Hey guys! Thought I’d better do a end of year post. Hope you all had a good Christmas and have a good new year!
Wow! Blake’s Sanctum has passed 41,500 visitors! That’s 11,500 more visits since this time last year! And on top of that this blog has been going SUPER well with 15,000 visitors which is 10,500 up on this time last year which is amazing as this blog used to hardly get anything but now it’s on it’s way to surpassing the main site! Thank you to everyone for your support! 🙂
Now for the end of year updates. Unfortunately my big new under construction Civilization section planned for 2018 still isn’t ready yet (I’m still replaying through the series haha) however along with the recent big Starflight section overhaul I’ve also done a lot of smaller updates across the site including a number of new game tributes. Some are still under construction but they’re getting there.
These days there’s nothing I love more than finding a free fan made remake, sequel or spin off of one of my favourite 90s games. Especially the ones that retain the original graphics but allow for modern HD resolutions while adding gameplay improvements we wished the original had. Most of these projects are alive and well but could really use our support! Here are some of my favourites..
OpenRA
An amazing open source multiplayer remake of the 90s Command & Conquer and Red Alert engine. Supports C&C1, Red Alert 1, Dune 2000, C&C2 Tiberian Sun along with Red Alert 2 and Dune 2 Classic via 3rd party addons. Requirements: Fully playable. Only needs original C&C CDs if you want videos & some special addon content Home Page
FreeCiv
A brilliant open source spin off of the Civilization series. Most similar to Civ2 but also has a nice top down Civ1 mode too. Can support up to 126 AI or human players and has a huge range of user generated content such as maps, mods and graphics. Requirements: None! Home Page
Master of Magic IME
Implodes Multiplayer Edition is the classic Master of Magic remake we’ve all been waiting for. HD resolutions, multiplayer (single player is still there too!), ginormous mirror worlds and up to 13 wizard players (AI or human) in one game await you! Requirements: None! Sourceforge Page
OpenIG
An utterly incredible open source remake of the classic 4X space strategy game Imperium Galactica. The original games creators were so impressed they gave them a contract allowing them to legally work on the remake. HD resolutions, better unit controls, sandbox galaxy mode with playable aliens, multiplayer, building upgrades, and a video upscaler are just some of the amazing improvements. Requirements: None! GitHub Page Continue reading →
Last year when I was building my Imperium Galactica & Similar Games Website I noticed after all these years that the long abandoned Legends of Pegasus still didn’t have any fan patches, walkthroughs or full let’s play series on Youtube. I was rather stunned that there was not a single lets play series that went past mission 2 right back near the start of the game (even in Germany where the game came from) so I started thinking about making my own as my retro gaming channel covers a lot of rare and unseen cool retro gaming content but I’m yet to do a full let’s play of a game. It seemed from most of the talk in various forums that LoP was unfinishable which put me off even trying but when Wolfbane posted the ‘unlock all missions’ cheat on steam (which I’ve since submitted to GameFAQs) I knew I’d have a safe backup option if I hit a game ending bug that I couldn’t find a way around so I decided to go for it! And if I really failed then at least I’d be able to take viewers far further then anyone else has.
Well sure enough I hit some pretty bad bugs lol! However I’m pleased to say that I found a away around all but 1 of them and was able to finish the game! There’s a black screen game ending bug right at the end of the Xor campaign instead of the victory message that I could find no way around and was forced to use Wolfbane’s cheat to unlock the next mission. Thankfully because it happened literally right at the end when the victory message was meant to come up we missed out on no story or mission elements (I checked the games mission xml, audio & video files to be sure). I suspect someone more talented than me could modify the mission xml to avoid the bug anyway.
The final Arthrox campaign was even more untested and unpolished but was actually quite fun to play as their organic living worlds and ships are beautiful. The game’s ending is fascinating and shows that they obviously planned a addon pack or sequel story we’ll never get.
It’s a real shame Kalypso cut funding to Novacore when they did as I suspect with another 3-6mths of patching the game would have actually been pretty good! Yeah sure it never would have been a great game but it would have been good enough to keep on steam. Maybe not so much to RTS fans but for 4X TBS space fans like myself it definitely would have been worthy enough to buy in a steam sale haha.
So yeah in the end I actually enjoyed the game despite all of its endless problems. But I’m not gonna lie, there were so many hair pulling frustrating moments (eg the endless battle crashes) where I wanted to scream and throw the keyboard out the window lol.
So if you’re someone who’s always been curious about the game for all these years, or you played it and didn’t have the patience to see it to the end past all the bugs, or you’re one of the angry mob who got a refund but are still curious to see what the game’s story was and how it ends then look no further. I have done all the work and suffering for you haha!!
I actually completed the game in late 2017 but it took me FOREVER to cut the footage up and get it onto youtube. I recorded about 50hrs of footage and most of that is endless micromanaging and grinding of colonies which would put people to sleep in no time lol! So I heavily edited each mission recording and fast forwarded through as much of the boring stuff as I can so that viewers can just ‘enjoy the show’ and get the story stuff, the big battles, a few playing tips, and advice on avoiding mega bugs.
For those that don’t want to watch the whole series I give a quick 10min review/preview of the game in the very first video of the series that shows a lot of late game Xor & Arthrox footage if you’re just curious to see what they look like.
And finally I plan to do a written walkthrough at some point which I’ll post here too.
Okay here’s my Let’s Play Legends of Pegasus – Complete Playthrough series:
Hi guys! We’ve passed 27,000 visitors at Blake’s Sanctum and are already half way there to 28,000! That’s nearly 10,000 up since this time last year which is just amazing! Thank you everyone for your support and kind messages. 🙂 Helps drown out the few who feel the need to tell me how much they hate my work.
Anyway it’s that time of the year again when I add a brand new section to Blake’s Sanctum. To celebrate Imperium Galactica’s 2017 resurrection on Steam & GoG I thought I’d finally do what I’ve been planning for years and create an Imperium Galactica Legacy section paying tribute to the original IG games along with any successful & sadly unsuccessful IG related fan projects out there to make sure that they are never forgotten and can inspire talented IG fans to create new IG projects in the future. I also created a list of other games out there that are similar to IG as while there’s nothing out there quite like IG there are still some pretty brilliant similar 4X games out there with in-depth planetary development. For this list I collected pics, vids, demos, and information for as many of the projects as possible.
Website Preview:
Pictures From Website:
Videos:
I’ve also created some videos as thanks to THQ Nordic upgrading IG2 and the awesome guys behind OpenIG you can now play the whole series in high resolutions looking better than they ever did back in the day.
I waffled on more than planned haha but I just love these games. 🙂 Hopefully they bring more new and returning fans to the series.
. . The old Imperium Galactica Series was one of the greatest game series I ever played as a kid in the 90s and now I’m pleased to say this old forgotten 4X space strategy series is returning to us thanks to Nordic Games. What made IG so good and different to Master of Orion and everything else out there at the time (& even to this day in some respects) was 2 things:
1 – It had epic immersion via all the amazing videos and story elements. Completing strategic objectives brought on amazing video & story rewards instead of just some simple text on a screen saying “well done” lol. In IG1 you could even explore your own ship! People raved in 2010 when Starcraft 2 WoL came out because you could spend large amounts of time exploring your battleship and talking to people in the bar in between the strategic missions. Well IG1 did that 13yrs before Blizzard did haha!
2 – It was basically 3 games in 1. I grew up playing Master of Orion, Sim City 2000 & Dune2/C&C and used to think “wouldn’t it be cool if there was a game that combined them” and then I found IG1&2 and realized some clever folks in Hungary had made my dream a reality! As far as I know no one has really combined those 3 things since!
IG1 & IG2 IG2 & OpenIG
A couple of years ago I started seriously considering doing a big IG tribute at Blake’s Sanctum and started looking into what happened to its creator Digital Reality. I thought they were long gone so I was so excited when I did some digging and found out that they were still alive in the 2010s and had made an enhanced IG2 for mobiles and were working on a new online IG game (called Stargazer or something?). But then I discovered that this was actually old news from around 2013ish and Digitial Reality really were gone this time and their lifeless website & forums were filled with spammers.
However this week I’ve discovered that Nordic Games bought the series in 2016 and have released both Imperium Galactica 1 & 2 on Steam and GoG! Even better they’ve taken all the improvements digital reality did with the mobile version of IG2 (improved interface & textures etc) and ported them back over to the PC version. And on top of that they’re even patching IG2 to make sure the old 1999 game is fully compatible on modern systems! 🙂
If these releases are Nordic Games ‘testing the waters’ to see if IG is still a good money maker for a sequel then I encourage all IG fans to go purchase these new versions. Then we might just get that Imperium Galactica 3 we’ve been waiting so long for.
On top of all this the fan project OpenIG which is a remake of IG1 is looking very good now after many years of work. It does NOT require the original game files and it supports high resolutions, better interface, gameplay improvements and best of all SKIRMISH/SAND BOX MODE! No longer are you locked into the campaign mode making the game just a re-playable as its sequel! It supports multiplayer and you can even play as the alien races with full Master of Orion style race customisation.:)
So basically we can now play both Imperium Galactica 1 and 2 in high resolution with modern improvements thanks to the work of Nordic Games and the fans behind OpenIG. Finally some good news relating to a great series that hasn’t had any in 18 years!!
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