for "classic" video game fans: Escape Velocity: Override remake

snowmanX

Member
If the Escape Velocity franchise is a name that speaks to anyone, exciting news!

I can't say that I play a lot of computer games-- but Escape Velocity and its successors Override and Nova (Ambrosia Software, now defunct) really drew me in when I was in high school in the late 90s. Essentially the premise is the galaxy is a sandbox of planets and space stations for you to explore trading, upgrading your ship, or even choosing to hire on companions to aid you.You choose if you will just fly around, become a trader, space pirate etc. No real over-arching plot forces you along instead you can choose to interact with several loose plot lines, or not. You get a bit of a personality as your actions give you a legal status in planetary systems and if you are inclined to want to blast others (or defend yourself in the depths of space) you get a combat rating starting at "harmless" and working up.

With COVID19 social distancing in place and more time around home, have taken to following a kickstarter campaign for "Cosmic Frontier: Override" as a healthy distraction.

Based on the project description, the original developer of Override has the blessing of the relevant IP holder to go ahead and do a remake that will run on windows/mac/linux with a shiny new engine that should allow plug-ins developed by fans--some 20 year ago--to run without modification! In part to breath life back into old plug-ins, but also to encourage new folks to get into game development (as the developer himself was expired by the predecessor in the franchise).

Kind of a nice story for a piece of software that really left an impression on me and shows that at least some games are remarkable for their narrative and plot development more than frames per second.

Fond memories on my part, worth checking out if anybody is into space flight sims or "classic gaming" since this was a crown jewel of the late 90s shareware scene for Mac (and windows finally when EV: Nova came around).

Enough typing, just hyped up about this and hope that this project comes to fruition as I think the world could use more games in this vein.
 
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