4D Project List
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Listed below are many of the projects on which 4D has worked since its foundation in 1978. Not all of these projects, unfortunately, went into production. Some were strictly experimental, others were superseded by later developments, and yet others were ended by clients for internal reasons.
Projects are grouped by type, and under each type by client. Follow the links below to see the selected type.
Coleco Industries4D developed numerous cartridge titles for the ColecoVision, including Zaxxon, Tarzan, Spy Hunter, and Pepper II, and were also responsible for the Super SubRoc, Super Zaxxon, and Tunnels & Trolls DDP's for the ADAM computer.
The Avalon Hill Game Company
Titles programmed for Avalon Hill include Guns of Fort Defiance, Computer Acquire, Computer Stocks & Bonds, and Computer Baseball Strategy.
Discovery Games
4D programmed a number of air combat games for Discovery Games: Lafayette Escadrille, Chennault's Flying Tigers, RAF- The Battle of Britain, MiGs and Messerschmitts, Winged Samurai,and Jagdstaffel.
Electronic Arts/Microprose
Aztec: Empire of Blood was a large-scale PC strategy game where the player took the role of an Aztec Emperor. Originally started for Electronic Arts, it was transferred to Microprose when EA decided to concentrate on sports games. It was within a few months of completion, with advertising already appearing in magazines, when Microprose stopped all external projects due to financial problems.
Rochester Public SchoolsThe RPS effort comprised three projects. One was a series of question and answer drills designed to support an elementary school curriculum on Native Americans in Minnesota. The second was a series of simulations of classic physics experiments that were either too difficult (e.g., the Millikin Oil Drop Experiment) or too dangerous (e.g., Radioactive Shielding and Decay) for High school students to perform in the lab. The third was Birds & Worms, a systems dynamics model for projecting the impact of predation rates and adaptation on a simplified prey-predator ecosystem.
EcolabsThis was a project to place the company's laundry chemical dispenser installation instructions on a CD-ROM to be used with the Sony MMCD player. The idea was that a small electronic device would replace a large box full of manuals. The pilot worked quite well, but Sony discontinued sales of the MMCD, dooming the project.
Quanta Press
4D developed several DataGames to go on Quanta's CD-ROM's. The games were designed to allow the user to shell out of the game and search the CD for the information needed to win. These games included a Desert War simulation, a World War 2 quiz game, and a US Presidents quiz game. A series of animated recreations of Civil War battles were in development when Quanta closed down. 4D also developed a slide-viewer type application for Quanta, which was looking at publishing travelogue disks.
Scott Paper CleanWorks Division
The client had recently equipped its national sales force with new laptops and wanted something more interactive than the PowerPoint presentations it was then using to provide information to customers. 4D developed a Visual Basic program that accommodated the client's needs and was able to shell out to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to present materials such as order forms, pricing charts, and pre-existing presentations.
KidZibitsThe client, a small museum exhibit manufacturer, needed a hand-eye coordination tester similar in concept to, but more complex than the Simon electronic game. 4D produced the hardware design and the firmware to operate it.
Byron Elevator Company
The client wanted his feed mill automated. He brought in 4D to complete the project after it had been abandoned as imposible by another company.Nicolett Process Engineering
4D produced a Visiual Basic program to allow NPE to use a PC to operate a Porgrammable Logic Controller that in turn runs their injection molding equipment.
AxiohmThe client employed 4D to update the driver for their product, a thermal printer to produce coupons at the cash register, from DOS to Windows.
City of St. Paul Traffic Engineering Division4D provided a C application to format, weight, store,and print data from car-counter boxes, allowing the TED to plan for traffic signal and road upgrades.
Rosemount Engineering4D personnel are on a team involved in the development of production control software.
CPI (now Guidant)4D personnel were team members on several projects, including a drug infusion pump, numerous device-specific modules for the 2035 handheld programmer, and an implantable device communications simulator.
Medtronic4D personnel have worked on numerous project teams at both the Cardiac Rhythm Management and Neurological Divisions. These projects include implantable devices (including the latest pacemaker-defibrillators), programmers, and implant analyzers.Nellcor-Puritan-Bennett4D provided firmware troubleshooting, design, and implemetation for an experimental two-heater subcutaneous oxygenation probe.
