Oh Boy, Somebody Is Making A New Space Combat/Trading/Exploration Game

13 years ago

September 28, 2011 at 5:30 pm

There once was a genre on home computers that was more awesome than any other. It involved space ships, and exploration, and trading, and combat. It was games like Elite, Frontier and Privateer.

These days, that genre is basically dead. Except for Drifter, which is trying to bring it back. And God bless it for trying.

Directly inspired by the likes of Frontier, developers Celsius Game Studios are making one of the most ambitious mobile games I’ve ever seen, boasting a procedurally-generated universe capable of “100,000 light years” worth of content, and giving players the choice to explore that universe as either a merchant or a mercenary.

Sure, it’d be nice to see it as a shiny big PC game instead of what’ll likely be an iPhone title, but fans of this kind of game will take what they can get, and this looks like something to keep an eye on.

‘Red Nova’ Creator Unveils Space Trading Game ‘Drifter’ [Touch Arcade]

Comments

24 responses to “Oh Boy, Somebody Is Making A New Space Combat/Trading/Exploration Game”

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Nuddy

September 28, 2011 at 7:04 pm

seriously agree with you here.
I loved privateer!

Reply
Flipdarkfuture

September 28, 2011 at 7:31 pm

You forgot the X franchise genius.

Reply
1. allanon10101
  
  September 28, 2011 at 11:09 pm
  
  There’s a new X game due out sometime in the next year or two, X: Rebirth. Should be pretty good 🙂
  
  Reply
Aidan

September 28, 2011 at 7:35 pm

Love the ambition and concept, slightly disappointed that it’s for an iPhone rather than ‘puter.

And yeah, I loved space sims. Too young to have really appreciated the oldies, but Freelancer was pretty awesome.

Reply
Felix Isatia

September 28, 2011 at 7:44 pm

What about the X series that is well and truely still around? Last I checked the most recent title is still updated with content and a new Title is due out sometime in the next 12 months or so…

Reply
1. Aliasalpha
  
  September 28, 2011 at 9:35 pm
  
  According to the egosoft website, its due in the 4th quarter this year but given that its not up for preorder anywhere I’ll lay odds that it’ll be 2012
  
  Reply
MrFerret

September 28, 2011 at 7:55 pm

Can someone say Xwing vs tiefighter with all the star wars removed but opened up for modding capabilities? 😀

Stay tuned.

Reply
1. Felix Isatia
  
  September 28, 2011 at 7:58 pm
  
  I still, too this day have two copies of every X-wing game sitting on my desk…and quite often, install X-wing Alliance for a bout of playing through the story line and some networked multiplayer with friends.
  With the X-wing Alliance restoration project stuff installed the game is unbelievably good to look at too 😀
  
  Reply
  1. MrFerret
    
    September 28, 2011 at 8:37 pm
    
    I know right i had XvT when i was very young, and i just found boxed copies of the original DOS Tie Fighter and Xwing (albeit the disk versions, but not the ones on the XvT engine) Been playing tie fighter in dosbox flawlessly with my mouse (joystick is back home) and its so good!
    
    Basically i want to make something thats the same but not star wars (thus avoiding being sued) and then leaving the modding up to someone else…or doing star wars myself under an alias haha. It would be good to have all the bells and whistles like Track iR and 3D cockpits and working switches (which could then be linked to real switches so you can make your own cockpits! race sim style :D)
    
    Its entirely doable too… i might look into it next year once im done with uni
    
    Reply
    1. Aliasalpha
      
      September 28, 2011 at 9:40 pm
      
      If I might make one small request: HURRY THE HELL UP! I want to play that
      
      Then do a mechwarrior one
      
      Reply
      1. MrFerret
        
        September 28, 2011 at 11:19 pm
        
        +1 to mechwarrior after xwing 😛 haha
  2. AerintheADEQUATE
    
    September 28, 2011 at 11:13 pm
    
    I had TIE Fighter and X-Wing: Alliance and I loved the hell out of those games.
    
    Then after a weekend away I came home to find my grandmother had let my thug of a cousin ‘borrow’ some of my things… Yeah, he denied it of course.
    
    Years later I found the manual to TIE Fighter in his room and confronted him about it because he never had a computer on which to play it… He still denied it, but his friend who was there told me he’d sold them to buy pot.
    
    I’m still pissed. I loved those games.
    
    Reply
    1. Felix Isatia
      
      September 29, 2011 at 12:16 pm
      
      wipe them out…ALL of them.
      
      Reply
Chazz

September 28, 2011 at 8:26 pm

Cool work, shame it’s not an iOS title.

Either way, good to see some devs are interested in the space games still so my hopes for a new Freespace game aren’t entirely dashed.

Reply
1. Chazz
  
  September 28, 2011 at 10:16 pm
  
  Shame it IS an iOS title*
  
  My comments go through the same proof reader that KotakuUS hire…
  
  Reply
  1. Felix Isatia
    
    September 29, 2011 at 12:18 pm
    
    I’ll admit….I lol’d
    
    Reply
Justin

September 28, 2011 at 8:51 pm

a nice free online privateer game these days is black prophecy. I just started with it, it still had to mature somewhat, but u can fly nice missions and upgrade your ship nicely 🙂

Reply
Sar Selack

September 28, 2011 at 9:52 pm

It also seemed that joystick control went out the window with these games.

I loved Privateer with a joystick.

Reply
AerintheADEQUATE

September 28, 2011 at 11:15 pm

If it actually sees a release on PC I’ll go for it.

Reply
Rappo

September 29, 2011 at 8:04 am

Dark Star One wasn’t bad for a fix.
I guess it would be too much to ask for more Privateer games..

I would’nt mind seing some new strait space combat stuff either Freespace 2 was awesome… someone make a Freespace 3… please…

Reply
RB

September 29, 2011 at 9:23 am

lol someone forgot about Eve Online 😛

(albeit, not technically the same as you don’t actually ‘fly’ your ship, but still…)

Reply
Robert (B-ob)

September 29, 2011 at 10:06 am

You know what other space combat/trading/exploration game needs to come back?

Sundog: Frozen Legacy.

Seriously.

Reply
waen

September 29, 2011 at 11:16 am

seriously, did everyone forget freelancer?

Reply
1. Felix Isatia
  
  September 29, 2011 at 12:17 pm
  
  Freelancer is a *little* different, and is of course quite old now.
  
  That said, I would KILL for a Freelancer 2…the original is still good even by todays standards imo.
  
  Reply

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Oh Boy, Somebody Is Making A New Space Combat/Trading/Exploration Game

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24 responses to “Oh Boy, Somebody Is Making A New Space Combat/Trading/Exploration Game”

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