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The Icon Bar: News and features: Starship Command - The Next Generation

Starship Command - The Next Generation

Posted by Richard Goodwin on 10:05, 3/8/2001
Games, RISC OS

Not content with releasing his classic commercial conversion Dune II on an unsuspecting public last month, Jason Tribbeck has revealed that he is nearing completion on another port - this time of the venerable BBC/Electron game Starship Command.

ArcCommand (as he is calling it) features the same gameplay lovingly recreated, but with full colour rendered graphics. I've been receiving demo copies for some time now, but it's come along in leaps and bounds over the past few weeks and is now nearing completion. Expect an official release announcement soon!

Until then, click on the thumbnails on the right to see screenshots from the game.

The ArcCommand loading banner

In-game play as of 1st August

	Starship Command - The Next Generation
	(13:07 3/8/2001) Rich Goodwin (13:23 3/8/2001) Jeffrey Lee (18:02 3/8/2001) Jason Tribbeck (22:54 3/8/2001) Max Palmer (08:04 4/8/2001) Richard Goodwin (12:10 13/8/2001) Jason Tribbeck (15:16 13/8/2001) Jason Tribbeck (15:18 13/8/2001) Richard Goodwin (18:16 13/8/2001) Jeffrey Lee (18:57 13/8/2001) Jason Tribbeck (01:37 19/8/2001) Rich Goodwin (12:52 19/8/2001)

ArchDeacon mavis III	Message #87017, posted at 13:07, 3/8/2001
Unregistered user	Which incidently was written by Peter Irvin of Exile fame.
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Rich Goodwin	Message #87018, posted at 13:23, 3/8/2001, in reply to message #87017
Unregistered user	Jason's got a suitable attribution on the loading screen, so he's not trying to steal anyone's glory! :) Apparently the game will be Freeware BTW.
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Jeffrey Lee	Message #87019, posted at 18:02, 3/8/2001, in reply to message #87018
Unregistered user	Since I've never heard of the BBC version before, does it feature missions? And if so, will the Acorn version include a mission editor? It could greatly boost the popularity...
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Jason Tribbeck	Message #87020, posted at 22:54, 3/8/2001, in reply to message #87019
Unregistered user	Err - the BBC version doesn't have the concept of missions. You just fly around shooting things until you eject (normally just before you run out of energy) or your ship gets destroyed (normally when you try to eject just after your ship runs out of energy). So, there won't be a mission editor, for there are no missions!
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Max Palmer	Message #87021, posted at 08:04, 4/8/2001, in reply to message #87020
Unregistered user	Looks good Jason. I remember spending ages playing the BBC version !
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Richard Goodwin	Message #87022, posted at 12:10, 13/8/2001, in reply to message #87021
Unregistered user	I'm sure Jason's had to put a LOT of research into this project - i.e. getting the Beeb version out and playing it lots - so well done to him for sticking with it ;)
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Jason Tribbeck	Message #87023, posted at 15:16, 13/8/2001, in reply to message #87022
Unregistered user	I've been playing the beeb version for about 2 years on the Beeb emulator; before that, I'd only played it on the real thing (tm). Anyway, there hasn't been a lot of visible work on it; I've been writing a new synthesis engine for the sounds (so the download is very small)...
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Jason Tribbeck	Message #87024, posted at 15:18, 13/8/2001, in reply to message #87023
Unregistered user	Oh, and I've also been asked about a PC version, which I may oblige (with the assistance of others). The name may have to change, though!
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Richard Goodwin	Message #87025, posted at 18:16, 13/8/2001, in reply to message #87024
Unregistered user	What, PCCommand? :)
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Jeffrey Lee	Message #87026, posted at 18:57, 13/8/2001, in reply to message #87025
Unregistered user	If you do do a PC version make sure you put in loads of RISC OS related subliminal messages! Or at least a note on the title screen :)
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Jason Tribbeck	Message #87027, posted at 01:37, 19/8/2001, in reply to message #87026
Unregistered user	Id've informed Rich about this before making the announcement, but I don't think he'll appreciate being called at 2:30 in the morning! Anyway, ArcCommand is now in first beta, and you can download it from http://www.tribbeck.com/arccmd/ I'm away on business in the States for 3 weeks, so I won't be able to do any work on it until I get back, but I'll look forward for bugs and suggestions. Well, the suggestions bit anyway ;-)
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Rich Goodwin	Message #87028, posted at 12:52, 19/8/2001, in reply to message #87027
Unregistered user	Actually I was up until 3:30 re-writing the tables code in !HTML3, but generally yes, early morning calls will find me a bit cranky :)
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Starship Command - The Next Generation