Stardock Central was a

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

content delivery Digital distribution, also referred to as content delivery, online distribution, or electronic software distribution, among others, is the delivery or distribution of information or materials through digital platforms. The distribution of digital ...

and

digital rights management Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures, such as access control technologies, can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. DRM ...

system used by

Stardock Stardock Corporation is an American software development Company (law), company founded in 1991 and incorporation (business), incorporated in 1993 as Stardock Systems. Stardock initially developed for the OS/2 platform, but was forced to switch t ...

customers to access components of the

Object Desktop Object Desktop (OD; previously the Object Desktop Network or ODNT) is an online software subscription service created by Stardock for OS/2 and relaunched for Microsoft Windows, Windows in 1997. Object Desktop includes most graphical user interfac ...

, TotalGaming.net and ThinkDesk product lines, as well as products under the

WinCustomize WinCustomize is a website that provides content for users to customize Microsoft Windows. The site hosts thousands of skins, themes, icons, wallpapers, and other graphical content to modify the Windows graphical user interface. There is som ...

brand. Introduced in 2001 to access games on TotalGaming.net (then known as the ''Drengin Network''), Stardock Central was later expanded to cover all Stardock products, replacing ''Component Manager'' (1999). As of 2010, Stardock Central had been phased out in favour of its successor, Impulse. However, in March 2011 Impulse was sold to GameStop and Stardock soon reopened their own online store. As of April 2012, the Stardock Central software has been revived and released as a Beta to once again provide a proprietary platform for Stardock's digital product downloads.

Features

Software on Stardock Central was divided into components, and further divided into packages. When users purchased a product or a subscription, they gained access to it via Stardock Central. The program had the ability to break products into components so that users on slower connections could start using the main portion of the software as soon as possible, and download extras — such as in-game movies or music — at a later date. To cater for the various frequent updates provided for many products, once a package has been downloaded and installed Stardock Central only downloaded updated files for new versions. A product

archiving An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials, in any medium, or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organ ...

and restore function was available to back up components and to allow their transfer to other computers. Users could also use the program to interact on Stardock's discussion boards or access the Stardock IRC server via a built-in

IRC client IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for Many-to-many, group communication in discussion forums, called ''#Channels, channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via instant mess ...

. WinCustomize subscribers could use the ''Skins and Themes'' section to browse and download the WinCustomize library. Stardock Central was similar in concept to the later-developed Steam content delivery system; unlike Steam, it did not require a permanent connection to the Internet, only being required when a user wanted to install or update a product (or when needed for its chatting, content libraries, or forum support).

History

While Stardock Central started development in 2001, it got its biggest test in March 2003 when ''

Galactic Civilizations ''Galactic Civilizations'' is a turn-based strategy video game developed by Stardock and released in March 2003. The game is a remake of an OS/2 series of the same name. An expansion pack entitled ''Altarian Prophecy'' was released in 2004. A s ...

'' was launched simultaneously at retail and online — the first commercial PC game to debut in both venues at once. Those who had purchased Galactic Civilizations at retail could also enter their serial number and download updates to the game. In 2004, Stardock Central began to deliver third party content as well such as games from Take 2,

Strategy First Strategy First Inc. is a Canadian video game publisher based in Montreal. Founded in 1988 by Don McFatridge, Steve Wall and Dave Hill, the company filed for bankruptcy in 2004 and was subsequently acquired by Silverstar Holdings in 2005. Initia ...

, and

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...

. '' The Political Machine'' was released in 2004, and in 2005, TotalGaming.net ''phase 2'' was released, adding over a dozen new third-party games.

References

External links

Stardock Central Homepage
*
Stardock Central
' at the WinCustomize Wiki {{Software digital distribution platforms Digital rights management for Windows Windows-only proprietary software Digital rights management systems Online content distribution Stardock software

Features

History

See also

References

External links