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Stars! is Dead - Long-live Stars!

Wed, 22 June 2022 15:56

ricks03

Officer Cadet 1st Year
Creator of TotalHost and Stars! utilities
Created TotalHost and Stars! utilities

Messages: 221
Registered: January 2012
Location: NC

As you might or might not know, when Empire Interactive (the company owning the IP to Stars!) went under, their IP was purchased by New World IP, LLC.

New World IP, LLC then licensed the IP to Zoo Games. Zoo Games went through a long sequence of acquisitions/changes, until their eventual failure in 2013/2014, where they dissolved as the business indiePub.

That leaves New World IP, LLC as the owner of the Stars! IP. New World IP was registered in Delaware. I contacted their registered agent, who has confirmed that New World IP, LLC was dissolved as well.

As best I can tell, that leaves the Stars! IP with no ownership. Not just "lost" but no one left standing.

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Re: Stars! is Dead - Long-live Stars!

Fri, 24 June 2022 22:44

nmid

Commander

Messages: 1608
Registered: January 2011
Location: GMT +5.5

I'm a little bit sad to hear this, even though I knew there was NO chance of any Stars! 2 ever coming out, or even a release of the game files.
It's been a really really good game. Wish it had become as big as Civ or Empire of the Sin series.

I know my minefields.. but I'm a chaff sweeper.
I used to curse when I got stuck in traffic... till I realised I AM traffic.

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Re: Stars! is Dead - Long-live Stars!

Sat, 25 June 2022 00:34

ricks03

Officer Cadet 1st Year
Creator of TotalHost and Stars! utilities
Created TotalHost and Stars! utilities

Messages: 221
Registered: January 2012
Location: NC

I presume you mean Stars 3 Smile

But at this point the game files re mostly decoded, it's easy to get serials, so from an availability perspective it's easy access.

Not being available in 64-bit makes adoption hard, so just getting it to work in 64-bit would be huge from my perspective of getting friends to play.

But the other thing is Stars! eventually became much more of a raw economy game, far more so than a strategy game. If I can out-econ you, it really doesn't make any difference what your strategy is. Don't get me wrong - I love it. But the game between a good player and a new one is just too big - entry is a pure vertical climb.

[Updated on: Sat, 25 June 2022 00:34]

https://www.irelandbybicycle.com
http://totalhost.sinister.net:999
https://github.com/ricks03/TotalHost

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Re: Stars! is Dead - Long-live Stars!

Tue, 05 July 2022 08:46

scottrick49

Master Chief Petty Officer

Messages: 98
Registered: August 2003
Location: Minneapolis, MN

Been a long time since I played, but the other day I was thinking about firing up a single player game just for fun. That brought me back here with hopes that it might be possible to run on Windows 10. Alas!

I tried to do a little digging as well, to see if I could get in contact with somebody who knows anything about the Stars! IP. If I get any responses, I will post back here.

scottrick

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Re: Stars! is Dead - Long-live Stars!

Tue, 05 July 2022 22:08

Braindead

Officer Cadet 2nd Year

Messages: 233
Registered: April 2005
Location: Ohio

scottrick49 wrote on Tue, 05 July 2022 05:46

Been a long time since I played, but the other day I was thinking about firing up a single player game just for fun. That brought me back here with hopes that it might be possible to run on Windows 10. Alas!

You can definitely run it on windows 10 - https://starsautohost.org/sahforum2/index.php?t=msg&th=5 622&start=0&rid=734
Also, check out Stars! discord, quite a few people are hanging out there and there is a channel dedicated to stars clones conversations. https://starsautohost.org/sahforum2/index.php?t=msg&th=5 690&start=0&rid=734

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Re: Stars! is Dead - Long-live Stars!

Wed, 06 July 2022 21:15

scottrick49

Master Chief Petty Officer

Messages: 98
Registered: August 2003
Location: Minneapolis, MN

Thanks! I ended up just using Wine on my Linux machine and it worked great.

scottrick

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Re: Stars! is Dead - Long-live Stars!

Sat, 09 July 2022 08:57

m.a@stars

Commander

Messages: 2765
Registered: October 2004
Location: Third star to the left

What about the various source codes? Sherlock

So many Stars, so few Missiles!

In space no one can hear you scheme! Deal

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Re: Stars! is Dead - Long-live Stars!

Sun, 10 July 2022 16:39

ricks03

Officer Cadet 1st Year
Creator of TotalHost and Stars! utilities
Created TotalHost and Stars! utilities

Messages: 221
Registered: January 2012
Location: NC

What about them? The source for Stars! has never been available.

https://www.irelandbybicycle.com
http://totalhost.sinister.net:999
https://github.com/ricks03/TotalHost

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Re: Stars! is Dead - Long-live Stars!

Sat, 16 July 2022 11:59

m.a@stars

Commander

Messages: 2765
Registered: October 2004
Location: Third star to the left

ricks03 wrote on Sun, 10 July 2022 22:39

The source for Stars! has never been available.

But it exists. And for SSNG too. And now there seems to exist even less motive to keep them secret. Pirate

So many Stars, so few Missiles!

In space no one can hear you scheme! Deal

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Re: Stars! is Dead - Long-live Stars!

Tue, 16 August 2022 09:11

Ron

Commander
Forum Administrator
Stars! AutoHost Administrator

Messages: 1231
Registered: October 2002
Location: Collegedale, TN

m.a@stars wrote on Sat, 16 July 2022 11:59

ricks03 wrote on Sun, 10 July 2022 22:39
The source for Stars! has never been available.

But it exists. And for SSNG too. And now there seems to exist even less motive to keep them secret.

I don't have any source code for Stars!, Stars! 3, or SSNG.

Ron Miller
Stars! AutoHost

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Re: Stars! is Dead - Long-live Stars!

Tue, 16 August 2022 11:11

ricks03

Officer Cadet 1st Year
Creator of TotalHost and Stars! utilities
Created TotalHost and Stars! utilities

Messages: 221
Registered: January 2012
Location: NC

In a world where the people who wrote most of the Stars! utilities don't release their source code, it's a little unrealistic to be bitter about the Stars! code itself.

But it's been a long time. It's completely possible the Stars! source itself is gone. The company that owned it, and the entire path of rights to it , has ceased to exist. Trademarks have lapsed as well.

[Updated on: Tue, 16 August 2022 11:40]

https://www.irelandbybicycle.com
http://totalhost.sinister.net:999
https://github.com/ricks03/TotalHost

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