FTL showed early on that not only could they make a great game, but they could innovate as well. SunDog was heralded as a breakthrough in gaming interfaces, using a layered windowing system FTL called ZoomAction (there’s that capital letter in the middle of a word again.) ZoomAction allowed the player to navigate through several windows with nothing more than a two-button Apple joystick, as well as introducing the drag-and-drop concept to gaming.

Prior to the release of SunDog, Electronic Arts came snooping around the FTL offices in the hope of landing them to a distribution deal. FTL refused, and instead inked a deal with Accolade. In the middle of SunDog’s shelf-life, something soured between FTL and Accolade, leading FTL to contact all of Accolade’s retail partners and sell them copies of SunDog at a price that undercut Accolade’s. Obviously, this didn’t make Accolade real happy and they refused to work with FTL ever again.

Off to a shaky start, but with a solid first game under their belt, FTL went to work on their second game, Oids.

Oids

Acting as their own publisher, FTL released Oids in 1986 for the Atari ST and Apple Macintosh. An arcade game by any definition, Oids was an odd hybrid of Gravitar and Choplifter, even shipping with its own editor so players could add elements of their own design. Featuring primitive vector graphics, Oids wasn’t much of a success in America, but remains a cult favorite in the UK. Oids was a blip in gaming history, a game long forgotten and, perhaps, rightfully so, as arcade games on a computer was not the best idea for penetrating the market. What FTL needed was something different.

Dungeon Master

FTL released Dungeon Master on the Amiga and Atari ST in 1987. The world was blindsided by the game, as it represented a revolution in every aspect, all from a little company that most had never heard of.

Previous to Dungeon Master, all fantasy RPGs were turn-based, like Bard’s Tale and the endless cycle of games from based on Dungeon & Dragons from SSI. Dungeon Master was an amazing departure from the norm, advancing computer entertainment to a new level by implementing a laundry list of features, including a point-and-click interface, click-and-drag inventory, 3D sound, a 3D environment (though created with 2D sprites), adjusting party formation and an innovative spell system the required experimentation from the player in order to learn new tricks.