With dramatic aplomb, an Abrams tank rumbles across sand dunes, backlit by the intense desert sun. It presents a portrait of earnest brutishness as it nears an engagement with an enemy.

This cinematic shot, which includes a complex pan around the circumference of the tank, was not the product of days on location and in the editing room. It is all digitized animation, conjured up by the programmers of NovaLogic Inc. as the exterior opening sequence for its newest computer game, "Armored Fist."

Four years in the making, it will be on retailers' shelves -- or "street" in game parlance -- the first week of October.

John Garcia, NovaLogic's founder and CEO, is a tad frazzled as "Armored Fist" nears its debut. He and his young staff -- Garcia says the average age is 30, but many of his program writers would give a truant officer pause -- have been putting in 15-hour days, seven days a week.

"We normally follow a 9-to-5 schedule because I want to behave as a mature company, but lately we've been swamped," Garcia said.

Less than a month before the game's release, Garcia is still ironing out difficulties in the tank simulator's instruction manual, and sound bits are still being added to the game. But as he runs through an "Armored Fist" demo on a enormous, 19-inch NEC monitor, Garcia is confident that it will do well. NovaLogic's distributor, software publisher Electronic Arts Inc., has already presold 100,000 copies.

The Tarzana-based company is less than 10 years old and has just three titles published under its name, although it has helped develop additional titles for computer, arcade and video games marketed under different or joint labels. Still, NovaLogic has catapulted itself into position among the most visible...