If Hostile is based on the movie Alien, Zozer Game’s Godstar has a lot in common with Frank Herbert’s novel Dune or Free League’s Coriolis game. Of course, it’s neither. There are no sandworms, spice or Icons granting magical powers. The planet Aurelia attracts pilgrims as it has a sentient star that can be consulted (for a large fee). It gives out practical and scientific knowledge, not the meaning of existence. Aurelia is also the centre of administration for the area of space around it. The game is about playing the various people and factions that live on Aurelia. You can include as much as you like about the influence of the Godstar, I thought it was not essential to involve it. Godstar’s a supplement, you need to have a copy of the Cepheus Engine rules (or one of the versions of Traveller) to make best use of the material. The nice thing about this is that even if you don’t want to play in this setting, it’s really good for things to use in other games.
Category Archives: Reviews
Judges Guild and Fryxgames
Dune – House Corrino
I first read Dune in 1984. I liked it a lot and later read and enjoyed the five sequels.
I love the way the noble houses are described in the original books. I love how well Dune/Arrakis is described. When I read Dune and the following novels by Frank Herbert I could see where the ideas for the nobles in Traveller has got (some of) its inspiration from.
Now I have read the last one of the Prelude to Dune trilogy prequels, called House Corrino by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. This was an interesting book written in the same style as Frank Herbert’s Dune novels. This book focuses a lot on the Tleilaxu occupied world of Ix, where the Tleilaxu is trying to produce synthetic spice for the Emperor (from House Corrino). It is an interesting book, but I think that the other two prequels, House Harkonnen and House Atreides were better.
Original image from wikimedia. License Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic
Uniwar S by Irem
When I was 15 years old and spent 3 weeks in Lancashire, there was an arcade game that I liked at the local pub. (That pub didn’t care that I wasn’t 16.)
The game was a lot like Galaxian but had another twist. I the later stages the attackers could drop “spies” that could then attack you from behind. I thought the game was called Alien Spy. Maybe the words “Alien Spy” was printed on the arcade cabinet.
I only found this game one other time. At Tumba-tältet (that was an indoor golf driving range) in Stockholm. Since then I have not seen it.[clear]
Using my Google-fu powers with only that inaccurate name of the game as my only clue I finally found it. It is called Uniwar S. Using an emulator, I could also play it.
The first level is a lot like Galaxian except that all attackers look the same. If you know how to play Galaxian, the first level should be quite easy.
Each ship (called a Super Mosquito in the manual) is worth 20 points. I think you get the same when they are attacking (unlike Galaxian).[clear] Continue reading Uniwar S by Irem
A Fragment of Empire
This is only a short review of one of the stories in the Lost Signals of the Terran Republic. A Fragment of Empire is a short story by Marc Miller. It was the story that I read first.
So, what is it? It is presented as a fragment of something larger. It is the story of the politics of nobles in the Spinward Marches and how the assassination of Emperor Strephon affected the Marches. It is a story about Norris and his loyal employees and how he became the Archduke of Deneb.
Canonheads will love this short story from Marc Miller himself.
Personally, I hope that we may get more fragments and eventually a new Traveller novel (called Empire) from Marc Miller.
Dune – House Harkonnen
A few years ago I read Dune – House Atreides. Now I have read the next one of the prequels. Dune – House Harkonnen.
We get to know more about the Harkonnen family and a few new characters are introduced. Not all are bad.
But the bad and stupid ones do what could be expected of them.
There are also the expected side stories about the Atreides and other important Houses.
A few concepts are introduced a bit too early here. Things that didn’t exist until later in the original series. That is a bit annoying. But other than that, I thought the book was quite good. (But don’t read it until you have read all of the original Dune books first. The originals are a lot better.)
