Terminal Velocity

Terminal Velocity is a game released in 1995 by Apogee Software under their imprint 3D Realms (the first game with that imprint) and developed by Terminal Reality. It is a combat flight sim with the player put in control of a futuristic fighter and sent on missions across nine planets.

The game was released as a shareware version (containing the first three planets), a disk-based registered version, and a CD-based registered version, which included pre-rendered cinematics and high-resolution replacements for some of the textures (if your computer had enough RAM to use them). Music was entirely digital in all versions using a 6-channel MOD format. The graphics included 640*480 SVGA support.

Another game by Terminal Reality from later in the same year, Fury 3, used a slightly-modified version of the Terminal Velocity game engine.

Tropes in the game

 * Ace Pilot: The game establish your character as one, because most of the other pilots died while testing the TV series of fighters.
 * Artificial Stupidity: Some fixed defenses fires in the opposite direction of where you're flying.
 * Big Bulky Bomb: The quark bomb from the mission 6 briefing: "Years ago, research began on a subatomic bomb, or quark bomb. The basis of the theoretical bomb was Thorium IV, an unstable isotope that would, if struck with sufficiently accelerated particles, blast in what was termed a Deconstruction Radius. Everything in the radius briefly seperates into its component quarks, then reassembles randomly, destroying its original form. The bomb was so utterly destructive that research was terminated and all data supposedly destroyed."
 * The D.A.M. bomb qualify too.
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: Xi, revealed to be a janitor named Sy Wickens.
 * Colony Drop: "The largest asteroid in the asteroid belt, Ceres has been fitted with an ion drive and is on course with Earth."
 * Convection, Schmonvection: Your ship can fly just below lava and avoid overheating, melting or just plain exploding.
 * Earthshattering Kaboom: Proxima-seven and Proxima-four explodes at the end of their respective mission.
 * Easter Egg: The bonus planet in the CD version.
 * Eternal Engine: The supercomputer planet in Episode 3.
 * Frickin' Laser Beams: The R.T.L. lasers. The P.A.C are referred as Plasma assault cannons but could be consider this as well.
 * Fun with Acronyms: Every weapon is referred this way. P.A.C: Plasma Assault Cannons, ION: Ion Burst Gun etc...
 * Game Breaking Bug: There is a crash on stage 5-2 when you exit a tunnel. Thankfully you are not required to use this particular exit.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: The main menu music is actually named "Sex".
 * Homing Projectile: S.A.D. and S.W.T. missiles.
 * Improbable Aiming Skills: The Hydro-sleds on Centauri III have pinpoint accuracy but only in the first mission
 * Meaningful Name: the TV-202.
 * Shout-Out: The moon dagger is like the Death star, complete with trench runs, laser batteries, interceptors that look like TIE fighters and the ability to destroy planets.
 * Single Biome Planet: ALL of them. Ymir is a ice planet, Tei Tenga is a desert planet, Ositsho is a lava filled Death World, Erigone as a greenish soil all over, Centauri III is a water world and Proxima Seven is a supercomputer planet.
 * Super Prototype: The TV series of spacefighters.