FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RAD RELEASES BINK VIDEO FOR MACINTOSH
Kirkland, Washington – May 29, 2000 – RAD Game Tools today announced the
release of Bink Video for the Macintosh platform. Bink Video is a
high-performance video codec (compressor/decompressor) for video games and
demanding multimedia applications. Bink has been shipping on the PC
platform for 1 years and has been used in over 400 games since, including
“Diablo II”, “Final Fantasy VIII”, “Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation,” and
“Vampire: The Masquerade.”
Bink is a “better-than-MPEG-II” class codec – it compresses better than
MPEG-II at up to three times the playback speed. It is a hybrid
block-transform and wavelet codec that can encode video using 16 different
compression techniques (wavelet, DCT, motion compensation, a variety of
vector quantizers, Smacker-style, and more). With all of these techniques
in one codec, Bink can handle almost any type of video. Bink also has a
built-in psycho-acoustic based audio codec that is capable of 8 to 1
perceptually lossless compression.
“Bink Video gives Mac game developers the same quality and performance
advantage that PC Bink developers have enjoyed,” said Jeff Roberts,
programmer at RAD Game Tools. “We are thrilled to make Bink available to
all of our Macintosh developers.”
The Macintosh version of Bink is available now from RAD Game Tools at
425-893-4300. To download the Bink Player for Macintosh or the RAD Video
Tools (which includes Bink Video), go to www.radgametools.com.
Outstanding Video Quality for Game Developers Most PC game developers use
RAD’s Bink Video to play cut-scenes in their games. They include: The 3DO
Company, Accolade, Activision, Addictive Media, Advanced Productions,
Amatic, American Laser Technology, Barking Dog Studios, Blizzard
Entertainment, Click Entertainment, Cyberlife Technology, Cyberlore
Studios, Codemasters, Core Design, Criterion Software, Deibus Studios,
Digital Anvil, Dong Seo Interactive, Electronic Arts, Fox Interactive,
Funcom, Gold Creek Technology, Gorilla Systems, GT Interactive Software,
Hasbro, Havas, Holistic Design, Human Code, Humongous Entertainment,
Hypnotix, Impressions Software, Ion Storm, ITE Media, Massive
Entertainment, Mattel Media, Microsoft, Microids, Mindscape, Minds Eye
Productions, Monster Games, Mucky Foot Productions, New World Computing,
Novalogic, O3 Games, Pandemic Studios, Past Tree, Papyrus, Prelusion, Rage
Games Limited, Randon Games, Ravensburger Interactive, Revolution Software,
Sci, Sierra On-line, Sir-Tech, Smoking Gun Productions, Softstar
Entertainment, Sony Development, Square Soft, Stormfront Studios, Strategic
Studios Group, Sunflowers Interactive, Take Two, THQ, Troika Games,
Warthog, and Wizards of the Coast and many others. For information on
current and upcoming titles that use Bink Video, check out RAD’s web site
at www.radgametools.com/binkgames/.
About RAD
RAD Games Tools, Inc. publishes game development technologies including the
Miles Sound System, Smacker Video Technology, and Granny 3D Animation.
These technologies have appeared in over 4,500 games since 1994, and
shipped in 35 million games in 1999 alone. RAD Game Tools is privately held
and is headquartered in Kirkland, Washington.