Space | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Edu-Ware |
Publisher(s) | Edu-Ware |
Designer(s) | Steven Pederson Sherwin Steffin |
Platform(s) | Apple II |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Role-playing |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Space (also called Space I) is a text-based role-playing video game for the Apple II designed by Steven Pederson and Sherwin Steffin of Edu-Ware Services. It was one of the first science fiction RPGs to appear on personal computers. [1] An expansion pack, Space II by David Mullich, was released in the same year. [2]
The game system was based upon the Traveller role-playing-game, created by Game Designers' Workshop, which sued Edu-Ware for copyright infringement in 1982. [3] In an out-of-court settlement, both Space and Space II were removed from the market.
Players begin by creating characters to play in a futuristic interstellar society and then enrolling them in one of the military services: Navy, Army, Scouts, Merchant Marines, and other Services. While in the service, players choose their character's training, provided they qualify for it. Depending upon characters' physical and mental abilities, they may learn such skills as brawling, bribery, swordsmanship, computers, interstellar navigation, spaceship piloting, and so on. Through training and study, characters can also increase their base physical and mental abilities.
Characters have a choice to leave the service after every four years of enlistment, provided that they have not been killed or suffered serious injury. After retiring from the service, characters can engage in one of the scenarios that are included with each version of the game. Scenarios can increase a character's wealth or grant possessions, but with the exception of the Psychodelia scenario in Space II, they cannot voluntarily alter a character's abilities. However, most character traits degrade over time as the character ages during gameplay. If a character dies during any of the scenarios, the text file defining the character is immediately erased from the game disk.
Space was conceived by Pederson and Steffin while the former was still attending college at UCLA. The two used the game concept to convince Rainbow Computing, a computer store that sold Edu-Ware games through its mail order catalog, to provide Pederson with an Apple II in exchange for receiving product at cost. When Pederson and Steffin learned that Rainbow had announced Space in its catalog before the game was completed, the two spent twenty-four straight hours debugging the game without the benefit of Edu-Ware even owning a printer at the time. [4]
Both games were well-received critically, earning an "A−" rating in a 1980 Peelings II review. [1]
Bruce Webster reviewed Space and Space II in The Space Gamer No. 31. [5] Webster commented that "I'm afraid I can't recommend these games in their current condition, at least not at their price. If you've got money and time to burn, though, you might get them and rewrite them yourselves - but do so at your own risk." [5]
David Mullich created Space II, an expansion pack, published in 1979. It was his first game for Edu-Ware. It consists of the character creation module and two additional game scenarios. [6] Mullich wrote Space II as an exercise in risk-benefit analysis.[ citation needed ] The character is presented with dangerous options throughout the game, and the player must determine whether the potential rewards are worth the possible risks.
In 1982, Game Designers' Workshop successfully sued Edu-Ware for copyright infringement of their Traveller pen-and-paper role-playing game. In an out of court settlement, Edu-Ware suspended publication of Space and Space II, but the company had already replaced both games with the Empire space trilogy, based on an original role-playing game system. [7]
Traveller is a science fiction role-playing game first published in 1977 by Game Designers' Workshop. Marc Miller designed Traveller with help from Frank Chadwick, John Harshman, and Loren Wiseman. Editions were published for GURPS, d20, and other role-playing game systems. From its origin and in the currently published systems, the game relied upon six-sided dice for random elements. Traveller has been featured in a few novels and at least two video games.
Wizardry II: The Knight of Diamonds is the second game in the Wizardry series of role-playing video games. It was published in 1982 by Sir-Tech.
Edu-Ware Services, Inc. was an educational and entertainment software publisher established in 1979 by Sherwin Steffin and Steven Pederson. It was known for its adventure games, role-playing video games, and flight simulators for the Apple II family of computers.
GURPS Traveller is a set of table-top role-playing game books by Steve Jackson Games, designed to allow game play in the Third Imperium science-fiction setting from the original Traveller using the GURPS rule system. Loren Wiseman wrote the core book for GURPS Traveller and served as line editor.
Wizardry III: Legacy of Llylgamyn is the third scenario in the Wizardry series of role-playing video games. It was published in 1983 by Sir-Tech.
David Mullich is an American game producer and designer best known for creating the cult classic 1980 adventure game The Prisoner, producing the 1995 adaptation I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, and developing many games in the Heroes of Might and Magic franchise. With a career spanning more than twenty-five years, Mullich worked not only for some of the first video game publishers, but went on to work for some of the biggest game companies of today.
The Prisoner is a 1980 Apple II computer game produced by Edu-Ware. The game was loosely based on the 1960s television series The Prisoner and incorporates that show's themes about the loss of individuality in a technological, controlling society. The player's role is that of an intelligence agent who has resigned from his job for reasons known only to himself, and who has been abducted to an isolated island community that seems designed to be his own personal prison. The island's authorities will use any means—including coercion, disorientation, deception, and frustration—to learn why their prisoner has resigned, and every character, location, and apparent escape route seem to be part of a grand scheme to trick the player into revealing a code number representing the prisoner's reason for resigning. The game occasionally breaks the fourth wall by acknowledging that a game is being played.
The Prisoner 2 1982 computer game by Edu-Ware is a remake of the 1980 game The Prisoner.
Compu-Read is an educational program originally developed by Sherwin Steffin of Edu-Ware Services in 1979 for the Apple II. It consists of four modules training the user in rapidly increasing comprehension and retention: Character Recognition, High-speed word recognition, Synonyms; Sentence Comprehension. In each, the user the initial difficulty level, and the computer matches the display speed to the user's performance.
The Compu-Math series are mathematics tutorials developed and published by Edu-Ware Services in the 1980s. Each program in the Compu-Math series begins with a diagnostic Pre-Test, which presents learners with mathematics problems to determine their current skill level in the subject and then recommends the appropriate learning module. Each learning module begins by specifying the instructional objectives for that module and proceeds to teach those specific goals using shaping and cueing methods, and finishes by testing to verify that learners have indeed learned the skills being taught by the module.
Terrorist is a real-time, two player strategy game developed by Steven Pederson of Edu-Ware Services in 1980 for the Apple II. One player plays the government authority, while the other plays a terrorist organization in three scenarios: the capture of a building and taking of hostages, air piracy, and nuclear blackmail. Players make their moves at the same time through the use of game paddles. Winner and loser is judged by an elaborate scoring system based upon the government player's societal values and the terrorist player's goals.
Windfall: The Oil Crisis Game is a real-time business simulation game developed by David Mullich and published by Edu-Ware in 1980 for the Apple II. Based upon queuing theory and released after the 1979 energy crisis, the game puts the player in the role of chief executive of Engulf Oil, setting gas prices and worker salaries, monitoring gas station lines, scheduling oil tanker arrivals, and negotiating oil prices with OPEC countries in a race against the clock to maximize profits. As with most Edu-Ware games, Windfall has an educational aspect, demonstrating the delicate balance in complex systems.
Most of the programs in Edu-Ware Services' initial product line, released in 1979 under the slogan "Unique software for the unique mind", were not typical of the intellectually challenging computer games and structured, pedagogically sound educational software for which the company would later become known. Quickly designed and programmed in Applesoft BASIC primarily by co-founder Sherwin Steffin, most of these text-based programs were dropped from Edu-Ware's catalog when the company began developing products featuring high-resolution graphics in 1981.
Network is a real-time, two player business simulation game developed by David Mullich for the Apple II and published by Edu-Ware in 1980.
Compu-Spell is educational software developed by Sherwin Steffin and Steven Pederson of Edu-Ware Services for the Apple II in 1980.
MegaTraveller 1: The Zhodani Conspiracy is a 1990 space science fiction role-playing video game based on the Traveller series and was produced by Game Designers' Workshop licensee Paragon Software for Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS. The game is set within the Official Traveller Universe and features character creation and other aspects of game mechanics compatible with prior Traveller products. The player controls up to five ex-military adventurers whose objective is to save their civilization, the Imperium, from a conspiracy instigated by the Zhodani, a rival spacefaring race, and aided by the actions of a traitor named Konrad Kiefer. Gameplay features real-time planetary and space exploration, combat, trading, and interaction with various non-player characters in eight solar systems containing twenty-eight visitable planets.
MegaTraveller 2: Quest for the Ancients is a 1991 space science fiction role-playing video game produced by Game Designers' Workshop licensee Paragon Software and distributed by MicroProse and Empire Software. It is the sequel to MegaTraveller 1: The Zhodani Conspiracy. Designed by Marc Miller, an original creator of the Traveller series, the game is set within the Official Traveller Universe and features a character creation system and other elements of game mechanics compatible with previous Traveller products. The game's plot centers on finding a way to stop the flow of slime issuing from an ancient ruin on the planet Rhylanor before it inundates the entire world. Gameplay involves controlling a party of up to five adventurers who engage in real-time exploration, trading, interaction with non-player characters, combat and problem solving on the surface of over a hundred planets and in spaceships journeying between these worlds.
Rendezvous: A Space Shuttle Simulation, is a space simulator published 1982 by Edu-Ware, and developed by Titan Computer Products and NASA scientist Wesley Huntress.
Star Patrol is a science fiction role-playing game published by Gamescience in 1977.
Empire II: Interstellar Sharks is a 1982 video game published by Edu-Ware Services Inc. It is the second game in the Empire trilogy, preceded by Empire I: World Builders (1981) and followed by Empire III: Armageddon (1983).