Forums » Off-Topic
Before Vendetta
I half-assed searched for a thread on this already, but my curiosity outweighs my patience. And yeah, the "What online game you play" thread is similar, but I'm looking at the PAST here:
So... what space type games did you play before Vendetta? What got you hooked and made you think: Space games rock!
For my first shameless contribution:
1) It all started with Descent for me. Many nights were spent busting bots and exploding cores. Later on I hooked up on Kahn and Kali networks and got some multiplayer happening.. that was my first taste of floating around in zero-g, blasting at people
2) Tachyon: The Fringe. This one is pretty close to Vendetta's mechanics, which is probably why I enjoy VO so much. The UIT kind of remind me of the Bora, and the Itani remind me of the side with the cooler ships whose name I cannot remember.
3) Mankind. This one hooked me on the freaking hugeness of the universe... it wasn't a pilotable ship game, it was more a strategy type of thing. If, one day, we ever get to land on planets, I'd like to see it modelled after this game. Later on in the development of Mankind, they dropped the universe size from a whole galaxy to some unrespectably smaller sector of said galaxy, which was when I said "See ya later"
4) Independence War 2. I only liked the navigational UI in the game as it made the most sense to me for a ship... everything was automatic, sector jumps were seamless, and when you had to fight, you switched to manual control as required. Speed limits around stations were an interesting concept too (don't worry, I don't think that should be implemented in VO, I'd flip out if I had to fly to a station at 55m/s).
Then I found VO, the one game that satiated my thirst for a massively multiplayer space fighter game.
So, what's your space game history?
So... what space type games did you play before Vendetta? What got you hooked and made you think: Space games rock!
For my first shameless contribution:
1) It all started with Descent for me. Many nights were spent busting bots and exploding cores. Later on I hooked up on Kahn and Kali networks and got some multiplayer happening.. that was my first taste of floating around in zero-g, blasting at people
2) Tachyon: The Fringe. This one is pretty close to Vendetta's mechanics, which is probably why I enjoy VO so much. The UIT kind of remind me of the Bora, and the Itani remind me of the side with the cooler ships whose name I cannot remember.
3) Mankind. This one hooked me on the freaking hugeness of the universe... it wasn't a pilotable ship game, it was more a strategy type of thing. If, one day, we ever get to land on planets, I'd like to see it modelled after this game. Later on in the development of Mankind, they dropped the universe size from a whole galaxy to some unrespectably smaller sector of said galaxy, which was when I said "See ya later"
4) Independence War 2. I only liked the navigational UI in the game as it made the most sense to me for a ship... everything was automatic, sector jumps were seamless, and when you had to fight, you switched to manual control as required. Speed limits around stations were an interesting concept too (don't worry, I don't think that should be implemented in VO, I'd flip out if I had to fly to a station at 55m/s).
Then I found VO, the one game that satiated my thirst for a massively multiplayer space fighter game.
So, what's your space game history?
Please keep in mind when reading my post that I only played on Mac OS, 6.0.7 through 10.4.2
There'd be Escape Velocity to start with. I played all three installments to the death (except for the Vell-Os storyline, which just plain sucks in my opinion).
Next up is Descent. I didn't play it too much, but it was fun while it lasted...
Then there was Wing Commander 3, a pretty nice game, but the combat is very different from VO, and it never was MP (the opponents in WC 3 aren't nearly as witty as the bots in VO, at least not in my recollection).
Not a space game as such, but a game where you travel on a map was Pirates! Gold, a great game that required quite a bit of skill (rather trade- and strategy-wise, less tactics).
That and maybe the Marathon Trilogy, which is kind of a space game too... at least it helps developing twitch-style skills.
There'd be Escape Velocity to start with. I played all three installments to the death (except for the Vell-Os storyline, which just plain sucks in my opinion).
Next up is Descent. I didn't play it too much, but it was fun while it lasted...
Then there was Wing Commander 3, a pretty nice game, but the combat is very different from VO, and it never was MP (the opponents in WC 3 aren't nearly as witty as the bots in VO, at least not in my recollection).
Not a space game as such, but a game where you travel on a map was Pirates! Gold, a great game that required quite a bit of skill (rather trade- and strategy-wise, less tactics).
That and maybe the Marathon Trilogy, which is kind of a space game too... at least it helps developing twitch-style skills.
Hmm, my first space game, Invaders of course! Blasted away for hours on Zaxxon too, on my very first *game console* the Coleco vision!
I guess i've always been a space cadet, and as my dad always told me, I came very close to being shot into space, if it wasnt for the damn beer! (hehe j/k of course!)
Then I gt my first home computer, the BBC Micro(wave - got so hot you could heat food on it). A friend of mine lent me this great game called Elite (a recent remake http://oolite.aegidian.org/ ), wasted the first 5 years of my gaming life playing various versions of it (some offered more missions, that you wont see in any of the *recent* versions, some were more limited too, like the Zx speccy 48k version) played it and Starglider ( http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?gameid=1908 )for ages! - then came the Amiga's Fronteer Elite II, what a load of crap!
Theres been nothing like Elite till Vendetta (ok, vendetta is currently lacking in some of the areas the 48k speccy title had nitted, but we all know why..) and Vendetta's online too! I once thought the Vendetta dev team musta had an Elite backround too, turns out the first time a1k0n played it was on some silly java applet I posted, heh.
Other games include (in no paticular order):-
Unreal Tournament (the first one, the rest are lame, in comparison) *I should expand on this* (I made a freespace like mod for it :))
Star Wars (Arcade)
Starwing (Starfox, Snes)
Descent (PC)
Freespace (I and II) (PC)
Iwar (PC)
Wing Commander series (Amiga CD32 and later PC)
Colony Wars (PSX)
X-wing series (and various other Lucas Arts sad attempts at a space game) (PC)
Captain Blood (very, uhum, weird ass game you would have to play to understand, cos you end up thinking, why the hell am i playing this? but carry on anyway, or i did, maybe im weird? http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=168 - I first played it on the C64, iirc)
Meh, you get the point.
I guess i've always been a space cadet, and as my dad always told me, I came very close to being shot into space, if it wasnt for the damn beer! (hehe j/k of course!)
Then I gt my first home computer, the BBC Micro(wave - got so hot you could heat food on it). A friend of mine lent me this great game called Elite (a recent remake http://oolite.aegidian.org/ ), wasted the first 5 years of my gaming life playing various versions of it (some offered more missions, that you wont see in any of the *recent* versions, some were more limited too, like the Zx speccy 48k version) played it and Starglider ( http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?gameid=1908 )for ages! - then came the Amiga's Fronteer Elite II, what a load of crap!
Theres been nothing like Elite till Vendetta (ok, vendetta is currently lacking in some of the areas the 48k speccy title had nitted, but we all know why..) and Vendetta's online too! I once thought the Vendetta dev team musta had an Elite backround too, turns out the first time a1k0n played it was on some silly java applet I posted, heh.
Other games include (in no paticular order):-
Unreal Tournament (the first one, the rest are lame, in comparison) *I should expand on this* (I made a freespace like mod for it :))
Star Wars (Arcade)
Starwing (Starfox, Snes)
Descent (PC)
Freespace (I and II) (PC)
Iwar (PC)
Wing Commander series (Amiga CD32 and later PC)
Colony Wars (PSX)
X-wing series (and various other Lucas Arts sad attempts at a space game) (PC)
Captain Blood (very, uhum, weird ass game you would have to play to understand, cos you end up thinking, why the hell am i playing this? but carry on anyway, or i did, maybe im weird? http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=168 - I first played it on the C64, iirc)
Meh, you get the point.
I started on Elite, on a commodore-64. what a great game, and truthfully, the standard by which all other space games i've ever played have been judged.
Elite II for the c-64 occupied the vast majority of my early gaming years, I used to love/hate it when i was offered the opportunity to buy tribbles, then i learned that you could actually kill the little bastards by flying close enough to the sun to pick up fuel.
I played descent of course, wing commander and descent freespace as well.
Independance war was a cool game, and the jump controls were nifty enough, but the gameplay always lacked something to me.
Elite II for the c-64 occupied the vast majority of my early gaming years, I used to love/hate it when i was offered the opportunity to buy tribbles, then i learned that you could actually kill the little bastards by flying close enough to the sun to pick up fuel.
I played descent of course, wing commander and descent freespace as well.
Independance war was a cool game, and the jump controls were nifty enough, but the gameplay always lacked something to me.
My history started more along the lines of just plain being a space junkie, movies, tv shows, games anything I could find on space. Then I discovered Earth and Beyond, finally I could actually be IN space, then alas came word that was ending, so my search began anew and I lucked up on a tiny blurb about VO. Submitted for beta testing and well here I have been since.
I started with EV Vanilla... played it on my old ][ci until it lost all its luster, and then, years later, I rediscovered it with EV III: Nova, which rapidly progressed into an obsession after it was ported to Windows (something which I was at one time devestated to hear that Ambrosia had no intention of ever doing).
From there I played EVN through all storylines many times and set myself to conquoring the universe... the only problem was, I was invincible - nothing in the game posed a challenge, even when I designed it to via plugins... I stopped playing. When I discovered Vendetta, I was immediately taken in by it's multiplayer aspect, to say nothing of the gameplay. If I was to design a game after playing Nova (something I thought about a lot), I would have designed something almost exactly like this.
EDIT: Actusally, even before I started EV, I played an aerly version of the old StarQuest 1 on my DOS box... that was really my beginning, though it was short-lived, and quickly eclipsed by EV when I discovered the depth of gameplay in that... I often thought the best game possible would be if you could fuse something like SQ1 with something like EVN and make it competitive multiplayer
From there I played EVN through all storylines many times and set myself to conquoring the universe... the only problem was, I was invincible - nothing in the game posed a challenge, even when I designed it to via plugins... I stopped playing. When I discovered Vendetta, I was immediately taken in by it's multiplayer aspect, to say nothing of the gameplay. If I was to design a game after playing Nova (something I thought about a lot), I would have designed something almost exactly like this.
EDIT: Actusally, even before I started EV, I played an aerly version of the old StarQuest 1 on my DOS box... that was really my beginning, though it was short-lived, and quickly eclipsed by EV when I discovered the depth of gameplay in that... I often thought the best game possible would be if you could fuse something like SQ1 with something like EVN and make it competitive multiplayer
Oh come ON. No one even Mentions the best space standup console games?
Tailgunner, StarCastle, Defender, Asteroids, Galaga, Galaxian, Zaxxon?
Um.. I think I just dated myself...
Tailgunner, StarCastle, Defender, Asteroids, Galaga, Galaxian, Zaxxon?
Um.. I think I just dated myself...
well leber, I started playing when i was around 7 or 8, and at that time my choices were elite, or asteroids as far as space games went. it didnt take me long to decide i liked elite better. :)
My first taste of "space games" was Spacewar, THE vector graphic game before Asteroids, both of which got large quantities of my allowances.
After that was the original "Star Fleet Battles". I even saw the first version for computer for this on an old Apple. But we just played with dice, charts and a monstrous hexmap.
Now that, Leeb, is dating oneself.
After that was the original "Star Fleet Battles". I even saw the first version for computer for this on an old Apple. But we just played with dice, charts and a monstrous hexmap.
Now that, Leeb, is dating oneself.
Leber, do you not read? I said, and i quote "Invaders of course! Blasted away for hours on Zaxxon" ok, i left out asteroid, cos I wanst ever very good at it (bastard thing always warped me right into the path of a roid >.<) Galaxians is space invaders with a touch more! Its like the difference between doom n quake. :P
In order of first use:
1) Descent I - I still have my old MacPlay CD (ie, pre-OSX) in my room. My keyboard setup in Vendetta Online is derived from a traditional (read: default) Descent setup.
2) X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter - I still have the disc for this one, but it won't run on any of the Windows comps in house... T.T
3) Descent II - I had to play this one on Windows. But at least I got to try my hand at building mines with DMB2!
4) Descent Freespace Demo - Even though it was only three missions, I didn't care. It kicked ass.
5) Descent Freespace 2 Demo - See above.
6) Vendetta TEST - Mmmmmmm... engine testy goodness.
7) Descent 3 - Loved it. Bought a copy at a flea market for 5 bucks, and a fully functional joystick (that I still use for Vendetta and X-Plane) for another 5 bucks.
8) X-Wing Alliance - I loved the main series of missions, but I really loved the skirmish creator.
9) Vendetta Online BETA - One month of beta-y goodness. Except of course, for the whiny die-hard OMG-IT-MUST-BE-EXACTLY-LIKE-ENB-OR-ELSE people.
10) Freespace 2 port for Mac - Oh, how I loved playing this endlessly. Too bad the .mve files didn't work right... or the voices... I really thought Ronny Cox was perfect in the role of the NTF leader.
11) Vendetta Online - What do you think you're looking at?
1) Descent I - I still have my old MacPlay CD (ie, pre-OSX) in my room. My keyboard setup in Vendetta Online is derived from a traditional (read: default) Descent setup.
2) X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter - I still have the disc for this one, but it won't run on any of the Windows comps in house... T.T
3) Descent II - I had to play this one on Windows. But at least I got to try my hand at building mines with DMB2!
4) Descent Freespace Demo - Even though it was only three missions, I didn't care. It kicked ass.
5) Descent Freespace 2 Demo - See above.
6) Vendetta TEST - Mmmmmmm... engine testy goodness.
7) Descent 3 - Loved it. Bought a copy at a flea market for 5 bucks, and a fully functional joystick (that I still use for Vendetta and X-Plane) for another 5 bucks.
8) X-Wing Alliance - I loved the main series of missions, but I really loved the skirmish creator.
9) Vendetta Online BETA - One month of beta-y goodness. Except of course, for the whiny die-hard OMG-IT-MUST-BE-EXACTLY-LIKE-ENB-OR-ELSE people.
10) Freespace 2 port for Mac - Oh, how I loved playing this endlessly. Too bad the .mve files didn't work right... or the voices... I really thought Ronny Cox was perfect in the role of the NTF leader.
11) Vendetta Online - What do you think you're looking at?
I liked Descent, but I wouldn't consider it a 'space game' per-say... at least not until Freespace.
I too have played some of the -really- old ones, but given the gameplay, I didn't count those either. (and can you say 'Planetfall'?)
I too have played some of the -really- old ones, but given the gameplay, I didn't count those either. (and can you say 'Planetfall'?)
My first space shooter was Star Raiders in the Atari 2600. Nothing qyuite like jumping across sectors looking for bogies and then jumping on the turret and blasting them, Millenium Falcon-style.
After that it's the usual bevy of games: SW Deathstar arcade game (both arcade and C-64 version), Xwing and Tie Fighter, Wing Commander, Sky Fox, Freespace, Homeworld, etc. plus a bunch of down-to-earth flight sims, most notably the A-10 Warthog ones (which is from where I get this stupid preference for slow, heavy ships).
After that it's the usual bevy of games: SW Deathstar arcade game (both arcade and C-64 version), Xwing and Tie Fighter, Wing Commander, Sky Fox, Freespace, Homeworld, etc. plus a bunch of down-to-earth flight sims, most notably the A-10 Warthog ones (which is from where I get this stupid preference for slow, heavy ships).
I started with the old X-Wing games along with all 3 EV games, and gradually moved my way through other space games as they came out. I played Freespace and Freespace 2, which remain my favorite space games to date. I also thoroughly enjoyed Descent, though I now get motion sick from playing it. I also LOVE Homeworld 1 and 2, among other space games...
Miharu mentioned that Freespace 2 has gone open source, which it has indeed has. Freespace and Freespace 2 are fully playable on Mac, Windows, and Linux now. And by fully playable, I mean that even things like the music ingame and the briefing voices have been fixed (heck, even the movie sound works now). Not only do ALL production features work on all platforms now, but there has been a project to IMPROVE the graphics for Freespace 2, replacing many, if not nearly all of the models with new textures. Not only have the models been updated, but graphical effects, like shockwaves, beam cannons, and engine flares have been updated greatly. It looks truly spectacular now, even compared with modern games, and the gameplay is great fun.
Miharu, here are a few screenshots from the updated graphics (I've got pretty much all the graphics turned up. Don't have specularity turned on though):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/FS2UpdatedShips.jpg
(Ships now have blinking lights, specularity, and glow maps. Woo.)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/Fs2Open1.jpg
(new flak, new sparks trailing from the ships, new engine glows)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/Fs2Open2.jpg
(trying to show what my primary weapons look like, and the sweet sheild effect, but the screenshot was delayed a little too much. You can still see some of what I'm talking about though...)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/Fs2Open4.jpg
(showing off engine glows)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/Fs2Open5.jpg
(purty explosion)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/Fs2Open6.jpg
(I tried to get a shot of the shockwave after I'd shot down a bomb, but it pushed my ship away. :-/ )
Since this is Vendetta's website, I won't plug FS2_Open anymore here. Suffice it to say that I've been out of game for a bit 'cos of this... heh.
Miharu mentioned that Freespace 2 has gone open source, which it has indeed has. Freespace and Freespace 2 are fully playable on Mac, Windows, and Linux now. And by fully playable, I mean that even things like the music ingame and the briefing voices have been fixed (heck, even the movie sound works now). Not only do ALL production features work on all platforms now, but there has been a project to IMPROVE the graphics for Freespace 2, replacing many, if not nearly all of the models with new textures. Not only have the models been updated, but graphical effects, like shockwaves, beam cannons, and engine flares have been updated greatly. It looks truly spectacular now, even compared with modern games, and the gameplay is great fun.
Miharu, here are a few screenshots from the updated graphics (I've got pretty much all the graphics turned up. Don't have specularity turned on though):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/FS2UpdatedShips.jpg
(Ships now have blinking lights, specularity, and glow maps. Woo.)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/Fs2Open1.jpg
(new flak, new sparks trailing from the ships, new engine glows)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/Fs2Open2.jpg
(trying to show what my primary weapons look like, and the sweet sheild effect, but the screenshot was delayed a little too much. You can still see some of what I'm talking about though...)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/Fs2Open4.jpg
(showing off engine glows)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/Fs2Open5.jpg
(purty explosion)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/Fs2Open6.jpg
(I tried to get a shot of the shockwave after I'd shot down a bomb, but it pushed my ship away. :-/ )
Since this is Vendetta's website, I won't plug FS2_Open anymore here. Suffice it to say that I've been out of game for a bit 'cos of this... heh.
You ought to have my email from the IA forums, Harry.
Feel free to email me all appropriate download links for the new version. I've been waiting for a loooooong time for a fully functioning version :D
Feel free to email me all appropriate download links for the new version. I've been waiting for a loooooong time for a fully functioning version :D
Haha, roger that. :)
hot damn... where do I get my copy?
Though I gave you instructions, I don't want to be plugging FS2 too much here. FM, if you feel this is out of line, delete it.
If this is deemed acceptable, I'll post instructions.
If this is deemed acceptable, I'll post instructions.
Is there a big reason you're telling people on a one-on-one basis? Why not just post here & anyone who wants can get it?
eh, whatever. I mostly didn't want to be discourteous.
...Though I guess single player space sim and MMOG space sim are a bit different. I'll post the link to the open source project. FM, edit at your discretion.
http://scp.indiegames.us/e107_plugins/custompages/scpinstallation.php
I don't recommend getting it from HOTU though, since that's just got the low-res files.
http://www.freespacezone.com/ has some better download links.
Besides. I don't want to be bothered all the time for how to troubleshoot it. Heh.
...Though I guess single player space sim and MMOG space sim are a bit different. I'll post the link to the open source project. FM, edit at your discretion.
http://scp.indiegames.us/e107_plugins/custompages/scpinstallation.php
I don't recommend getting it from HOTU though, since that's just got the low-res files.
http://www.freespacezone.com/ has some better download links.
Besides. I don't want to be bothered all the time for how to troubleshoot it. Heh.