Terminal Velocity

Terminal Velocity
N/A
Metacritic
89
Steam
60
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$6.29
Release date
5 May 2014
Developers
Steam reviews score
Total
89 (74 votes)

In the far future, armadas from surrounding systems have suddenly waged war on Earth, destroying crucial installations and major cities - Earth is quickly brought to its knees. You are a pilot from the Ares Squadron, flying the fastest, most dangerous crafts ever made. You pilot the TV-202, a fighter few can handle.

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Terminal Velocity system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8
  • Processor: Intel Core Due 2
  • Memory: 2 GB RAM

Recommended:

Recommended requirements are not yet specified.
Updated
App type
Steam APP ID
358370
Platforms
Windows PC
Mac
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Khalthehunted332
Khalthehunted332

This game is an awesome classic! Its kinda like Fury and another similar game i played for Windows 95 and or dos i don't remember the name of it unfortunately!

You get to fly over a world and in orbit, fly through tunnels and fight enemy spacecraft and tanks.

there are also secret areas and secret tunnels and if I recall a secret bonus level or two!

All in all this is a great classic!

Trail-Dave
Trail-Dave

Terminal Velocity: Legacy

Childhood Nostalgia

I grew up in the 90's PC gaming era and this is one of those gems.

Great music, great action and very nostalgic.

I have only just noticed that they have released a semi remastered version called Terminal Velocity Boosted.

So I'm definitely about to install that and play through properly now that it runs full screen natively and has Steam Achievements.

Ymir was such a banger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H52f4cQ9aS0&ab_channel=Bysig
Trail-Dave
Grooving to Ymir

Majorita
Majorita

Hey, this is a pretty fun little game, I've never played it before but...

Oh it's no longer on the Steam store for some reason. Oh well.

Anyway, it's a very primitive yet very fun dogfighting ground-attacking arcade flight sim. I like it.

GeneralEcks
GeneralEcks

Well... after playing just 20minutes I've reverted to my 11year old self in awe of one of the best soundtracks my ears have ever bled too! Man I forgot how much I loved Terminal Velocity >.

Ryo7
Ryo7

This game is a Nostalgic Overload...it's as good as I remember. It aged well and is one of a few titles that made my damn childhood.

Ælíđ
Ælíđ

Great game, even to this day. Controls are perfect using the 360-Controller - firing with the right trigger is extremely satisfying! The levels however are a bit pale from a game design standpoint - you pretty much do the same all the time.

Note: I've played using the Microsoft 360-Pad and the Saitek PS3200. For some reason, the controls using the MS-Pad are a bit stiff in that the Analog Stick doesn't seem to support diagonal movement. That means you can either move to the X- or Y-axis, but never both. The Saitek-Pad however works just fine and lets me do vertical movement. I don't know if this is a problem with my PC but I thought I'd share this with you.

The graphics are very smooth and nicely done.

The levels are cool - you get the typical icy/volcano-ey and deserty planets, but also a sort-of death-star-knockoff shaped like a giant dagger.

The music is cool, however they are only like 40-Second-loops, which was OK for when it came out. This isn't a bad thing - as a kid I didn't even care about that. The music is still a lot more creative than the generic orchestral soundtracks you get in pretty much any AAA-game nowadays, and it has a nice variety. The "Moon Dagger" music is really awesome and together with the dark level design makes it really intense!

Great game. 10/10

SchlapNtikkle
SchlapNtikkle

Ahh, an excellent game similar to Descent but by 3d realms. I am more familiar with the re-coded Fury 3, which is what Microsoft released when they purchased the source code. The last title of the series was called "Hellbender". It's really simple. Fly to different plannets, blow up main targets with your lasers, rockets, and cannons and defeat a "guardian" at the end of the level then proceed to the next planet. The games seemed a bit short, with approximately 20 planets each game. But it's still a classic. It's good to know the old cheat codes still work with the steam version! I recommend a joystick if you can get it to work. Perhaps Fury3 and Hellbender will also be available on steam, too.

Stultus
Stultus

Made in a time when flight sims and sci-fi action were THE genres. The game is pretty good, but it was the first in its series, and many of the obvious faults, such as the somewhat bland level design, were objectively improved upon in the later games Fury3 and, my personal favorite, Hellbender.

Apart from one crash, the only problem I encountered was an awkward control situation. This is emulated through DOSBox, which seems to have issues with input hardware detection. Worst case scenario is that the game ignores the analog control of joysticks and gamepads. Instead, it will recognize these motions as regular keyboard presses, and this is a pain for steering. Mouse controls sort of work, but take a lot of tweaking to get just right. I personally found the best option to be a gamepad, steering with the directional buttons and controlling thrust with the right analog stick.

Other than that, this is a blast to play. Fun, fast, and quickly self-explanatory, it just feels good to shoot stuff, and it's entertaining enough for a bit of replay, too.

Scuzzy
Scuzzy

If you liked Hellbender, Descent, fury3 or any early FPS space fighter games it is worth a go! On a personal note: Found a demo of this on a floppy disk at a warehouse deals store back in probably 1996 or so, still remember that menu where you'd call a number to order a copy and ship it by mail (Blew my mind when I was younger). Also, that harsh MOD file type techno music that was repetitive but totally BA. XD

dsagent
dsagent

Elite Dangerous was a disappointment.
Star Citizen is taking freaking forever.

Better boot up Terminal Velocity!

Isaac Kleiner
Isaac Kleiner

I'm so happy 3D Realms has brought Terminal Velocity to Steam! This game basically was my childhood and my introduction to video games as a whole. I remember being around 4 years old and waiting for my dad to get home from work every day so he could run the commands in DOS to make the game run back when all we had was the shareware copy of the first level! Terminal Velocity runs great on Windows 7 using the built-in DOSBox software. I had no major issues during my playthrough. Though the game hasn't aged gracefully from a graphical perspective, it's still a blast. Definitely recommend!

devil make rye
devil make rye

this is a really fun, short game, i just really wish the other ones like hellbender and fury3 were released here too, so i could play the full trilogy

Jr786Volnutt
Jr786Volnutt

The First 3D Realms game after Rise of the Triad that was released in 1995. This game however, uses the same engine as Fury3 which is a Semi-Launch title for Windows 95 back in the day.

As for the story, it's pretty neat. The year is 2074 & the P.D.G or Perimiter Defense Grid within all the major planetary governments has somewhat gone rouge, not responding to any of the user commands & have begun launching attacks on Earth.

As pilot from the Ares Squadron, flying the fastest, most dangerous crafts ever made. Currently, you're in the TV-202, a fighter few can handle. Given that the previous model, the TV-101, has chalked up more dead pilots than any experimental craft in history, many consider you lucky to be alive. Your mission: To Seek and Destroy all of the P.D.G. Systems that have gone rouge, find out why the P.D.G has gone rouge and put an end to it.

IronFox
IronFox

In short: It's DosBox emulated. It works, your joysticks might not, and, no, you don't get high-resolution support.

Once upon a time, this game was awesome. It still could be, if someone made it compatible to a modern OS. What you get here is a DosBox+game combo, with zero work invested into improvements. The settings you specify via the UI buttons are not preserved; even restarting the game via the DosBox menu command wipes previous settings. Your only chance is to edit the dosbox.conf file in the installation directory. Joystick support is flaky, to say the least, with some modern joysticks exceeding the valid axis range of terminal velocity, rendering them unusable in this game.
DosBox does not seem to anticipate this.

DeathofaStar
DeathofaStar

Absolutely fantastic oldie. Will keep you entertained no matter how many times you come back to it, even if it's just for a small 30 min sessh. some parts might be a bit unintuitive and potentially really really annoying to figure out (specifically two things on the last episode) but overall this is the game I remember from my childhood and it has aged VERY well. Great OST, great gameplay, many secrets.

9/10 would play again.

Vovalia The Bluehaired
Vovalia The Bl…

Great 6DOF shooter of its time and one of the games of my childhood. Gameplay is plain: flying on planets, destroying everything that does and doesnt move. Story is even more plain: aliens ganged up against Earth and we as one and only pro pilot have to eliminate them. Music is excellent for its time. Recommend it for those who want some nostalgia and for those, who like such games and isnt afraid of 95s graphics.

Torturephile
Torturephile

Fun, simple classic of a space shooter game. There isn't much variation of what you have to do in every mission, so expect to shoot enemies all the time like in Doom.

I do wish Microsoft would publish its spiritual sequels, Fury³ and Hellbender.

Bluebeak
Bluebeak

Terminal Velocity is a very nostalgic and forgotten game from the 90s. It was developed by Terminal Reality and published by 3D realms. It's a sci-fi space sim that controls more like Descent. It's a very simple game where you mostly just shoot at everything that moves.

Visually it's very familiar to other games from around the same time like Mechwarrior 2. It hasn't aged that well visually in a lot of ways though, like the world is flat shaded and generally crudely textured. It also has a draw distance that ends in a few meters.

Strangely Terminal Velocity has aged somewhat well in terms of gameplay mostly because it can be played with the mouse. Because it controls more like Descent you can shift your course immediately at any point and don't have to worry about lift. You essentially control like a first person shooter with thrust. At the same time there's really no story and the overly simplistic gameplay may be a turnoff if you're not nostalgic for it.

While I don't hold Terminal Velocity in as high regard as its successor Fury 3, it's still a fairly solid game, especially for its time.

Swoodily Pooper
Swoodily Pooper

Why is six afraid of seven? I assume because seven is a prime number, and prime numbers can be intimidating.

Soulitary
Soulitary

One of the best games from back in the day mate. I used to have this on disc and was the only game i had that wasnt educational. This port is very good. I originally played this with a joystick, but since i dont have it anymore, playing the new port with keyboard is still enjoyable. I really recommend you get this game.

Moopish Dag-bang-go
Moopish Dag-bang-go

Terminal Velocity is a game that I didn't get the chance to play when I was younger. I ended up playing Microsoft Hellbender when I was younger instead and later looked to play the earlier games by TRI. Finally I played both this and Fury3 years later.

This game is extremely nostalgic to me and have plenty of great memories. It definitely would be hard for many to get into it since this comes packaged with DOSbox and does not have the same resolution settings that we are accustomed to today.

There is an attempt at a game engine rewrite called Terminal Recall which seems decent, however it is very slow on the laptop I usually use. I even made an attempt to dig into creating an engine to play the games but only ever got as far as opening and reading the game's data files.

Would recommend to the DOS gaming enthusiast for sure, but for others to be a little research to see if looks like something they would enjoy.

~WILD~Wandering~WITCH~
~WILD~Wanderin…

Xbox360 controller doesnt work, logitech joystick doesnt work, keyboard stopped working after first round, its as glitchy as the real deal back in 95, yes i remember it very very well.... im actually very sad i actually spent 7 bucks on this waste....

bhaalwise11
bhaalwise11

Granted it came out in the 90's so the graphics aren't exactly stellar, but this is a game I grew up with, in fact it was the first time I learned how to use a joy-stick, back before they were USB. It's very straightforward and easy to play. Offers a decent challenge as you up the difficulty and is a way to test you're "piloting" abilities. Story is kinda bland and very over-done, but still running strong with it's nice background tracks playing while you clear the objectives and shoot-down the opposition.
I don't know if this game ever had a strong-presence, but I really hope they try to Re-Vamp it, update the graphics and possibly the tracks so everything is more modern for today's era.
It's simple, but it's fun. Would recommend to anyone.

IRgEEK
IRgEEK

A favorite when originally released. Such a creative title from such a small and talented team. The Audio track bumping and the introduction of secret tunnels was like nothing at the time. When saw it popped up on Steam had to grab it. Yes the graphics haven't aged great but just as amazingly fun as ever! I would *love* to see this awesome title updated!

Evil-System
Evil-System

Did it really stand the test of time? No.
Does it run fine on Windows 10, with a high-end rig? Yep. (Using the keyboard only)
Does it bring back memories/create nostalgia? Oh yeah!

Will I play it? Sure, till the end, just the one time. Recommended for the nostalgia factor, just like all of these old DOS games.

CNN Reporter
CNN Reporter

This is the shareware version, AKA THE DEMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mr Hankey
Mr Hankey

This is a fairly easy and relaxing game. It's the first game I ever played when I was little. It's more fun then it looks. You might get hooked. I love it.

Anonymous
Anonymous

love the game. played as a kid. cant seem to figure out how to save my game though...

Salamand3r-
Salamand3r-

An excellent classic - I remember many hours spent playing this as a much younger man after finding the demo on the Duke3D CDROM.

But, back then I also didn't have a joystick. Or when I did, there were always issues with game ports and IRQs and extended memory and whatnot typical of DOS gaming back in the day.

Basically, I've been waiting ~25 years to play it maxed out and properly with a joystick.

Steam release has some issues though - instead of using the actual Doxbox joystick emulation, they just bound axes to keyboard keys meaning that you effectively had a digital joystick instead of an analog one.

Looks like they couldn't figure out how to properly change a single variable in the conf regarding joysticks and gave up.

Once you fix that and get rid of their ridiculous binds, it plays like it should and it's an absolute blast from the past.

Highly recommended if you're willing to spend a few minutes fixing the configuration to enjoy it at it's best.

Kickin' soundtrack too. One of the absolute best of the era.

Darkendone
Darkendone

Before Descent and probably one of the first open work concepts I ever played, Terminal Velocity if you PC at the time could run it, offer a very unique style of game play that was unmatched at the time. A must for any Apogee fans out there.