"Blender is one of the Best 3D software today but this was not always the case. Because it went through an interesting journey like no other." In 1988, Ton Roosendaal co-founded the Dutch animation studio called NeoGeo. On the other side of the world SNK was also working on the NeoGeo but is a whole different company. NeoGeo was based in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. This was the start of the development of the 3D rendering software 'Blender'. CD-i and Philips played an important role in this, as the development of the Full Motion Digital Video platform on CD-i was a perfect step to show what Blender was capable of at that time.
The development studio 'Enji Games' was founded (also based in Eindhoven, The Netherlands) and they coded the roller coaster mazes that resulted in 'The Lost Ride', which was released in 1998 on CD-i. However, our contacts at Enji/NeoGeo claims they finished The Lost Ride in 1995. We think that means that the 3D mazes were developed in 1995, but the software around it (to connect the video sequences seamless) was not ready at that time. Software company The Lost Boys started a games development studio 'Formula' in 1995 and their first game was actually 'The Lost Ride'. In this movie that was presented by 'Inspirationtuts' we can see some unique screens from the development time of The Lost Ride and when the 3D models were created on Blender.
[More about Blender? Read here: https://inspirationtuts.com/2020/04/18/what-is-the-history-of-blender/]
[Thanks, Ton, Inspirationnuts and alumni contacts at Enji/NeoGeo]