Examine The Evolution Of Space Sims Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Update ID

Worf found an interesting article on the evolution of space combat simulations over at Arstechnica. It begins with the basic Space War concept pioneered in the 1960s, hits Elite in 1984 and ends with the fallout surrounding Freespace 2 in 1999. The Wing Commander series is credited for providing major steps in the maturation of the genre throughout the 1990s. I do have to admit a few details seem to be exaggerated. Most primary Wing Commander games sold a bit more than a million copies, not five. His stats for Wing Commander 3 instead mainly pertain to Prophecy. The game also didn't use the same engine as Strike Commander (Armada was the testbed for the WC3 engine). The article explores a number of other genres as well. On the subsequent pages, Ultima Online and Strike Commander take their place in the history of massively multiplayer and flight sim games. You can find the full article here.

Check Out More CICs Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Update ID

We're really happy that record numbers of people are visiting the CIC on a daily basis, and we'd like to take this opportunity to point out a few other space sim news sites and hubs that you might want to add to your bookmark list. Years ago there were quite a few such sites, but as the space sim market cooled off, these have been consolidated. A Talent For War should have the broadest appeal to our visitors. It covers all space sims in a blog-style format. We've worked together on a number of stories dating all the way back to 1998, and it's great that they're still in business. Joystick Required is a relative newcomer that follows flight sims and space sims that require classic hands-on control schemes. Freelancer fans can get daily updates from The Lancers Reactor, and Freespace fans should visit Hard Light Productions. Back to Wing Commander centric hubs, WingCenter.de and WCRevival.de cater to German speaking Wing Commander fans. There are many other active Wing Commander sites listed in our Links section. It's hard to keep that page updated however, so if you have a site that's still maintained, feel free to hit the Discuss link and let everyone know.


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