Battlecruiser 3000AD

child of Thor · June 3, 2002, 18:54

well i've just downloaded this for free from here and was wondering if it's any good and worth me reading the other 150 pages of the online manual

I played around with the game for an hour the other night and didn't get very far. It seems this game has massive depth and scope if you are willing to invest the time in it, is this actually the case? This is in reference to the latest patched version(2.09) and not the first release(i gather it made Call To Power 2 and Civ3 look complete in comparison!) of the game.
Is this an unsung classic or just a white elephant in a space ships clothing?

moomin · June 3, 2002, 19:26

COT: I know that's probably a troll, but on the offhand chance it isn't I'd really recommend you throw it way as far a you can.

It's quite possibly the worst piece of crappola ever to hit innocent computer gamers. If it hasen't already destroyed your computer, it will.

Don't want to take my word for it? Head over to www.deja.com and look up the words "Derek Smart" (the developer) and "BC3k" on comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic. Happy reading!

Zkribbler · June 3, 2002, 23:07

Wow! You actually got it to run?? Congradulations, you are doing far better than I ever did.

IIRC, Battlecruiser 3000 was the first major computer game designed for Windows 95. It was full of bugs. If you got in a full minute of game time before your computer crashed, you were doing really well.

I came across of version a couple of years ago. I figured that, by then, all the bugs had to have been ironed out. Plus, it was only five buck, so what did I have to lose? Answer: the five bucks.

DinoDoc · June 3, 2002, 23:31

What about Battlecruiser Millennium? Was it any good?

Urban Ranger · June 4, 2002, 00:13

BC3K was really crappy when it first appeared, but I read that it became decent after you apply the latest patches.

DD,

BCM's review on Games Domain

child of Thor · June 4, 2002, 15:07

Well, not a very positive endorsement so far it seems

And no it's not ment to be a troll(as a newbie to it i'm just beginning to understand what you were getting at though!).
Hmmm......i can well understand the resentment that this game seems to generate - i bought Call to Power 2 when it first came out, so i'm no stranger to the 'being ripped off' thing(and now i'm a big CTP2 convert

)
Still i got this game free and after maybe an hour of messing about in my config.sys and visits to the support pages on the bc3000ad site, i got the game to run.
Remember this is the 2.09patch version, it runs in win98 ok on my PIII600 64mb(8mb vid card).
So the big question is has anybody had a good experience with this game in it's latest form?

I'm just feeling a bit intimidated by the sheer size of the manual and the amount of info you would need to remember to play the game(fighter pilots need only apply!), so really i'm hopeing it's worth the effort.

Oh yeah this is really just about the free version, not millenium etc.And i don't think it overwrites your harddrive anymore

Sarxis · June 4, 2002, 15:39

I have both BC3k and BM-

RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!!!

Kassiopeia · June 4, 2002, 16:28

I've got BC3K... always fancied the idea of playing as the captain of a space ship.

My gaming experience... well, at first, it was just mocking about with the mining drones, excavating Jupiter and Saturn for some dough... veeery boring. Then I just bought the best parts available and a load of fuel to my ship and went cruising... only to find that once I jumped to a different system... CRASH. And I'm not talking about my ship going head to head with another one!

And all the times I either got stuck in Null-Space for colliding with a space station or my aft cannons fired at the enemy when my shuttles were docking. BOOM. No shuttles.

Bloody game. I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate it. And the planet imaging is just ridiculous. My shuttle could fly for 10 hours and still not have a change in scenery. On Earth, just the same terrain, depending on where you landed at the start.

So all in all, a game with immense potential, a good concept and idea wasted by bad programming and execution.

moomin · June 4, 2002, 16:32

"BC3K: THe online game" is great though. Highly recommended.

child of Thor · June 4, 2002, 17:40

Thanks for the info guys,
I'll precede caustiously and at least i've got 'Elite plus' to fall back on if it gets too much for me

(Damn i guess i was being reeled in!And i really hoped it would be so good!)

RonHiler · June 4, 2002, 19:54

I bought BC3K when it came out long ago. I thought it was a very cool idea. But alas, what I discovered was that I had finally found a game that beat Outpost as the most broken peice of garbage software ever created. I took it back the next day.

A year or two later, I saw it again, and like Zkribbler, I thought they *must* have gotten the bugs out by now. I bought it again for five or ten bucks. Got all the patches and everything. And it was the *same* game. Nothing at all had changed. It was just as broken as it always was. Unbelievable. I had been taken twice!

I'll never again buy anything that Derek Smart is associated with. I don't know if he's just delusional or was simply lying about having fixed it. I don't know what drugs he's on, but they're not condusive to actually finishing your game before shucking it off on an unsuspecting consumer market. He has no credibility with me anymore.

There's a few companies (not many) from whom I will not buy games from, no matter how cool they sound. I don't even look at them, because I know it was rushed out before being finished, and it may or may not get finished sometime in the future. Derek Smart is the only *developer* who is priviledged enough to be on that list.

moomin · June 5, 2002, 06:10

RH: Go play "BC3K: The Online Game". True value for money, that.

As for Derek Smart, the man sports a diploma mill PhD. Do you really need to know any more?

Sarxis · June 5, 2002, 10:36

On that note:

anyone who wants to buy my copies of BC3k and BM dirt cheap let me know- it will be my pleasure!

Lemmy · June 5, 2002, 11:13

i'll consider taking them if you pay ME....

CapTVK · June 5, 2002, 11:33

I'm just wondering how long it'll take before the Taco Supreme Commander shows up...mr Smart is notorious for a very good reason.

Sarxis · June 5, 2002, 12:00

Quote:

Originally posted by CapTVK
I'm just wondering how long it'll take before the Taco Supreme Commander shows up...mr Smart is notorious for a very good reason.

Taco Supreme! ROFL!

Have you seen his avatar over at the BC forums? What a nerd.

[Disclaimer: statement not meant to incite or inflame ridicule against the nerd and geek classes. All statements made are the sole property of Anunikoba, and do not relfect those of any intelligence. It is also rumored that Anunikoba is 62.2% nerd himself.]

HeHe · June 10, 2002, 00:23

Hey I found this game years ago on a magazine CD. The creator released it free, he had a big writeup on his naysayers, interesting read. I read that huge manual, and really tried to get into the game. Couldn't get any probes working, I wound up somewhere with a ship, or maybe it was a planet, right in front of me. Firing round after round after round at me, endlessly. I could do nothing, a lesson in futility. The concept was great! BUT the game was the biggest waste of my time, nothing worked!

child of Thor · June 12, 2002, 07:21

well so far i've flown down to earth, after 5mins of that i flew back up into space(as i didn't find anything) and succesfully used the navigation system to find the space-station and dock.(No docking sequence which was a bit poor).And that's about it so far - it's not looking good really - still i'll give it a go before binning it.
The controls and ships systems(and systems within systems) are not very intuitive(but then i've only played around with it for 2hours or so).And i can't delete a previous save game even though it says i can i the manual!!

Sarxis · June 12, 2002, 11:10

Quote:

Originally posted by child of Thor
well so far i've flown down to earth, after 5mins of that i flew back up into space(as i didn't find anything) and succesfully used the navigation system to find the space-station and dock.(No docking sequence which was a bit poor).And that's about it so far - it's not looking good really - still i'll give it a go before binning it.
The controls and ships systems(and systems within systems) are not very intuitive(but then i've only played around with it for 2hours or so).And i can't delete a previous save game even though it says i can i the manual!!

Expect more of the same, as it doesn't get any better.

btw- is Derek's butt a Smart a$$?