Terminal Velocity (video game)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Terminal Velocity'' is a
simulation video game Simulation video games are a diverse super-category of video games, generally designed to closely simulate real world activities. A simulation game attempts to copy various activities from real life in the form of a game for various purposes such ...
originally developed by
Terminal Reality Terminal Reality is an American video game development and production company based in Lewisville, Texas. Founded in October 1994 by ex-Microsoft employee Mark Randel and former Mallard Software general manager Brett Combs, Terminal Reality deve ...
and published by
3D Realms 3D Realms Entertainment ApS is a video game publisher based in Aalborg, Denmark. Scott Miller (entrepreneur), Scott Miller founded the company in his parents' home in Garland, Texas, in 1987 as Apogee Software Productions to release his game ' ...
for
DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicatio ...
and
Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturin ...
and
MacSoft MacSoft was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1993 by Peter Tamte as subsidiary of WizardWorks, specializing in the production of video game ports from Microsoft Windows to Macintosh operating systems, as well as producti ...
for
Mac OS Two major famlies of Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the "Classic" Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system, rebranded "M ...
. It is an arcade-style flight combat game, with simpler game controls and physics than flight simulators. It is known for its fast, high-energy action sequences, compared to
flight simulator A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and the environment in which it flies, for pilot training, design, or other purposes. It includes replicating the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they rea ...
s of the time. The game received generally positive reviews. Critics often compared it to ''
Descent Descent may refer to: As a noun Genealogy and inheritance * Common descent, concept in evolutionary biology * Kinship, one of the major concepts of cultural anthropology **Pedigree chart or family tree **Ancestry **Lineal descendant **Heritage (d ...
'' and praised its graphics, although some were turned off by what they thought to be the gameplay's lack of depth. Terminal Reality also developed a similar game, ''
Fury3 ''Fury3'' (stylized as ''Fury3'') is a simulation video game developed by Terminal Reality and published by Microsoft for Windows 95. It is not a sequel to ''Terminal Velocity'', but the two games share basic game mechanics and use the same engine ...
'', published that same year by
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
. It uses the same
game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software i ...
and basic game mechanics, but was designed to run natively on the new
Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturin ...
operating system, leading it to be described as essentially the Windows version of ''Terminal Velocity''.


Gameplay

''Terminal Velocity'' is a
combat flight simulator Combat flight simulators are vehicle simulation games, amateur flight simulation computer programs used to simulate military aircraft and their operations. These are distinct from dedicated flight simulators used for professional pilot and mili ...
. The player's craft has no
inertia Inertia is the idea that an object will continue its current motion until some force causes its speed or direction to change. The term is properly understood as shorthand for "the principle of inertia" as described by Newton in his first law ...
, meaning its course can be changed instantly and can fly at low speeds without falling. There are seven different weapons, ranging from guns, blasters and rockets to homing missiles and a rare secret weapon. Additionally, the player's craft possesses powerful
afterburners An afterburner (or reheat in British English) is an additional combustion component used on some jet engines, mostly those on military supersonic aircraft. Its purpose is to increase thrust, usually for supersonic flight, takeoff, and co ...
that allow it to move at very high speed, which is useful in order to evade attacks, but sacrifices the ability to return fire temporarily (they can be selected like weapons, and if they are, the fire button will ignite the afterburners). The craft is able to survive some hits, and even some collisions with the terrain, including tunnels. Each of the 27 missions consists of several objectives, e.g. enemies which must be destroyed, tunnel entrances and exits, mere checkpoints, and an extraction point. At the end of each planet is a
boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, a ...
enemy that must be destroyed before either proceeding to the next planet or completing the episode.


Plot

The story is set in the year 2704, when the Alliance of Space-Faring Alien Races (ASFAR), of which
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
is a member, suddenly turns against Earth and their fleet ravages the planet, starting a war. The player flies a powerful starfighter, the TV-202, in a series of missions to defeat the enemy. In Episode 3, the player learns that a huge supercomputer known as Xenocidic Initiative (X.I.), located on Proxima Seven, is responsible for the war. Their final mission is to eliminate it. A hidden mission can take place after the main plot only in the CD ROM version where the player must investigate a sudden metamorphosis of an unknown nearby planet and destroy the force that changed the face of the planet. It is revealed here that this force drove a man named Sy Wickens into insanity, and how the X.I. Supercomputer had "accidentally" digitized Sy Wickens' persona.


Development

''Terminal Velocity'' (called "Velocity Brawl" during development) was co-produced by
Tom Hall Tom Hall is an American game designer best known for his work with id Software on titles such as ''Doom'' and ''Commander Keen''. Career Hall attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he earned a B.S. in Computer Science. In 1987, ...
. The main programmer of the game was
Mark Randel Terminal Reality is an American video game development and production company based in Lewisville, Texas. Founded in October 1994 by ex-Microsoft employee Mark Randel and former Mallard Software general manager Brett Combs, Terminal Reality dev ...
, the former lead programmer of ''
Microsoft Flight Simulator ''Microsoft Flight Simulator'' is a series of amateur flight simulator programs for Microsoft Windows operating systems, and earlier for MS-DOS and Classic Mac OS. It was an early product in the Microsoft application portfolio and differed sig ...
''. The game has three episodes, the first of which was distributed as
shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer ...
. Each episode features three different worlds, making a total of nine levels; the only exception is the final planet of Episode 3, Proxima Seven, which has only two stages. At the end of each world is a boss enemy that must be destroyed before proceeding to the next world. Following the release of the shareware version, publisher 3D Realms was inundated with requests that the game be playable with a
mouse A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...
, leading the company to include a mouse option in the commercial version of the game. The original
floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...
release was followed by a
CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...
version. The CD-ROM version added 70 MB of extended pre-rendered 3D
cut scene A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the ...
s, a bonus hidden planet, higher image resolution (including more detailed textures) and support for 8-
player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who is ...
network multiplay. The Macintosh port was published separately by
MacSoft MacSoft was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1993 by Peter Tamte as subsidiary of WizardWorks, specializing in the production of video game ports from Microsoft Windows to Macintosh operating systems, as well as producti ...
. In June 2015, to celebrate the game's 20th anniversary, the game's original developer and one of the co-founders of Terminal Reality,
Mark Randel Terminal Reality is an American video game development and production company based in Lewisville, Texas. Founded in October 1994 by ex-Microsoft employee Mark Randel and former Mallard Software general manager Brett Combs, Terminal Reality dev ...
, released a version for Android and
iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
, published by Trebuchet Entertainment.


Reception

''Terminal Velocity'' received generally favorable reviews from game critics, who typically compared its gameplay to ''Descent''. ''
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
'' praised the visuals as immersive and providing a sense of high-speed action, calling the game a "proverbial quick fix" for players seeking a few minutes of fast-paced exhilaration. ''
Edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...
'' wrote that the game offered "the most convincing sensation of high-speed, low-level flight yet on the PC", comparing it to ''
Doom Doom is another name for damnation. Doom may also refer to: People * Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed * Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist * Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher * L ...
'' and praising its intense action, simple gameplay for a flight simulator, and the eight-player multiplayer mode, which it called "probably the best network game since ''Doom''". ''
Computer Games Strategy Plus ''Computer Games Magazine'' was a monthly computer and console gaming print magazine, founded in October 1988 as the United Kingdom publication ''Games International''. During its history, it was known variously as ''Strategy Plus'' (October 1 ...
'' summarized the game as "''Descent'' outdoors" and "a little more than a superb facelift of '' Skyfox''". It described the execution as "impeccable", but felt that map exploration was limited by the levels' structure often being point-to-point. ''
PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...
'', however, argued otherwise, noting that there is no time limit for completing missions. ''
Computer and Video Games ''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website ...
'' favorably compared ''Terminal Velocity'' to ''
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'', praising its "individuality" such as secret tunnels and hidden ships for adding to the polygonal shoot-'em-up's longevity and recommending that the player use a joystick. '' Hyper'' particularly lauded the game's graphical engine and soundtrack. It praised its utilization of
Gouraud shading Gouraud shading, named after Henri Gouraud, is an interpolation method used in computer graphics to produce continuous shading of surfaces represented by polygon meshes. In practice, Gouraud shading is most often used to achieve continuous l ...
and light sourcing effects and the
Sound Blaster AWE32 The Sound Blaster AWE32 is an ISA sound card from Creative Technology. It is an expansion board for PCs and is part of the Sound Blaster family of products. The Sound Blaster AWE32, introduced in March 1994, was a near full-length ISA sound c ...
card, and noted that the music is synchronized to the player's current situation. ''PC Zone'' wrote that the game's visual quality was nearly comparable to ''
Magic Carpet A magic carpet, also called a flying carpet, is a legendary carpet and common trope in fantasy fiction. It is typically used as a form of transportation and can quickly or instantaneously carry its users to their destination. In literature One o ...
'', and found the CD version of the game to be superior to the floppy disk version. However, it expressed disappointment when the game failed to impress the magazine the same way as ''Doom'', as it found the game to lack originality in its genre. ''
PC Review ''PC Leisure'' was the United Kingdom's first magazine dedicated exclusively to IBM PC compatible (PC) entertainment and was published by EMAP between spring 1990 and September 1991. A total of nine issues were published in its lifetime, the firs ...
'' praised the aspect of the levels' open environment across which the player is free to roam, calling the game "''
X-Wing The X-wing starfighter is a name applied to a family of fictional spacecraft manufactured by the Incom Corporation from the ''Star Wars'' franchise. Named for the distinctive shape made when its s-foils (wings) are in attack position, the X-win ...
'' in the mountains". ''
Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...
'' also found the game's visuals to approach the quality of ''Magic Carpet'', but felt that the gameplay was repetitive and lacked depth, believing that the developer's made a mistake to make it a simplistic arcade action game to the point where everything is nonstop mayhem. ''
Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...
'', while acknowledging that the game is "fun to play" and has a uniquely wide variety of open locales, gave it an overall negative review. Arguing that the game is a
first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...
and that "the genre, as currently exploited, is beginning to wear thin", it gave it two out of five stars. ''
MacADDICT ''MacLife'' (stylized as ''Mac, Life'') is an American monthly magazine published by Future US. It focuses on the Macintosh personal computer and related products, including the iPad and iPhone. It’s sold as a print product on newsstands, and ...
'' praised the multiplayer mode over the Ethernet and AppleTalk networks, but criticized the music and the inability to fire one's weapons and steer simultaneously. It concluded that the game was an acceptable addition to the selection of flight combat games for Macintosh users, which was limited compared to Windows users. ''
TouchArcade ''TouchArcade'' is a mobile video game website that launched in 2008. Arnold Kim of ''MacRumors'' worked on the site and its editor-in-chief was Eli Hodapp from 2009 to 2019. ''TouchArcade'' has been recognized as one of the best mobile game ...
'' wrote that ''Terminal Velocity'' was not as memorable as other classics of its time such as ''Descent'', but that the iOS port was a straightforward game well suited for mobile users wishing to experience 1990s' flight simulators.


References


External links


Official ''Terminal Velocity'' webpage
* {{Terminal Reality 1995 video games 3D Realms games Android (operating system) games DOS games IOS games Classic Mac OS games MacOS games North America-exclusive video games Science fiction video games Simulation video games U.S. Gold games Video games developed in the United States Video games set in the 28th century Video games set on fictional planets Windows games MacSoft games Games commercially released with DOSBox Terminal Reality games Multiplayer and single-player video games FormGen games