Back in early 1994, a game called "Wolfenstein 3D: Part II" was under
production.  This was dropped, and the project became "Rise of the Triad," or,
as it is casually known, "ROTT."  Version 1.0 was released on December 21,
1994; in February 1995, versions 1.1 and 1.2 were released.  Version 1.2 was
supposed to have fixed the problem that 1.1 introduced where 4 meg machines
could not play at all.  As it turned out, 1.2 did not fix that, and a 1.2a
patch was released a week later.  At this point, the CD version of ROTT was
burned (but not the Site License version).  After that started shipping, a
bug was found where people playing directly from the CD could not save games.
So 1.2b was released to fix this.  Since this was a CD only bug, a version 1.2b
was not released for the shareware version or disk based registered version.
The Site License version was produced after v1.2b, so that does not exist as
a version prior to 1.2b.  Version 1.3 was released for all shareware and
registered versions in August 1995.  The disk based registered version was
available starting in late February, cost $29.95, and contained 32 regular
levels and 30 comm-bat zones.  The regular CD based registered version was
identical to the disk based version and started shipping in March.  A power
pack add-on contained 10 extra comm-bat zones, a random level generator, and
BMP and WAV files from the game.  Super Triad cost $34.95, contained everything
in the regular registered version and the power pack and had more BMP and WAV
files.  Eventually the regular registered version would be discontinued and
supplanted by Super Triad.  The Site License CD, which started shipping in
April, cost $89.95 and contained 14 extra comm-bat zones, a signed site
license agreement, and eleven command cards.  For people to play a networked
game using the registered version, each player was to have either their own
registered versions, or a Site License version owned among them.  In July
1995, Apogee released a package of rejected ROTT levels, available for free
in the file ROTT_REJ.ZIP.

Late that year, Apogee released an add-on pack to "Rise of the Triad" called
"Extreme Rise of the Triad," which contained some new hazards and 42 new
levels (designed by Joe Siegler and Tom Hall), and sold on CD for $19.95.

In early 1996, Tom Hall and Joe Siegler put together what was the final
release of ROTT materials from Apogee Software.  A college in Ohio was running
a gaming contest and was using Rise of the Triad for it.  Apogee created a
special level pack with four levels for use in this contest.  Two of the
levels were done by Joe Siegler, and two by Tom Hall.  In February 1996, after
the contest was held, the file was released to the public for free
as OHIORTC.ZIP.

Starting January 1997, the registered version of Rise of the Triad was
available on CD only.  Extreme Rise of the Triad was discontinued in
November 1997.  The Site License version was discontinued on March 2, 2000.
On September 1, 2000, the Extreme Rise of the Triad level pack was released
as freeware.

Tom Hall, the creative director for Rise of the Triad, dubbed the Rise of the
Triad team the "Developers of Incredible Power" (DIP).  ROTT was the first
release of the Developers of Incredible Power, under that name.  For most of
the members of "DIP," Rise of the Triad was their first real project.  Tom
Hall and Stephen A Hornback were the only ones who had worked extensively
on previous Apogee games.

The principle composer for ROTT was Lee Jackson.  In 1984, Lee Jackson marched
in a Drum and Bugle Corps, called the Nighthawks, out of Houston -- he did pit
percussion and wrote the pit parts for some of the pieces.  In his words,
"this style has a tremendous influence on my writing.  . . .  One chart from
ROTT (Havana Smooth) is almost a pure Corps chart.  . . .  Joe [Siegler] hates
Drum Corps.  [He] absolutely *can* *not* *stand* Drum Corps when he knows what
he's listening to.  I kind of slipped this song past him."  To this day, Joe
vehemently denies that this song is a Drum Corps piece.

The name of the shareware version is "Rise of the Triad: The HUNT Begins."
The name of the registered version is "Rise of the Triad: Dark War," which
contains four new episodes.  The four registered episodes have the titles,
in order, "Approach," "Monastery," "Caves Below," and "The Slow and the Dead."

}On December 20, 2003, the source code to Rise of the Triad was released.
}Also, on February 15, 2005, a "ROTT Goodies Pack" was released as freeware
}online.  This pack consists of a lot of utilities and items that were on
}the now discontinued Extreme ROTT CD, plus some user levels and things of
}this nature.