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 118 Hillside Drive |
ust 20 minutes north of downtown Dallas,
at the north end of the metroplex, is a booming town called Lewisville. Its centerpiece
being Lewisville Lake spaning more than 23,000 acres and 233 miles of shoreline. Since
the 1840's this town stayed pretty much farmland and ranches until 1970 when the Dallas/Fort Worth
airport changed all that. Since 1980, the population has exploded to more than 60,000 people who
enjoy average temperatures of 66 degrees and 234 sunny days a year. Maybe this is why Lewisville
has the largest shopping mall in Northern Texas with over 1 million square feet, and 160+ stores.
One thing sure rang through to me about the people in Texas, when they do something they do it big.
Nothing could be more true then when I visited the building located at 118 Hillside Drive, Lewisville, Texas, the
home of Terminal Reality.
 Terminal Reality Building |
It all started in 1994 when a 27 year old Brett Combs and 24 year old Mark Randel left successful jobs
at other software companies to found TRI. With only $1000 in their pocket, and working out of Brett's
home, they incorporated Terminal Reality in October of that year. During that time they were developing
their first release and pulled together $120,000, received advances on the first game and were
basically able to avoid giving up ownership and primary decision rights to venture capitalists. After
that first year the company generated $1.2 Million and nearly doubled it the second year with $2.1 Million.
Today the mortgage on the office building is the only company debt and with growth going the way it has,
they are starting work on a new building.
 Fly! Gold copies get shipped. |
Brett and Mark's thinking about how they wanted to start went way beyond ideas of just creating games. They set out to create a company that wouldn't make the mistakes of so many others when it came to how they would treat the team. They wanted to posess creative control but to also share the profits with their employees. As Mark put it, "We basically wanted to start a company that differed in basic values...from any other company we worked at prior." Brett said, "Mark and I are living, breathing testimony you don't have to have a complex business plan". They have both seen what happens to companies that have owners who put themselves first, and don't take care of the employees. They are determined to not let that happen at Terminal Reality.
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