Saturday Morning Gaming: Sometimes There Are Happy Endings In Real Life Too
The original Star Control did something amazing back in 1990: it was a space combat game that had different alien races that had ships that all felt different from each other. Most of the games that I had played up until that point felt like you were either going to be the red guy or the blue guy (but they were otherwise indistinguishable (no politics)) but Star Control had ships that made you change tactics. The Ilwrathi ship had to get in close but it had a devastating flamethrower. The Chenjesu ship was HUGE but slow but it did SO MUCH DAMAGE. But it was slow. But it also spat out little ships that would annoy your opponent and make him fly around trying to crash it into a planet and, as he did, you could hit him with the big gun. The Spathi were cowardly and this translated to them having a rear-firing weapon. The Syreen stole crew from the opponent’s ship. The Shofixti did a small amount of damage but could self-destruct and do a HUGE amount. And there were 14 races! And all of them felt different!
And it was so much fun to go head to head with this game against your buddies (one guy on the keyboard, one on the joystick).
Star Control II was EVEN BETTER. You start out with a blank slate of a ship and then go out and explore the galaxy and, along the way, buy upgrades. Seriously, this was a decade ahead of its time.
Well, this was one of the pieces of intellectual property that went dormant for a while and then, all of a sudden, there was this great idea to bring it back and this group of guys bought the rights to make the new Star Control Origins game but other guys said that they made the original and so the other group of guys shouldn’t be able to sell it and, instead, you should buy THEIR game and there were suits and counter-suits and it was weird and the games got pulled from Steam and GOG because of all of the DCMA suits filed and it was all a big mess. I mean, to the point where you couldn’t buy the game anymore. It was awful.
BUT! THERE IS GOOD NEWS!!!
Ars Technica reports that everybody has settled. On top of that, the terms of the settlement seem to be fair (to an exceptionally outside observer) and, delightfully, they are even cute.
The high notes:
All existing lawsuits between Stardock and Ford & Reiche are dismissed with prejudice (this simply means the suits cannot be re-litigated).
All of the complicated arguments about who owns which copyrights and trademarks and who they bought them from and when and what’s copyrightable and what’s not are mooted.
Brad Wardell of Stardock must furnish Paul Reiche with a specific amount of honey from Wardell’s apiary.
In turn, Paul Reiche must furnish Brad Wardell with a specific amount of mead brewed from Wardell’s bees’ honey.
Now THAT is a happy ending. And the two groups of people can go off and make their games and might even raise a glass together from time to time.
So… what are you playing?
(Featured image is “honeycomb” by if-by-whiskey. Used under a Creative Commons License.)
no politics
Why is the most mindless of diversions banned from Mindless Diversions?Report
I mostly wanted an area of the site where people could get together and talk about stuff that is obviously a matter of taste without fear of it being argued as if it were a matter of morality.Report
Discovered AutoChess (the standalone genre, not DOTA mod) and am on the fence whether I like it.
Plus: Build a team (not a deck), synergies, RNG, adapt, every game is different, compete against other player strategies (not twitch)
Cons: the above
I feel like there’s one thing missing… like a penalty for squatting on a piece you can’t use… or a way to force upgrade something… or something, or maybe something.
AutoChess (Mobile); Underlords (Mobile/PC)
…And the obligatory one character in the new POE season… tried a Templar Frost/Staff Crit… switched to Maurader DW/Frenzy build.Report
I’ve suddenly realized I haven’t played a video game in like three months. Not because I decided not to, I’ve just been busy with other hobbies and some actual important things.Report
Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition is on sale at Steam for 90% off.
Two bucks.Report
I actually saw that earlier, and considered it, but decided not to. I’d never heard of it.
But you mentioning it made me look again, and the Wikipedia page said ‘Sleeping Dogs’ melee combat has been compared to that of Batman: Arkham Asylum: ‘ which basically sold me on it.
So I’m getting it…who knows how long it will sit around before I play it, but I can’t really say no to $2.Report
It’s an awesome game. (I found the Martial Arts teacher worth the price of admission back when I played it on the 360.)Report
Just wondering, anyone tried “Detroit: Become Human”? I’ve heard of it, and the bare bones description seems interesting — but none of my friends have tried it.Report
I haven’t played it but we watched an entire play through with my stepson and it was very interesting and entertaining. Good storytelling and nice graphics plus…CLANCY BROWN!Report
I heard great things about Star Control, which came out in 1990, and Star Control II but I didn’t see it at the time.
But! Back in 1986 there was a singleplayer space RPG called StarFlight where you started out with a blank-slate ship and bought various upgrades as you did little missions around the galaxy. There were seven or so alien races with a WIDE variety of threat level between them, and there was a mechanic by which you landed on planets and mined them for various items.
To me, the thing that his game accomplished that few others do, is that the story was a mystery of a very intimidating and alien race which I think communicated only in binary, but the arc of the story made it so that by the end, the very mechanic you had been relying on took on a moral and ethical dimension.
Well, worth checking out.
(I don’t play much these days. Mostly Broforce with my youngest or Heroes of Might and Magic III when I’m alone.)Report
Did you ever get around to Heroes V?Report
I did. I…well, I didn’t *hate* it, exactly—unlike Heroes IV, which was the most crushing disappointment in my gaming history—but I think I actually played it a bit and…it’s fine. It doesn’t feel like HOMM to me, though, it feels like a modern episode of “The Simpsons”: The people who made it liked the original very much, but don’t really understand it. (My son and I played a fair amount of King’s Bounty at the same time, which was pretty good. I think that’s because it was it’s own thing and not a wannabe HOMM.)
I have VI and VII as well but I’m also not a big fan of Uplay.Report
I *LOVED* IV. The Stronghold had the most interesting creatures! But I understand that I was one of, like, four people who enjoyed IV more than III.
When I got V, I was briefly disappointed by the return to the basic ideas of III, but came to prefer it (and the expansions put icing on the cupcake).
But if you didn’t get into V, you didn’t get into V.Report
And I loved V enough to endure UPlay for VI… but VI for me was like IV was for you. I played through the first couple of maps but it was a slog.
I looked at screenshots of VII and saw that they hadn’t returned to form and didn’t even bother to get it.Report
I did a little VII but I realize (on repeatedly playing I, II & III =)) that the thing I like about them is the epic feel. And I feel like, starting with V, the POV is very tight on the hero. I didn’t play them much, but I never feel the same sense of scope.
You’re not the only one who liked IV, though! I know a guy…Report
Starflight and Starflight II are old favorites. I believe GoG has them, if you ever want to play them again. 🙂
I do recall finding the manuals for those games quite delightful as well.Report
Reading the manuals was a HUGE part of the experience after about…IDK, 1979, and before the ’90s. I still have a bunch of ’em. Some of them were REALLY thick and had massive backstories. In the early ’80s, there wasn’t room for the story of an RPG so you’d get a book and be told to “read paragraph 79”.Report