Hello my friends, and welcome to this episode of the Space Game Junkie Podcast! This week, Jim and I sit down with famed space sim designer Derek Smart to talk about the upcoming free release on Steam of his Universal Combat Collector’s Edition 2.0 (or possibly out by the time you read this Edit: It’s out!!!)! We spent a lot of time talking about the history of the Battlecruiser series and also play quite a bit of Universal Combat Collector’s Edition 2.0 as well. Later in the year 3000AD will also be released Universal Combat Advanced, with an even further updated engine. We talk about all this and dish out hot firey laser death as we do so. While I did spend a lot of time playing the game, I also tried to help conduct an interview as well. ;) This hopefully makes it as fun to listen to as it was to record. :)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:17:45 — 20.5MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | RSS | More
As always, we hope you enjoy the show, and hope you’ll pick up and enjoy the game once it’s available on Steam. Finally, don’t forget that if you have a guest or topic you’d like us to cover, hit us up at hail@spacegamejunkie.com. Thanks for listening!
I know it was buggy and had it’s problems but I loved Battlecruiser.
Hey, me too! Welcome!
I have some rather bad memories of battlecruiser 1.0 (the original MS-DOS release) and couldn’t get into sequels… But I have to say two things about Derek Smart:
1) he stuck with spacesim genre, through thick and thin, even when almost everyone else deserted it
2) he released quite a few of his older games for free
So, you know, great kudos for that.
I guess that steam release is a good time to go back to battlecruisin’ and see if I can preservere (yeah… that’s kinda sorta by ongoing promise to Dwarf Fortress ;)).
Of course after i earn infinity+1 credits to upgrade my Clipper fully…
It’s live on Steam now
https://store.steampowered.com/app/345580
I bought Battlecruiser 3000 AD when it first came out. Prior to that the only game that was sort of capital ship like was Independence War but that wasn’t a ship of the line. Battlecruiser appealed to the Captain Kirk in me and while it had its quirks, Derek Smart kept on top of things even when it seemed to whole bloody internet wanted his head on a platter. Activision’s attempt at a capital ship simulator was abysmal to me. Of course I’m talking about Bridge Commander. I mean come on! It was a capital ship that flew like a shuttle craft! There was no sense of this hulking ship of the line turning ponderously to duel an equally powerful cruiser that was powering weapons from astern.
Being a junkie Brian you should remember a few other attempts like Starshatter and its sequel The Gathering Storm. Nexus: The Juoiter Incident also gave that capital ship feel, but, the Battlecruiser series more than any other really gave me that Star Trek feel. It’s a pity that Derek Smart couldn’t have procured the Star Trek license. Activision and Bethesda later on with Star Trek Legacy really dropped what should have been a lazy fly ball to center.
If you are reading this Dr. Smart,thanks for hanging in there.And as always Brian and Jim thank you for another brilliant podcast!
Yeah, I remember all those games. In fact, this whole capital ship thing is what I wrote in my latest blog at https://lodmmo.com/the-engstrom-commander/
I am going to be doing a Steam broadcast playing the game; similar to what Brian did. For more info, follow this thread:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/345580/discussions/0/606068060827825440/