Founded in 1994 by David Luntz, Z-Axis’ first major project was John Madden NFL Football ’96 for the Sega Genesis. After a short stint in the skateboarding realm with Thrasher, Z-Axis successfully tackled the BMX and inline skating genres. Extreme sports mega publisher Activision must have been impressed with the titles -- in May 2002, it acquired Z-Axis and added it to its growing list of experienced game development studios.