Eclipse

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Eclipse Software Design was a German studio founded by Marc Rosocha. The team previously worked on Iron Soldier and its sequel for the Atari Jaguar. After Iron Soldier 2, Rosocha approached Sony to work on PlayStation, and Bill Rehbock, a former Atari staffer at Sony, sent development kits for Eclipse. Rosocha explained that Eclipse was close to reaching an agreement with Sony to publish Iron Soldier 3 as a first-party title, but it was cancelled at the last minute, leading to a deal being signed with Vatical Entertainment and Telegames. Eclipse also made a Nuon version for VM Labs, a California-based semiconductor company founded by Richard Miller with former Atari and Sony staff. Most of the Iron Soldier 3 team were dispersed between countries such as Germany and Austria. Rosocha acted as the game's director and designer, while the Nuon version was produced by Joe Sousa, who worked on several Jaguar titles such as Cybermorph and Kasumi Ninja. Gerhard Seiler served as lead programmer, with Maik Guntermann providing additional coding. Daniel Hericks was responsible for the graphics, while the music was scored by Harald Riegler and Peter Steinkellner. The full-motion video (FMV) sequences were done by graphic artist Johannes Graf, his first professional video game project, using a driver created by Eclipse. Johannes became involved in the project when his brother Roland discussed with Rosocha about obtaining a development kit to port Native to the Nuon and contacted him. The team wanted to preserve, but not break, the core gameplay they created on the Jaguar. To counter criticism that the game moved slowly, they added faster walker mechs. Eclipse eschewed software tool libraries provided by Sony and instead relied on directly programming its own routines for the PlayStation hardware to ensure high performance and better visual quality, avoiding texture warping and clipping errors. The game's engine, which Rosocha compared to Twisted Metal and Vigilante 8, allowed for special effects not commonly seen on PlayStation, such as lighting and shadows on buildings, as well as weather effects. The team worked on the PlayStation and Nuon versions in parallel for nearly two years but struggled to finish the game before VM Labs ran out of funding. Iron Soldier 3 is the final entry in the Iron Soldier series and the last Eclipse title to be released. During an interview regarding the Nuon version of Native, Rosocha stated that there were discussions about making a next-generation Iron Soldier game, but that he was tired of ignoring late payments and the circumstances under which they occurred, moving on to other ventures outside of game development with his company.

In Their Own Story

After the release of Iron Soldier 2, Eclipse Software Design founder Marc Rosocha approached Sony to work on the PlayStation. The studio came close to a deal to publish Iron Soldier 3 as a first-party Sony title, but it was cancelled at the last minute. This led to a deal being signed with Vatical Entertainment and Telegames, while a Nuon version was made for VM Labs. Most of the team was scattered across countries such as Germany and Austria. The team wanted to preserve, but not break, the core gameplay they established on the Atari Jaguar. To counter criticism that the game moved slowly, they added faster walker mechs. Eclipse eschewed software tool libraries provided by Sony and instead relied on directly programming its own routines for the PlayStation hardware to ensure high performance and better visual quality, avoiding texture warping and clipping errors. The game's engine allowed for special effects not commonly seen on PlayStation, such as lighting and shadows on buildings, as well as weather effects. The team worked on the PlayStation and Nuon versions in parallel for nearly two years but struggled to finish the game before VM Labs ran out of funding. Iron Soldier 3 was released for PlayStation in North America by Vatical Entertainment on June 14, 2000, followed by Germany in October 2000 and United Kingdom in November 2000 by Telegames. The Nuon version saw a very limited retail release in May 2001, as it was withdrawn by VM Labs due to a bug that caused incompatibility with certain Nuon-enabled DVD players. It was never re-released due to VM Labs' financial issues, however a number of demo copies were distributed for free by Kevin Manne of the fansite Nuon-Dome. In 2021, publisher Songbird Productions made a licensed re-release of the Nuon version. Iron Soldier 3 is the final entry in the Iron Soldier series and the last Eclipse title to be released. Rosocha stated that there were discussions about making a next-generation Iron Soldier game, but that he was tired of ignoring late payments and the circumstances under which they occurred, moving on to other ventures outside of game development with his company.

Reader's Guide

Eclipse Software Design developed three Iron Soldier games: Iron Soldier, Iron Soldier 2, and Iron Soldier 3. The first two were released for the Atari Jaguar. Iron Soldier 3 was developed for the PlayStation and Nuon. The studio was founded by Marc Rosocha, who acted as the game's director and designer. The team was dispersed between Germany and Austria. Key team members included lead programmer Gerhard Seiler, additional coder Maik Guntermann, graphics artist Daniel Hericks, and composers Harald Riegler and Peter Steinkellner. The FMV sequences were done by graphic artist Johannes Graf, his first professional video game project. The Nuon version was produced by Joe Sousa, who worked on several Jaguar titles such as Cybermorph and Kasumi Ninja. The team wanted to preserve the core gameplay from the Jaguar games but added faster walker mechs to address criticism that the game moved slowly. Eclipse programmed directly for the PlayStation hardware rather than using Sony's software tool libraries, which allowed for special effects like lighting and shadows on buildings and weather effects. The game's engine was compared by Rosocha to Twisted Metal and Vigilante 8. The team worked on the PlayStation and Nuon versions in parallel for nearly two years but struggled to finish before VM Labs ran out of funding. A port titled Iron Soldier 3+ was in development for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox, but was later cancelled. Iron Soldier 3 was the last Eclipse title to be released, as Rosocha moved on to other ventures outside of game development.

Did You Know?

• Eclipse Software Design was a German studio founded by Marc Rosocha.
• The studio came close to a deal with Sony to publish Iron Soldier 3 as a first-party title, but it was cancelled at the last minute.
• Eclipse eschewed Sony's software tool libraries and programmed directly for the PlayStation hardware to avoid texture warping and clipping errors.
• The game's engine allowed for special effects not commonly seen on PlayStation, such as lighting and shadows on buildings and weather effects.
• A Japanese publisher contacted Eclipse to localize Iron Soldier 3 for Japan, but Rosocha declined because the publisher wanted to make it faster and allow mechs to fly.