Phoenix engine

Phoenix engine is an isometric 2D game engine created by Micro Forté, used in Fallout Tactics.
==Background==
In May 1999, John De Margheriti, CEO of Micro Forté, visited Interplay with a pitch for an isometric scrolling shooter called Chimera (a.k.a. Chimera Project). Interplay was impressed with the quality of the demo but was not interested in the game itself. However Brian Christian, the head of 14° East, saw enough potential in Chimera engine to propose the idea of doing a tactical combat game set in Black Isle's postapocalyptic Fallout setting.Gamasutra: Postmortem: Micro Forte's Fallout Tactics by Tony Oakden 
The large part of Chimera engine was rewritten on the fly during the development of Fallout Tactics.DAC Forums: Proof of what we all know... - comment by Gareth Davies So the new engine emerged - Phoenix.
==Technical information==
Phoenix engine uses a three-quarters perspective with 2D tile-based backgrounds to represent a 3D environment. Unlike the engine used in previous Fallout games, it supports multi-story buildings, allowing characters to climb to the roof, up stairs and ladders, or delve into subways and subterranean caverns, all within a single game map. 
The engine was written entirely in C++IGN: Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel Interview with Tony Oakden, Ed Orman, Karl Burdack, Parrish Rodgers and Tariq Raheem. and incorporated support for 3D accelerators, resolutions of up to 1024x768 with 32-bit colors, anti-aliasing, alpha blending and dynamic colored lighting. Designed for Micro Forté internal use only, Phoenix wasn't as easily modifiable as some of its contemporaries, such as Quake engine. It didn't feature proper Gameplay API or corresponding SDK. Gameplay modifications often required rewrites of the source code which in turn wasn't designed to be modded easily by third parties.
The second version of the engine, Phoenix 2 (sometimes referred to as Orpheus engine), was at some point intended to be used for Fallout Tactics 2, but the latter was canceled.FREELANCER: Fallout Tactics news
==Games==
===Released===
* Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel (2001) - developed by Micro Forté
* Hot Wheels: Bash Arena (2002) - developed by Micro Forté
===Canceled===
* Fallout Tactics 2
==Gallery==
Chimera Project 001.jpg|Chimera Project featuring the early version of Phoenix engine
Hot Wheels Bash Arena 001.jpg|Hot Wheels: Bash Arena
==References==
Category:Game engines
Category:Fallout Tactics technical information
fr:Moteur de jeu Phoenix