The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Take Star Control melee, throw in a bit of RTS unit building, and you've got Gate 88 (http://www.queasygames.com/gate88/index.html).

The games been around a while. The last news update was 2005, but I only just found it. Now for the bad news: the game needs an overhaul in the graphics and in game menu navigation (personally I think a PSP like menu naviation would be a vast iMprovement). But on a concept side this game is more than worth a look. If you love Star Control you owe it to yoursef to check it out.

I used to be an expert at that game when I ran Mac OS... then I switched to Linux, so I can't play.

I don't see how it's like SC melee though. All the ships only get forward weapons, and the weapons are all relativistic (their velocity is based on your velocity when you fire.) And most of the combat is between your ship and the enemy base, rather than ship against ship.

That doesn't change the fact that somebody should write a vastly better Free Software game based on it. ;D

Perhaps true. It's like SC Melee in that it's a top down space shooter, but then so is many of the games that inspired it. Still, I enjoyed it so that means everyone else will too, right?

I forgot to mention that single player mission based game (levels) would be another vast improvement.

What it needs IMO:
Less lag - I mean, what is up with the lag? At most, the players should be passing about twice as much data as in UQM.
More research depth or shorter rounds - I always found the first 10 minutes of each game much more fun, before everyone had maxed research and nigh-unlimited resources.
Ability to observe games - like in UQM ;)
More extensive single-player and/or an AI - so that you can learn what the gameplay is like before coming into multiplayer and getting owned.
Better late joiner rules - the game mechanics can be really unfair either to the late joiner or to the players already there, depending on the situation. Luckily, the community tended to be polite about giving extra time to set up for late joiners who faced difficulties this way.

...there's also a lot of minor issues I'd change. Hey, this would be a good project - the only trouble is, I have got no idea how to do networking code.

I've been playing this game for a while now and finally deleted it. I totally agree that it would be a good platform for someone else to make their own game from. However, Jonathan Mak, the games creator, is likely too caught up in other projects that are making it big time.

The problem with the game is that there is too wrote a strategy for winning and not enough variety in the games. Missons would be good. The option to switch off certian units would be good. And, like I said, a revised menu system (which I know was the point of the game) that more resembles the PSP or PS3 menu system would be good.

Still, the idea of the game is inspiring to me.

Nice game, great music..

And the pie-menu is actually quite nice. A *lot* better than a PSP-styled menu, since that would need way too much left-right scrolling inside the menu.

The actual game mechanics, too bad, aren't too well though. Mostly, fighters and bombers tend to lag a lot, and structures are quite messy. Maybe someday someone might figure out a way to do it a tad better. Still though, Gate 88 used to be a pretty damn fine game in the olde days when the servers were still pretty damn populated. Had to love the classic Alliance backstab thing (ally with someone, build a base together, then move all your fighters inside your base and unally).. :)