FTL Games (Faster Than Light) was the video game development division of Software Heaven Inc.. FTL created several popular video games in the 1980s and early 1990s. Despite the company's small size, FTL products were consistently number-one sellers and received the highest critical acclaim and industry awards. A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates video or computer games. ... Computer and video games A screenshot of Tetris for the Nintendo Game Boy A console game (better known as a video game) is a form of interactive multimedia used for entertainment, which consists of a moveable image displayed on a screen that is usually controlled and manipulated using a handheld... Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ... Events and trends Technology The World Wide Web was born at CERN Explosive growth of the Internet; decrease in the cost of computers and other technology Reduction in size and cost of mobile phones leads to a massive surge in their popularity Year 2000 problem (commonly known as Y2K) Microsoft... An award is something given to a person or group of people to recognize excellence in a certain field. ...

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 in 1971, to head FTL. 1982 is a number and represents a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar Events January January 6 - William Bonin is convicted of being the freeway killer. January 8 - AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions January 11 - Mark Thatcher, son of the British Prime... In computing terms, a spelling checker (also spell checker) is a software program designed to verify the spelling of words in a file, helping a user ensure his/her spelling is correct. ... Japanese high school students in uniform High school, or Secondary school, is the last segment of compulsory education in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan (Republic of China) (only junior high school) and the United States. ... 1971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ...

The Games

FTL released several games throughout its relatively short history. Surprisingly, most went on to become best sellers and some even set new standards for games of their genres.

SunDog

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. Webster did most of the programming for the Apple II version, but resigned from FTL after the release of version 2.0 due to programming burn-out. Doug Bell, Andy Jaros and Mike Newton ported the game to the Atari ST, releasing it in 1986. SunDog became that system's best selling software for that year, and garnered lavish critical acclaim. SunDog: Frozen Legacy was the first computer game produced by FTL Games. ... The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ... 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Computer programming (often simply programming) is the craft of implementing one or more interrelated abstract algorithms using a particular programming language to produce a concrete computer program. ... In computing, a port (derived from seaport) is usually an interface through which data are sent and received. ... The Atari ST was a home/personal computer system released by Atari in 1985. ...

Oids

Screenshot Oids (Atari ST)

Oids, an arcade game, was one of FTL's minor releases. It received little attention with a later conversion to the Apple Macintosh, however the original Atari ST release received rave reviews in the UK, where it remains a cult favourite. screenshot Atari ST Oids, made myself. ... screenshot Atari ST Oids, made myself. ... The Atari ST was a home/personal computer system released by Atari in 1985. ... Centipede by Atari is a typical example of a 1980s era arcade game. ... Macintosh, also known as Mac for short, is a family of personal computers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. ... The Atari ST was a home/personal computer system released by Atari in 1985. ...

It was however eclipsed by the release of FTL's next game.

Dungeon Master

Dungeon Master, a fantasy role-playing game, the first to feature real-time gameplay. The game included a number of user interface features that made gameplay particularily enjoyable, from a spell system that seemed to be "logical" to the way secret doors and traps would be barely visible unless one had certain character races in the team. 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. Dungeon Master [[Image:|140px|center|Dungeon Master Box Cover (please insert)]] Screenshot of a fight (Atari ST) Dungeon Master was the first 3D realtime action role playing computer game and created the genre of Dungeon Crawler games. ... A role-playing game (RPG) is a type of game where players assume the roles of fictional characters via role-playing. ... A continuous game, or real-time game, is a game without pauses, turns, rounds, or other stopping points. ... The user interface is the part of a system exposed to users. ... 1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

It received too many awards to list here, but it received the first ever Special Award for Artistic Achievement from Computer Gaming World when it was initially released. Computer Gaming World (CGW) is the oldest video game publication still in continuous circulation. ...

Chaos Strikes Back

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. Chaos Strikes Back was the sequel to Dungeon Master, the first 3D real_time action computer role-playing game. ... 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... One of the first PCs from IBM - the IBM PC model 5150. ... The term creature refers to an animal. ... Computer graphics (CG) is the field of visual computing, where one utilizes computers both to generate visual images synthetically and to integrate or alter visual and spatial information sampled from the real world. ...

Dungeon Master II

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 it was rather dated and sold poorly. FTL broke up about this time. Dungeon Master II: The Legend of Skullkeep is the sequel to Dungeon Master. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003) Events Media:January January 1 - Czechoslovakia divides. ... Wikiquote has quotations relating to: United States Wikinews has news related to this article: United States United States government Official website of the United States government - Gateway to governmental sites White House - Official site of the US President Senate. ... World map showing location of Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... 1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Interplay Entertainment Corporation was an American video game and computer game publisher and developer. ...

External links

• Wayne Holder's blog (http://weblogs.java.net/blog/wholder/)
• Bruce Webster's web site (http://www.brucefwebster.com/)
• An unofficial FTL Games web site (http://dmweb.free.fr/FTLGames.htm) with information on FTL's people, their games, awards and downloads of various versions of the games