Master of Orion III

[Rochdale]

Due for release in Q3 of this year, I haven't played the first 2 but they always appealed to me. I was too poor to have a PC back then

Anyone else like this sort of space based 4X game?

And does anyone have MOO2 hanging around? Wouldn't mind trying it but it hasn't quite reached abandonware status yet.

 

[Requiel]

Ooh sounds cool, I love games like this but I missed this series. Be interested to find out what it's like.

 

[Rochdale]

The original is supposed to be a classic, I've got it somewhere but it really needs a dos environment to play.

oh, and a link to the website www.moo3.com

 

[Artanix]

sounds like the elite series to me?

they were classics supposedly david brabham (aka god) has something planned i dunno what though, but if its anything as good as elite or frontier, i'm gonna wet myself

*begs for elite 2 style but online *

 

[Nightwing]

I played MOO2 a lot, never did get hold of the original unfortunately. Very good game, nothing like Elite =) It's closer to a 'Civilisation in space' than anything else I guess.

Looking forward to this next one coming out, although I wish they'd stop pushing back the release date

NW

 

[Cullhaven]

What people often forget is the fact that Dave Braben had a partner who helped him create the Elite and Frontier games, a bloke called Ian Bell. He had a falling out with Braben over something and the upshot was that he decided to make the games free to download. If u follow me links to his website u can download them

http://www.emuunlim.com/hob/elite.html
take this link to a java elite

http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/
Ian Bells Pages

http://www.eliteclub.co.uk
This has lots of shareware versions of the games

worth a look, even just fer old time sakes

 

[Emmon]

Elite was ace... remember playing frontier elite the most recent and although it was just including 1 galaxy I thought there was a game planned that had many galaxies included. Which versions are these ones linked Cull?

 

[Rochdale]

I played MOO2 a lot, never did get hold of the original unfortunately.

The original can be downloaded from some abandonware sites as it's so old. Really needs a dos based machine to run though.

You could try http://www.abandongames.com/

 

[Entropy]

I managed to download the original and it worked fine without sound (not sure why it lost that, prolly some simple setting I couldn't find to change). It's really good, but I formatted a couple of weeks ago; if I find another link I'll post it.

I'm sure I've got a working copy of MOO2 kicking around. Another amazing game - combat was excellent. I've bought two copies because they keep getting scratched through over use :/. Kelger, me and a few other people used to play it multiplayer though you spend a lot of time looking at the network screen. MOO3 isn't made by the same people though, so I'm not sure what it's going to be like. Also Quicksilver have moved the combat to real time which is a huge change (I thought it was the best bit of MOO2).

Elite truly was incredible Remember playing it with my Dad when I was 6 on an ancient BBC micro . Think Ian Bell fell out with Braben when Braben released the second game (Frontier). Bell wasn't receiving royalties on any of the ship designs etc that were still in use. Then Gametek rushed the third game out and it was really buggy, so the series stopped until now. There's quite a lot of fan projects around though. Know someone was working on a fairly big multiplayer elite, not sure what it's doing now though.

 

[Entropy]

found a working link for dling moo

http://www.nerdherd.com/freebies/moo.php

and I trawled through my games and found that I've still got moo2 so if you give me your address I'll send you a copy

 

[Requiel]

Is that aimed at me Ent?

 

[Entropy]

yeah, got confused when I was half asleep last night You might want to try to the first though, works fine without sound in windows and believe me, the sounds weren't up to much

 

[Rochdale]

SIMULTANEOUS GLOBAL RELEASE PLANNED FOR ACCLAIMED MASTER OF ORION III PC GAME
Higher Than Expected Pre-Orders Shows Fans� Enthusiasm Around the World For February 25 Release Date

BEVERLY, MA, February 24, 2003 � Infogrames, Inc. a leading global publisher of interactive entertainment software, announced today that the highly-anticipated and long-awaited sequel in the space epic Master of Orion� 3 has been experiencing pre-orders significantly above expectations, and the game will ship out to retail stores globally, to more than 20 major countries around the world, simultaneously tomorrow, February 25, 2003.

"The pre-sells for Master of Orion 3 have exceeded our highest expectations,� says Rich Snyder, Buyer, PC entertainment-Electronics Boutique. �This product is tailor-made for our target consumer and our store managers are eagerly awaiting the release on February 25. We expect our stores to be full of MOO fans next week and beyond."

In Master of Orion 3, the sequel to one of the best-loved strategy games of all time, players assume the biggest role ever. No longer do players merely represent petty interplanetary dictators. Players become the controlling power behind an entire galactic civilization; the dictators, presidents, councils, and overlords that come and go are merely pawns in the player�s arsenal. One must use these governments, their citizens, and their leaders to secure the destiny of their civilization, to manipulate policies of freedom and oppression in both foreign and domestic arenas. It is not enough to be an able economist or a great starship captain to succeed in Master of Orion 3; considerable political, administrative, research, and espionage skills must be applied to claim the title of Master of Orion.

Featuring a robust Single Player game and up to 8-player simultaneous turn-based Multiplayer, Master of Orion 3 is the definitive 5X Space Strategy game; Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate and now Experience grand strategy as you never have before.

Master of Orion 3 is being developed by veteran developer of classic strategy games Quicksilver Software, Inc and features a wide range of multi-player and solitaire play options, 16 highly-distinctive alien races, crisp graphics and an intuitive user interface. Master of Orion 3 is available for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP PCs.

Unfortunately Infogrames UK are a bunch of gibbons so the UK release date is still 7th March despite the rest of the world getting it already

 

[Darkmoor Dragon]

Elite was ace... remember playing frontier elite the most recent and although it was just including 1 galaxy I thought there was a game planned that had many galaxies included. Which versions are these ones linked Cull?

Entire series bascically went down the pan after a major lawsuit(s) following the cocked up release of frontiers, firts encounters and subsequant stuff... barious folks including the publisher and the dev got sued by various others.

Nobody would go near it/him after that and the series died a painful and very public death. (Last seen at ECTS around 1998/1999 i believe)

 

[Jumani]

Mwuhahahaha we are releasing it late just to wind you up Roch....

you would not believe the amount of mails we have had about this release.

the MOO fanbase will not leave us alone, right now he is camped outside our offices

i will see what i can do for you Roch.

Jum. (Infogrames gibbon, but definately not French)

 

[Rochdale]

lol, ta m8

You could always see if some of those non localised english copies that were shipped through the UK to Germany could be recalled and distributed to Game on albion street in Leeds

 

[Entropy]

we going to investigate this multiplayer? I remember MOO2 was hideously slow even with 2 players, but Quicksilver might have spent the last 5 years sorting that out

 

[Rochdale]

Anyone get this? It's supposed to have a few bugs, and be so awkward to play with a learning cliff (rather than a learning curve) so steep that no one but the most hardened fanboy likes it.

Been busy playing freelancer so haven't bothered getting it yet. Release date was 7th March.

 

[Entropy]

Haven't spent much time on it, but from what I've seen, it doesn't look particularly good. There are too many spreadsheets to be able to dive right in, and the best thing about MOO2 was the tactical side of the combat...choosing where and when to fire, and with what weapon - could make a massive difference to the outcome of the battle. The problem with this one, is that it's in real time, and you just make a task force, and then send it in on the attack - doesn't really seem to be any where near the levels of skill involved.

Basically overly complicated, and without the stuff that made MOO2 spectacular.

 

[Rochdale]

Took the plunge and bought this today because the 1.2 patch came out and it was supposed to get rid of most of the bugs.

I have to say it's one of the worst games I've ever played. It's just not fun at all. All you do is set the AI up and then hit the turn button every minute.

It's going back tomorrow.