- For other uses, see Dynamix (disambiguation).
Dynamix, Inc. was an American developer of computer games from 1984 to 2001, best known for their flight simulator, Red Baron, the Front Page Sports series and their online multiplayer game, Tribes.
History
The company was founded in Eugene, Oregon in 1984 by Jeff Tunnell and Damon Slye. Their first title, Stellar 7, was released before company founding and was later re-released with the Dynamix name on it. They made a number of games for the Commodore 64, among them Project Firestart which was one of the most atmospheric titles for the C64.
In the following years, Dynamix created a line of action games for Electronic Arts, including one of the first games for the Commodore Amiga, Arctic Fox. Later titles were developed for Activision. After self-publishing their games for a short while, in 1990 Dynamix was bought by Sierra On-Line.
Once part of Sierra, Dynamix created some of their most famous games, including a line of adventures and flight simulations that included Red Baron and The Adventures of Willy Beamish. They also created the puzzle game The Incredible Machine, along with the spinoff Sid & Al's Incredible Toons. Another successful product line was the Front Pages Sports series, designed by Pat Cook and Allen McPheeters which included Football, Baseball, and Golf. Versions of Red Baron and Front Page Sports Football were included as part of the ImagiNation Network.
In 1994, the first game in a new series called MetalTech was released, a giant robot combat game with similarities to the BattleTech universe and games. This series resulted in two Earthsiege games and eventually Starsiege. As a side development of the Starsiege game, the successful Tribes series was created. Dynamix also created Outpost 2: Divided Destiny, the second game in Sierra's strategy/survival franchise, Outpost.
The Dynamix studio was closed by its parent company Sierra Entertainment in August 14, 2001, as part of Sierra's restructuring under Vivendi Universal. Several veterans of the studio (including Tunnell), however, stayed in Eugene and founded a new studio / electronic publisher, GarageGames.
After several years at GarageGames, Dynamix co-founder Jeff Tunnell and long-time Dynamix employee Rick Overman have founded PushButton Labs[1] in Eugene, with the intent to further develop web-based computer games.[2]
After over 10 years of retirement, Dynamix co-founder and game designer Damon Slye returned to the games industry to start Mad Otter Games in Eugene, Oregon in 2007 alongside several other key ex-Dynamix employees.[3] Mad Otter Games released the online WW1 dogfighting game Ace of Aces[4] in 2008 on the web portal InstantAction. They are currently developing an online MMORPG called Villagers & Heroes[5] and anticipate a late 2009 release.
Torque Game Engine
Some of the core Dynamix members started GarageGames, an independent-friendly engine developer and game publisher. They negotiated an agreement with Sierra for the source code to the Tribes 2 game engine. After reworking the code, GarageGames released it as V12 but were soon told that an engine already had the name so it was then called the Torque Game Engine (or TGE). The source code for TGE, a professional-grade 3D engine, is available to nearly anyone for fees starting at USD$100.
List of games developed by Dynamix
- Stellar 7 — (1982) (Action, Vehicle Simulation) (Amiga, DOS)
- Skyfox — (1984) (Action, Vehicle Simulation) (only Amiga and Macintosh ports)
- Championship Baseball — (1986) (Sports) (Atari ST, ZX Spectrum)
- Arctic Fox — (1986) (Action, Vehicle Simulation) (Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, ZX Spectrum)
- GBA Championship Basketball: Two-on-Two — (1986) (Sports) (Amiga)
- Skyfox II: The Cygnus Conflict — (1987) (Action) (Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS)
- The Train: Escape to Normandy — (1988) (Action, Vehicle Simulation) (DOS)
- Abrams Battle Tank — (1988) (Vehicle Simulation) (DOS)
- Pete Rose Pennant Fever — (1988) (Sports) (DOS)
- Caveman Ugh-Lympics — (1988) (Sports) (Commodore 64, DOS, NES)
- Motocross — (1989) (Racing/Driving, Vehicle Simulation) (DOS)
- MechWarrior — (1989) (Action, Vehicle Simulation) (DOS)
- A-10 Tank Killer — (1989) (Vehicle Simulation) (Amiga, DOS)
- Ghostbusters II — (1989) (Action) (DOS)
- Deathtrack — (1989) (Action, Racing / Driving) (DOS)
- Die Hard — (1989) (Action, Adventure) (Commodore 64, DOS)
- David Wolf: Secret Agent — (1989) (Action, Racing/Driving) (DOS)
- Project Firestart — (1989) (Action, Adventure) (Commodore 64)
- Red Baron — (1990) (Vehicle Simulation) (Amiga, DOS, Apple Macintosh)
- Rise of the Dragon — (1990) (Adventure) (Amiga, DOS, Sega CD, Apple Macintosh)
- The Adventures of Willy Beamish — (1991) (Adventure) (Amiga, DOS, Sega CD)
- Nova 9: Return of Gir Draxon — (1991) (Action) (Amiga, DOS)
- Heart of China — (1991) (Action, Adventure) (Amiga, DOS)
- Red Baron: Mission Builder — (1992) (Vehicle Simulation) (DOS)
- WWII: 1946 — (1992) (Vehicle Simulation) (DOS, Windows 3.x)
- Aces of the Pacific — (1992) (Vehicle Simulation) (DOS, Windows 3.x)
- Sid & Al's Incredible Toons — (1993) (Strategy) (DOS)
- The Incredible Machine — (1993) (Strategy) (3DO, DOS)
- Classic Power Compilation — (1993) (Adventure, Strategy) (DOS)
- Betrayal at Krondor — (1993) (Adventure, Role-Playing (RPG)) (DOS)
- Alien Legacy — (1993) (Adventure, Strategy) (DOS)
- Space Quest V: The Next Mutation — (1993) (Adventure) (DOS)
- Front Page Sports: Football — (1993) (Sports) (DOS)
- Front Page Sports: Football Pro — (1993) (Sports) (DOS)
- Aces Over Europe — (1993) (Action, Vehicle Simulation) (DOS)
- Take a Break! Pinball — (1993) (Pinball) (Windows 3.x)
- Metaltech: Earthsiege — (1994) (Vehicle Simulation) (DOS)
- Metaltech: Earthsiege Speech Pack — (1994) (Vehicle Simulation) (DOS)
- Front Page Sports: Baseball '94 — (1994) (Sports) (DOS)
- Bouncers — (1994) (Action, Sports) (Sega CD)
- Metaltech: Battledrome — (1995) (Vehicle Simulation) (DOS)
- 3-D Ultra Pinball — (1996) (Pinball) (Windows, Windows 3.x)
- Command: Aces of the Deep — (1995) (Action, Vehicle Simulation, Strategy) (Windows)
- Aces: The Complete Collector's Edition — (1995) (Vehicle Simulation) (DOS, Windows, Windows 3.x)
- The Incredible Machine 3 — (1995) (Puzzle) (Windows, Windows 3.x)
- Earthsiege 2 — (1995) (Action, Vehicle Simulation) (Windows, Windows 3.x)
- Aces of the Deep Expansion Disk — (1995) (Vehicle Simulation) (DOS, Windows, Windows 3.x)
- Silent Thunder — (1996) (Action, Vehicle Simulation) (Windows, Windows 3.x)
- Mission Force: Cyberstorm — (1996) (Turn-based Tactics) (Windows)
- Front Page Sports: Trophy Bass 2 — (1996) (Sports) (Windows, Windows 3.x)
- 3-D Ultra Pinball: Creep Night — (1996) (Pinball) (Windows, Windows 3.x)
- Front Page Sports: Trophy Bass 2 - Northern Lakes — (1997) (Sports) (Windows, Windows 3.x)
- 3-D Ultra Pinball: The Lost Continent — (1997) (Pinball) (Windows, Windows 3.x)
- Red Baron II — (1997) (Vehicle Simulation) (Windows)
- Front Page Sports: Trophy Rivers — (1997) (Educational, Sports) (Windows, Windows 3.x)
- Front Page Sports: Ski Racing — (1997) (Sports) (Windows)
- Aces: Collection Series — (1997) (Action, Vehicle Simulation) (DOS, Windows, Windows 3.x)
- Red Baron With Mission Builder — (1997) (Vehicle Simulation) (DOS)
- Outpost 2: Divided Destiny — (1997) (Strategy) (Windows)
- Sierra Pro Pilot — (1997) (Vehicle Simulation) (Windows)
- 3-D Ultra NASCAR Pinball — (1998) (Pinball) (Windows)
- Starsiege — (1998) (Action, Vehicle Simulation) (Windows)
- Starsiege: Tribes — (1998) (Action) (Windows)
- Cyberstorm 2: Corporate Wars — (1998) (Strategy) (Windows)
- Pro Pilot '99 — (1998) (Vehicle Simulation) (Windows)
- Red Baron 3-D — (1998) (Vehicle Simulation) (Windows)
- Field & Stream: Trophy Bass 3D — (1999) (Sports) (Windows)
- Tribes Action Pack — (1999) (Action) (Windows)
- Curse You! Red Baron — (1999) (Vehicle Simulation) (Windows)
- RC Racers II — (2000) (Racing/Driving) (Windows)
- 3D Ultra Lionel Traintown Deluxe — (2000) (Vehicle Simulation) (Windows)
- Tribes 2 — (2001) (Action) (Linux, Windows)
- The Incredible Machine: Even More Contraptions — (2001) (Puzzle) (Windows)
References
External links
Standard Links
- Dynamix Omnipedia - A fandom wiki filled with information on Dynamix.
- Wayback Machine, Dynamix's Official website - The old official website of Dynamix.
- Moby Games, Dynamix - The oldest, largest and most accurate video game database covering over 280 platforms from 1950 to date.
- Sierra Chest, Dynamix - A fan site, dedicated to preserving the legacy of the gaming giant Sierra through its many incarnations.
- Sierra Help - Keeping the Sierra classics alive on modern computers.
- Sierra Gamers - A fan site maintained by Ken Williams, founder of Sierra.
- GameFAQs, Dynamix - An archive of walkthroughs and game hints.
- The Cutting Room Floor, Category:Games developed by Dynamix - An archive of unused content.
Dynamix Related Content
- Facebook, Dynamix - A Facebook group dedicated to Dynamix.
- Game-Nostalgia, Dynamix - Dynamix company history.
- The Digital Antiquarian, Dynamix - "The Dynamic Interactive Narratives of Dynamix"
- The Air Tactical Assault Group, Dynamix - Articles on Dynamix's simulation titles.
Patches and Installations
- Github, juanitogan, RBXIT - Really Basic sÍerra paTches - Patches, installations, and troubleshooting for Sierra and Dynamix games to work on modern machines.
- Github, Open Siege - A tool for viewing and converting files found in games made by Dynamix and other games using their engines.
- Github, Open Siege wiki - A wiki that covers the various file formats used across various Dynamix games using the 3Space engine and its variants.
- Vogons, Sierra/Dynamix sound driver hacking - Community efforts to hack Sierra/Dynamix sound/music drivers to fix issues and add new features.
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