Well shit. NameZero got smarter and made their banner code better. So I got this page auto-forwarded to what page it really is. Problem now is that it now gives away the gag (that this page is on Tripod) and has 2 popup windows. Shit.
I’VE BECOME EVERYTHING I’VE EVER HATED!!!!
Oh well. I guess if I really had a problem with it, I could just pay money or something.
Stop what you’re doing.
If you have:
Go here. This is the homepage for NesterDC, a port of Nester to the Dreamcast. Nester is a NES emu for Windows that has had the foresight to be open source and portable. The Dreamcast has had emulators before. DreamSNES is a port of SNES9X a SNES emulator – DreamSNES’ only flaw is that it’s not fast enough to be feasible yet. It didn’t take long for someone (a warez group in fact) to figure out that the Sega Smash Pack, Volume 1 for the Dreamcast was in essence a Sega Genesis emulator and 10 ROMs, and equip it with a menu loader system. This went under the moniker “SegaGEN” – SegaGen is good, but it’s rather hit or miss. When a game works, it works more or less flawlessly. When it doesn’t – it doesn’t. Period. The only real qualm is with the sound – it either sucks or doesn’t exist.
This isn’t to say NesterDC is perfect – the sound blows, and the menu interface could use some work. However, it runs NES games either at full speed or really damn close – close enough that, with the sound off (which speeds it up) you can fool yourself into thinking you’re playing a NES on your TV. Well, except that it doesn’t “stretch” the image to fit your screen like the NES did. It needs some work, but I was floored to be able to play Mega Man on my television this morning.
I used to be into NES emulation – really into it. I ran a site called “The Gray Area” – a Blue’s News of the NES. It’s gone now (though on a CD somewhere, I think). This is back when NESticle was king of the hill (still is, for the most part) and there were still NES ROMs to be released. I proposed an open source NES emulator called OpenNES, but no one took me up on the idea to code it (though I did get an interesting email from Mindrape, the guy who stole the NESticle source code). Instead we kept having attempts to code a NES emulator in QBasic. Baffling.
The games NESticle couldn’t run could be run in fwNES, an emulator that had an unprecedented support for mappers (a somewhat abstract concept – the method in which a NES game “mapped” the NES’ resources). fwNES’ only problem then was that is was slow on computers at the time (but not so much now – it runs too fast on my system). fwNES has not been updated in more than 2.5 years, so it’s probably safe to say that it’s dead.
A year or so back an emulator called NESten came out. It’s pretty good and it’s Win32 native. What’s really cool about it, though, is that it uses a plugin architecture (like I proposed in OpenNES) and the author has released the source code for the plugin .DLL files so that people can implement their own mappers, meaning that mapper support is no longer soley in the hands of the emulator author, nor does having them in the hands of the public force the emulator to be open source.
The other “big” NES emulator right now is Nester. Big because, while it doesn’t have the features of NESten, it is open source. There have been other open source NES emulators, but most of them haven’t been worth a damn. Nester seems pretty good in this respect. Nice to see the ideas I proposed (which probably weren’t read) in OpenNES have more or less finally seen their way to implementation. Hopefully NES emulation will someday reach perfection. At the very least it needs some clarification – witness the five categories Zophar divies them into.
Oh, and I saw the new Denis Leary show The Job. It’s an entertaining show, but I’m somewhat disappointed. Mainly in the respect that it’s half an hour – I’m used to NYPD Blue. Hell, that’s the problem – I was expecting NYPD Blue. Still, I’m a huge Leary fan and I’ll keep watching in the hopes that it finds its spot – I just hope it does. The first episode just seemed like it was trying too hard.
I have committed a horrible sin.
Used to be, way back in the early 90’s, Aerosmith was my all time favorite band. I had all of their old albums on cassette – these things went for like $4 – along with their new ones. When the era of the CD came into my life, I bought all of their old albums – again – on CD when they got re-released. Then I sold them all (at a loss) to people I knew so I could buy Box of Fire – a boxed set with all of their old albums, plus a bonus CD. I have purchased all of their latest albums on the first day.
In recent years Aerosmith has kinda fallen by the wayside. I still think they’re great (even with that blasphemous Super Bowl appearance), but other groups have filled the four year gap that seems to separate Aerosmith albums. I’ve been spoiled by biannual releases by groups like GWAR and Metallica (though the latter of those two seem to enjoy unloading outtakes each year at Christmas). Groups like Tool can afford to wait four years or more – their albums seem to be better that way. Still, I’m an Aerosmith fan out of principle if not necessarily by practice.
Tomorrow, March 6th, their new album Just Push Play will be released. I, however, will not be purchasing it. This has nothing to do with loyalty or any commentary on my opinion on them – it’s because I’m broke. Well, not really, but my financial situation won’t be comfortable for a while (I’m hoping April).
That’s not the sin, however. The sin is that I have already listened to the album on CD. Yup – I’ve become the music industry’s worst nightmare – I have the album on MP3 and have already burned off a copy. I’d love to know how exactly someone got a hold of the album early. I tried to not use my knowledge to obtain a copy, but money’s tight and blank CD’s are cheap.
I will repent, however. Come April I’m purchasing the album. And probably the Jaded CD single as well (Aerosmith is one of those groups I like to collect). This doesn’t make it right, however. If there are enough “me”s in the world, then Just Push Play won’t hit #1 on the charts this week. My April purchase won’t make much difference in a month. And that’s why the music industry is afraid – if the big fans won’t pay, then who will?
Moving past all of that, it is kinda cool to listen to an album before it’s released – even if it’s just for a day.
Moving further, here’s my nutshell review:
Aerosmith
Just Press Play
Artists have a conundrum. If they make albums that all sound the same, then they grow stale, but if they change from album to album, then people wish they sounded more like the group they used to like.
In listening to Just Press Play, I kinda wish we had the good ol’ Rock and Roll Aerosmith, like in “Rag Doll” or “Young Lust”. Having said that, the album’s not bad – I just wish they’d ditch the horn section from time to time.
The first ever Aerosmith produced Aerosmith album works – but it’s a little too heavy on samples and other effects – record scratching should never find their way unto an Aerosmith CD. However upon first listen, it’s entertaining.
As for the cover art, however, well Aerosmith’s last three or so album covers have sucked – the worst being Get a Grip. This one has a robot Marilyn Monroe doing that blown-up dress maneuver. She looked too much like that computer animated Super Bowl commercial about canned food (look it up!). Some artists can afford to have crappy cover art (when the Rolling Stones do it’s it’s fine art), but Aerosmith needs to do some more work.
It’s great to have the Bad Boys from Boston back, and if there’s any justice in this Eminem/Britney Spears/Jennifer Lopez/(generic Boy Band) infected world, they’ll kick ass and bring Rock and Roll back with them. We can only hope.
Oh, and a new issue of Total Movie came in the mail today – looks like they made it to four issues.
<RANT>
DAMMIT TO HELL!!!
</RANT>
Ah, there. I feel better.
Imagine Publishing. This is the publishing company that gave us PC Gamer, Next Generation and Maximum PC, all great magazines. They gave us IGN.COM, a series of game websites so successful they spun off into their own separate company. They were really doing good, for a time there.
Then they announce that they will begin publishing The Official Dreamcast Magazine, complete with a GD-ROM with each issue with demos on it. While not the best mag, it was cool and entertaining and I have every issue. Then they announce Total Movie magazine, which will come with a DVD in each issue. Kick ass.
But then they announce that, after 12 or so issues ODCM will no longer carry a GD-ROM. That sucks, but I was almost willing to forgive it since it was Sega’s idea. You know, Sega the one who just put the kibosh on their own console. Granted, this put me in a fix of sorts, since I had just renewed my subscription to a magazine whose main lure has just been removed.
Then, Imagine merges with Future Publishing. Okay, that’s good – I suppose. But then Imagine/Future announces that they’re gonna have to slash some magazines due to losses. ODCM is the first on the cutting block. I suppose it was inevitable, since it was only a matter of time before ODCM wouldn’t have much more to say, it only made sense to cut them.
But then the other shoe dropped. Total Movie got the axe. I don’t know why. Perhaps making a DVD was more expensive than previously thought. Perhaps it made more sense to slash a new magazine (TM had only 3 issues) than an established title with many more subscribers. But still, I’m pissed. My ODCM balance will now go towards my Next Generation subscription, but I wonder where my Total Movie money is going? I’ll know soon enough, I suppose.
Imagine is the same company that gave PC Accelerator the axe. I was kinda glad, believe it or not. That magazine was more about titties than games – not a bad idea, save for the fact that the women were rather skanky and nasty. Eeew. Funny thing is, they announce that all the PCXL subscribers have had their subscriptions turned into PC Gamer subscriptions (after that mag swallowed up PC Games), then Imagine announced that PC Gamer had 375,000 subscribers, making it the most popular games magazine in history. Well, at least that magazine’s not going anywhere.
I used to think magazines went on forever, mainly because I never was interested in any ones that failed. Hell, I would go to my grandmother’s house growing up and see bookshelves upon bookshelves of National Geographic, TV Guide has published over 2000 issues, and PC Magazine has been around for over 20 years. Oh well, part of getting older, I suppose.
In happier news, Raven announced today that they are working on an expansion pack for Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force. That’s cool. What’s especially cool, though, is that they’re putting in what I alluded to earlier: a free-roaming mode wherein you can just wander about the ship and play with shit, in like 15 levels from the “actual” Voyager. So something good did come from the community today.
So when I get to work they hand me a computer to suffice until my new machine comes in. I knew I was in for it when it says “Gateway 2000” right next to the “Pentium (1) with MMX” logo. Actually, it’s not bad and it’s temporary, so no biggie, but it’s running NT4 and it “Dr. Watsons” every time I try to fire up IE 5.5, so I run Netscape 4.7. Here’s a question for Netscape users: HOW IN THE HELL DO YOU GUYS STILL USE NETSCAPE!!! I mean, I’m willing to chalk some of this up to “I’m just not used to it”, but a LOT of pages just looked messed up in general – and it’s obvious no one (who designs web pages) cares.
Anywho… more later.
(struggling)
Life… settling….
Updates…coming…. more often….
Dragon’s Lair…on….Game Boy Color………THUD!
(picks self up off floor)
Okayokayokayokay. I know It’s cliché to say “sorry I haven’t been updating but I’ve been sooooo busy” (especially since the majority of the potential audience doesn’t care), but I think I’ve finally attained the point where I can get things down to a groove.
Yeppers, Dragon’s Lair on Game Boy Color. I’ve played it – it’s surprisingly not bad. I say that because, by modern gameplay standards, Dragon’s Lair is bad. Accept it. I think I have the right to say that, since I do own the game on DVD. Not a DVD-ROM, either – the DVD Video version – playable on most DVD players (bizarre side note – Amazon lists this DVD as “Rated R, not for sale to persons under 18”, even though the DVD is unrated and the game is “K-A” from the old ESRB system). Though a DVD remote is not the most ideal way to play this game, surprisingly the PS2’s controllers are.
Yeah, I love Dragon’s Lair, even though it is a bad game – much in the same way I love Rocky Horror Picture Show, even though it is a bad movie. We have “cult movies”, why not “cult games”? I’m sure games like Battlecruiser 3000AD and SiN fall into that category.
My hard drive crashed. That’s the bad news. The good news is that I got a 40GB one out of the equation. That’s the good news. It’s nice to have all the important games and mods installed installed simultaneously – though years back a 6GB hard drive alleviated this same problem. Oh well.
Oh sure, I take some time off from this website and Sega goes and quits on me! More later…
Well anywho, my sister’s sister site (man that pun never gets old!) got a slight makeover from my wife. Amy went to the Brazos Valley Bridal Show and after each performance there was a line of people wanting her to sing at their wedding (which is what they figured she was there for). She politely turned down the first person to ask her and then my wife and I clued her in to the fact that this might not be the worst thing she could do on the side, so we re-did her page (still needs some work) to reflect that new status. Consequently, if you’re going to get married somewhere in southeast Texas (think in the Houston-Dallas-San Antonio areas) in the next year and are interested in hiring Amy, head on over to her page and drop her a line.
Now, on to the good stuff. Or rather the bad. The aforementioned Sega has stated that they will cease manufacturing of the Dreamcast, will start developing for other consoles, such as PlayStation 2 and Game Boy Advance, and will license out the DC technology for set top boxes and the like. Yep, Sega wins the “WTF?” award for 2001.
I say WTF because Sega just got done having their best Christmas ever, and Sony had a bummer of a PS2 launch. There are some 6 million DC consoles in the world, and they have hundreds of games on the plate. More bizarre is the fact that they have stated that they will support the DC until 2002, meaning that the official “death” is a year away. Now, how would you like to be one of the ones who had planned on releasing a DC game in Q4 2001?
One of their ideas is to incorporate DC technology into a PC expansion card. Creative Labs did this as part of their 3DO agreement in 1994 or so. They released the 3DO Blaster, which used a PC-Card and specific CD-ROM drive to make a PC a virtual 3DO system, using a VGA Overlay (pass through, basically). I would say this would be a neat idea, save for the fact that PC CD-ROM dives can’t read DC discs. I’d love to see how they get around that one. Oh, and the 3DO Blaster sold badly.
Another idea is the set-top box. Daily Radar has already shown is the Mark II, a combo DC and TiVO-type unit with a 40GB hard drive. A neat idea, except for the fact that it has its controller ports in the back of the unit and it has no GD-ROM drive. Yep, the only games this guy can play are downloaded ones. Sure, I wanna download Shenmue III over the Internet and pay as I play. Lame.
The Dreamcast isn’t technically dead, but it might as well be. This set-top box idea will never work, and they sound more committed to the PS2 and GBA than the console they got us all to buy. Still, better to not lose Sega as a developer – the Jet Grind Radios and Crazy Taxis of the world will not be lost.
But I think Sega is a wimp. Sure, I’ve never stuck my neck into the hardware market and lost millions, but I think they’re pulling out too early. The DC had potential, and Sega doesn’t even want to hang with the big boys anymore. What I feel most sorry for are the people who had to sell the DC to people in stores, saying “this won’t be another Saturn”. Oh, wait, that was me!
On the bright side, at least my PS2 will find more use at some point.
Finally, while I don’t feel like working up a formal “Columns” section tonight, here’s my first article on Schnapple.com, Book Roundup.
I embarked on a failed venture recently. One of my favorite sites is Home of the Underdogs. HOTU is a site that, for the most part, houses Abandonware (their “about” page tries to elaborate on what exactly HOTU does, but gets somewhat confusing and insists that it’s not just Abandonware). Abandonware is software that either is no longer sold or manufactured by the publisher for various reasons: it didn’t sell well, the game is dated, or the publisher has gone out of business. Abandonware is illegal, but it’s rarely enforced, since the publisher usually doesn’t care (they state on the site that they will pull down anything offensive to publishers or developers).
They had to pull down all ISDA members works, since that organization tends to enforce the copyright laws no matter what. This got me thinking: I should download all of these games, since this whole site might be gone someday. Great idea: just slap them all on a CD – lots of these games are like 23K (good old CGA).
Well, HOTU is organized such that mass downloading is difficult – you have to go like 3 pages deep to get to a download link. And they have a rather gestapo like set of rules concerning banning of multiple downloads (they don’t allow it, basically), so Net Vampire comes in real handy. Still, it could be done with a bit of work. So I started to download all of them.
Problems arose when I realized it took me a couple of hours to get through the “A”‘s. HOTU has close to 2,000 games to download. Still, with some work it could be done. Then after queuing up through the letter “C” and letting it run overnight, I awoke the next morning to realize that I had downloaded some 800MB of stuff. Ugh – this was gonna take a lot of CD’s. Then I realized that I had no idea what most of these games were called – “a-spid.zip” could mean anything, so I devised a batch file with the help of Excel to generate directories for all of the games, so “a-spid.zip” goes in the Amazing Spiderman, The directory. Great – more work, but at least now I would know what the games were called.
Then the crushing blow hit me. HOTU is a very well organized site. For each game they have reviews and commentary. They have their database searchable by year, developer, publisher, etc. Having all of the games named and downloaded is nice and all, but without all of this information on the HOTU website, I’ll probably never know which games I’m even interested in fiddling with – this isn’t like NES emulation where you can just fire up a ROM image – these are vintage PC games requiring sometimes installation, configuration and tweaking – MoSlo, a system slowing utility, is sometimes required to run them. Merely downloading them en masse is a waste of time, and a big one at that. This is time I could be Quaking!
So I called off my quest (I had gotten through the “E”‘s) and deleted most of what I downloaded, except for the games I know I’m interested in. Oh well, at least I can play Dark Seed again.
Oh, and here’s something interesting. Majesco Sales is a bizarre little company. I’m not sure if they code their own games or just port them for other companies, or both. The Dreamcast versions of Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear are obviously ports, but I’m not sure if the DC versions of Q-Bert or Frogger 2 were done in-house (for Hasbro). I do know that their Game Boy Color versions of Pong and Frogger were done in-house (though technically adaptations of previous games, so Majesco doesn’t exactly do original games).
Anywho, in addition to games, they like to make game systems. What I mean by that is they like to remake old systems. If you walk into a Wal-Mart and see a tiny Sega Genesis in a blueish box for $19.99 with the name “Genesis 3” on it, Majesco made that. They got the rights to it from Sega. They also made Frogger for the Genesis in 1998, officially the last new Genesis game ever made (part of that “Frogger on every console” idea – it was also on the SNES).
I had heard a while back that they were looking to re-introduce the Sega Game Gear and the Sega Saturn. The Saturn would cost around $50, and Majesco would be making new games for it (kinda having a console to itself there). Well, later I heard that both ideas had fallen though. Last week, though, Toys ‘R Us started selling Majesco’s remade Game Gear. You can get it from their web site (handled by amazon.com) as well. Looks like they re-released The Lion King as well. I see several other Game Gear games on amazon, but they’re listed as not available.
I still own a Game Gear – the special blue one (don’t know why blue was special) that had The Lion King with it. It was cool, but it ate batteries for lunch. Plus, Sega ditched it shortly after for the Sega Nomad, a portable Genesis. That tanked when the Genesis died out (never really took off). Then Sega started to develop for the Neo Geo Pocket Color when Nintendo stated that they would not allow Sega to manufacture cables or code games to interface the GBC with the Dreamcast. As we all know, however, the NGPC also but the dust when the company SNK folded, leaving the lone Sonic game the only Sega entry on a non-Sega console. Now the speculation has always been that Sega would give in and make portable games on the GBC, if they were still interested at all. With the reintroduction of the Game Gear, however, I’m curious if Sega will develop new stuff for it instead. Sure, it has old Sega Master System hardware and will pale in comparison to Game Boy Advance, but at least Sega wouldn’t have to work for Nintendo (unless Nintendo buys Sega, hehe).
At any rate, go pick up a Game Gear for $29.99 and find you some games. Any Toys ‘R Us or Wal-Mart in the country has a bin somewhere with GG games for $5 each. While you’re in Wal-Mart, go to the handheld games section (in the Toy Department) and pick up Mattel’s Classic Football, a remake of the old Football game – right down to the 70’s logo.
I have tried repeatedly to like the Beatles. Usually, when people are so uppity about some old group I can usually buy into what they’re saying to some degree, but I have never been able to like the Beatles. Sure, occasionally I hear an old song of theirs and like it, but on the whole I can’t listen to them. I knew a girl in High School – one of those “art kids” – who was obsessed with the Fab Four. Funny thing is, when I pointed out how shitty songs like “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” sound in a modern context she tried to pull me to later Beatles (“Yellow Submarine”, et al) rather than the “skittle” songs of their early days. Hilarious.
In that vein, I am hooked on VH-1’s “Top 100 of Whatever” lists. Gimmie five hours with a long list and I’m happy. For the Top 100 Artists of Hard Rock, I couldn’t agree with Led Zeppelin as #1 more. For the Top 100 Songs of Rock and Roll, I’m all about “Can’t Get No Satisfaction”. The top TV Moments was very enlightening (I hadn’t seen most of them). I couldn’t care less about the top 100 Women (sorry) or Dance Songs, and I knew the top Artist was going to the Beatles, but I truly do have a problem with the Top 100 Albums of Rock and Roll.
SPOILER ALERT! The #1 Rock and Roll album, according to VH-1 is The Beatles’ Revolver. Hwua? I’ve never even heard of that album. I figured Sergeant Pepper’s or White Album or something. More blasphemous: Led Zeppelin’s fourth untitled album isn’t even on the list! Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II and Physical Grafitti placed, but the album with freaking “Stairway to Heaven” on it isn’t on the list! Worst of all is the number of artists and albums which are not Rock an Roll. Madonna, Michael Jackson, Public Enemy, Aretha Franklin, etc. These are not Rock and Roll artists. I’m not saying they’re bad (well, not PE anyways) but they ain’t no rock and roll. Call it the “Top 100 Albums” or add “Poplar Music” to it, but not Rock and Roll. I don’t know what Rock is, but I know what it isn’t.
Anywho, rant over. I’m working on a columns page.
I used to feel sorry for Raven. They started out in the promising old Amiga days, and they had to move over to PC development and 3D games in the wake of DOOM. They got chummy with id and got some help on their first PC game, Heretic. Heretic was cool – certainly much better than the majority of DOOM clones out there. It was also somewhat refreshing – too often I would download a game demo and within minutes of playing I would form an unfavorable opinion. Heretic‘s demo, however, showed promise (you could glance down for starters). Still, it wasn’t quite DOOM, so ultimately I was disappointed. Then came Hexen. This was a better game than Heretic, to be sure. It was something of a sequel. What of a sequel, I don’t know (more later). So Hexen was decent and all, but by this point I was getting tired of DOOM and its brethren and was looking forward to something called Quake.
Quake came and went and got its engine licensed out to dozens of developers, and Raven unveiled Hexen II – more or less the only game using the original Quake engine’s source code and while Raven no doubt made some modifications, they used little to no Quake II code – most developers postponed their titles to graft Quake II code into their game once that game was released. Hexen II fell victim to “good demo” syndrome. I played the demo and thought it was cool. I bought the game and was disappointed once I got past the demo’s levels. Hexen II never really took off, despite efforts like Hexenworld – a port of Hexen II to the Quakeworld codebase.
Then Raven used the Quake II engine and belted out Heretic II. Odd, since I always thought Hexen II was like Heretic III, so Heretic II should have been Heretic IV. This got them a .plan lambasting from John “foot in mouth” Romero. Heretic II was good, but no Tomb Raider (it was a 3rd person game).
Oh, and somewhere along the line there was a game called Mageslayer which tried to be Gauntlet in 3-D. Did it better than Gauntlet Legends did, too.
So after Heretic II failed to light things up, I hear Raven was going to do a Star Trek game. Remember, there hasn’t been a good Star Trek game in years. To make things worse, the game is for Star Trek: Voyager, which is the least popular Trek to date. Uh-oh. Also, they decided to do a game for mercenary for hire magazine Soldier of Fortune. Bigger uh-oh.
But then I attended Jake Simpson’s talk at QuakeCon ’99. One of the first things he told us in his British accent was that he was miffed that no one on the QC floor was playing a Raven game. Then he told us about Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force. Cool shit indeed – listening to a developer talk about his game. Then he showed us the Quake III engine game in action. I was floored. Not only did this look to break the Star Trek game curse, but it might be a Raven game that would sell! Also at QC I saw one of the most violent games ever. I found out it was Soldier of Fortune, running on the Quake II engine. Damn, two winners from Raven.
Both games were released to acclaim and high sales. I don’t feel sorry for Raven anymore
To make a long story short (too late!), my wife bought me Elite Force for my birthday. Not only is it all that and a bag of chips, but it’s one of the few games she is interested in playing. Now if only her system could hack it – holomatch!
Elite Force is interesting – it’s kind of a “niche” game. Whereas a game like Q3A is trying to be the “be-all, end-all” Deathmatch game, Elite Force is more of a console type game – single player with some multiplayer thrown in. The source code and a level editor is available, just like for Q3A. However, while the Quake series of games have always inspired conversions (Star Wars Quake, Aliens Quake, even some Trek ones), trying to convert a “specific” game like Elite Force seems kinda silly. Converting a “generic” game like Q3A makes more sense. Consequently, the only kind of modification that makes sense would be a Trek inspired one. I’ve barely scraped the surface of the Elite Force community, but I’ve already seen some levels that are pretty good representations of starships (irony: Q3A was built to house more “open” levels, rather than the cramped confines of a spaceship).
This all leads me to an interesting question/proposition. Jake Simpson at QC said that, while a lot of the U.S.S. Voyager is mapped out, there is no blueprint for the vessel on file at Paramount. Reason? They don’t want to paint themselves into a corner on the show. If they need a new room, they can just place one instead of being limited to a blueprint (those Trek blueprint books are put together after the ship is not used in the shows anymore and is usually done by studying old episodes). What I want to know is this: how complete is the Voyager ship in the game? I found this mod, which aims to make the ship into a free-wanderable vessel. My question/proposition is: how feasible is it that new missions can be made for this game? I would think it would be more feasible, at least from Raven’s standpoint. I mean, this is a TV show that has been on for seven years – it should lead itself to mission packs, and more than a couple of them. You could reuse the maps that are on the ship – only new characters and planets would have to be created. I know that this sort of thing is possible, I just wonder if the end user can do it.
It would be the revival of a dead art – the single player modification. For that matter, the “map packs” so popular in the Quake and DOOM days could be taken to the next level. Whereas we were satisfied with the “Space Marine runs into more shit” premise of those level arrangements, Elite Force missions would conform themselves to a plot (“The Voyager ship and crew runs into more shit”). Repetitive, sure, but these same notions have fueled this universe for over 30 years. The only hitch I could forsee is the Voyager notion dying away once the show finishes its seven year run soon.
I’m going to grapple with this idea and tinker around with the concept in the coming days (damn, this is gonna crimp my ongoing Q3A plans) but in the meantime I’m gonna keep looking out for an old army Star Trek (original series) mod.