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Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Video games |
Founded | 1982 |
Founder | Wayne Holder |
Defunct | 1996 [1] |
Headquarters | , U.S. |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Wayne Holder Bruce Webster Doug Bell |
Products | SunDog Oids Dungeon Master series |
Parent | Software Heaven Inc. |
Website | ftlgames.com (offline, existed in the mid 90s) [2] |
FTL Games (Faster Than Light) was the video game development division of Software Heaven Inc. FTL created several popular video games in the 1980s. Despite the company's small size, FTL products were consistently number-one sellers and received the highest critical acclaim and industry awards. [ citation needed ]
FTL was founded by Wayne Holder in 1982. Holder started Software Heaven and FTL as its game division after founding Oasis Systems, which specialized in spell checking software. He hired Bruce Webster, with whom he graduated from high school, to head FTL. After Webster left FTL in 1984, Doug Bell joined FTL and served as the Technical Director until FTL ceased operations in 1996. [3]
FTL released several games throughout its relatively short history. Most went on to become best sellers and some even set new standards for games of their genres.
Holder and Webster co-designed FTL's first game, SunDog: Frozen Legacy , a space trading game. It was released first for the Apple II in March 1984. [4] Webster did most of the programming for the Apple II version, but resigned from FTL after the release of version 2.0. Doug Bell, Andy Jaros and Michael Newton significantly enhanced the game's graphics when porting the game to the Atari ST, releasing it in late 1985. SunDog became the best selling game on the Atari ST during the system's first year, and garnered lavish critical acclaim.
The packaging cover art was designed and illustrated by David R. Darrow. [5]
All of FTL's subsequent games contain at least one subtle reference to Sundog.
Oids , an action game, was one of FTL's minor releases. The original Atari ST version was created by Dan Hewitt who did both the graphics and all of the programming. It received little attention with a later conversion to the Mac, but received 5 Stars on Macworld 1990. [6] [7] However the original Atari ST release received rave reviews in the UK, where it remains a cult favourite. Later, after FTL ceased operations, an updated authorized shareware version of Oids for the Macintosh was developed and released by Kirk Baker. It was however eclipsed by the release of FTL's next game.
As with SunDog, the packaging cover art was designed and illustrated by David R. Darrow. [5]
Dungeon Master is a fantasy role-playing game, the first to feature real-time gameplay. The game included a number of user interface features that made gameplay particularly enjoyable, from a spell system that seemed to be "logical" to the intuitive way the player used the mouse to directly manipulate items in the simulated 3D view. [8] It was released on the ST in 1987 and went on to become the ST's best selling product of all time. It was eventually ported to over a dozen platforms in six languages.
It received many awards, including the first Special Award for Artistic Achievement from Computer Gaming World when it was initially released.
Darrow illustrated the cover artwork for this game as well. [5]
A Dungeon Master sequel, Chaos Strikes Back , was released in 1989 for most platforms, but notably excluding a PC version. It uses the same engine as Dungeon Master but features new creatures and graphics. [3]
Dungeon Master: Theron's Quest was a simplified Dungeon Master version with new dungeons from 1992 for TurboGrafx-16 and the PC Engine. [3] [9]
Dungeon Master II: The Legend of Skullkeep was the best-selling game of the week when it was released in Japan in December 1993. For some reason, it took two years before it was released in the US and Europe in 1995 by Interplay Productions. While the game had been anxiously awaited by legions of Dungeon Master players, by 1995 [10] it was considered too dated and sold poorly. FTL broke up about this time. [3]
Dungeon Master Nexus was released 1998 for Sega Saturn and only the Japanese market under the FTL and Software Heaven brand. [11] It was developed and published by Victor Interactive Software . [3] [12]
The TurboGrafx-16, known as the PC Engine outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, however in actuality, the console has an 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) coupled with a 16-bit graphics processor, effectively making the claim somewhat false advertising. It was released in Japan in 1987 and in North America in 1989. In Europe the Japanese model was unofficially imported and distributed in the United Kingdom and France from 1988. In Japan, the system was launched as a competitor to the Famicom, but the delayed United States release meant that it ended up competing with the Sega Genesis and later the Super NES.
SunDog: Frozen Legacy is a 1984 space trading and combat simulator video game. SunDog was first developed for the Apple II, with version 1.0 being released in March 1984, and version 1.1 released three weeks later. Version 2.0, which included enhancements and improved performance, was released in October, 1984. An enhanced version was released for the Atari ST in December 1985.
Eye of the Beholder is a role-playing video game for personal computers and video game consoles developed by Westwood Associates. It was published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. in 1991, for the MS-DOS operating system and later ported to the Amiga, the Sega CD and the SNES. The Sega CD version features a soundtrack composed by Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima. A port to the Atari Lynx handheld was developed by NuFX in 1993, but was not released. In 2002, an adaptation of the same name was developed by Pronto Games for the Game Boy Advance.
A video game remake is a video game closely adapted from an earlier title, usually for the purpose of modernizing a game with updated graphics for newer hardware and gameplay for contemporary audiences. Typically, a remake of such game software shares essentially the same title, fundamental gameplay concepts, and core story elements of the original game, although some aspects of the original game may have been changed for the remake.
Ambrosia Software was a predominantly Macintosh software and gaming company founded in 1993 and located in Rochester, New York, U.S. Ambrosia Software was best known for its Macintosh remakes of older arcade games, which began with a 1992 version of Atari, Inc.'s Asteroids from 1979. The company also published utility software. Its products were distributed as shareware; demo versions could be downloaded and used for up to 30 days. Later the company released some products for iOS. Ambrosia's best-selling program was the utility Snapz Pro X, according to a 2002 interview with company president Andrew Welch.
Dungeon Master II: The Legend of Skullkeep, also released as Dungeon Master II: Skullkeep, is the sequel to the dungeon crawler role-playing video game Dungeon Master. It was released in 1993 in Japan and in 1995 in other countries. It is available for DOS, Amiga, Macintosh, Sega CD, PC-9801, PC-9821, and FM Towns. A Sega Mega Drive version was planned but never released.
Chaos Strikes Back is an expansion and sequel to Dungeon Master, the earlier 3D role-playing video game. Chaos Strikes Back was released in 1989 and is also available on several platforms. It uses the same engine as Dungeon Master, with new graphics and a new, far more challenging, dungeon.
Dungeon Master is a role-playing video game featuring a pseudo-3D first-person perspective. It was developed and published by FTL Games for the Atari ST in 1987, almost identical Amiga and PC (DOS) ports following in 1988 and 1992.
Temple of Apshai is a dungeon crawl role-playing video game developed and published by Automated Simulations in 1979. Originating on the TRS-80 and Commodore PET, it was followed by several updated versions for other computers between 1980 and 1986.
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Dungeon Explorer is an action role-playing video game developed by Atlus for the TurboGrafx-16 and originally published by Hudson Soft in Japan on March 4, 1989, and later in North America by NEC on November 15 of the same year. The first installment in the eponymous franchise, the game is set in the land of Oddesia, which has been overrun by an alien race and where players assume the role of one of eight main characters tasked with recovering the Ora stone to kill the alien king Natas. Co-directed by Kazutoshi Ueda and Yōsuke Niino, the title was created by most of the same team that would work on later several projects such as entries in the Megami Tensei series. Though it was initially launched for the TurboGrafx-16, it was later re-released through download services for various consoles.
Douglas Andrew Bell is a video game developer, best known for his role as the designer and programmer for the Dungeon Master series from San Diego studio FTL Games.
Dragon Spirit is a 1987 vertical-scrolling shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco. In North America, it was distributed by Atari Games. Controlling the dragon Amur, the player must complete each of the game's nine areas to rescue the princess Alicia from the demon Zawell. Similar to Namco's own Xevious, Amur has a projectile weapon for destroying air-based enemies and a bomb for destroying ground enemies. It ran on the Namco System 1 arcade board.
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Bomberman, also known as Dyna Blaster in Europe, is an action-maze video game originally developed and published by Hudson Soft for the PC Engine in Japan on 7 December 1990 and later in North America for the TurboGrafx-16 by NEC in 1991. Belonging to the Bomberman franchise, it is a re-imagining of the first game in the series starring White Bomberman on a quest to rescue Lisa, the kidnapped daughter of his inventor Dr. Mitsumori, from the castle of Black Bomberman while defeating evil monsters and villains that work for him. The game was later ported to home computers, each one featuring changes compared to the original version. Conversions for other platforms were in development but never released. The title garnered positive reception from critics since its initial release on the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 and later on home computers.
Oids is a multidirectional shooter developed and self-published by FTL Games in 1987. The game was originally released on the Atari ST, followed by a B&W version for the classic 68k Macintosh in 1990. The Atari ST version, written by Dan Hewitt, was a cult favourite in the UK, where it received rave reviews.
Dungeon Master: Theron's Quest is a modified version of Dungeon Master for the TurboGrafx/PC Engine video game console. It was released on September 18, 1992 in Japan, with a North American release following the next year.
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It was the most advanced RPG experience available and a true immersive milestone. [...] What made Dungeon Master so important [...] was its combination of a first-person 3D engine, point-and-click interface, and enveloping sound.