The History of Total Annihilation

Total Annihilation was made by a small studio that existed for only five years. The game outlived it. The rights have changed hands several times since, and the game is still sold and played today.

Timeline

Date Event
1995 Humongous Entertainment creates Cavedog Entertainment as a label for mainstream games. Ron Gilbert and Shelley Day are among its founders.
January 1996 Chris Taylor joins Cavedog with his idea for a war game.
July 1996 GT Interactive buys Humongous Entertainment, Cavedog's parent company.
1997 Cavedog shows the game at the E3 trade show, where GamePen gives it a Best of E3 award.
27 September 1997 Total Annihilation goes on sale in 14 countries, in English, French and German. Some store pages give 30 September.
14 October 1997 Free multiplayer for the game starts on the Total Entertainment Network (TEN).
October 1997 Cavedog reports more than 250,000 copies shipped to shops in the first month.
13 November 1997 A free demo is released on the Internet.
14 November 1997 Cavedog releases the first free weekly unit, the Arm Flakker.
January 1998 GameSpot names Total Annihilation its Game of the Year for 1997.
March 1998 Chris Taylor leaves Cavedog to found Gas Powered Games.
27 March 1998 A free beta of the Map and Mission Editor is released.
29 April 1998 Cavedog releases The Core Contingency. It reaches US shops on 30 April.
20 July 1998 Battle Tactics is released, on the date that Cavedog announced. Some store pages give 30 June.
1997–1998 Cavedog releases patches 1.1, 1.2, 2.0, 3.0 and 3.1.
12 November 1998 Cavedog announces Boneyards, its online service, with a beta test in December.
13 November 1998 The Total Annihilation Commander Pack goes on sale. It contains the game, both expansions and a 288-page strategy guide.
June 1999 Cavedog releases Total Annihilation: Kingdoms.
December 1999 Infogrames completes its purchase of a controlling share of GT Interactive.
February 2000 A GT Interactive financial report announces the closure of Cavedog.
May 2000 GT Interactive is renamed Infogrames, Inc.
May 2003 Infogrames, Inc. is renamed Atari, Inc.
August 2010 GOG.com releases Total Annihilation: Commander Pack.
January 2013 Atari's companies in the United States file for bankruptcy protection.
July 2013 Wargaming buys the Total Annihilation rights at Atari's bankruptcy auction.
18 December 2015 Total Annihilation is released on Steam, published by Wargaming.
27 September 2026 The first public version of Open Annihilation (0.2) is published on GitHub.

Making the Game

Chris Taylor had first planned to start his own company in Canada. Instead, he accepted Cavedog's offer to build a team for his game. He was the designer and project lead. Ron Gilbert, the creator of Monkey Island, was the producer, and Jeremy Soule wrote the music. The rest of the team is on the developers page. At launch, the game had more than 150 3D units and 50 missions, and it cost $49.95 in the United States.

Support After Release

Cavedog kept adding to the game. From November 1997 it released a free unit every week, and later free maps. The patches added new features as well as fixes:

  • 1.1 let players send chat to allies only or to enemies only, and fixed sound problems.
  • 1.2 was needed to install the downloadable units.
  • 2.0 added computer opponents in multiplayer games, and teams that cannot be broken.
  • 3.0 and 3.1 added new shortcut keys, resource sharing commands and free choice of campaign missions. Version 3.1 also changed pathfinding for larger maps and larger armies.

The final official version is 3.1c, which the GOG and Steam editions include. See what Total Annihilation did differently for the downloadable units.

Boneyards

Boneyards was Cavedog's online service. It offered chat rooms, ladders and rankings, tournaments, player profiles and matchmaking. Its main feature was Galactic Wars. Each player joined the Arm or the Core and started as a Private. The galaxy map had systems of 50 to 70 linked worlds, and players fought for the planets where the two sides met. At the end of each day, the results of all battles decided which planets changed hands. The battles themselves were played in the normal game.

Core Prime has since rebuilt Boneyards, and its online service is running again. See how to play it today.

The End of Cavedog

After Chris Taylor left, Cavedog released both expansions and, in June 1999, Total Annihilation: Kingdoms. Its other projects did not reach the shops. Elysium was cancelled, and Amen: The Awakening was cancelled in January 2000. The closure of Cavedog appeared in a GT Interactive financial report on 11 February 2000. The remaining staff moved to Humongous Entertainment.

Who Owns the Game

The rights followed Cavedog's parent companies. GT Interactive came under the control of Infogrames, and it was renamed Infogrames, Inc. and later Atari, Inc. Atari's companies in the United States filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2013. Their assets were sold at auction in July 2013. Wargaming, the maker of World of Tanks, bought Total Annihilation. Wargaming had already bought Chris Taylor's studio, Gas Powered Games.

Re-Releases

GOG.com first sold the Commander Pack in August 2010, for $5.99. It includes the original game and both expansions. Wargaming released the game on Steam on 18 December 2015. Both editions are still on sale; see Play it today.

Open Annihilation

Open Annihilation is Core Prime's free, open-source engine for the game, released under the GPLv3. It plays the original game data from your own copy on modern computers and devices. It uses the original network protocol, so it can play multiplayer games with the unmodified version 3.1c.

Sources