Earth Orbit Stations

E.O.S.: Earth Orbit Station

Cover art
Developer(s) Karl Buiter
Publisher(s) Electronic Arts
Platform(s) Commodore 64, Apple II
Release date(s) 1987
Genre(s) Construction and management simulation
Mode(s) Single player, Multiplayer
Distribution Floppy disk

E.O.S.: Earth Orbit Stations was a space station management simulation developed by Karl Buiter and produced by Joe Ybarra for Electronic Arts in 1987 for the Commodore 64 and Apple II.

Summary

The game focused on both the material and economic challenges of building a permanent, fully functioning space station in geocentric orbit.

The game was set in 1996, and the player was given various selected scenarios to fulfill, from mundane tasks such as setting up a simple space station to developing and supplying a specified amount of high-grade, zero G pharmaceuticals to being the first to contact alien life. The game also was a cut-throat strategy game in multiplayer, as players competed over finite resources and resource management.

Reception

Computer Gaming World in 1987 gave the game a mixed review. While the single-player portion was praised, the review felt the game had too high a learning curve to be really suitable for multiplayer. The user interface was particularly bothersome, described as "a textbook case of how not to design a window/menu/graphics interface." The documentation was similarly described as poorly organized and cryptic.[1] In a 1992 survey of science fiction games the magazine gave the title two-plus stars of five, calling it "An interesting failure ... the logistics just are not that much fun".[2] Compute! reviewed the game more favorably, stating that "EOS offers a level of challenge unusual in space-related software. To succeed at this game requires careful thought".[3]

References

  1. ↑ Williams, Gregg (October 1987), "Earth Orbit Stations", Computer Gaming World: 26–27
  2. ↑ Brooks, M. Evan (November 1992). "Strategy & Wargames: The Future (2000-....)". Computer Gaming World. p. 99. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  3. ↑ Fisher, Russell H. (February 1988). "EOS: Earth Orbit Stations". Compute!. p. 48. Retrieved 10 November 2013.

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External links