Homeworld Hits Windows Real Time Strategy Fans from 3rd Dimension – Today in Retro Gaming – September 28th, 1999
What would civilization do if presented with an advanced piece of technology, such as a space ship? Robotech asked this in Anime and we see it in Homeworld by Sierra Entertainment for Windows computers, released in 1999. While gamers were probably getting sick of real time strategy games by 1999, who could blame them, Homeworld almost re-invented the genre but now it was 3D and enemies were not just beside you but above and below you. This added depth and challenge to the proceedings but was it worth the learning curve?
All good strategy games have a good story
The back story for Homeworld involves a planet that is rife with war between factions. This world is kind of jacked up- only the poles of the planet were actually habitable. The rest of the planet, Kushan as it was called, was covered in a really nasty desert. Well, a space ship was discovered in the sands of that desert, not fully operational but still, neither was the SDF-1 when discovered in Robotech. After nearly a century of coming together and setting differences aside this ship was made space worthy again. Low and behold there was even a map of the galaxy was available on the ship. After a maiden space jump (how can that go wrong?) the ship ends up on the outer rim and in a bad situation (duh).
Taking turn based strategy into the third dimension
Homeworld features three dimensional game play which means you are going to have to pay attention during that tutorial session. Maybe twice. There is a learning curve with Homeworld but there is also a great sense of satisfaction when you are moving around the battle arenas and whipping enemy butt.In the single player mode there are 16 missions and are persistent (stock up on resources whenever possible and SAVE as many ships as you can).
Where Homeworld orbits now
Gearbox Interactive holds the rights to Homeworld but prior to that the source code for the 3D engine and underlying trappings were released to the public (with a small caveat). There was a sequel released and a few prequels and even an HD remake. Fans of the 3D real time strategy genre will love this one.
Hit Ebay or Amazon
This article was originally published on Retro Gaming Magazine, a gaming website I own.
i remember the first Homeworld game and how frustrating it was but I think a lot of my irksome moments were likely created by the fact that my computer was likely underpowered at the time.
I didn't watch the whole video but it appears as though most of the battle takes place on the ground, which appeals a great deal more to me than the 3-d aspect of the space combat in the original.
This is two great suggestions from you in a day. Awesome work.
I am in the same boat as you about my first experiences with Homeworld. I believe my computer simply could not handle it. This was a computer that would run Quake and Quake II just fine but any third party games based on those engines ran like crap (weird).
I am updating the article with a link to GoG.com where anyone wanting to give Homeworld a try can check it out knowing it will run on modern hardware.
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