total speed simulation". The settings were inspired by various sources, the city tracks drew inspiration from the films Blade Runner and The Fifth Element, other tracks took their inspiration from nature, such as the Amazon Rainforest and snow scenes of Siberia. Ballistics took cues from other futuristic racing games, such as WipEout and Rollcage, emulating the fun and the speed whilst taking it even further with high end graphics. The graphics engine used to power the game was christened the Diesel Engine. Grin developed this engine for flexibility and scalability, allowing the engine to be easily upgraded with new features. Based on DirectX, this meant the engine could be used across Windows and Xbox platforms. Grin worked closely with NVIDIA to incorporate then new technologies such as pixel and vertex shaders to render complex scenes. Ballistics was marketed by NVIDIA as a flagship title for their new series of GeForce 3 graphics cards. The game came bundled with various versions of the GeForce 3, with distribution of the bundled game handled by Interplay OEM. Later versions of the Diesel Engine would be used in Grin games such as the Windows version of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. Arcade version Grin announced in May 2001 that it was working on an arcade version of Ballistics for distribution by Triotech. The game's gameplay had to be reworked to suit an arcade environment, and support was added for multiplayer games with up to eight linked cabinets. Triotech designed a unique reclined seating cabinet for the game, the aim of the design was to offer the player a more comfortable and immersive experience. The inspiration for the design came to Triotech co-founder, Ernest Yale; who whilst putting his feet up on the desk, realised how comfortable the playing position was. Ballistics was released for arcades in January 2002. The game would be updated twice for the arcade. Ballistics 2003, launched in March 2003, incorporated Triotech's MadWave Motion motion simulator technology into the cabinet. Providing force feedback through the seat, this allows the player to experience up to 2g of acceleration whilst playing the game, with actuators in the seat providing 100 movements per second. A further version of the cabinet, Super Ballistics, was launched in September 2003. Chris Morris listed Ballistics 2003 as one of the top "Video game gifts for the obscenely rich" in his Holiday 2004 column at CNN Money. Reception