Incredible Technologies (IT) (formerly Free Radical Software (FRS)) is an American designer and manufacturer of coin-operated video games and Class III casino games, based in

Vernon Hills, Illinois Vernon Hills is a suburb north of Chicago, Illinois in Lake County, Illinois, Lake County, Illinois, United States. The population was 26,850 at the 2020 census. Vernon Hills serves as a retail hub for its surrounding area (Libertyville, Illinois ...

. The company's most widely used product is the '' Golden Tee Golf'' series. The company employs around 200 people at its offices in suburban

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

History

The firm was founded as Free Radical Software in July 1985 by Richard Ditton, a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

software engineer, and Elaine Hodgson, a biochemist. The company was a software design gaming firm working for Semaphore Systems, developing the title '' Championship Wrestling'' for

Epyx Epyx, Inc. was a video game developer and video game publisher active in the late 1970s and 1980s. The company was founded in 1978 as Automated Simulations by Jim Connelley and Jon Freeman, publishing a series of tactical combat games. The Epyx ...

, and porting '' Winter Games'' to Amiga and

Atari ST Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the company's Atari 8-bit computers, 8-bit computers. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985, and was widely available i ...

, before being renamed as Incredible Technologies. The company started in the basement of the owners' home and developed a variety of work-for-hire entertainment projects, including pinball hardware and game programming for

Data East , also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 video game titles. At one time, the company had annual sales of 20 billion yen in ...

. In its early years, IT struggled to maintain profitability, with no hit products. In 1988, IT developed hardware and software for its first coin-operated video game, '' Capcom Bowling'', which used a

trackball A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a socket containing sensors to detect a rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down ball mouse (computing), mouse with an exposed protruding ball. Users roll the ball t ...

to simulate the movement of a bowler's toss. A dozen more titles followed in the 1990s under the brand name Strata Games: ''Strata Bowling'', '' Arlington Horse Racing'', ''Hot Shots Tennis'', ''Peggle'', ''Poker Dice'', ''Rim Rockin’ Basketball'', ''Ninja Clowns'', '' Time Killers'', ''Hard Yardage'', ''Driver’s Edge'', '' BloodStorm'' and ''Pairs''. In September 1989, at the Amusement and Music Operators Association (AMOA) International Expo, the company launched a golf game titled ''Golden Tee Golf'', which used a trackball much like the bowling game, this time to simulate a golfer's swing. The game built a following throughout the 1990s, and by 1996 IT was producing updates to the game every year. Golden Tee has seen three major hardware platform changes since its initial release: ''Golden Tee 3D Golf'' in 1995, ''Golden Tee Fore!'' in 2000 and ''Golden Tee LIVE'' in 2005, which allows players to compete in online tournaments for cash and prizes. The game celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2009, and IT released a new high-definition version of the game in a Showpiece cabinet. Co-founder Elaine Hodgson has been president of the company since its founding in the mid-1980s.

Casino gaming

In the face of declining coin-operated video game sales, IT diversified its product line with improvements to electronic gaming machine (EGM) and

slot machine A slot machine, fruit machine (British English), poker machine or pokie (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. A slot machine's standard layout features a screen disp ...

technology. In 2008 the company released the Magic Touch collection of video slot, poker and keno games. Initially unavailable in the United States, the casino games became available on Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas.

Technology

Technological innovations at IT have included: *ITNet server-based technology, employing

CDMA Code-division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. CDMA is an example of multiple access, where several transmitters can send information simultaneously over a single communicatio ...

(Code Division Multiple Access), which compiles statistics such as player scores and tournament activity from online coin-operated machines without telephone lines or an Internet connection. *The Silent Partner route management tool, which was the first computer-based tool allowing coin-operated video game and vending machine operators to electronically track and manage machine collections.

WiiWare

IT collaborated with n-Space to create its first

WiiWare WiiWare was a digital media entertainment service operated by Nintendo that allowed the download of games and applications developed for the Wii video game console. These games and applications could only be purchased and downloaded from the W ...

title, '' Target Toss Pro: Bags'', released on November 17, 2008, and followed in the fall of 2009 with a retro title from the 1990s, '' Carnival King''. Another Target Toss game entitled ''Target Toss Pro: Lawn Darts'', was released on September 27, 2010. It features a Wi-Fi connection and online leaderboard for games such as darts and poker, by throwing the lawn dart towards the target.

References

*Bernstein, David. “Can’t Get a Tee Time? Try the Corner Bar?”. New York Times, March 20, 2003. Retrieved December 15, 2009
Can't Get a Tee Time? Try the Corner Bar (Published 2003)

External links

Incredible Technologies
{{Authority control Video game companies of the United States Companies established in 1985 Companies based in Cook County, Illinois Vernon Hills, Illinois 1985 establishments in Illinois