Help! Need name of old IF game

[Tim]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Hi all,

I am trying to remember the name of an old sci-fi IF game. I bought
it back in 1989 or so and was very much looking forward to playing it,
but before getting a chance to do so I lent it out and never got it
back. It so enticed me that I still think about it to this day, and
wish I could find out more about it...or better yet, find the game
itself once again...but failing to remember its name is preventing me
from doing that. I do believe the name started with the word "Star"
or "Stellar", but am not positive.

I know the above isn't enough to go on, so here's some more info. The
setting was, not surprisingly, outer space, and you travelled between
worlds. The game came with a boatload of documentation (a stack of
booklets) because as you made choices in the game it referred you to
various pages in the text to read, corresponding to your choice.

You would start the game by choosing your character, out of a
half-dozen or so. Each character had a large manilla envelope (I
think it was marked "confidential") that you would read upon making
your choice. It contained your private background information, as
well as what your objective in the game was. The characters were
quite different and presumably had very different agendas. You could
play the game in single-player mode, and I believe - but am not
positive - that you could also play as a group, with each player
having his own private agenda. I don't remember all the characters,
but I believe one was a professor/scientist of some sort.

Anyway, if you played the game, the above should be enough for you to
remember it, at least if you liked it that is. Please, does anyone
know the name of this game? I'd be most obliged 🙂

Thanks,

Tim

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Tim <Tim_is_here@lords.com> wrote:
<snip>
> You would start the game by choosing your character, out of a
> half-dozen or so. Each character had a large manilla envelope (I
> think it was marked "confidential") that you would read upon making
> your choice. It contained your private background information, as
> well as what your objective in the game was. The characters were
> quite different and presumably had very different agendas. You could
> play the game in single-player mode, and I believe - but am not
> positive - that you could also play as a group, with each player
> having his own private agenda. I don't remember all the characters,
> but I believe one was a professor/scientist of some sort.

This sounds like Star Saga One (or Star Saga Two). Did it have a map
consisting of a large number of colored triangles? If so it's certainly
one of those two.

Great games, but they do suffer a bit from being only two parts of
a three-part story. And of course the five pounds of paragraph books
were a bit unwieldy.

--
_______________________________________________________________________
Dan Blum tool@panix.com
"I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't just made it up."

 

[Tim]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

tool@panix.com (Dan Blum) wrote in message news:<cbal4q$p6n$1@reader2.panix.com>...

> This sounds like Star Saga One (or Star Saga Two). Did it have a map
> consisting of a large number of colored triangles? If so it's certainly
> one of those two.

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!

Dan, thanks so much for posting. It was indeed Star Saga One. I had
forgotten it was part of a series (duh!).

> Great games, but they do suffer a bit from being only two parts of
> a three-part story.

I certainly have mixed feelings here. I learn that there was also a
part two to look forward to, but also that the story is ultimately
incomplete because there was supposed to be a part 3 that never
came...ugh. Did you happen to play the first two games Dan? If so,
did you think they were good in their own right, or are they crippled
by the missing part 3?

> And of course the five pounds of paragraph books
> were a bit unwieldy.

To be honest, that was part of the attraction to me. Not the
unwieldiness (is that a word? lol) but that there was so much story!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Tim <Tim_is_here@lords.com> wrote:
> tool@panix.com (Dan Blum) wrote in message news:<cbal4q$p6n$1@reader2.panix.com>...

> > This sounds like Star Saga One (or Star Saga Two). Did it have a map
> > consisting of a large number of colored triangles? If so it's certainly
> > one of those two.

> Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!

> Dan, thanks so much for posting. It was indeed Star Saga One. I had
> forgotten it was part of a series (duh!).

> > Great games, but they do suffer a bit from being only two parts of
> > a three-part story.

> I certainly have mixed feelings here. I learn that there was also a
> part two to look forward to, but also that the story is ultimately
> incomplete because there was supposed to be a part 3 that never
> came...ugh. Did you happen to play the first two games Dan? If so,
> did you think they were good in their own right, or are they crippled
> by the missing part 3?

It's been a goodly number of years since I played them. They were
definitely fun, but I recall a lot of unresolved story arcs and
dropped hints which would have presumably been covered in part 3.
Part 1 I think stands better on its own because of the way the
overall plot works - part 2 suffers a bit from the "middle book"
syndrome.

At any rate I enjoyed the games enough to pick up new copies
a few years ago, in case I feel like playing them again (those
and the Starflight games).

> > And of course the five pounds of paragraph books
> > were a bit unwieldy.

> To be honest, that was part of the attraction to me. Not the
> unwieldiness (is that a word? lol) but that there was so much story!

That there was a lot of story was good, the implementation was
a bit rough, although it was helpful for multi-player games since
one player could be reading their paragraph while another took
their on-screen actions (at least, I think you could do that).

I wouldn't at all mind have a modernized version with all that text
in files, now that we're no longer constrained by 5.25" single-density
disk capacity.

--
_______________________________________________________________________
Dan Blum tool@panix.com
"I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't just made it up."

 

[Michael]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

tool@panix.com (Dan Blum) wrote in message news:<cbil0s$m30$1@reader2.panix.com>...
> That there was a lot of story was good, the implementation was
> a bit rough, although it was helpful for multi-player games since
> one player could be reading their paragraph while another took
> their on-screen actions (at least, I think you could do that).
>
> I wouldn't at all mind have a modernized version with all that text
> in files, now that we're no longer constrained by 5.25" single-density
> disk capacity.

http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?gameid=3383

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Michael <bilgepumpmaniac@yahoo.com> wrote:
> tool@panix.com (Dan Blum) wrote in message news:<cbil0s$m30$1@reader2.panix.com>...
> > That there was a lot of story was good, the implementation was
> > a bit rough, although it was helpful for multi-player games since
> > one player could be reading their paragraph while another took
> > their on-screen actions (at least, I think you could do that).
> >
> > I wouldn't at all mind have a modernized version with all that text
> > in files, now that we're no longer constrained by 5.25" single-density
> > disk capacity.

> http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?gameid=3383

Cool, although I must admit I was thinking more along the lines of having
the game present the text for you instead of doing the lookups in 32MB
of text files. However, I suppose I shouldn't be picky.

--
_______________________________________________________________________
Dan Blum tool@panix.com
"I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't just made it up."

 

[Tim]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

tool@panix.com (Dan Blum) wrote in message news:<cbil0s$m30$1@reader2.panix.com>...

> It's been a goodly number of years since I played them. They were
> definitely fun, but I recall a lot of unresolved story arcs and
> dropped hints which would have presumably been covered in part 3.
> Part 1 I think stands better on its own because of the way the
> overall plot works - part 2 suffers a bit from the "middle book"
> syndrome.

Yep, I could certainly see that being the case. Still, I think I will
enjoy them nonetheless. I've just downloaded them from the underdogs
site (Thanks Michael!)

> At any rate I enjoyed the games enough to pick up new copies
> a few years ago, in case I feel like playing them again (those
> and the Starflight games).

Funny...I had been thinking that the Starflight games should be what I
get next!