This total has been boosted still further through several successful third party bundling licenses with companies such as Word Perfect, Commodore, Instant Access, Creative Labs, Silica Distribution, Amiga Technologies and Philips Media.

The North American market is supported by the US arm of the group 21st Century Entertainment Inc. The company established itself with the release of the popular Pinball Arcade followed closely by the multi-award winning Pinball Fantasies.

The Group was also home to Spidersoft Ltd, who programmed a series of pinballs for the company.

The 21st Century Entertainment Group were now firmly established as a force to be reckoned with. Underlining this statement are the string of popular products that were released across various formats during 1996, climaxing in the biggest arcade release of the year, Pinball Construction Kit.

With a November release date, Pinball Construction Kit appeared on the market. It received mixed critics but 21st is one a few companies to have released a pinball editor.

Breaking with it's pinballing tradition, 21st Century now planned to release six products from other genres in their first quarter of '97.

21st Century's Managing Director Andrew Hewson commented: "1996 was an exceptional year for us, both in Europe and North America. We have established ourselves as world leaders in pinball simulation and have a development schedule for '97 which will further underline this position, and allow us to diversify with a new range of quality products."

In 97 the Electronic Pinball was developed but was never released that year. In 98 things slowed down, Electronic Pinballs release was put on hold. All future plans were cancelled and the company ceased to exist.