Battlecruiser 3000AD (also known as [BC3K] in Usenet) is a science fiction computer game, noted for its long, troubled development history.
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As the title suggests, the game takes place in the year 3000 AD, many decades after mankind has developed advanced space craft, and discovered new worlds and intelligent life-forms within and beyond the Solar system. However, space travel is described as restricted to military personnel and scientists despite its conveniences.
The story goes on to describe an interplanetary war, started in 2041AD, with Earth involved. In 2044AD, Galactic Command (GALCOM) is formed to maintain law and order amongst planets. The Gammulan race opposes the alliance and war is waged between GALCOM and Gammulans.
The player takes the role of a recruit assigned to defend the GALCOM consortium of planets against Gammulans. The events of the game begin with GALCOM diplomatic craft developing a navigational malfunction and straying into Gammulan territory. GALCOM supreme commander Stranix reports a Sphinx class battlecruiser intentionally destroyed by Gammulan orbital defence system, with no survivors; meanwhile, a team of Renegade class interceptors ambushes a Gammulan starfighter in GALCOM space.
| Battlecruiser 3000AD | |
|---|---|
The GameTek release of Battlecruiser 3000AD |
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| Developer(s) | 3000 AD |
| Publisher(s) | Take-Two Interactive (North America) GameTek (united Kingdom) |
| Designer(s) | Derek Smart (program concept and design, 2D/3D design-lead development) Lloyd Pique (3D lead development) |
| Series | Battlecruiser |
| Engine | Game Builder System-I (scenarios) |
| Version | 1.01D7C (freeware) |
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS, Windows |
| Release date(s) |
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| Genre(s) | Space trading and combat simulator |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone |
| System requirements
Take 2: Pentium 60MHz CPU, DOS 5.0 or Windows 95, 8MiB system RAM, 50MB hard disk space, 2x CD-ROM, SVGA Graphics Card |
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Derek Smart began his game development career in the late 1980s, with a vision of creating an all-encompassing space simulation game, featuring strategy elements along with space, planetary, air and ground combat.[2]
The game first appeared on the cover of Strategy Plus in 1992. Shortly afterwards, Three-Sixty Pacific obtained the rights. Three Sixty Pacific held the rights for a year and went out of business shortly afterwards. 3000AD, Inc then signed the rights with Mission Studios. Mission Studios also signed distribution deal with Interplay Productions for its products. The game was showcased in 1994 winter and 1994 summer CES under the Interplay Affiliated label brand. However, due to financial constraints, an agreement was reached which allowed 3000AD, Inc. to seek a new publisher. Intracorp bid for the rights to publish the game; with a disagreement over source code release, the deal never progressed beyond a letter of intent. The game appeared in 1995 E3, then Intracorp went bankrupt shortly afterwards. Take-Two Interactive bought the publish right to the game from Mission Studios in 1995, and released v1.00 of the game,[3] with GameTek (UK) pulished the game in 1997.[2]
In Take-Two's SEC filings on 1997-02-10, the company stated that Battlecruiser 3000AD accounted for 14.2% of revenue for the fiscal year ending October 31, 1996.[3] The filing also stated that Take-Two "made advances in the aggregate amount of approximately $618,000" for the title.[3]
| Battlecruiser 3000AD v2.0 | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | 3000 AD |
| Publisher(s) | Interplay Value Product Division (North America) GT Interactive (Europe) |
| Designer(s) | Derek Smart |
| Series | Battlecruiser |
| Engine | Game Builder System-I (scenarios) |
| Version | 2.09 (last patch, freeware)[4] |
| Platform(s) | Windows 95 |
| Release date(s) |
(Worldwide) May 1999(Demo) |
| Genre(s) | Space trading and combat simulator |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T |
| Media/distribution | CD-ROM |
| System requirements
Interplay: Pentium 166 CPU, any 2D video graphics card with 2MB memory (some sources advise 4MB) (optional 3DFX Voodoo based card), 165MB hard drive space, 2x MPC-II compliant CD-ROM, 16MB RAM |
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Development of version 2.0 of the game continued throughout 1998, and Interplay announced that it would publish an improved version (dubbed Battlecruiser 3000AD v2.0) through its Value Product Division.[6] Unlike the previous product, only a Windows version was supported.
3D acceleration is supported only through 3dfx hardware.
The game now contains 13 alien races, 25 castes. Game map contains 25 star systems with 75 planets and 145 moons in total.
| Battlecruiser Millennium | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | 3000 AD |
| Publisher(s) | 3000 AD |
| Designer(s) | Derek Smart |
| Series | Battlecruiser |
| Engine | GBS-II (Game Builder System Spec II) |
| Version | 1.09.02 (last patch)[7] 1.09.03 (freeware) |
| Platform(s) | Windows 98 |
| Release date(s) |
(Worldwide) 20 May 2005 (freeware) |
| Genre(s) | Space trading and combat simulator |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T |
| System requirements
DirectX 8.1b or higher, Pentium II 300Mhz or AMD K6-2 350Mhz processor, 64 MiB system RAM (128MiB for Windows 2000/XP), 16MiB DirectX 8 compliant 3D graphics card, 16Bit DirectX 8 compliant sound card, 8X CDROM or DVD-ROM, 500MB uncompressed hard drive disk space, Microsoft compatible mouse |
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Designed as a successor of Battlecruiser 3000AD, this game uses native Windows kernel, which supports DirectX 8.1 acceleration. The name was chosen to signify the next generation engines for the series, the new Millennium.
Updated elements include AI engine, space/planetary dynamics engine, planetary terrain engine, character animation system, space and planetary units.
Player can play one of 12 races or 13 castes. There are 6 career modes, including commander, pilot and marine types, over 60 user controllable space, ground and air units. Game map contains over 250 space and planetary units.
From 1998 to 2001, Smart developed his next game in the Battlecruiser franchise, Battlecruiser Millennium. The game was to be exclusively distributed at Electronics Boutique locations and was self-published by his company 3000AD, Inc.[8] The deal made with EB was a first of its kind merchant exclusivity deal for a game's release, with an independent developer paying for all materials to publish the game for distribution through the retailer. When asked by the gaming media about his thoughts on the deal, Smart stated "I'm paying for everything. I bear all the risk. I pay for the cost of goods, including the boxes and manuals."[9]
After its retail run Smart released Battlecruiser Millennium on the Internet for free as he had done with his previous titles.[5] He has mentioned that he intends to keep up this practice of releasing his products for free once their "shelf life" has expired.[10]
| Battlecruiser Millennium Gold | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | 3000 AD |
| Publisher(s) | DreamCatcher Interactive |
| Designer(s) | Derek Smart |
| Series | Battlecruiser |
| Engine | GBS-II (Game Builder System Spec II) |
| Version | 1.01.06 (last patch)[11] |
| Platform(s) | Windows 98 SE |
| Release date(s) | March 2003 |
| Genre(s) | Space trading and combat simulator |
| Mode(s) | Singleplayer, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T |
| System requirements
DirectX 8.1b or higher, Pentium II 300Mhz or AMD K6-2 350Mhz processor, 64 MiB system RAM (128MiB for Windows 2000/XP), 16MiB DirectX 8 compliant 3D graphics card, 16Bit DirectX 8 compliant sound card, 8X CDROM or DVD-ROM, 500MB uncompressed hard drive disk space, Microsoft compatible mouse |
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It is a version of Battlecruiser Millennium with complete updates. A client-server multiplayer engine is introduced in this version. Flight controls can now be done using mouse.
Other new elements include:
The developer originally intended to introduce multiplayer feature when making the original Battlecruiser Millennium back in late 1999, but due to unforeseen circumstances, this feature was dropped in the initial product. The was to use the RTIME Interactive Networking Engine.[12]
When the game was redesigned, the developer discovered that the original design architecture of the game kernel prevented the implementation of multiplayer, so the game was redesigned. Further information about it was revealed in the Smart Speak section of the manual.[13]
Before publisher Take-Two Interactive released Battlecruiser 3000AD in September 1996, it had generated one of the longest and largest flame wars in the history of Usenet.[19] This flamewar lasted for several years, garnered over 70,000 posts, and yielded a series of sites that documented and parodied its history.
Smart and Take-Two advertised Battlecruiser 3000AD used a neural network to perform artificial intelligence tasks in the game. However, this claim has been criticised as highly improbable by other games designers. In one article in a computer games magazine, Keith Zabalaoui, former NASA programmer and one of the designers of the Close Combat series of strategy games, was quoted as saying, "I have a hard time believing it's in there... the concept of training [neural nets] to do the complex tasks required in a game is inconceivable. It's mumbo jumbo. I guarantee you that if there's a neural net that does anything in [BC3K] this man would be in the Computer Science Hall of fame."[20]
Upon its initial release of Battlecruiser 3000AD, the game[21] contained many bugs that made it unstable,[2][22][23] according to a GameSpy.com reviewer, who asserted that "Smart consistently overrates his own products and his own abilities."[23] For his part, Derek Smart claimed that the buggy release was the responsibility of Take-Two.
After the initial release, Smart issued several patches and upgrades for the product over the next few months, and eventually a final patch was released to fix some of the major bugs. In February 1998, after obtaining publishing rights from Take-Two, Smart released the game on the Internet for download free of charge.[24]
Derek Smart filed a lawsuit against Take-Two (who also released the game in the UK through a sub-license deal with GameTek) for alleging breach of contract.[2] The lawsuit was later settled out of court, and both parties released statements of resolution in late 1998.[25]
Derek Smart regained the rights to the game via the settlement. He continued to develop a new version through his personal company, 3000 AD.
Battlecruiser 3000AD, was covered extensively in gaming magazines during the development process, including a 1992 cover story in Computer Games Strategy Plus. The game was marketed as "The last thing you'll ever desire" in pre-release ads that ran in computer gaming magazines.[23]
Battlecruiser 3000AD was released against the wishes of its primary developer Derek Smart,[26] as it was still incomplete and buggy – although even in this state it was able to collect some positive reviews and revenue.
Battlecruiser Millennium received 65% and 68% at aggregate review sites Game Rankings and Metacritic respectively.[27][28] According to some reviews[29] of the game, it was as encompassing and strategically pleasing as the developer had set out to make, but lacked in user interface design friendliness and atmosphere. In 2003 Gamespy named it the 19th most overrated game of all time due to the hype Derek produced with his extremely ambitious game play promises that he would ultimately be unable to fulfill.[30]
Jon Ballinger wrote 15 chapters of 'The Calm Before The Storm' series based on the Battlecruiser 3000AD.[31] Although it had never become a canonical release, it was the only novel link referred by Take 2's BC3K site.
| Title | Released | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Battlecruiser 3000AD (U.S.) | 1996 | Take-Two Interactive |
| Battlecruiser 3000AD (UK) | 1997 | GameTek |
| Battlecruiser 3000AD v2.0 | 1999 | Interplay |
| Battlecruiser Millennium | 2001 | Dreamcatcher Games |
| Battlecruiser Millennium Gold | 2003 | 3000 AD |