WELCOME TO SAN RAFAEL

San Rafael is the county seat of Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2007, the U.S

 

Entertainment

 

After the arrival of George Lucas in San Rafael in 1970 to film the movie THX 1138, the city became a center for the entertainment industry, particularly the high-tech elements of the business. Lucasfilm was founded by George Lucas in 1971, and is best known for the global hit movie series Star Wars and also for Indiana Jones. Some of the company's operations were moved to San Francisco in 2005. Portions of the Universal movie production American Graffiti were filmed in downtown San Rafael under George Lucas's direction, and portions of THX 1138 were shot at the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael. Much of the movie Gattaca, starring Ethan Hawke, was also shot in the Marin County Civic Center. Industrial Light & Magic was founded in 1975 by Lucas to do special effects for his films and those of other filmmakers. The new age music program Hearts of Space is headquartered here.

Largely because of the presence of LucasFilm, San Rafael started to attract video game developers, with several major studios located in the city. However, because of poor city leadership and ineffective zoning laws in the Canal neighborhood, most of the companies, including Lucas Arts, have left San Rafael:

• Broslash;derbund Software — Founded by Doug Carlston and Gary Carlston in 1980, the company was sold to Mindscape in 1998 and moved to Novato. Best known for the hit titles Choplifter, Lode Runner, The Print Shop, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and Myst, and for being the early distributor of SimCity. After several subsequent acquisitions by various companies, in 2001 the remaining Brøderbund offices were moved to San Francisco.
• LucasArts — Founded by George Lucas in (1984) as LucasFilm Games; relocated to San Francisco in 2005. Best known for Star Wars and Indiana Jones games and innovative titles such as Monkey Island , Grim Fandango and Full Throttle.
• Stormfront Studios — Founded by San Rafael native Don Daglow in 1988. Best known for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, many EA Sports titles including NASCAR Racing, Gold Box RPG games and the first graphical MMORPG, Neverwinter Nights.
• Visual Concepts — Founded by Greg Thomas in 1988, the company was bought by Sega in 1999, then sold to Take Two Interactive in 2004. Best known for creating many EA Sports titles, and recently for Sega Sports and its 2K line of sports games.
• Totally Games — Founded by former LucasArts programmer Larry Holland in 1994. Best known for a series of Star Wars flight sim games.
• Factor 5 — Founded in Germany in 1987 by Julian Eggebrecht, moved to San Rafael in 1996 to be close to publisher LucasArts. Best known for Star Wars and Indiana Jones games. In May 2009, the company's San Rafael studio closed.
• Telltale Games — Founded in 2004 by former LucasArts employees. Best known for its video game adaptation of the Bone (comics) book series and its episodic release of Sam and Max adventure games.
• Mind Control Software — Founded in 1994 by Andrew Leker, Best know for Independent Games Festival winning game, Oasis.
• Also related to the entertainment industry, the U.S. headquarters of Autodesk can be found in San Rafael, specifically near Terra Linda / Santa Venetia.

Parks

San Rafael contains a number of parks:

• There are two regional parks that serve statewide users: China Camp State Park and McNears Beach State Park.
• Community parks are Albert Park, Boyd Park, Pickleweed Park and the Terra Linda Recreational Center.
• There are a number of neighborhood parks and mini-parks such as Bret Harte Park, Boyd Park, Sun Valley Park, Oleander Park, Victor Jones Park, Peacock Gap Park and Gerstle Park. Gerstle Park is also a historic and walkable neighborhood south of First Street in close proximity to central Downtown.