RAD Game Tools

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RAD Game Tools is privately held company based in Kirkland, Washington that develops video and computer game software technologies which are licensed primarily by video game companies. RAD Game Tools products have appeared in over 8,400 games which had shipped in over 50 million end-user games in 2001.

[edit] Company history

RAD Game Tools began in 1988 as a Windows programming and consulting company located in Salt Lake City, Utah. They originally worked on many products, including Microsoft Golf, Under a Killing Moon, Norton Desktop, and Quattro Pro.

In 1993, the company began development of Smacker Video Technology, which was their first product that was not written for any particular company, and released it in 1994. By the end of that year, they had become the 63rd Fastest Growing Company in America ^{(Source: Inc.)}, and the fastest growing company in Utah. In late 1995, they acquired a sound technology product called the Miles Sound System from Miles Design. Both Smacker and Miles had been used to great success in many games, including StarCraft. Early 1999 marked the release of their latest video codec, Bink video, which provided better than DVD quality compression at up to three times the playback speed. Bink has gone on to be licensed for over 2,900 games. In 2001, most of their technologies were available on contemporary video game consoles. Bink, Granny and soon the Miles Sound System were made available for the Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube. The Bink system has also been licensed for use in the Xbox 360 console and games.