Last one for the day...

Anyone played (or heard of) Accolade's Star control?

The reason I ask ist that I read an excellent article in March's issue of PCG (UK) titled "Greatest PC Games of all Time" . what made this article so interesting is the fact that PCG "polled" over 500 PC Games developers (incl. the legends - Meier, Spector, Newell, Perry, Broussard ,... & even Mr. Doomedkatana himself, Romero ) and listed the top 100 (each poller was asked to choose their top-ten favorite).

So, of course, besides comparing theirs with mine (...wait, that came out wrong... ) I was curious to see which space sims made the list.

Out of the top 100 list (1 being the greatest game of all time):
#93 - Frontier: Elite 2 (David Braben, 1992)
#63 - Star Control 2 (Accolade, 1992)
#52 - Wing Commander (Origin 1990)
#51 - Star Wars: X-Wing (Lucasarts, 1992)
#11 - Star Wars: T.I.E. Fighter (Lucasarts, 1994)

Yep, 5% - that was it for space sims - don't blame me - I'm just the messanger, blame Digital Anvil ('cause they also voted!)

In case you're curious, the top ten were:
#10 - Command & Conquer (Westwood Studios, 1995)
#09 - Quake (ID Software, 1996)
#08 - Doom 2: Hell on Earth (ID Software, 1994)
#07 - U.F.O.: Enemy Uknown (Mythos Games, 1994)
#06 - Deus Ex (Ion Storm, 2000)
#05 - Counter-Strike ("Retail" version - Minh Le / Valve Software, 2000)
#04 - Starcraft (Blizzard, 1998)
#03 - Doom (ID Software, 1993)
#02 - Civilization Series (Microprose / Firaxis)
#01 - take a guess... (hint: _a__e, 1998)


Traveller - Geneve * Melbourne * Miami * Wien

XBOX: P4 [email protected]/ P4PE/ 512MB Samsung DDR426/ MSI G4Ti4200@305 64M@615/ SBLive!/ WD WDC800JB/ Pioneer DVD-A05S/ Intellimouse Ex. 3.0/ W98SE/ DX9/ nVidia 41.09

GBA: P3 866@1040/ GW FOP-32I/ CUSL-2C/ 512MB Kingmax PC150/ Elsa 721(G3Ti200@220 64M@496)/ Fortissimo YMF744B/ Quantum 313600/ ASUS CDS-500/ iFeel std/ WinXP/ DX9/ nVidia 41.09

Funny.

For the first computer game I played, back in the 70's, we didn't even have a keyboard.
Our only input device was punchcards...and a printer was the only output device.

Ah, the joys of punching out binary on thousands of 3x6 cards!



Pyrate Dredd

Star Control 2 is one of the greatest games I've ever played.

It was an adventure game with 2D top-down space combat that came out way back in the early nineties. I still play it now and again when I've sufficiently forgotten enough details of the story.

If you haven't played it before, then I feel really sorry for you, as it's an ancient DOS game that is a b**** to get working right on any modern computer. But all is not lost, as the company that originally made SC2 has released the source code for it, and a particularly intrepid group has taken it upon themselves to port the game to modern OS's.

Check out:
http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/ and
http://sc2.sourceforge.net/

And I'd rate Civilization 2 way above Starcraft. Certainly in the top 10...

Traveller:

#1 is Half Life?

It was the 1997 Game of the Year though?

You have it as a 1998 game?

Traveller,

Yep, I got a 386 back in 1990. Before then, I only had the Nintendo and before that even, I had the Atari 2800. I actually started gaming in 1982 with the Star Wars Arcade game. Gotta love the vector graphics!

Yes, I have played Space War and I still think it is a great game. I actually played it on one of the ORIGINAL PDPs from the early 1960's at the Ames Research Center in California. They have an old computer museum there on the premises. My family and I got a private tour of the place and computers because we came to visit on a day that they weren't open, but the people felt bad and let us come in anyway...its nice to have all of those old computers to yourself!

Someone mentioned Star Control II. I still think its the best adventure game out there. Do you guys know that you can download a new version of it for modern Windows (XP, 98 etc) at classicgaming.com? One of the original creators is re-making it in his spare time and now has Alpha 2 up on the servers to play for free. Look for the Star Control section in classicgaming.com called "The Pages of Now and Forever."

SumerNivek
Killer of Khaja the Fang
Privateer Extrodanaire

Here's my space sim background:
Wing Commander
Wing Commander: Secret Missions
Wing Commander 2
Wing Commander 2: Secret Missions
Wing Commander 2: Vengeance of the Kilrathi
Wing Commander 2: Special Ops
Wing Commander 2: Special Ops 2
Wing Commander: Armada
Wing Commander: Privateer
X-Wing
Descent
Freespace
Star Trek 25th Anniversary
Independence War
Jumpgate
Starfleet Command
Starfleet Command 2
Freelancer

Ever since Independence War, I've hoped that more (read: all) space sims would use true Newtonian phsyics instead of the fake stuff. Alas, the only one that came close was Jumpgate, and even they botched it. Too bad. Some have made a small attempt. The WC series let you glide when you cut your engines, and so does Freelancer.

Edit: Oh yeah, that's just the PC stuff. I won't go into my days of Atari, Apple, and Commodore computers.

Edited by - Ether Dragon on 12-03-2003 20:25:05

SumerNivek, hehe, read my post right before yours. Go to the link at sourceforge...The Urquan Masters is what you're looking for.

Ether Dragon, wasn't Star Trek 25th Anniversary more of an adventure game rather than a space sim?

It was a little bit of both. Yes, you beamed down to planets for the adventure side of things, but you also spent some time "dogfighting" with various enemies. It was a small stretch to include it, I suppose. I could have also included Spelljammer on the same grounds. You fought other ships in space, even if they really were ships - sails and all.

I raced off to lunch before properly finishing my last post. In regards to how Freelancer measures up to those that have gone before it, I'd say it does a good job. It does improve the game in some areas, but it lacks in others. Privateer, for instance, allowed more ship customization, but had fewer ships to choose from. Independence War did a great job of representing space on a technical level. The scale of space was fantastic, and the physics were remarkable, but you only got to control the one ship.

Really, I compare this game most closely with Jumpgate rather than Privateer - although both have their roots in that game. Jumpgate offers a lot of ships, lots of customization, a large system full of bases, mining, trading, and combat missions. It also uses a deplorable level system to determine what you can and cannot use for ships and equipment. Freelancer has a similar system, but it's toned down quite a bit, and non-existant in the multiplayer (which is why I've stuck with MP from the get-go.)

Marco,

Yep, I have Alpha 1 on my computer. It sucks because you can't actually beat the game in Alpha 1...no Sa-Matra battle. But Alpha 2 now has the final battle in it. So I will have to download it.

SumerNivek
Killer of Khaja the Fang
Privateer Extrodanaire

Hi Dredd

and anyone else who is interested ixn XBTF. X-Tension X-Gold and soon X2.

If you can X-Gold or the first two cheaply then buy them! They are difficult to get in the UK - the Egosoft forum is often asked where to buy. X-Gold is XBTF and X-Tension.

I played XBTF twice and loved it. I then played through X-Tension - with the latest patch for extra missions etc for MONTHS not 13 hours. You can get totally emersed in the trading system - owning fleets of fighters... owning factories and mining asteroids, owning giant transnporters you can use like aircraft carriers ... eliminating pirate bases and the Xenon battle ships....eliminate the competion for your factories.....keep tabs on all your possessions remotely....

All this starting with one or two small ships- there are different starts available in X-Tension

There is little story in X-Tension - it's all up to you. There are some interesting missions if you accept them but you do not have to.

Get some practice before X2 is released!

Bravesword:

I'm pink therefore I'm Spam

Yes, X-Tension is wonderful!!! Try it, and you'll forget freelancer. Ok, Freelancer is a very good game, but X-Tension is an incredible game, real open-ended, and very very very depth.

I've played them all and Freespace 2 is BY FAR the best space sim game I've ever played. Capital ships were HUGE and it wasn't unusual for you to have to fly a couple missions to take out one of them. It could literally take a minute to fly past one. Capital ship battles were incredible and the huge laser beams were unbelieveable...flying into them was even crazier. Instant death.

The graphics were superb for the time and even today are still very good.

Hell, talking about it makes me want to load it back up.

---

BridgeBoy: #1 is Half Life? It was the 1997 Game of the Year though?

---

Yep, Half-Life is el numero uno! Not a big surprise, really. Btw, I got my U.S. "Import" CD in October of 1998 (I'm currently living in AUT). I usually get my U.S. imports 1 week after the official release date (got Freelancer last Fri. the 7th). On top of that, I saved a mail I received from Gabe Newell personally(!) regading a problem with HL's decals in Nov. '98


Traveller - Geneve * Melbourne * Miami * Wien

XBOX: P4 [email protected]/ P4PE/ 512MB Samsung DDR426/ MSI G4Ti4200@305 64M@615/ SBLive!/ WD WDC800JB/ Pioneer DVD-A05S/ Intellimouse Ex. 3.0/ W98SE/ DX9/ nVidia 41.09

GBA: P3 866@1040/ GW FOP-32I/ CUSL-2C/ 512MB Kingmax PC150/ Elsa 721(G3Ti200@220 64M@496)/ Fortissimo YMF744B/ Quantum 313600/ ASUS CDS-500/ iFeel std/ WinXP/ DX9/ nVidia 41.09