Terminus (2000 Video Game)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Terminus'' is a space-flight
role-playing Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing ...
action
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
by
Vicarious Visions Blizzard Albany (formerly Vicarious Visions, Inc.) is an American video game development division of Blizzard Entertainment based in Albany, New York. Founded in 1991, the company was acquired by Activision in January 2005. In January 2021, Vica ...
. It was released in 2000 for
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
,
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
, and
Apple Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...
. ''Terminus'' won awards in the 1999 Independent Games Festival for "Technical Excellence" and "Innovation in Audio".


Gameplay

In Story mode, the player chooses one of four careers (United Earth League military, Mars Consortium militia, Marauder Pirate Clan, mercenary) and follows ''Terminuss
single-player A single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the gameplay. Video games in general can feature several game modes, including single-player modes designed to be played by a single player in add ...
storyline, set in the year 2197. In 2000, ''Terminus'' was unusual among RPGs in that the
player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...
's actions can affect the ending of the storyline. Failing a mission, for example, may lead to a different ending than would have occurred if the mission had succeeded. One unique feature of ''Terminus'' is the story would progress with or without the player. The player could begin the game in story mode, then go off and do something else and the story missions/battles would still take place, reaching an outcome depending on which side eventually wins. In Free mode, the player chooses a career and does the same as in Story mode, except there will be no storyline missions. In Gauntlet mode, the player outfits a
ship A ship is a large watercraft, vessel that travels the world's oceans and other Waterway, navigable waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing. Ships are generally disti ...
with near-infinite money at their disposal, and faces several waves of attackers, with the object of staying alive for as long as possible.


Development

''
Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...
'' explained that Vicarious Visions' first major game "following the publishing debacle during college", was the space combat role-playing video game ''Terminus''. President Karthik Bala said "We ended up getting a personal bank loan for a million dollars. We knew if we didn't figure this out and make it work, we'd be screwed for the rest of our lives." The duo of developers had been left with a mountain of debt from development costs on Synnergist due to the publishers not giving them royalties for the game, and began work on this project on 1996. Back in January 1998, the "Vicarious Visions' seven full-time employees and squadron of contractors" were laboring to complete the game, which at the time was to be the company's second release. At that point "The development budget for ''Terminus'' ha already crossed the $250,000 mark with months' more work to be done before an expected September 1998 release." Bala said at the time "''Terminus'' will include not only network and Internet play, which is becoming almost standard in games, but also the capability for players to communicate by voice." Bala retrospectively said "The Department of Defense had recently declassified an audio compression algorithm that we ended up using and writing Voice over IP within our game at the time. We did some really cool stuff primarily because it hadn't been done." As a contest finalist at the first annual Independent Games Festival (the game ended up taking home two awards), "''Terminus'' was exhibited on the show floor at the Game Developers Conference, March 16–18 in San Jose, Calif." ''Polygon'' explained that despite winning some industry awards, "publishers were reluctant to take on the project ndwhen Vatival Entertainment finally shipped the game in 2000, it hardly sold." By 1999, the company employed 15 people, "including four Rensselaer graduates and two undergrads". ''Terminus'' is notable for its implementation of Newtonian laws of motion, which means that objects are subject to
inertia Inertia is the natural tendency of objects in motion to stay in motion and objects at rest to stay at rest, unless a force causes the velocity to change. It is one of the fundamental principles in classical physics, and described by Isaac Newto ...
. Once accelerated, they float indefinitely in one direction unless again accelerated into a different direction. This makes steering quite complicated, but mirrors actual behavior in free space. BarrysWorld explains "The game has a newtonian (i.e 'realistic') flight model, that is to say that the ships will not fly like jet planes but they will actually obey the laws of Newtonian physics. In order to go in another direction you'll need to slowdown to a stop and then go in the direction that you want to move in. All this will be accomplished by a kind of reaction control system autopilot that attempts to keep you moving in the direction you are pointing." The site added "''Terminus'' should be the first of a series of sims that will encourage 'l33t' skillz to master." Support for ''Terminus'' has long since ended. Although the game is still licensed by Vicarious Visions, the source code was licensed to the owner of the TerminusPoint website to allow continued development of the game and thus has been improved and enhanced. Although the client files are still available at the TerminusPoint website, the project has seemingly been abandoned.


Reception

At the time of its release, the game received above-average reviews on both platforms according to the review aggregation website
GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
. '' PC Zone'' said, "Overall, while not as flashy as other recent space-sims, ''Terminus'' has lots of substance. It packs so much into the game." ''
GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1999 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for Quake, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameS ...
'' said, "With ''Terminus'', Vicarious Visions has raised the bar of excellence within three simultaneous genres, but couldn't quite glue all the pieces together into a cohesive whole." ''Gamer's Pulse'' said, "In the end, ''Terminus'' failed to truly excite me. That's not to say that the game isn't fun to play; it does offer a good time to the pilot within us all." '' Computer Games Strategy Plus'' said, "When everything is said and done, ''Terminus'' comes out looking-and feeling-good." ''
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
'' wrote, "''Terminus'' offers flawed but nonetheless decent space combat action, along with an impressive online play feature. The game ought to be appealing on account of this and its cross-platform compatibility, but its glitches and general lack of polish considerably diminish its overall quality." ''
MacADDICT ''MacLife'' (stylized as ''Mac, Life'') is an American monthly magazine published by Future US. It focuses on products produced by Apple, including the Macintosh personal computer, iPad, and iPhone. It was sold as a print product on newsstands, ...
'' called it "an intermittently fantastic game that should appeal to flight-sim jockeys, hardcore sci-fi fans, and anyone who's ever wanted to wield two joysticks."


Awards and nominations


References


External links


''Terminus'' official site

''Terminus'' details on Vicarious Visions site
* {{moby game, id=/terminus 2000 video games Linux games Classic Mac OS games Space combat simulators Video games developed in the United States Windows games Independent Games Festival winners Vatical Entertainment games Vicarious Visions games Multiplayer and single-player video games