Monday, April 05, 2004
Starport Central -- Home of Starflight III
It's interesting to trace the history of various game genres. Many games you may think are original are actually clones, or at least heavily inspired by, previous work. In my web travels, I've come to the realization that actually very few games are really original. Even big names in game design get caught occaisionally (like when Greg Costikyan got tripped up by Snood).
But as near as I can tell, Starflight was the beginning of a genre. A huge, fractal universe to explore with an engaging interface, lots of interesting aliens to interact with, a very interesting combat interface, and one of the best stories in any computer game, I mean, wow. It takes a long time to unravel it all, but it's certainly worth it. My experience came mostly from the Genesis version, which was absurdly well-implemented in my opinion.
Any game in which you explore "space" which is basically a huge 2D plane with planets on it you can land on, and also fight enemy ships on it, is basically ripping off Starflight. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, mind you -- if you're going to steal, steal from the best.
It turns out that a bunch of guys are working on a second sequel! I first heard of it a couple of years ago, but then nothing for a long while. I just popped over to their site and they're still kicking! Maybe we'll get a release soon?
On another note, it seems that Greg Johnson, co-creator of the ToeJam & Earl games, including the extremely underrated ToeJam & Earl III (in my view the only reason to buy an X-Box), is a consultant on the project. Nifty!
Starport Central -- Home of Starflight III
It's interesting to trace the history of various game genres. Many games you may think are original are actually clones, or at least heavily inspired by, previous work. In my web travels, I've come to the realization that actually very few games are really original. Even big names in game design get caught occaisionally (like when Greg Costikyan got tripped up by Snood).
But as near as I can tell, Starflight was the beginning of a genre. A huge, fractal universe to explore with an engaging interface, lots of interesting aliens to interact with, a very interesting combat interface, and one of the best stories in any computer game, I mean, wow. It takes a long time to unravel it all, but it's certainly worth it. My experience came mostly from the Genesis version, which was absurdly well-implemented in my opinion.
Any game in which you explore "space" which is basically a huge 2D plane with planets on it you can land on, and also fight enemy ships on it, is basically ripping off Starflight. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, mind you -- if you're going to steal, steal from the best.
It turns out that a bunch of guys are working on a second sequel! I first heard of it a couple of years ago, but then nothing for a long while. I just popped over to their site and they're still kicking! Maybe we'll get a release soon?
On another note, it seems that Greg Johnson, co-creator of the ToeJam & Earl games, including the extremely underrated ToeJam & Earl III (in my view the only reason to buy an X-Box), is a consultant on the project. Nifty!
Starport Central -- Home of Starflight III
