Star Command: Revolution
Encyclopedia
Star Command: Revolution is a real-time strategy game by Metropolis Digital, Inc., now Metro3D, Inc.
, and published by GT Interactive. It was originally released in 1996
for DOS
, but it was re-released in 1998
for Windows 95
/98
under the title Star Command Deluxe. A sequel, Star Command X: Armada, was hinted at upon successful completion of the campaign mode, but it was never produced.
Another real-time strategy game known as StarCraft
was released two years after Star Command: Revolution, and quickly overshadowed it. One reviewer, writing before the release of StarCraft, predicted that Star Command would do better since it had been released first.
The main storyline follows an interspecies conflict in the Zeta galaxy
after the discovery of an energy resource called "Solinite." The races, previously coexisting in peace, begin fighting each other for control of the Solinite, until several political assassination
s allow the tyrannical warlord Narvek to take over the galaxy. A small group of rebels who call themselves "Star Command" fight back against Narvek in an effort to dethrone him and restore peace to the galaxy.
Each campaign battle occurs in one of 31 separate rectangular sectors, where the player must build enough ships to conquer the enemies' battalions while managing long-term resource consumption; resources are finite, and ships and stations (other than the mothership) cannot be brought between sectors. Most sectors have an objective, usually involving the destruction of enemy fleets or stations. Players who accomplish these tasks are rewarded with permanent bonuses, such as an increase in the mothership's harvesting rate. The battles increase in difficulty as the player nears Narvek's base.
Each battle begins with the sector completely obscured by fog of war
. Areas the player explores become permanently visible, regardless of whether the player has any ships in that area.
Each race has a set of 16 constructible ships and stations, some of which are similar across each race, such as a base, which is necessary for building ships, a university, which trains ships and teaches the mothership new technology necessary for building new ships, and a fighter carrier, which launches three smaller fighter ships at enemies within range. Each ship and station has a cost, which consists of various amounts of Solinite, time (not time to build, but time a player must wait before building again), and a resource specific to each race. Destroying a ship or station other than the mothership will leave behind an "Engine Core," which is a small amount of Solinite, and some of the race-specific resource.
Players start with the ability to build only 1 ship and 3 stations which are all similar for each race: the base, the university, a guardpost (a station that fires at enemies), and a "scout" class ship. The scout is the only type of ship which can break "pack" Solinite into smaller pieces that can be collected by the mothership.
Other than the mothership, ships have 7 "levels" of skill, which can be increased through combat, or up to level 4 by placing the ship next to a university. Higher levels give bonuses to the ships, such as a higher rate of fire or multiple shots at a time.
Placing the mothership next to a race's university allows it to learn that race's technology, i.e. more ships and stations. Once all of a race's technologies have been discovered, the mothership will next learn how to build another race's base. Building this will allow the player to build that race's university, allowing the player to learn even more technology.
players. The game includes support for playing over a LAN
or the Internet (an IPX
-compatible card is necessary, however).
Additionally, the game includes support for a two-player campaign. However, GT Interactive has admitted that it is not possible to load a saved two-player campaign.
The Terrans are a humanoid
race that specializes in control damage. Their repair vessel fixes other ships' tech damage. They can build a special ship called a "Switcher" which can instantaneously swap position with any friendly ship other than fighter carriers. The Terrans' special stations are the "Target," a small station that can be fired upon by friendly forces to increase their level, and the "StatCon," a large station which can fire the "Controller" to any visible point in the sector, dealing heavy control damage to any enemies it hits.
race, specializing in tech damage. Their repair vessel heals shield damage on other friendly ships. One of their specialized ships is the "Reflex Weapon," a ship which can fire simultaneously on all enemies within range. Their special stations are the "Teleportal," which allows friendly ships other than carriers to immediately appear next to it, and the "Foldspacer," which by itself can fire a heavy shield blast at enemies and can "Fold Space," moving itself to any visible part of the sector. Additionally, the Computrons can build a droid called a "Scrambler," which cannot be targeted by stations.
race that specializes in heavy shield damage. Their repair vessel heals engine damage on other friendly ships. One special Nomad ship is the "Point Laser," a ship which can nullify a shot fired by another ship or cause a fighter to return to its carrier. Their special stations are the "Bomb," which the player can direct to explode, dealing heavy shield damage to every ship adjacent to it, and the "Torpedo Launcher," which launches a "Torpedo" at any visible point in the sector, dealing heavy shield damage to the ship(s) it hits. The Nomads can also build a "Bomb Droid" which does not self-destruct as the Bomb does, but explodes when destroyed, dealing some shield damage to any adjacent ships.
Metro3D, Inc.
Metro3D, Inc. is a video game developer and publisher for Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, Dreamcast and PlayStation 2.-Games:*Aero the Acro-Bat*Armada *Armada 2: Star Command Metro3D, Inc. (formerly Metropolis Digital, Inc.) is a video game developer and publisher for Game Boy Advance,...
, and published by GT Interactive. It was originally released in 1996
1996 in video gaming
-Notable releases:*January 29 — Duke Nukem 3D, successor to the simple side-scrolling originals, and a genre-redefining title for first person shooters....
for DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
, but it was re-released in 1998
1998 in video gaming
-Events:*Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts 1st Annual Interactive Achievement Awards; inducts Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo to the AIAS Hall of Fame*British Academy of Film and Television Arts hosts the 1st annual BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards...
for Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
/98
Windows 98
Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid...
under the title Star Command Deluxe. A sequel, Star Command X: Armada, was hinted at upon successful completion of the campaign mode, but it was never produced.
Another real-time strategy game known as StarCraft
StarCraft
StarCraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The first game of the StarCraft series was released for Microsoft Windows on 31 March 1998. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide as of February 2009, it is one of the best-selling...
was released two years after Star Command: Revolution, and quickly overshadowed it. One reviewer, writing before the release of StarCraft, predicted that Star Command would do better since it had been released first.
The main storyline follows an interspecies conflict in the Zeta galaxy
Galaxy
A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias , literally "milky", a...
after the discovery of an energy resource called "Solinite." The races, previously coexisting in peace, begin fighting each other for control of the Solinite, until several political assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
s allow the tyrannical warlord Narvek to take over the galaxy. A small group of rebels who call themselves "Star Command" fight back against Narvek in an effort to dethrone him and restore peace to the galaxy.
Gameplay
The nonlinear campaign mode places the player in control of a mothership commandeered by Star Command, with the objective of destroying Narvek. This mothership is the only ship that can collect resources and build other stations and ships. The campaign is lost if the player allows the mothership to be destroyed.Each campaign battle occurs in one of 31 separate rectangular sectors, where the player must build enough ships to conquer the enemies' battalions while managing long-term resource consumption; resources are finite, and ships and stations (other than the mothership) cannot be brought between sectors. Most sectors have an objective, usually involving the destruction of enemy fleets or stations. Players who accomplish these tasks are rewarded with permanent bonuses, such as an increase in the mothership's harvesting rate. The battles increase in difficulty as the player nears Narvek's base.
Each battle begins with the sector completely obscured by fog of war
Fog of war
The fog of war is a term used to describe the uncertainty in situation awareness experienced by participants in military operations. The term seeks to capture the uncertainty regarding own capability, adversary capability, and adversary intent during an engagement, operation, or campaign...
. Areas the player explores become permanently visible, regardless of whether the player has any ships in that area.
Ships
Every ship and station has a set of four vital statistics: shield, tech, engine, and control. The "shield" statistic is how much damage the ship can stand before it is destroyed; once depleted, the ship explodes. "Tech" is what allows a ship to fire; reducing this tends to make a ship fire less often. "Engine" is a representative of how fast the ship can move; reducing this causes ships to move more sluggishly than normal. "Control" is a statistic, that, like "shield," has little effect until it is completely reduced; when this occurs, the ship defects to the side of the ship that dealt the last control damage (and restores some control).Each race has a set of 16 constructible ships and stations, some of which are similar across each race, such as a base, which is necessary for building ships, a university, which trains ships and teaches the mothership new technology necessary for building new ships, and a fighter carrier, which launches three smaller fighter ships at enemies within range. Each ship and station has a cost, which consists of various amounts of Solinite, time (not time to build, but time a player must wait before building again), and a resource specific to each race. Destroying a ship or station other than the mothership will leave behind an "Engine Core," which is a small amount of Solinite, and some of the race-specific resource.
Players start with the ability to build only 1 ship and 3 stations which are all similar for each race: the base, the university, a guardpost (a station that fires at enemies), and a "scout" class ship. The scout is the only type of ship which can break "pack" Solinite into smaller pieces that can be collected by the mothership.
Other than the mothership, ships have 7 "levels" of skill, which can be increased through combat, or up to level 4 by placing the ship next to a university. Higher levels give bonuses to the ships, such as a higher rate of fire or multiple shots at a time.
Placing the mothership next to a race's university allows it to learn that race's technology, i.e. more ships and stations. Once all of a race's technologies have been discovered, the mothership will next learn how to build another race's base. Building this will allow the player to build that race's university, allowing the player to learn even more technology.
Multiplayer modes
The game features a multiplayer battle mode, which is a single skirmish between two to four human or AIArtificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
players. The game includes support for playing over a LAN
Local area network
A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building...
or the Internet (an IPX
IPX
Internetwork Packet Exchange is the OSI-model Network layer protocol in the IPX/SPX protocol stack.The IPX/SPXM protocol stack is supported by Novell's NetWare network operating system. Because of Netware's popularity through the late 1980s into the mid 1990s, IPX became a popular internetworking...
-compatible card is necessary, however).
Additionally, the game includes support for a two-player campaign. However, GT Interactive has admitted that it is not possible to load a saved two-player campaign.
Races
Each race has 1 base, 7 ships (including 1 scout-class ship, 1 repair vessel, and 1 fighter carrier), 1 university, 1 guardpost, 1 small special station, 1 droid factory (necessary for building droids), 2 droids, 1 large special station, and 1 special action for the large station. There are no limits to the number of ships a player can produce, except a player cannot have more than 1 of any race's base, droid factory, or large special station.Terrans
In the campaign mode, the player starts out with only Terran technology.The Terrans are a humanoid
Humanoid
A humanoid is something that has an appearance resembling a human being. The term first appeared in 1912 to refer to fossils which were morphologically similar to, but not identical with, those of the human skeleton. Although this usage was common in the sciences for much of the 20th century, it...
race that specializes in control damage. Their repair vessel fixes other ships' tech damage. They can build a special ship called a "Switcher" which can instantaneously swap position with any friendly ship other than fighter carriers. The Terrans' special stations are the "Target," a small station that can be fired upon by friendly forces to increase their level, and the "StatCon," a large station which can fire the "Controller" to any visible point in the sector, dealing heavy control damage to any enemies it hits.
Computrons
The Computrons are the artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
race, specializing in tech damage. Their repair vessel heals shield damage on other friendly ships. One of their specialized ships is the "Reflex Weapon," a ship which can fire simultaneously on all enemies within range. Their special stations are the "Teleportal," which allows friendly ships other than carriers to immediately appear next to it, and the "Foldspacer," which by itself can fire a heavy shield blast at enemies and can "Fold Space," moving itself to any visible part of the sector. Additionally, the Computrons can build a droid called a "Scrambler," which cannot be targeted by stations.
Nomads
The Nomads are a humanoidHumanoid
A humanoid is something that has an appearance resembling a human being. The term first appeared in 1912 to refer to fossils which were morphologically similar to, but not identical with, those of the human skeleton. Although this usage was common in the sciences for much of the 20th century, it...
race that specializes in heavy shield damage. Their repair vessel heals engine damage on other friendly ships. One special Nomad ship is the "Point Laser," a ship which can nullify a shot fired by another ship or cause a fighter to return to its carrier. Their special stations are the "Bomb," which the player can direct to explode, dealing heavy shield damage to every ship adjacent to it, and the "Torpedo Launcher," which launches a "Torpedo" at any visible point in the sector, dealing heavy shield damage to the ship(s) it hits. The Nomads can also build a "Bomb Droid" which does not self-destruct as the Bomb does, but explodes when destroyed, dealing some shield damage to any adjacent ships.