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Title: Activision's Star Control Flash Game Post by: Valos Cor on October 04, 2010, 11:21:08 pm Hey guys, I am wondering where the flash game is. I found a link here somewhere on a discussion that mentioned it, but the link doesn't work anymore (I can't find the thread). Does anyone know of a link that's still good? Apparently, Activision has no trace of Star Control on their site! Why would they even GIVE AN OUNCE-OF-DRUUGE-ARTIFACTS about TFB making a Star Control sequel when:
1. The flash game they made to "protect" their copyright or something doesn't exist on the site any longer. 2. The site makes no mention of SC-anything 3. They have a googolplex of other games to worry about. ? Title: Re: Activision's Star Control Flash Game Post by: Dabir on October 05, 2010, 12:01:21 am You're thinking Atari, they own the name. They took their rush-job flash game down ages ago, I think.
Title: Re: Activision's Star Control Flash Game Post by: Valos Cor on October 05, 2010, 12:03:58 am Oh, Atari? I guess so.
http://www.activison.com/ what's it called when you go to an old link or website that seems like a search engine, and not an actual website anymore? Title: Re: Activision's Star Control Flash Game Post by: onpon4 on October 05, 2010, 12:28:57 am Oh, Atari? I guess so. http://www.activison.com/ what's it called when you go to an old link or website that seems like a search engine, and not an actual website anymore? That's called a parked domain. But... Activision.com doesn't look like a parked domain... ??? Title: Re: Activision's Star Control Flash Game Post by: Valos Cor on October 05, 2010, 02:04:11 am Odd... It has to be http://www.activision.com/index.html
Weird. Title: Re: Activision's Star Control Flash Game Post by: onpon4 on October 05, 2010, 02:05:41 am Odd... It has to be http://www.activision.com/index.html Weird. Just entering the base URL takes you to index.html. So... I don't get what you're saying. :-\ Title: Re: Activision's Star Control Flash Game Post by: ziper1221 on October 05, 2010, 02:06:20 am Oh, Atari? I guess so. http://www.activison.com/ what's it called when you go to an old link or website that seems like a search engine, and not an actual website anymore? you missed an I Title: Re: Activision's Star Control Flash Game Post by: Valos Cor on October 05, 2010, 02:22:44 am Oh....
well, still, does anyone know where I could see the flash game (even if its not any good)? At least explain what it was like, what did it do? Title: Re: Activision's Star Control Flash Game Post by: onpon4 on October 05, 2010, 03:06:58 am Oh.... well, still, does anyone know where I could see the flash game (even if its not any good)? At least explain what it was like, what did it do? It was just a basic ship fighting game with ~3 ships to choose from and a funny announcer. Nothing special. Imagine SC2 melee with no 2-player, no planet, no asteroids, and a border around the edge of the arena where you only have 3 roughly equal ships to choose from. BTW, it's Atari, not Activision. Title: Re: Activision's Star Control Flash Game Post by: Valos Cor on October 05, 2010, 03:31:51 am Okay... so, does what does Activision have to do with Star Control?
Ha! I just realized that I haven't even posted this. Well, I got my answer: Quote from: http://uqm.stack.nl/files/chat/tfbchat-20070613-clean 23:07 <@Meep-Eep> Is it still useful to sign the petition? 23:08 <+PR3> We keep pushing on Activision and Atart (former=employer, latter=trademark holder) to let us do a product. So far we have interest but nothing concrete -- which is pretty much the same for the last few years! 23:08 <+tfb-chris> Like the robot said, thanks so much, everyone, for keeping the Star Control flame alive! 23:08 <+robot> Believe it or not, Activision has expressed an interest. But not having all the rights is still a problem. I think he mean's Atari :) Man, I wish I was there, I missed it because I only found out about it a few weeks later :'( EDIT: well, that sucks. I expected at least melee with multiplayer, planet, and more than 3 ships... Title: Re: Activision's Star Control Flash Game Post by: Valos Cor on October 05, 2010, 03:43:57 am Nevermind, that was 3 years ago!?
Title: Re: Activision's Star Control Flash Game Post by: Anthony on October 05, 2010, 05:20:11 am You're thinking Atari, they own the name. They took their rush-job flash game down ages ago, I think. The company that made that flash game was a small dev studio called Iocaine Studios. They were only given a few days to complete the project. Quote We were asked to develop a new game for them, but with a catch. This game had to be developed within 4 days…and we were asked to do it on a Thursday, which meant it would be due on Monday. The team panicked. There was no way we could make a new game from start to finish in only 4 days. We really needed the money though. Our debt was increasing and bills had to be paid. I sat the team down and discussed our options calmly while they all looked for sharp objects to throw at me. The requirements for the game were pretty lenient. We decided to do it in Flash since a web game could be done in a short amount of time. There was a problem. We had never done anything in Flash before. Plus, I had to convince the team to work over the weekend, which was a life threatening task, but eventually I convinced them. Friday morning was spent learning Flash and doing a rough design of the game. On Saturday, we built the engine, made some art assets, and started integrating the gameplay. By Sunday, we had something playable, but buggy. By Sunday night, the game was fun and pretty balanced. We submitted it to Atari on Monday and made enough to feed ourselves for another month. The game is called Star Control. We were going for a fighting game with ships. Something you can play with a friend sitting next to you for a few minutes at work. You can check it out at http://www.atari.com/us/starcontrol/ (keep in mind it was only done in 2 days) It's hard for me to comment on this because I have no experience with professional game development and politics. All I can say is that completing a 4-day project in 2 days with new development tools can be hectic for anyone. They needed to put food on the table and accepted Atari's project. They really have nothing to do with the Atari's trademark other than the fact that Atari asked them to do it quickly. They seem to be very passionate about video games, going as far as taking a class, making a Half-Life mod and making another game called ThreadSpace: Hyperbol which is on Steam. Their blog is down, so I referred to archive.org: http://web.archive.org/web/20080423043502/http://blogs.iocainestudios.com/ Their website is http://www.iocainestudios.com/ Title: Re: Activision's Star Control Flash Game Post by: Valos Cor on October 05, 2010, 07:57:28 am Oh, yeah, I remember reading that, thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
Title: Re: Activision's Star Control Flash Game Post by: meep-eep on October 05, 2010, 07:38:03 pm Atari is the successor (through takeovers, name changes) of Accolade, the publisher of the original Star Control and Star Control II games. They own the trademark "Star Control".
Toys for Bob is the company created by the actual developers of Star Control 2. These people (Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III) own the game itself, including characters and copyrights. They licensed the game under an Open Source license, making The Ur-Quan Masters possible. If you wonder why we didn't call it "Star Control II", see above. TFB would love to make a new Star Control game (by any name), but they would need a publisher to cover the costs. Activision bought Toys for Bob, and the SC devs are now making games for them. They own all TFB's intellectual property... except for the Star Control II game, which the SC devs have kept for themselves, in the hope of one day being able to make a sequel. As for Atari's little Flash game, see http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Star_Control_derivatives#Star_Control_flash_game (http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Star_Control_derivatives#Star_Control_flash_game). Title: Re: Activision's Star Control Flash Game Post by: Valos Cor on October 06, 2010, 12:00:33 am Thanks for clearing it up.
I was like "Yay, the flash game for me to look at (its coding...)" but then... it didn't actually HOST the game, it just went to this link, which, as I mentioned, is dead :( http://www.atari.com/us/starcontrol/ Oh well, I'll just look at some other random flash game for hints on how those games work. Title: Re: Activision's Star Control Flash Game Post by: Draxas on October 06, 2010, 04:29:43 pm As for Atari's little Flash game, see http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Star_Control_derivatives#Star_Control_flash_game (http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Star_Control_derivatives#Star_Control_flash_game). Having just glanced at that page out of curiosity, someone should really add Project 6014 to the active derivitaves section. Dragon's SC1 remake should probably be there as well. Title: Re: Activision's Star Control Flash Game Post by: Lukipela on October 07, 2010, 10:19:57 pm Activision bought Toys for Bob, and the SC devs are now making games for them. They own all TFB's intellectual property... except for the Star Control II game, which the SC devs have kept for themselves, in the hope of one day being able to make a sequel. Wait, really? So they own The Horde and the little witches game and everything? Huh, I didn't know that. Too bad, a new Horde game could've been cool. |