Terminal Reality

Company type	Private
Industry	Video games
Founded	October 1994; 31 years ago (1994-10)
Founder	Mark Randel Brett Combs
Headquarters	Lewisville, Texas , U.S.
Key people	Brett Russell Brett Combs Mark Randel Brendan Goss Drew Haworth John O'Keefe

Terminal Reality is an Americanvideo game development andproduction company based inLewisville, Texas. Founded in October 1994 by ex-Microsoft employee Mark Randel and former Mallard Software general manager Brett Combs, Terminal Reality developed a variety of games including racing games (such as4x4 EVO 2), 3D action games (such asBloodRayne), and more.

After leaving the Bruce Artwick Organization in mid-1994, Randel and Combs founded Terminal Reality in October 1994, which required Randel leave Chicago where he had just finished up on his BSE and MS inelectrical engineering fromUniversity of Illinois. The goal of Terminal Reality was to exploittexture mapped 3D game engines, with only $1000, and working out of Brett Combs' home. During that time they were developing their first release,Terminal Velocity, and pulled together $120,000, received advances on the game and were basically able to avoid giving up ownership and primary decision rights to venture capitalists. After that first year the company generated $1.2 million and nearly doubled it the second year with $2.1 million.^[1]

Terminal Reality's first game,Terminal Velocity, was a 3-Dair combat game, Brett Combs pitched to Garland-based publisher3D Realms. 3D Realms was the new division started by the popularApogee Software known for its arcade style action shooters and titles such asWolfenstein 3D. Scott Miller was intrigued by Randel's technology and Combs' management. Scott later said in a Dallas Business Journal report that "They had the backgrounds and track records with proven experience to pull off the game they were pitching to us."^[2]

Terminal Reality went on, after the success of Terminal Velocity with 3D Realms, to publish titles withMicrosoft such asFury3,Hellbender,Monster Truck Madness,CART Precision Racing andMonster Truck Madness 2. By January 1998, Terminal Reality became an equity partner and founding developer ofGathering of Developers, a Dallas, Texas based publisher in which Brett Combs served on the Board of Directors.^[2]

In December 2013, Terminal Reality closed down and liquidated its office outside Dallas, Texas.^[3]

On April 11, 2018, Infernal Technology, LLC and Terminal Reality, Inc. ("Infernal") filed a complaint for patent infringement against Microsoft Corporation ("Microsoft"). The asserted patents, U.S. 6,362,822 and U.S. 7,061,488, relate to lighting and shadowing methods for graphics simulation. According to Infernal, both patents have already survived anInter Partes Review challenge filed by Electronic Arts in 2016.^{[citation needed]}

On November 20, 2020, the company releasedBloodRayne: Terminal Cut andBloodRayne 2: Terminal Cut with Ziggurat Interactive.^[4][5] On 2021, the remastered release for console.^[6] In January 2023 the two companies partnered again on an enhanced re-release of Terminal Velocity calledTerminal Velocity: Boosted Edition.^[7] In June the game was released on the Xbox One and Xbox Series, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Nintendo Switch.^[8]

In addition to game development, Terminal Reality is also the creator of the Infernal Engine: a cross-platform, full-featured foundation for building video games that the company licenses to other developers and publishers.^[9] The Infernal Engine is a unified system, providing rendering, physics, sound, AI, and metrics.^[10]

A key component to the Infernal Engine is the VELOCITY Physics Engine: a physics simulator that offers an advanced collision system, dynamic destruction for scenery and environmental objects, accurate vehicle driving dynamics, real human body physics with anatomical joint constraints and simulated muscles/tendons, hair and cloth simulation for actors.^[10]

The Photex (Photo-texture) engine was the first photorealistic game engine created by Terminal Reality, developed from theMonster Truck Madness engine. The first game built on this technology wasCART Precision Racing, and the final game wasFly! II, which used Photex3.Monster Truck Madness 2 was heavily promoted byMicrosoft (its producer) for using the Photex2 engine, which, at the time of its release, was a cutting-edge rendering engine. Most of its games used the Terrain geometry engine. This engine was known for its very fast rendering in low-end pcs, photorealistic images and true color textures.

The Photex2 game engine was composed of two components: the Photex2 rendering engine and the Terrain5 geometry engine.^[11]

Previously named "Demon engine", it is the rendering engine used inNocturne andBlair Witch trilogy (Volume I: Rustin Parr,Volume II: The Legend of Coffin Rock,Volume III: The Elly Kedward Tale).

Developed by the now former TRI employee Paul Nettle, originally written using software rendering, but later adapted to use theOpenGL API.

Based on MTM2 Photex2 engine, it is the game engine used in4x4 Evolution and4x4 EVO 2.^[12]

• Demonik (footage of the game appeared in the movieGrandma's Boy)
• Sundown (co-developed withGuillermo del Toro)

• Infernal Engine full game list
• Terminal Reality profile onMobyGames

• Companies based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex
• American companies established in 1994
• Video game companies established in 1994
• Lewisville, Texas
• Video game companies based in Texas
• Video game development companies
• 1994 establishments in Texas

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from June 2021
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from December 2019