Sci-Fi Gems

alpha45 · Post by **alpha45** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 3:24 pm

After finding Evochron Legends, I've noticed that there are a lot of excellently made games and movies out there that deserve more attention than they're getting. This thread is for those of us who have discovered such a gem and want to share it with the rest of us.

Me first:

Gratuitous Space Battles
www.positech.co.uk/gratuitousspacebattles/

An excellent game with lots of pew pewing going on. Basically, you build ships, set them up into an armada, give them general orders, and watch the carnage. And it is beautiful. Lots of missiles, lasers, photon beams and blasters going off, and smaller fighters swarming around and being blown apart. Also, the pilots comments are hilarious.

Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning
http://www.starwreck.com

I'm still trying to get my hands on this one, but from what I can gather, it's a Finnish-made feature length parody, with several hundred extras (always need more redshirts), seven years in the making, with some nice visual effects. Although it's based on Star Trek, according to the producers:
"Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning is not your run-of-the-mill parody aimed solely at Star Trek fans. It is a motion picture for everyone with a taste for action, humour and zany characters"
Basically Captain James B. Pirk is marooned with his crew and his ship the Kickstart on 21st century Earth after traveling back in time to stop a bunch of evil aliens. Hilarity ensues.
Also, apparently there's a scene pitting an army of Redshirts against the Babylon 5 security forces (carnage galore:D)

alpha45 · Post by **alpha45** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 4:39 pm

Thanks man!
Redshirt-on-b5security carnage, here I come!

BraveHart · Post by **BraveHart** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 6:12 pm

"Star Wreck"......What a Hoot

Post by **Marvin** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 7:12 pm

Good timing ... this is new for YouTube.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqTwmJz1O7w
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb3mMsCT ... re=related
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyNE5pgl ... re=related

You might recognize the "main" character ... he's the one with a lot to do in Part 2. And, for those not old enough to have watched this when it was actually on television ... more's the pity.

Ravenfeeder · Post by **Ravenfeeder** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:53 pm

I gave the game demo a bash, Alpha - it's like watching paint dry - sorry!

MMaggio · Post by **MMaggio** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 9:09 pm

I'm glad to say that this old geezer was fortunate enough NOT to have seen that show!

alpha45 · Post by **alpha45** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 10:04 pm

Originally posted by Ravenfeeder
I gave the game demo a bash, Alpha - it's like watching paint dry - sorry!

Maybe for you, but I love watching spaceships blast each other into little tiny bits. It's the lasers. They're so pretty.

EDIT: Another addition, Freelancer! It's a game similar in style to EL, but it feels more like a flying a jet than a space ship. It's pretty old, but still has a dedicated community of players, and lots of mods that add new systems, ship parts, and missions, as well as change the graphics and gameplay. There's also a mod that lets you play online multiplayer.

[Edited on 17-1-2010 by alpha45]

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 10:51 pm

No comments....LOL.....I might give Star Wreck a try....sounds intrigueing.....

:P:P:P:P

Ohsirus · Post by **Ohsirus** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 11:12 pm

On my Playlist:

Darkstar One
Freelancer
Freespace 2 SCP
X2
Tachyon Fringe
Vendetta Online (Love that it has a linux client)
Bridge Commander

MMaggio · Post by **MMaggio** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 11:20 am

I just love Tachyon. It's my most fav scripted-space-sim.

warsign · Post by **warsign** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 12:17 pm

Originally posted by MMaggio
I just love Tachyon. It's my most fav scripted-space-sim.

I keep original one still!!! Was nice game/gem indeed.

I know you have original one too MM!

I wished to buy Original Evochron games(All games till now) special DVD edition, boxed version as well. @Vice, do you think of this, one day?

Wasp89 · Post by **Wasp89** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 7:57 pm

Along these lines, I ran across this today:

http://universesandbox.com/

Who wouldn't want to open up a black hole in a simulated solar system, and watch gravity work it's wonders?

and the video for it on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6shurn2W0w

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 8:19 pm

These two:

The original Star Trek text game. One version found its way into main frame computers used by USAF Wing Intelligence sections ... prompting a few pilots to spend entire days at Intel briefings.
The Hitchhiker' Guide to the Galaxy text game. It came boxed with a lot of neat stuff, including a small package of fluff and a badge that said, "Don't Panic."

Both games can be played on the Net ... just do a Google search to find them.

MMaggio · Post by **MMaggio** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 8:59 pm

Great find Alpha ! Thanks!

49rTbird · Post by **49rTbird** » Tue Jan 19, 2010 12:09 am

Originally posted by Wasp89
Along these lines, I ran across this today:

http://universesandbox.com/

Who wouldn't want to open up a black hole in a simulated solar system, and watch gravity work it's wonders?

and the video for it on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6shurn2W0w

The utube video lead to the posters other posts and a lead to "GOG" Good Old Games site that sells old games for cheap. Anyone ever play "FreeSpace2"?

alpha45 · Post by **alpha45** » Tue Jan 19, 2010 2:08 am

Originally posted by Wasp89
Along these lines, I ran across this today:

http://universesandbox.com/

Who wouldn't want to open up a black hole in a simulated solar system, and watch gravity work it's wonders?

and the video for it on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6shurn2W0w

Pretty impressive. I never thought watching planets bounce would be so pretty. There's even 3D glasses support, for an even better experience.Watching the Milky Way and Andromeda collide and form a weird, new galaxy is so beautiful it's hypnotic.

Wasp89 · Post by **Wasp89** » Tue Jan 19, 2010 5:48 am

Well, if anyone is thinking of buying Universe Sandbox, I should point out that Universe Sandbox 2 is coming out hopefully in the next few weeks, so you might as well wait. There is also a 60 minute free trial that you can download.

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Tue Jan 19, 2010 12:11 pm

Nice, thanks for the info Wasp89!......

Trip · Post by **Trip** » Tue Jan 19, 2010 3:33 pm

I must admit here that I found Gratuitous Space Battles on Steam about 3 weeks ago and I bought it (low price and I like building ships for battle). I have found it to be quite fun. As I mentioned, I like to build out ships and see how they fare against others and G.S.B. fills that little niche for me.

Another game gem that lets you build ships for battle is a turn-based 4X game called Galactic Civilizations II. http://www.galciv2.com/Index.aspx

If you are a fan of turn-based games and you like to build wild spaceships then definitely give this game a try. I have been playing Galactic Civ. since their first version came out and it keeps getting better.
The ship building part of the game can take up an entire night in itself if you want it to. Some people have created replicas of everything from Star Trek and Star Wars ships to Babylon 5 and Serenity ships. Floating cities for colony ships, mining ships that actually look the part, and military ships that vary in scale and capabilities.
The best part of building the ships is that your actual design shows up during gameplay and each race has it's own style which you can mix around.

alpha45 · Post by **alpha45** » Tue Jan 19, 2010 7:32 pm

Got another one, not really a game, more like a book actually. They call 'em "kinetic novels" (don't know why). It reads like a book, with the text appearing in a box at the bottom of the screen, only you've also got some basic pictures (very vague, just make it more immersive), some sound effects (rain, etc) voices for anyone other than the protagonist, and occasionally mild background music.

This one is called Planetarian, ~reverie of a little planet~. It's a sad little story about a world that oddly enough reminds me of how the Evochron universe could have been, had it all gone horribly wrong. The world was rapidly running out of resources, so humanity was spreading its wings to the stars, building off-planet bases and colonizing the moon, when world leaders' lust for power lead to a third world war, which destroyed the space stations, the moon base, and eventually reduced the world's population to a few thousand people. It's a very dark scenario where the technology that was supposed to be our salvation ends up destroying us. The world is now a wasteland, and is constantly being eroded by the Rain (a side-effect of the bio and chem weapons, it is constantly raining an acidic, toxic rain). You are a Junker (wasteland scavenger) who is scavenging a "sarcophagus city" (a city that was walled off to prevent man-made diseases from spreading, and is now abandoned). You approach a strange domed building, and when you enter, you quickly realize that not all of the city's inhabitants have left...

If you like sad, emotional stories, you love this.
It was originally in Japanese, but was translated to English in 2005. Don't get the CD version. It can't be translated. The downloadable version is more convenient anyway. You can get it for the price of around $11.50, which is dirt cheap for this amazing story.

You can get more info, the english patch and instructions on how to buy, install and translate it here:
http://planetarian.insani.org/

The site that sells it here: (hope you can read Japanese:P)
http://key.visualarts.gr.jp/product/planetarian/

Also, while this is a nice, clean story with no gore or any other questionable content, I really wouldn't check out any of Kid's other products. They're not as (ahem) "family friendly".

alpha45 · Post by **alpha45** » Fri Feb 19, 2010 2:31 pm

Got another gem here. From the minds behind Uplink and Defcon, Darwinia is an amazing strategy game, which combines modern 3d graphics and ancient Atart-style graphics, and it works pretty darn well. Darwinia is an artificial world inhabited by intelligent digital creatures called Darwinians, which look like characters you'd see in a first-gen gaming system. Their world has been ravaged by a virus and they are close to extinction. You play a hacker, come in to help them out. Unlike other games, you do not control the Darwinians. There are construction and resource collecting elements, but that's up to the Darwinians. It's up to you to guide and protect them. You can run programs which deploy squads of digital soldiers to fight the virus. You can directly control their aim, and the graphics are just awesome. This game does away with modern ultra-realistic graphics to have an oddly immersive pixelized look. While most characters are 3D, the game gives them a "pixelated" filter that makes them look a lot like sprites. This combination of 3D and 2D graphics appeals to both retro gamers and ones that prefer newer games. It's available for Â£10, and the boxed version is Â£15. It's definitely worth it in my opinion. Check out the demo first, and if it appeals to you, get the full version.

http://www.introversion.co.uk/darwinia/

Lord Kharn · Post by **Lord Kharn** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 4:35 pm

Anyone ever played Activisions Battlezone? not the original on a grid, but the one that came out in the (90s?). You build a base and stuff by placing mobile construction vehicles on geyser's. You normally get a Recycler, Factory, Amory, and Constructor.
Battlezone Review
I can't seem to find anything other than torrent download sites. But I'm sure you can find it on E-bay. It's an amazing game in many aspects. Combining strategy and vehicular (as well as non-vehicular sniping) combat. Me and my father LAN this game still to this day and have amazing battles.

tha_rami · Post by **tha_rami** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 11:39 pm

If you liked Gratuitous Space Battles, you might want to try another indie game that goes by the name of FLOTILLA. It's weird, short, abstract and quite fun. Worth supporting nevertheless.

Battlezone was great, although I found the Soviet campaign ridiculously hard back in the days. If you liked that, you might like a fellow ancient game called Urban Assault. It also combines strategy and vehicular combat, although the base building is kept to an absolute minimum and focus is more on vehicular combat.

Since they haven't been mentioned, the Firefly/Serenity universe is getting way too little attention as far as I'm concerned.

Ohsirus · Post by **Ohsirus** » Mon Jul 19, 2010 12:14 am

Originally posted by Lord Kharn
Anyone ever played Activisions Battlezone? not the original on a grid, but the one that came out in the (90s?). You build a base and stuff by placing mobile construction vehicles on geyser's. You normally get a Recycler, Factory, Amory, and Constructor.
Battlezone Review
I can't seem to find anything other than torrent download sites. But I'm sure you can find it on E-bay. It's an amazing game in many aspects. Combining strategy and vehicular (as well as non-vehicular sniping) combat. Me and my father LAN this game still to this day and have amazing battles.

I had BattleZone and it was ahead of it's time. I loved it!

tk7223 · Post by **tk7223** » Sun Jul 25, 2010 10:33 am

A little late to this thread..but...

I remember the 1st game I got for the PC..after finally giving up my C64, Starflight...It rocked, I lost so many hours to that game. It was simplicity and addictively fun at the same time. I have Freespace2 Open, X3, and EL currently loaded in my flightsimulator. I have gone back and played Freelancer, Starlancer, and Tachyon:the fringe several times. I wish Lucas Arts would go back and rework the original X-wing and Tie fighter games to current graphics and game engines....those absolutely engaged me.