1 Information
Here are some interesting facts about Urban Assault and its history. This list may be updated further with new information in future.
2 List
- Urban Assault was the first video game title that was developed by TerraTools, the German software studio that was based in the heart of technology centre of Potsdam, Germany. The game had many different development titles during its development phase, such as 'Codename: Anarchy', or 'Y.P.A' - stands for 'Your Personal Amok'.
- Urban Assault was the first German video game product to be sold and distributed worldwide, thanks to the publisher contract between Microsoft and their global networks.
- Microsoft arranged an official interview with several Urban Assault development team members when they had visited the Microsoft 'campus' in 1998, which is still available.
- Urban Assault was initially planned to be published by Warner Interactive. However, the publisher was eventually changed to Microsoft after forming a new publisher contract.
- Urban Assault was showcased at E3 1996, 1997 and 1998 in Atlanta. Where the game was demonstrated in a dozen computers at the Microsoft booth. In 1996, the game was demonstrated at the Warner Interactive booth.
- Mark Snow, the famous composer of the theme music for X-Files, had participated in making the intro movie of Urban Assault. An interview with Mark Snow on his collaboration of UA intro movie production is still available.
- Metropolis Dawn Expansion pack for Microsoft Urban Assault was planned and developed by the original TerraTools development team shortly after the release of Microsoft Urban Assault in the year 1998. Despite its official status and fully developed asset contents, Metropolis Dawn Expansion pack for Microsoft Urban Assault was never officially released due to certain publisher issues.
- Urban Assault (1998) was the third major strategy title to be published by Microsoft Games Studio. It was chronologically preceded only by Close Combat (1996) and Age of Empires (1997).
- Urban Assault (late 1998) was the third video game title to be released in a full 3D RTS FPS hybrid genre. Chronologically, the first game in this genre was Uprising (1997) and the second game was Battlezone (early 1998).
- Urban Assault was the first 3D RTS FPS hybrid game to extensively incorporate many different types of airborne units as a part of its core gameplay elements, and its game engine also supports other advanced technical features such as Doppler effect or the management of hundreds of AI units in a complex 3D environment without a loss of performance.
- Besides the original PC platform version of the game, Microsoft Urban Assault was also planned for a PlayStation console port, with heavily modified gameplay and interface under the direction of the British video game developer companies. A significant development progress was made on it initially, but the project itself was eventually cancelled.
- The cancelled PlayStation console port of Urban Assault was initially planned and developed by Psygnosis Limited, the British video game developer and subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment based in Liverpool, England. However, whilst Psygnosis was frequently listed as the de jure developer in formal documents, the de facto development of the console port was being carried out by yet another British video game developer company called Climax Studios that was based in Portsmouth, England.
- TerraTools, the developer of Urban Assault, was established in Potsdam, Germany in the year 1993 by Professor Ulrich Weinberg. One of the most prominent figures of the early graphics technology in Germany.
- The name TerraTools was inspired by TerraVision, a 3D mapping software that was developed in 1993 by the German company ART+COM in Berlin. Which implemented the idea of visualising a virtual globe that even predated Google Earth.
- The first headquarter of TerraTools (during the development of Urban Assault) was the 'Churchill-Villa' (Villa Urbig) in Babelsberg, Potsdam. This is the same historical building where the eminent British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill had stayed and lived during the Potsdam Conference (German: Potsdamer Konferenz) after the end of World War II.
More to come in future...