History

Hardwar began life as an MS-DOS game, but during the development process, the target platform switched to Windows/DirectX. The game was in development from 1995 until its release in 1998.

The game was developed by The Software Refinery, in cooperation with publishers Gremlin Interactive. The two companies had previously worked together on Slipstream 5000, and Hardwar used and continued the development of the 3D Engine developed by SR for that game.

The game was released in Europe and Australia by Gremlin, and licensed to Interplay for distribution in the US. Although the game was well received, sales were poor, which many have attributed to marketing and distribution problems, but popularity of the genre in an era dominated sales-wise by sports and cars was undoubtedly also an issue.

Timeline

Here are a few key Hardwar dates from my various records:

The Software Refinery

The Software Refinery were based in Leeds - according to my diary and/or best guesses, at the following locations.

Before that, we all (meaning the three of us that founded SR) worked at Vektor Grafix, which was at The Old Brewery on The Calls (89-93), and before that Prospect House on Sovereign Street (87-89).