Elite / Frontier Ad Astra: Very similar game to Elite/Frontier

khaak

khaak
Hey there, I found these days an interesting (freeware) space exploration game, where the player can discover over 110000 real stars. Every star has its own planets, which can discovered too. The Programmer uses fractal techniques for the planets surfaces and yes, landing on planets is also possible!

http://www.a-astra.com/
and
http://www.gamedev.net/community/gds/viewentry.asp?projectid=379449

I think this is a really fine game which deserves some more attention.

Cheers,khaak

edit: aarrg, I missed the thread with the alternative space games. sorry.
 

Sterlino

Sterlino
Hey looks amazing... i wonder how it is possible that no one in this forum didn't noticed it before.

I'm trying to downloading now the game.. then i will tell something about it.
:)
 

Sterlino

Sterlino
haha of course i didn't watch all the threads of this forum... sorry ..my apologies...
Btw i just tried the game.. and it is nice.. very well done for the range of his possibilities.
The author must be very proud of him self... hope to see some other works of him.
;)
 

Sterlino

Sterlino
Spacegamer said:
No worries Sterlino and if still want to watch the tv show about Elite .

It's on youtube now in two parts.:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3AOymCrkb8
Click to expand...



WOAAAAA ...finally i can see that show... really thank u ... it is nice and clever.
A lovely story about the greatest game of ever !

I hope there will be another show about Frontier someday.. :p
but i suspect there will be none..


it is curious about the fact that actually the game industries have the same feeling of the beginning of the '80... if we show another 'strange' game like Elite they surely said something like: ''noo it's too different.. where is the gun to shot ? where are the monsters ? noo we can't produce that..'':mad:

p.s. most laff moment: when Braben opens the Christmass' present and it was an Accorn computer.. HAHA OMG :D
 
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Flint

F
Hi,

It seems that both the links to the ELITE television programme above on youtube, go to the website but the videos have been removed.
Shame, I missed them.
If anyone knows where else the videos might be online can you post a link ?
Thanks.

Flint...
 
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Steve

Steve
Flint said:
Hi,

It seems that both the links to the ELITE television programme above on youtube, go to the website but the videos have been removed.
Shame, I missed them.
If anyone knows where else the videos might be online can you post a link ?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Google Videos has it here
 

The Space Pirate

The Space Pirate
Wow, that game looks very good. D/L now...

Edit: Done. It looks very intriguing, the opening music - although from the Battle of Britain - suits the game very well. Make sure you print out the controls and quickstart PDFs, otherwise it's very confusing...

This guy, judging by the detail he seems to have put in this, deserves a huge pat on the back.
 
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The Space Pirate

The Space Pirate
Has anyone played it for any amount of time? I'm currently hooked on CoD4, haven't been playing anything else, apart from the odd game of WSC Real 09.
 

darkone

D
I was hoping to get to this game sometime this week so I can write a small review on it for my website and get the game a little more attention than what it has now. Looks pretty good for the most part and since I just dumped my home pc vista install and reverted back to good ole winxp I will be able to play the older sims now :)
 

boringnick

B
And? Has any one written a review on it?

What I find remarkable is how that guy made the game:

http://www.a-astra.com/development/development.htm

Ad Astra was written in 'C' as spare time activity on a PC operating with an AMD 1900+ processor and an ATI X700 Graphics card. As the game had no budget the range of tools used to develop the application were very limited and consisted of the following :

•Microsoft Visual Studio 97 ( Visual C++ version 5)
•Micrografx Picture Publisher 1997 Version 7a ( came free with a Scanner)
•Microsoft Paint
•Creative Labs Wave Studio ( came free with a thingy)
•Some Squared Paper and Crayons

All 3D models were developed using procedural techniques and any editors that were required to hone the structures were written as part of the game itself.
Click to expand...

A 13 year old IDE and some outdated paint programs that came bundled with some devices. And you can land on planets in his game.

While professional developers (Egosoft, Digital Anvil) with the newest tools and a big budget still can't do planet landing.
 
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potsmoke66

potsmoke66
shows off, you need to be hearty to complete such a thing. commercial games and programs often showing not much "soul" sometimes neither intelligence, i think it get's lost with the money.
 

DraQ

D
boringnick said:
A 13 year old IDE and some outdated paint programs that came bundled with some devices. And you can land on planets in his game.
Click to expand...

Well, quoting JC Denton: "Bravery is not a function of firepower.", similarly, creativity is not a function of available tools.
And models in this game look pretty spiffy, even if overall visuals aren't exactly top-notch.

Still, the bit about flight mechanics I mentioned before threw me off - I probably won't be playing Ad Astra any time soon. Or ever, sorry.
 
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