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RAD Game Tools is a privately-held company based in Kirkland, Washington.
RAD develops game software technologies which are
licensed by primarily by video game companies. RAD Game Tools products have appeared in
over 12,000 games, and shipped over 100 million end-user games in 2007!
We opened our doors in 1988 as a Windows programming and consulting company located in
Salt Lake City, Utah. While consulting, we worked on many high-profile products, including
Microsoft Golf, Under a Killing Moon, Norton Desktop, and Quattro Pro.
In late 1993, we began development of Smacker Video Technology
- the first product that we didn't write for someone else. We released Smacker in the
spring of 1994 and, although it was designed for all video developers, it became most
popular with game developers. In the several years since its release, Smacker has appeared
in more than 2,000 video games. Throughout the mid-90s,
more PC and Mac games used Smacker than didn't!
In 1994, we were named the 63rd Fastest Growing Company in America by Inc. Magazine (the
"Inc. 500"), and the number 1 fastest growing company in Utah. In 1995, we were
still the 18th fastest growing company in Utah.
In late 1995, we acquired a sound technology product called the Miles Sound System
from Miles Design. Like Smacker, Miles has been used in tons of games (over 4,500) and
has a very loyal, even "bordering-on-rabid", following. It remains the most sophisticated sound system today.
In mid 1998, we moved our headquarters from Salt Lake City, Utah to Kirkland, Washington.
In late 1998, John Miles joined RAD Game Tools full time and moved to Kirkland from Austin, Texas.
In January 1999, we acquired the RSX 3D Audio technology from Intel Corporation and integrated it directly into
the Miles Sound System.
Early 1999 also marked the release of our latest video codec, Bink
Video. Bink provides DVD quality compression at up to three
times the playback speed! Bink has gone on to be licensed for over 4,000 games and is by far the
most popular video codec for games.
In mid 1999, Casey Muratori joined RAD Game Tools after working at Gas Powered Games and
definition 6 with Chris Hecker. Casey started work immediately on Granny.
In late 1999, we released our brand-new 3D animation product, Granny 3D. Granny gives you
perfect importing of geometry, bones, animation info, color and textures. There is no better
character animation system available. Granny has since been licensed for over 1,500 games.
In late 2001, Mike Sartain joined RAD Game Tools after working on the
Xbox at Microsoft. In addition to his valuable work in the ATG group at Microsoft,
Mike worked on several Microsoft games as well.
In early 2002, Michael Abrash also joined RAD Game Tools after working on the
Xbox at Microsoft. Michael is well known in the programmer community as one of the
world's best code optimizers and is the author of many popular books on programming.
In mid 2002, Steve Theodore (our first artist!) started at RAD after working at Valve on Half-Life and Team Fortress 2.
Steve is also well-known in the game development community, having written many articles for Game Developer magazine. He
now writes the Game Developer monthly column, "Artist's View".
In 2002, we introduced Granny 2.0 which combined the sophisticated dynamic 3D animation system of its
predecessor with a completely new and optimized run-time engine to deliver incredible performance
in an extraordinarily small memory footprint, perfect for consoles as well as PCs and Macs.
In late 2002, we released our software 3D renderer, Pixomatic. Pixomatic is a complete
software renderer that provides MIP mapping, bi-linear filtering, alpha-blending, alpha-test,
point sprites, multi-texture, 32-bit and palettized textures, DOT-3 bump mapping, fog,
specular, stencil and z-buffering, indexed primitives, multiple streams,
high-speed blitting, and more. Pixomatic is designed to let you target the mass market. You
don't have to let ancient 3D cards, buggy 3D drivers, or lack of 3D hardware prevent people from playing your games any longer.
In March of 2004, the well known graphics programmer, Tom Forsyth, joined RAD to work on several of our 3D graphics projects!
Through 2005 and 2006, we've focused on bringing our technologies to all of the next generation
platforms. Bink, Miles and Granny are now available on pretty much every game platform available!
In 2006, Dave Moore joined RAD to work primarily on Granny. Dave has worked
at Oddworld, Zipper and Dynamix.
E-mail or call for more
information about RAD Game Tools and our cool software technologies.
RAD Game Tools, Inc.
401 Parkplace Suite 103
Kirkland, WA 98033
425.893.4300 phone
New! 425.609.2463 fax
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