I dunno if I’d go so far as to speculate that this is going to be as good as the classic… but you just never know.
Who knows? It has seen a lot of changes from when it was being developed by now defunct Mythos and the Gollop bros. under the Dreamland Chronicles moniker.
Also, at that time, they were working on finishing a PS2 version before the PC one. 
Possible XCOM 2nd coming?
It was going to be originally, but what it ends up as is a whole other story.
P.S. Sould this not be in the games section?
should be in games, yes. Mispost.
Anyway, is this the same game as dreamland? Doesn’t look it to me.
Altar Interactive bought up what was Dreamland and proceeded to completely change it all. Including the name which they have changed 2 or 3 times.
It was Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge when Mythos Games was developing it. Then Altar snatched and called it UFO: Freedom Ridge and then, I believe, for legal name rights reasons changed it to UFO: Aftermath.
www.altarinteractive.com/pages/press04_en.html
Like I said. If it ends up being anywhere close to what I had hoped for Freedom Ridge, I will be pleasantly surprised.
Why didn’t they hire the original Dreamland designers to finish the game? Had the Galaga brothers demonstrated an inability to finish the project?
I think Julian Gollop is still somehow involved as an advisor or some such crap.
All I know is the PS2 version was going to come out first and the release date kept getting pushed back and Mythos was not close to finishing it. The PC conversion was going to come only after the PS2 was done.
They might have blown all their funds while underestimating the difficulty of developing for the new platform. The resulting delays drug the project out. Forcing them to sell as they had no money to continue. I never heard anymore details as to the “whys” of what went on.
Now, my question is why would the new devs spend the money to pick up the old game, then scrap it? I understand that it was using some really proprietary tools and such that they didn’t have access too - but why didn’t that issue arise prior to signing the check?
Seems like they put themselves in a financial hole for no apparent reason.
From some hints and intimations I heard, the Gollops may have gotten in over their heads. They never had done a 3D game or console game before and I think the publisher(s), after seeing their progress, lost faith that they’d finish the game in a timely manner and deliver a good product.
Programming and design are separate issues, I guess. The Gollops may be great at one but perhaps their programming skills weren’t up to date.
“The Gollops may be great at one but perhaps their programming skills weren’t up to date.”
No kidding. I got my hands on an alpha build of “Dreamland Chronicles” for PS2, and here’s a sample of the code – the entire AI routine for the alien troops:
10 REM ALIEN AI ROUTINE
15 GRAPHICS 0
20 DLIST=PEEK(560)+256*PEEK(561)
25 PRINT=“I SEE YOU, HUMAN! PREPARE TO DIE!”
30 LMSLO=DLIST+4
40 LMSHI=DLIST+5
50 SCREENLO=O:SCREENHI=O
60 REM SCROLL TO NEXT LINE
70 SCREENLO=SCREENLO+40
80 REM CHECK FOR AMMO RELOAD
90 IF SCREENLO<256 THEN 140
100 SCREENLO=SCREENLO-256
110 SCREENHI=SCREENHI+1
120 IF SCREENHI=160 THEN END
130 REM GO IN FOR THE KILL!
140 POKE LMSLO,SCREENLO
150 POKE LMSHI,SCREENHI
155 PRINT “TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER!”
160 FOR DE=1 TO 50:NEXT DE
170 GOTO 70
That makes sense. It is a shame because what they had in mind would have been great. Fully destructible everything, physics engine that allowed parts to be continuously bounced all over the place, and other creative features which I obviously cannot describe in the language of videogame - ese.
All of their ideas probably could not be done or would have taken up much more time and money than they had. The PS2 being a new system for everyone did not help either.