OT (Well Kind of) - Essay, opinions please

[DeadZone]

I have given a key skill assignment to write a 1000 word essay
Its got to be of something that interests me, and I was thinking that I should do it on Space Empires

Now the thing is, I only come across SE after SEIV:Gold was released

So if anyone could provide a brief history of Pre-SEIV:Gold I would be very grateful

Also opinions on wheather I should do it on SE or not, and ideas, suggestions, etc would be appreicated

DeadZoneMDx
PS. [Shameless Plug]PXS Community Forum[/Shameless Plug] (Sry couldnt resist )

[ April 13, 2004, 10:06: Message edited by: DeadZone ]

[Suicide Junkie]

You should definitely download and try the SE3 demo, and get some info on SE2 from the forumers who have played it.

Looking through the history.txt will give you a good idea of the feature progression.

[capnq]

When you look at history.txt , pre-Gold is v1.49 and earlier.

Gold added drones, a lot of useful things for modders, and a number of interface improvements.

[rdouglass]

Try going to the Wayback Machine and search for Space Empires. May give you quite a history...

http://www.archive.org/

[Will]

You may still be able to find the SEII demo around somewhere, so you can play that in addition to the SEIII demo.

The really quick Version of the pre-Gold history, in a rough timeline:
Aaron Hall loves the game StarFire (I think that's what it was called)
AH makes a simple game based on StarFire with Visual Basic; calls it Space Empires
AH improves on Space Empires by making it with Delphi; calls it Space Empires II, and releases it shareware with his newly-created company, Malfador Machinations
MM gives us all more betterness with Space Empires III, again released as shareware, again made with Delphi
MM starts planning Space Empires IV, gets fan input for about 1 year
MM starts development on SEIV
Shrapnel picks up MM for distribution of SEIV
MM/Shrapnel start beta tests of SEIV
(Somewhere in here Aaron Hall quits his day job)
SEIV released
SEIV:Gold released somewhere around a year, year and a half after, with more goodies

Keep in mind, this is just off the top of my head, and is most likely wildly inaccurate. Let others correct me

[Kamog]

You can download Space Empires II from Malfador's site:

http://www.malfador.com/se2/se2dwnld.html

I haven't tried playing it yet, though...

[Fyron]

I think Aaron didn't quit his day job until SE4 Gold was around.