they called Remedy to produce video games and began recruiting other like-minded individuals with a demoscene background. Remedy's founding members were Samuli Syvähuoko, Markus Mäki, Sami Nopanen, John Kavaleff and Sami Vanhatalo. The company was officially established on 18 August 1995. At the time the company was founded, most members were only in their early twenties. They produced their first video game in the basement of Syvähuoko's parents' house in Espoo's Westend district. The team began developing a racing game, initially known as HiSpeed, based on the first idea the team pitched. Scott Miller, the founder of Apogee Software, provided creative input and suggested the racing game should introduce vehicular combat elements. Renamed Death Rally, Apogee Software released the game in 1996. Needing dialog for the game, Remedy's Petri Järvilehto contacted a long-time friend Sam Lake, who was studying English literature at Helsinki University of Technology at the time, to help; Lake subsequently remained at Remedy and would eventually become the studio's creative director. In 1997, Remedy also created a benchmarking tool, Final Reality, with the team later spinning off as a new sister company, Futuremark. In a letter dated 9 July 1998, LucasArts, through attorney John Sullivan, approached Remedy and threatened legal action, claiming the Remedy logo was copied from the top part of LucasArts' logo. By that time, Remedy had already been in the process of redesigning their logo, as their logo at the time did not properly reflect Remedy as a company. The old logo was taken off Remedy's website in July, and was replaced by a question mark. The new logo, designed by Kiia Kallio, was unveiled on 29 April 1999. Max Payne series (1999–2005) Following the release of Death Rally, Remedy began pitching their next project to Miller. One was a space flight simulation game like Descent: FreeSpace, one was a racing game, while another was an isometric shooter named Dark Justice. Miller decided to fund the shooter's development, on the condition the game had a strong central character like Duke Nukem, 3D graphics, and a better name. He felt Dark Justice was too "dark" and "adult". The team proposed different possibilities, ranging from "Dick Justice" to "Max Heat", a name the company trademarked for $20,000, before settling on the name "Max Payne". The game's lead designer was Petri Järvilehto. He wanted bullet time and slow motion, a hallmark of Hong Kong action films, to