Interplay Productions was founded by ex-Boone Corporation employees in October 1983. They started with relatively small projects such as software conversions and even military contracting. It would be from 1984 that they would start to create text adventures along with Activision. The company would eventually go in more ambitious and original ventures such as Wasteland, which would become the foundation of its much better known successor nine years later: Fallout. Down the line, Interplay would start to publish games from other developers that would earn the respect of players around the world: EarthWorm jim by Shining Entertainment, and Baldur's Gate by BioWare. n 1998, Interplay's financial issues went dire. The company threatened to be placed under bankruptcy due to status in the banktruptcy court. To avert bankruptcy, Interplay went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the name Interplay Entertainment.