Home » Stars! 2.6/7 » The Bar » Returning after 10 years gone (yeah, ten years)
| Returning after 10 years gone |
Thu, 17 April 2014 12:40  |
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 Inquisitor80 |
 | Warrant Officer |
Messages: 115
Registered: February 2004
Location: The dark places in betwee... | |
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Hello folks
it has been a very long time. i had completely forgotten i had a log in here. i re-found this forum a few days ago, and today i went to register, turns out i had one.
After reading what has been going on i am surprised and a tad disappointed.
I am surprised people are still actively playing, i would have guessed less than i have seen
i am disappointed that the Stars clones have all died
surprised nobody has made this awesome game into a browser game. the turn files and hosting can all be auto taken care of with some minor scripts. it would be awesome to just log into a browser page, do my turn(s) then go about my business. Have PMs be the only communication so in no comm games the PMs between players can be disabled. very easy stuff.
Since i haven't been keeping track, can anybody tell me who holds the rights/copyright to the game and all that?
After i brush up a bit i am probably gonna want to get into a game. hope to hear back from some of you.
- Inquisitor80
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| Re: Returning after 10 years gone |
Fri, 18 April 2014 09:13  |
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| Inquisitor80 |
| Warrant Officer |
Messages: 115
Registered: February 2004
Location: The dark places in betwee... | |
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CrazyBS wrote on Fri, 18 April 2014 00:17What's really cool is compiling ANYTHING into LLVM byte code using Emscripten to handle the rest in javascript.
Emscripten
Quake 3
JSMESS
C++
There is really no limit at this point to what javascript can be used for since people have decided that javascript really is a language and that we should program everything in it...
But, gotta find that source code. It doesn't even matter if it's really bad (as has been mentioned in other topics), once it's compiled into javascript, it'll be even worse and not editable anyway, BUT it will function in a browser and not require 32bit OS, DosBox or other VM to run it.
Just some thoughts. We always want things like this, but in the end it really eats into the time we have to work on our current turn before forced generation...
The extra awesome part would be that anybody could play on any OS as long as their browser could run a java script. I don't know of any that Cannot.
so it would be possible to run from a tablet or a phone as well
do we know what scripting language the game is in?
why would the game's creators not let us see them code? are they still making sales from it??
maybe we could get together some funds and buy the code??
- Inquisitor80
___________________________________
We must move forwards not backwards, upwards not forwards, and always twirling, twirling, twirling toward freedom.Report message to a moderator
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| Re: Returning after 10 years gone |
Fri, 18 April 2014 09:40 |
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| craebild |
 | Lieutenant |
Messages: 568
Registered: December 2003
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark | |
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Stars! was originally published in 1995, written (I assume) in C, with one of the design parameters (from what I have read) that it should could be stored on a single 3½" disc, and could run fully in memory alongside Windows 3.11 on a PC with only 4 MB RAM. Yes, that is 4MB RAM, computers have come a long way since then.
It is not surprising if the code simply does not exist any more. After all, how many files do you have from 1995 or earlier (other than fonts) ?
The creators are not making any money out of the code any longer, and Ron (the administrator of AutoHost) has their permission to hand out serial numbers for Stars! for a token fee (2 US$, the lowest amount PayPal allows to be transferred).
There was a drive to find the funds to buy the code etc. for Stars! SuperNova after development on that game ended, but at that time Empire Interactive (who held the copyright on the graphics, among other things) wanted too high an amount for that to be funded. I don't remember how much were talking about, but I think it was on the order of US$ 300.000,- or more.
Med venlig hilsen / Best regards / Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Christian Ræbild / Christian Raebild
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| Re: Returning after 10 years gone |
Fri, 18 April 2014 12:44 |
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| Inquisitor80 |
| Warrant Officer |
Messages: 115
Registered: February 2004
Location: The dark places in betwee... | |
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craebild wrote on Fri, 18 April 2014 08:40Stars! was originally published in 1995, written (I assume) in C, with one of the design parameters (from what I have read) that it should could be stored on a single 3½" disc, and could run fully in memory alongside Windows 3.11 on a PC with only 4 MB RAM. Yes, that is 4MB RAM, computers have come a long way since then.
It is not surprising if the code simply does not exist any more. After all, how many files do you have from 1995 or earlier (other than fonts) ?
The creators are not making any money out of the code any longer, and Ron (the administrator of AutoHost) has their permission to hand out serial numbers for Stars! for a token fee (2 US$, the lowest amount PayPal allows to be transferred).
There was a drive to find the funds to buy the code etc. for Stars! SuperNova after development on that game ended, but at that time Empire Interactive (who held the copyright on the graphics, among other things) wanted too high an amount for that to be funded. I don't remember how much were talking about, but I think it was on the order of US$ 300.000,- or more.
300K dang, thats a bit much
if they only own the art then new art can be made, not like it is complicated stuff
if they own some other key things however it can complicate things
either way i am super interested in this process, hope something comes of the idea
has anybody tried to de-compile the code, or reverse engineer?
- Inquisitor80
___________________________________
We must move forwards not backwards, upwards not forwards, and always twirling, twirling, twirling toward freedom.Report message to a moderator
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| Re: Returning after 10 years gone |
Fri, 18 April 2014 13:01 |
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| m.a@stars |
 | Commander |
Messages: 2765
Registered: October 2004
Location: Third star to the left | |
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Inquisitor80 wrote on Fri, 18 April 2014 15:13why would the game's creators not let us see them code?
Officially, sheer ugliness. Unofficially, they want their reputations to survive. 
Inquisitor80 wrote on Fri, 18 April 2014 18:44has anybody tried to de-compile the code, or reverse engineer?
Apparently, yes, at least to some extent (part of the Race wizard, f.e.). But nobody knows for sure. 
So many Stars, so few Missiles!
In space no one can hear you scheme!  Report message to a moderator
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I gotta wait till Tuesday, that's when I have time to play again me and him are using email