Dynamix

Dynamix, Inc. was an American developer of video games from 1984 to August 14, 2001, They are best known for their contribution in simulator games (Stellar 7, A-10 Tank Killer, Great War Planes, Red Baron, Aces and Front Page Sports), adventure games that used the Dynamix Game Development System (Rise of the Dragon, Heart of China, and The Adventures of Willy Beamish), and the The Incredible Machine. They also created the MetalTech universe, which branch off into three different series: Earthsiege, Cyberstorm, and Tribes.

1984-1990
Software Entertainment Company was founded in Eugene, Oregon in 1984 by Jeff Tunnell and Damon Slye, two graduates from the University of Oregon. Their first title was Stellar 7, originally released before the founding of Dynamix. The game was later re-released with the Dynamix name on it and thus became the company's first published title.

In the following years, Dynamix created a line of action games for Penguin Software and Electronic Arts, including one of the first games for the Commodore Amiga, Arcticfox. The game was a success, earning Dynamix the SPA's Gold Award. They made a number of games for the Commodore 64, among them Project Firestart, considered one of the most atmospheric titles for the system.

After a short while of self-publishing their games (A-10 Tank Killer and David Wolf: Secret Agent), Dynamix got Mediagenic (formally Activision) to publish Deathtrack, MechWarrior, Die Hard within December of 1989. However, the sales for these games were not enough to relieve Dynamix from financial difficulties. On August 1990, Dynamix was bought by Sierra On-Line, who were impressed by their library of simulation games. Before and during the acquisition of Dynamix, Red Baron had been in development.

1990-2001
Released in December 19, 1990, Red Baron would be the first in Dynamix's "Great Warplanes" flight simulator series published by Sierra. Dynamix created some of their most famous line of adventures and simulators that include Rise of the Dragon, Stellar 7 Remake, Heart of China, Nova 9: The Return of Gir Draxon, The Adventures of Willy Beamish Red Baron: Mission Builder, Betrayal at Krondor, and Aces of the Pacific. Another successful product line was the Front Page 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.

However, Jeff Tunnell had left Dynamix in 1991 after finishing The Adventures of Willy Beamish to start his own company Jeff Tunnell Productions. It made very highly successful games for Sierra On-Line. This includes The Incredible Machine series (The Incredible Machine, The Even More! The Incredible Machine, The Incredible Toon Machine, and The Incredible Machine 2) and the Turbo games (Quarky & Quaysoo's Turbo Science and Turbo Learning: Mega Math), which were released under the Sierra Discovery Series.

Expanding from around thirty people to more than a hundred in 1993, the company had to relocate from Downtown Eugene to the UO’s Riverfront Research Park.

Space Quest V: The Next Mutation was developed at Dynamix in 1993 and later published under the Sierra brand. Dynamix also created the spinoff to The Incredible Machine called Sid & Al's Incredible Toons.

By 1994 Slye agreed with a Computer Gaming World statement that "Now when someone hears 'Dynamix' they immediately think 'flight simulator'".

Metaltech: Battledrome, the first game in the new MetalTech series, was released within that same year. A giant robot combat game with similarities to the BattleTech universe and games, the MetalTech series later spawned the Earthsiege, Cyberstorm, and Tribes series.

Shortly after Jeff Tunnell returned in 1995, Sierra On-Line was sold by Ken Williams to CUC International, a company that had no experience in making games (1996). Though Dynamix continued to make successful simulation and action games, it couldn't survive in the series of corporate take-overs that followed. A restructuring of Sierra On-Line in September 1999 resulted in the end of Dynamix as a brand and a separate business entity. Two years later, on Tuesday August 14, 2001, the Dynamix studio was shut down as part of Sierra's restructuring under Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing.

Aftermath
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 in Eugene, with the intent to further develop web-based video games.

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. Mad Otter Games released the online World War II dogfighting game Ace of Aces in 2008 on the web portal InstantAction, though after InstantAction was shut down the company revealed they would be re-releasing the game on their own website (as of August 2012 the game has not been re-released). They are currently developing an online MMORPG called A Mystical Land, which was released in 2011. On October 22, 2013, a Kickstarter campaign was started to fund a re-release of Red Baron.