Topic: Star Trek DAC

[Bonk]

Star Trek DAC (and on IGN)

Allegedly released May 13th. Anybody had a chance to play it yet? Found a demo or seen it in stores?

[Bernard Guignard]

Jeez when I read the Subject Line I thought of DAMAGE ALLOCATION CHART 

[marstone]

Jeez when I read the Subject Line I thought of DAMAGE ALLOCATION CHART 

Same here, too much SFB in my life.

[Lepton]

I wouldn't waste your time with DAC.  It's a top-down shooter with only 3 ships types per side.  It's dreck, to be sure.

[marstone]

I wouldn't waste your time with DAC.  It's a top-down shooter with only 3 ships types per side.  It's dreck, to be sure.

son downloaded the X-box demo, wasn't impressive at all.

It seems to be the same game engine from the BattleStar Galactica game (hmmm, makes sense there). 

If you have money to burn, pick it up, but the gameplay sucks.  Pick up the Wolverine game instead, it's demo is great

[Panzergranate]

The "Star Trek DAC" game demo is on X-Box Live.

My teenage son downloaded it and proclaimed it to "Suck even more than Legacy, seriously big time!!"

So at least there is a Star Trek game out there that is worst than Legacy.... it actually makes Legacy look better, which is some sort of achievement.

It is reminisent of space battle games from back in the 1980's on old 8-Bit platforms.... geez, writing a similar game isn't that difficult as top down or side scrollers are pretty basic coding engines and not even a challenge. I wrote a few similar games back in the 1980's to play on the old Sinclair Spectrum.

Anyone else out there, who knows how to code up, feel kind of insulted to be presented with, what is basically, an old 8-Bit scroller game??

[EmeraldEdge]

Heh, that's so funny.  When I read "top down shooter" I had a flashback to those 8-bit days.  Rockin' the greenscreen, with those amazing graphics scrollin' away.  Flashes of Asteroids with better graphics and asteroids that shoot back.  That essentially it (I seem to recall an asteroids clone that came out years later with color graphics and you could morph your ship into three different sizes, it has shields and other ships shooting... hmmmm)?  Too funny.  I'm surprised they didn't have more games ready to go, and the one they did is this amazing kind of suck.  I wonder if Trek Online will get a facelift to form to the new Trek?  I haven't been following it lately.

[marstone]

Heh, that's so funny.  When I read "top down shooter" I had a flashback to those 8-bit days.  Rockin' the greenscreen, with those amazing graphics scrollin' away.  Flashes of Asteroids with better graphics and asteroids that shoot back.  That essentially it (I seem to recall an asteroids clone that came out years later with color graphics and you could morph your ship into three different sizes, it has shields and other ships shooting... hmmmm)?  Too funny.  I'm surprised they didn't have more games ready to go, and the one they did is this amazing kind of suck.  I wonder if Trek Online will get a facelift to form to the new Trek?  I haven't been following it lately.

with the amount that companies merchandise now adays.  I am surprised that more wasn't released for StarTrek.  We should be swimming in ST sturff.

[KOTH-KieranXC, Ret.]

A top-down shooter? And they expect people to pay for that in 2009?  

[marstone]

A top-down shooter? And they expect people to pay for that in 2009?  

If it was a good top down shooter I wouldn't have minded getting it.  But the play was horrible.  People have forgot how to write a good simple game.  Lots of graphic flash, doesn't a game make.

[Panzergranate]

Top Down Scrollers, Platform Games, etc. are all basic game engines that any beginner can write.

The 1980's games companies used to churn out such crap all the time.... all for kids with less intelect.

In all cases one simply changes the background, sprites, weapons atributes and health atributes to change the game into whaatever you want. However, it is always the same crude engine.

Even back in those days, I found "Scrollers" and "Platforms" insultingly boring and "samey", so generally prefered more mentally stimulating computer games that involved conquest, strategy, etc.

[Norsehound]

I'm pretty underwhelmed with the new movie's merchandising altogether... D.A.C. being the capital of disappointment We're given a fleet of ships in the movie, but no chance to drive them in the one video game?

[Roychipoqua_Mace]

Top Down Scrollers, Platform Games, etc. are all basic game engines that any beginner can write.

The 1980's games companies used to churn out such crap all the time.... all for kids with less intelect.

In all cases one simply changes the background, sprites, weapons atributes and health atributes to change the game into whaatever you want. However, it is always the same crude engine.

Even back in those days, I found "Scrollers" and "Platforms" insultingly boring and "samey", so generally prefered more mentally stimulating computer games that involved conquest, strategy, etc.

I mostly agree with you, and this is why SFC has lived so long (well, being playtested through SFB for 20 years helped a lot, too. )

...but there is one scroller for the SuperNintendo that was great -- "Kirby Superstar." Have you ever been annoyed in games where the enemies have such cooler powers or moves than your character? Well, Kirby can inhale baddies, and he gains all of their abilities when he does this. There are countless enemies with so many abilities, so it didn't get old. My favorite was how you could turn into a statue or the classic 20-ton anvil and fall from the sky! I don't know if it was the first "Kirby" game, but it was very original.

[marstone]

Top Down Scrollers, Platform Games, etc. are all basic game engines that any beginner can write.

The 1980's games companies used to churn out such crap all the time.... all for kids with less intelect.

In all cases one simply changes the background, sprites, weapons atributes and health atributes to change the game into whaatever you want. However, it is always the same crude engine.

Even back in those days, I found "Scrollers" and "Platforms" insultingly boring and "samey", so generally prefered more mentally stimulating computer games that involved conquest, strategy, etc.

I mostly agree with you, and this is why SFC has lived so long (well, being playtested through SFB for 20 years helped a lot, too. )

...but there is one scroller for the SuperNintendo that was great -- "Kirby Superstar." Have you ever been annoyed in games where the enemies have such cooler powers or moves than your character? Well, Kirby can inhale baddies, and he gains all of their abilities when he does this. There are countless enemies with so many abilities, so it didn't get old. My favorite was how you could turn into a statue or the classic 20-ton anvil and fall from the sky! I don't know if it was the first "Kirby" game, but it was very original.

Well, going to throw my old fogie 2 cents in. 

I personally liked alot of the old side and top down scrollers from the '80.  True, game engine basics were probably very similiar.  But then you can take 5 of the top first person shooters from the last 10 years and they all used the same game engine also.    Who didn't like a good game of Defender. .

[Julin Eurthyr]

Top Down Scrollers, Platform Games, etc. are all basic game engines that any beginner can write.

The 1980's games companies used to churn out such crap all the time.... all for kids with less intelect.

In all cases one simply changes the background, sprites, weapons atributes and health atributes to change the game into whaatever you want. However, it is always the same crude engine.

Even back in those days, I found "Scrollers" and "Platforms" insultingly boring and "samey", so generally prefered more mentally stimulating computer games that involved conquest, strategy, etc.

I mostly agree with you, and this is why SFC has lived so long (well, being playtested through SFB for 20 years helped a lot, too. )

...but there is one scroller for the SuperNintendo that was great -- "Kirby Superstar." Have you ever been annoyed in games where the enemies have such cooler powers or moves than your character? Well, Kirby can inhale baddies, and he gains all of their abilities when he does this. There are countless enemies with so many abilities, so it didn't get old. My favorite was how you could turn into a statue or the classic 20-ton anvil and fall from the sky! I don't know if it was the first "Kirby" game, but it was very original.

Well, going to throw my old fogie 2 cents in. 

I personally liked alot of the old side and top down scrollers from the '80.  True, game engine basics were probably very similiar.  But then you can take 5 of the top first person shooters from the last 10 years and they all used the same game engine also.    Who didn't like a good game of Defender. .

Agreed.  I remember, back in the early heydey of FPS games, they used to advertise exactly which of the three "major" engines (quake, unreal or doom) the game used to be built off of.  Elite Force (the well received Trek FPS) is, IIRC, built off of quake 3...

Every genre does the same thing.  C&C Red Alert shares the C&C Tiberium engine, the Age of Empries engine got reused a few times, etc.  Heck, even the "Then acclaimed" Wing Commander engine got reused for Strike Commander (an F-16 based-flyer)

As long as it has been possible to "churn out" themed games by recycling a major portion of code, it has been happening.  The goal always has been to find both an engine and theme you like, then invest.