the then-ongoing saga of Young Hawk, a character whose stories appeared in issues of The Lone Ranger. Young Hawk and his friend, Little Buck, were Mandan warriors who adventured across North American in the days before the Spanish. For an unknown reason, the story where they were to get lost in a valley of prehistoric creatures was spun off into a new property, Turok, most likely by creator Gaylord DuBois's editors. The character of Turok was also aged by the comic's artist.

- Bear in mind that I've not read all of the old Gold Key comics, but I'm reasonably certain that even after the renaming described above Andar isn't supposed to be Turok's brother, just his ward. In the Valiant comics, at least, Andar is merely Turok's student.

- Valiant's Dinosaur Hunter comic series had nothing to do with a post-apocalyptic Earth. When the Lost Land collapsed following the defeat of Mothergod (an event that took place before the Dinosaur Hunter series started), Andar was flung back into his own time, while Turok was deposited in the late 1980s. Turok was not the only thing that made it to the "present day," however, and a good portion of the early comic deals with the remnants of Mothergod's Bionosaurs. Turok manages to reunite with Andar, who is now an old man and who asks Turok to take his grandson, Andy, and train him in the old ways. Turok and Andy are joined by Dr. Regan Howell, an anthropologist assigned to Turok by the CIA to keep watch over him and make sure he adapts well to modernity.

- Thunder and the Mantis do not appear in the Dinosaur Hunter comics, and the Campaigner is only a minor villain compared to the Longhunter. The series can basically be summarized as "Teach Andy things, save people from dinosaurs, fight the Longhunter for a bit every x number of issues, repeat".

- Super nitpicky, but Primagen didn't try to conquer the Lost Land, he technically created it (in the Acclaim continuity at least). His Lightship was damaged after he tried to go back in time to see the creation of his universe, and his ship was punched through space-time, destroying his universe and creating our own. As his ship flew through space and time, it picked up random bits of everything, and when it finally stopped between dimensions, everything crashed together and formed the Lost Land. It's why the place is so unstable and why everything from dinosaurs to aliens can be found there. This is also when Oblivion was grievously injured, not at the end of Turok 2.

- I'm not sure where the whole "Rage Wars isn't canon" thing came from, but I see it around quite a bit. The game itself didn't really have any lore to go off of, but the strategy guide had write-ups for each of the playable characters. A few of the bios, such as for Joshua Fireseed and the Oblivion Spawn, set the stage for the then-upcoming Turok 3 while also highlighting the games' increasing departure from Acclaim's comic canon (eg. the Rage Wars strategy guide was the first time that Tal'Set was described as being the first Turok, whereas the comics merely portrayed him as the best in a lineage that went back centuries).

- And to the other person above, Bill Clinton was not a lizard. He was impersonated by one, but the real Bill turned out to be fine. :V

Thanks for all the detailed info. I also read that the Tal'Set in Rage Wars is not the same one from Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Turok Evolution.

[Coyote Knight]

Originally posted by Convenient Spider:

You shouldn't worry much about it.

The Turok lore is a mess, the story branches like crazy and they each follow their own continuity.

[Convenient Spider]

Originally posted by Coyote Knight:

Originally posted by Convenient Spider:

You shouldn't worry much about it.

The Turok lore is a mess, the story branches like crazy and they each follow their own continuity.

That explains a lot.

[KingfossilFER]

Actually, the intelligent velociraptor mon-ark is probably the most recurring villian in the Valiant series.

There nothing whatsoever explaining why Tal' set is the bad guy in rage wars, only that its a tournament to win the "light burden".
A proper comic explaining things wuold had been made had Acclaim being in a better financial situation, special when the comics didnt sell.