An awful lot of people don't know that Real3D, Inc. (a division of Lockheed Martin and my former employer) used to make video games. For a brief, shining moment (roughly a year) they were on the cutting edge of the 3D industry; then things fell apart and The Powers That Be abandoned that effort in mid 1997.

We did manage to get two games out before everything fell apart, however. The first Real3D first game, Desert Tank, was released in late 1994 and can be found in select arcades around the country. Our second game, named Behind Enemy Lines, was mostly in overseas release that hit the market in late 1997. Below is some info about both games.

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Well, it happened pretty much as we'd predicted. As foretold by all of us worker bees who sweated blood and tears for a company that thought it could treat the consumer market just like the defense market, Real3D finally collapsed on October 1, 1999. The company, which had been hemmorrhaging money and people for years, was finally sold off by corporate parent Lockheed Martin to Intel. Intel had been coveting Real3D's extensive graphics patents portfolio (its sole remaining asset of value at the end) and Lockheed-Martin had been looking to divest itself of some of its money-losing enterprises after its stock took a clobbering during the summer of '99 so....what was long predicted finally came to pass.

Here's an excerpt from the WAVE Report's excellent writeup on the death of Real3D:

9099.2 Story of the Issue

***Real3D Collapses

Burdened by a failure to execute and a continually shifting 
business model Real3D has collapsed of the weight of its 
aerospace legacy. On 10/14 Intel purchased the Lockheed Martin 
stockholdings for an undisclosed sum. Then Intel let go of the 
staff. But on Friday, 10/15, many were re-hired by Intel as 
contractors. Jobs are open for evaluation. Lockheed Martin is 
also paying the Real3D staff until January 1, 2000 and with a 1 
week severance for each year of employment. Intel gains by 
getting Real3D's extensive patent portofolio and potentially is 
better able to compete in the 3D market. Yet, the WAVE Report has 
picked up that ATI has opened an office in Orlando ostensibly 
staffed by former designers at Real3D. In the last response to 
those who stayed on to the end, the Real3D options were not 
converted to Intel stock or options. A sad tribute to those who 
tried in a company that could not last 2 years.

At the end there weren't many folks left--all of us who had seen the end coming were gone by mid-1999. The spirit that was Real3D before it began its slow descent lives on, however, in companies such as ATI Technologies, n-space and EPL Productions.

Bye bye, Real3D. You coulda been a contender....

Desert Tank The first Real3D game was Desert Tank, an arcade shooter/simulator in which you must guide a tank through a series of dangerous missions. Regrettably I didn't have a thing to do with it, but I envy the guys who did. It's one of the very few 3D polygon games that doesn't restrict where you can go; you're pretty much free to explore as much of the world as you wish (until your time runs out or you're killed, of course). The game is only available as a 'deluxe' cabinet style game (much like the larger single-seat Daytona games). It runs on the Sega Model 2 board, pushing 300,00 polys/second at 30Hz. Some screen shots from the game are to the right. Since it came out just before the Web "got big", you probably won't find anything on the Web about it (I sure can't, anyway). You'll have to go to a large arcade (such as a Dave and Buster's) to find it due to the size and expense of the cabinet, but it's a fun game and well worth it. Trust me.