Long ago the galaxy had known peace. Paradise was ruled with the hand of science, and the hand was that of the galatic governing body known as the core.

Paradoxically it was the ultimate victory, the victory over death itself, which brought about the downfall of their Paradise and started the war that would decimat a million worlds. The process, called "patterning", involved the electronic duplication of brain matrices and allowed the transfer of consciousness into durable machines. Effectively it ment immortality, and the Core decreed the process mandatory for all citizens in order to ensure their safety.

There were many who were unwilling to toss aside their bodies so casually, many indeed who regarded patterning as an atrocity. They fled to the outer edges of the galaxy where the banded togeather to form a resistance which became known as the Arm. War began, though it was never offically declared by either side. The Arm devoloped high powered combat suits for its armies, while the Core duplicated its finest warriors thousands of times over. The Arm countered using cloning. The war raged on for over four thousand years, consuming the resources of an entire galaxy and leaving it a scorched wasteland.

Both sides lay in ruins. Their civilizations had long since vanished; their oncevast military complexes were smashed. Their armies were reduced to a few scattered remnants which continued to battle on ravaged worlds. Their hatred fueled by millennia of conflict, they would fight to the death. For each, the only acceptable outcome was the compleate and utter annihilation of the other.

Source:

Unknown Source

CAVEDOG ENTERTAINMENT’ PRESENTS...

TOTAL ANNIHILATION’

The New Landscape of War

In a distant part of the Galaxy, the Core and the Arm continue a thousand year battle over long forgotten ideals, destroying everything in their path...

TOTAL ANNIHILATION is a real-time war game featuring true 3D terrain and run-time generated 3D units. Tanks drive up and over hills, tilting and rocking with each bump in the landscape and impact with enemy weapons. Battle on diverse landscapes, including lava worlds, ice planets, desert valleys, alien tundra, towering mountain peaks and vast island-dotted oceans. Build defenses high in the hills for a better view and a better shot. Giant Bertha cannons pound the enemy from across the world. Planes bank and dive in intense air-to-air combat. Amphibious tanks dive into and dive under water for surprise attacks. Download new reinforcements from the web and swarm the enemy with hundreds of ever evolving units.

TOTAL ANNIHILATION's 3D landscape is a revolution that demands deeper strategy and generates more realistic game play. Mobilize your forces and experience the new landscape of war!

• Giant 3D environment, including extra large maps for 32 meg users.

• Over 150 units and 50 missions.

• Full complement of land, air and sea units.

• Extensive multi-player support including 'Watch and Join modes'.

Source:

Advertisement in Computer Gaming World, July 1997

Total Entertainment Network to Deliver Total Annihilation For FreeCavedog Entertainment's Hot New Real-Time Strategy Game to Debut on TEN Oct. 14

San Francisco, CA, October 13, 1997 -- Total Entertainment Network (TEN) today announced that Cavedog Entertainment's Total Annihilation, heralded by gamers and media worldwide as the most advanced real-time strategy game ever, will be the first game available for free on the TEN service starting Oct. 14. Total Annihilation fans can enjoy multiplayer action on TEN for free by simply installing the TEN software provided on the game's CD-ROM. TEN accounts created in this fashion will only have access to the Total Annihilation areas of TEN.

"This is a special promotional offer for Total Annihilation customers, intended to give them access to the very best online environment in which to play the game," said Lesley Mansford, TEN's vice president of marketing. "We're continually evaluating new mechanisms to drive trial subscriptions to the TEN service. Letting Total Annihilation customers log onto TEN and see all of the added value the service provides will hopefully motivate them to create full TEN memberships in order to experience everything else that TEN offers." "We are thrilled that TEN has embraced Total Annihilation, making it easy for players everywhere to enjoy the thrill of Internet multiplayer combat," said Ron Gilbert, founder and creative director of Cavedog Entertainment.

"Total Annihilation is clearly one of the hottest games of the year to date, and is expected to be a big hit on TEN," said TEN producer Sukhbir Sidhu. "The game's support for ongoing developer expansion and extensive player customization means that it will have a long and successful life online. We expect it to be a top-five game on the TEN service within a month."

Cavedog Entertainment will add to Total Annihilation's 150 run-time 3D-articulated battle units starting October 31, giving players free new and fully functional units for download every week at www.cavedog.com. These new units will integrate seamlessly into the game, including multiplayer action over the Internet or a local area network, providing virtually unlimited expansion and enhancement of game play and strategy.

Total Annihilation will be optimized for play on TEN via B.U.L.L.E.T. T, a proprietary, performance-optimizing technology that enhances both the speed and reliability of certain types of games. TEN will offer Total Annihilation contests and other player activities. Additional player information about Total Annihilation on TEN can be found online at www.ten.net in the website's news areas and in the iarea.

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Cavedog Entertainment, based in the Seattle area, was created in 1995 by Ron Gilbert and a team of the game industry's best designers, programmers and artists, to pioneer interactive gaming and create new standards of fun. In 1997, Computer Gaming World and GameSpot proclaimed Ron Gilbert to be one of "the 15 most influential people of all time." Gilbert previously spent eight years at LucasArts Entertainment, where he designed such classic games as Maniac Mansion and the Monkey Island series. Both games have won numerous awards and appeared in PC Games' Top Eight Most Influential Games of All Time list. Chris Taylor, creator and lead designer of Total Annihilation, is an award-winning game designer responsible for such hit titles as Triple Play Baseball, Hardball II, and 4D Sports Boxing. Industry accolades include the Software Publishers Association Sports Game of the Year Award.

Total Entertainment Network is the premier entertainment network for game playing consumers on the Internet. TEN has online rights to more than 30 games, more than half of which are TEN exclusives, by leading software publishers including 3D Realms Entertainment, Apogee, Blizzard, Bungie Software, Cavedog Entertainment, Eidos Interactive (formerly Domark), id Software, GT Interactive, Maxis, MicroProse, Sierra Online/Papyrus, SSI and Westwood Studios. Based in San Francisco, TEN was formed in 1995 from the merger of Outland, Inc. and Planet Optigon, Inc. TEN received its initial funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, with subsequent investors including: Ameritech; Goldman Sachs; Robertson, Stephens & Co.; Vertex Management; and Wasserstein Perella.

Source:

Press Release

Du siehst die Alpha-Wellen der generischen Abwehr. Du hörst die statische Entladung des Matrix-Transmitters. Du riechst die ozongeschwängerte Luft, von der es nicht mehr viel gibt. Du schmeckst schon den Polymerdampf geschmolzener Core-Einheiten. Du spürst die Gefahr des feindlichen Plasmastrahlers.

Deine Strategie entscheidet über Sieg oder totale Vernichtung.

TOTAL

ANNIHILATION

USE YOUR SENSES

Source:

Advertisement in PC Games, September 1997 (German)

„Total Annhiliation ist Echtzeitstrategie pur...“

PC Games 9/97

„All die wünschenswerten Innovationen die wir im PC Games-Special in Ausgabe 7/07 für nahe Zukunft prophezeit haben - Total Annihilation hat sie.“

PC Games 9/97

Du siehst

die Alpha-Wellen der generischen Abwehr.

Du hörst

die statische Entladung des Matrix-Transmitters.

Du riechst die ozongeschwängerte Luft, von der es nicht mehr viel gibt.

Du schmeckst schon den Polymerdampf geschmolzener Core-Einheiten. Du spürst

die Gefahr des feindlichen

Plasmastrahlers. **Deine Strategie

entscheidet über Sieg

oder totale Vernichtung.

TOTAL

ANNIHILATION USE YOUR SENSES**

Source:

Print advertisement - PC Player 10/1997

For millennia, the galaxy has been at war. Two determined opponents, the Core and the Arm have swept away thousands of worlds and billions of lives! A few survive on both sides. It is up to you to decisively end this ancient struggle.

You are a commander, a futuristic K-BOT(TM). Powered by the reactor at your heart, you can build an entire complex of war. But you (and your enemy) are masters of nanotech: manipulating matter at an atomic level. Even the most remote barren land offers all the elements you need to do battle. At a moment's notice, you can make factories spring into action, devastating machines roar to life, guns blaze with fierce energy...another world blackened by war. Can you put an end to a vast conflict that threatens universal existence?

Features:

· Incredible 3-D environments - including realistic terrain with true 3D elevation.

· Fully articulated, run-time generated 3D units and buildings.

· True 3D terrain that units must climb over, into and around.

· Large 3D generated maps, extra Large maps for 32M users.

· Landscape diversity. From grasslands, forests, snowscapes and deserts to open water, barren landscapes, lava, metal and ice worlds. Plus, many more.

· Over 150 units and 25 missions per side in single player campaign.

· Full Multi-player support as well as single player skirmish mode.

· Watch and join modes in multi-player games. Allied teams can share resources, information and units.

· Download new units and buildings weekly from www.totalannihilation.com.

Source:

GT website