It’s a weird thing, that SFB bit. I mean, MANY games are inspired by others. Lots are iterations of the same basic principles while adding their own unique twist. Most developers are quite out front with what they were inspired by (for instance, Brad will tell anyone he originally hoped Elemental would be almost a reenvisioning of MoM). But not every flight sim is Flight Simulator and not every Roguelike is Rogue.
I do wish someone would remake MoM. Many have tried, but nobody has really recaptured that “magic”.
Having said that, MoM totally and literally ripped off Magic the Gathering, even down to many of the spell names, so you’re right that there are few things truly original in the world :-)
Thanks for the backstory on that person. Funny, too, SFB always had the “content stolen from the Star Trek universe” hanging over its head when I played.
Based on my memory of playing 30 years ago, SFB would be very hard to computerize or copy… the game is simply way too complex.
The cheese has well and truly fallen off your cracker.
SFB has a really weird license situation but i’m pretty sure Paramount watches it at times to make sure they don’t go outside the limits of their license.
I believe there’s been some stabs at replicating it actually.
Well somebody has to do the coding, handle the IP and sign the contracts!
It is really that impossible to believe that those guys might be reading this (and previous) thread when the guy whose company is involved in a lawsuit with them is posting here? Does one really have to have a cheese fallen off their cracker to think that?
I don’t think that are many precedents to a conflict like this in the video game industry.
I am sure that many are watching this whole affair with interest, beyond the enmity they may harbour against any of the parties in it.
That’s not necessarily true. There is such a thing as a bonifide or good faith purchaser.
Accolade did that.
Not stolen from the Star Trek universe. Simply a bizarre license with Paramount et.al. that allows them to use TOS and Animated Trek material. And since they get Animated Trek, they get the Kzinti, which Larry Niven had licensed over to Animated Trek pretty much on a lark.
“SFB very hard to computerize or copy”. Come on. Star Fleet Command 1, 2, and Orion Pirates aren’t that old, are they?
Way ot, but Speaking of Starfleet Command people have stated on GOG that it is broken for windows 8+, but there is a solution posted on steam. Setting compatibility to windows xp, and then going into sfc.ini and setting async=0 in the mouse settings. Worked for me just now in Windows 10. Running the config.exe will also allow setting the resolution up to 1280x1024.
So R&F really did steal an idea from them!
I’m not sure what SFB currently uses as its license, but was originally sourced from Franz Joseph’s work here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_Star_Fleet_Technical_Manual
Also, during the Apple ][ era, SSI’s The Cosmic Balance. All of those games are very much like Star Fleet Battles. Star Control, on the other hand, has almost nothing at all in common with Star Fleet Battles, except that both have ‘Star’ in the title.
And battles.
And fleets. Holy shit, it really is a clone.
Oh man, wait till you guys hear about the Holy Roman Empire.
I’ve heard rumors that it was neither Holy, or Roman, nor an Empire.
FUCK ME
[clicks ‘like’ button]
They would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for Napoleon and those damn kids!