In The Beginning
(Development History of Explorer 2260)
Where it all began.
The first outright posting was on Monday the 4th of November 1996 but the
actual concept behind Explorer had been rolling around inside my head for
well over a year before that. There are a myriad of space-trading games out
there and, while perhaps good in their own right, they never seemed to be
able to convey any realism, none of the 'grit' of real space travel and life.
The original inspiration came from Babylon 5 as, rather than showing the
future of easy space travel and fairly peaceful life portrayed in other Sci-fi
series, it is a more realistic portrayal of what human beings are more likely
to become; more or less the same as they are now. None of the petty rivalries
and racial prejudices have ben smoothed over just because people can leave the
muddy rock called Earth. I originally wanted to create a game, based on the B5
universe, which would allow the player to roam a dynamic, changing galaxy
and finally interact with the universe rather than being trapped in a never
changing environment.
The early posts.
Many of the earlier posts, before December 16th 1996, showed the Explorer
universe as almost the same as the B5 universe. After being contacted by
Vulcan with an offer to publish Explorer I decided to remove all aspects
directly attributable to B5 alone. While this meant that I had to remove the
races, places and names I still had quite a wide scope to create a similar
feel; Hyperspace is a topic covered in many works of science fiction, along
with jump technology so this has been left in there and elaborated on with
scientific theories and extra details. The overall technology level will be
the same too; ships will be styled for functionality rather than the 'ashtray
with sticky-out bits' portrayed in StarTrek and the dynamic aspect of the
universe will remain.
Diary Dates.
Some are probably inaccurate but I have tried to include as many details as
possible:
- Pre November 1996:
Concept and ideas are arranged and I begin some preliminary designs and outlines.
- November 1996:
Work begins on design, basic code for display routines and still
screen graphics.
- 4/11/96:
Initial post to the PureAmiga list giving a basic features list.
- 25/11/96:
Explorer featured on Amiga Flame.
- 25/11/96:
Explorer/ Digital Anarchy Software website announced.
- 25/11/96:
Amiga Computing request details of Explorer and an interview.
- December 1996:
- 9/12/96:
Contacted by Vulcan with an offer to publish Explorer.
- 16/12/96:
Release of notice to the effect that Explorer is not a B5 game.
- 20/12/96:
Start work on the Explorer Ship
- January 1997:
First part of an interview concerning Explorer and game development published
in AmigaComputing (February Issue) this month.
- 4/1/97:
Start work on a basic graphics converter and even more basic encryption
routines!
- 20/1/97:
Completed renders of the Explorer ship and several early screenshots
are placed on my website.
- 22/1/97:
Amiga Flame updates Explorer news.
- February 1997:
The second part of the interview concerning Explorer and game development
published in AmigaComputing (March Issue) this month.
- 13/2/97:
First recorded mail from Vaipen (pointless but he asked.. :) )
Designers of this encyclopedia
Chris Page & Ed Collins
dasoft@zetnet.co.uk collins-e@dnet.co.uk