Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

Metallords release date?

50 views
Skip to first unread message

The Ettema Family

unread,
May 12, 1996, 3:00:00 AM5/12/96
to

Does anybody out there knows when the Metallords game is going to be
released and if there is a demo availeble of it?

Craig Scott Taylor

unread,
May 12, 1996, 3:00:00 AM5/12/96
to

I think I read in the latest PC Gamer or Strategy Plus that the game was
canceled.

--
"The conviction had grown on him that men do not escape
from life because life is dull, but that life escapes from men
because men are little."
- Thomas Wolfe

On Sunday, May 12, 1996, The Ettema Family wrote...

rhys_thuryn

unread,
May 13, 1996, 3:00:00 AM5/13/96
to

Game Over!!
Project was canceled because Microprose/Spectrum Holobyte purchased Simtex (game
designer) and the game was being developed by Simtex for New World Computing.

In article <01bb4026.be581880$bf076dc2@ettema>, The says...

Brad Frohock

unread,
May 13, 1996, 3:00:00 AM5/13/96
to The Ettema Family

The Ettema Family wrote:
>
> Does anybody out there knows when the Metallords game is going to be
> released and if there is a demo availeble of it?

The game has been cancelled, this according to the rep at New World
Computing. It was being developed by SIMTEX, but SIMTEX has recently
been bought out by Spectrum Holobyte so the game had to be scrapped. I
also heard (from the NWC rep on CompuServe) that the FASA people were
complaining that the game was "too close" to their Battlemech universe
and would have to be scrapped anyway.

Thomas M. Holsinger

unread,
May 14, 1996, 3:00:00 AM5/14/96
to

Brad Frohock <bfro...@sky.net> wrote:

Metallords was caught between FASA's lawyers and development delay due
to Simtex joining SH. It is dead. Some of the original development
team hope to redo it if SH and FASA ever get around the copyright
infringement dispute, but that sort of fight is hard to resolve.


Robert Baumann

unread,
May 14, 1996, 3:00:00 AM5/14/96
to

The release date of Metal lords has been holding steady at 8/1/96 for
some months now. It had a very good demo last may(95) which was
distributed to various magazine editors in verly limited quanties for
preview purposes and the demo made honorable mention in the Internet
top 100 game list for several months up till Dec 95. The game
(according to Simtex) was finished in July 95, or even June but was held
up because of the lawsuit, which was settled in Sept 95. The release
date was set to Nov 95, then Christmas, then Mar 96, then to 8/1/96
where it sits now. While I can't confirm the cancelation of the
project, I doubt that this is the end of it. The game was ready to walk
out the door and at the very least is a heavily tested design which
could certainly be easily shaped into a best seller. As for the those
that say MOO2 hasn't been promoted, I've read 6 previews and IE
previewed it twice and the last time was a month ago with 20-30 screen
shots and VERY DETAILED game info(although the review in CGW a couple
months ago was good too). I've seen full-page color ads for 3 months
now in every major gaming mag and Microprose has 20-30 screen shots on
their web site-more than anything else got- even Civ 2. The problem is
all the delays have cause the product to distance itself from preview
hype it might have had.

_ _ -------------------------------------------------------------
|_|_| PC-OHIO PCBoard Online * pcohio.com * V34+ 33.6: 216-381-3320
|_|_| The Best BBS in America * Cleveland, OH * Go Tribe
-------------------------------------------------------------

dec...@ucla.edu

unread,
May 15, 1996, 3:00:00 AM5/15/96
to

robert....@pcohio.com (Robert Baumann) wrote:

>While I can't confirm the cancelation of the
>project, I doubt that this is the end of it.

I called New World. They confirmed that the game had been cancelled,
but say that Simtex may be doing something else with it. As to *that*
I hadn't heard.


------------------------
"More human than human is our motto..."


Thomas M. Holsinger

unread,
May 15, 1996, 3:00:00 AM5/15/96
to

robert....@pcohio.com (Robert Baumann) wrote:

>The release date of Metal lords has been holding steady at 8/1/96 for
>some months now. It had a very good demo last may(95) which was
>distributed to various magazine editors in verly limited quanties for
>preview purposes and the demo made honorable mention in the Internet
>top 100 game list for several months up till Dec 95. The game
>(according to Simtex) was finished in July 95, or even June but was held
>up because of the lawsuit, which was settled in Sept 95. The release
>date was set to Nov 95, then Christmas, then Mar 96, then to 8/1/96
>where it sits now. While I can't confirm the cancelation of the
>project, I doubt that this is the end of it. The game was ready to walk
>out the door and at the very least is a heavily tested design which
>could certainly be easily shaped into a best seller. As for the those
>that say MOO2 hasn't been promoted, I've read 6 previews and IE
>previewed it twice and the last time was a month ago with 20-30 screen
>shots and VERY DETAILED game info(although the review in CGW a couple
>months ago was good too). I've seen full-page color ads for 3 months
>now in every major gaming mag and Microprose has 20-30 screen shots on
>their web site-more than anything else got- even Civ 2. The problem is
>all the delays have cause the product to distance itself from preview
>hype it might have had.

Metallords is dead. It's VGA graphics. The game engine is now stale.
Even the design crew doesn't want it released in its present form.
Not to mention that FASA's lawyers don't want it released in any form
and have the clout to see it stays dead.


Robert Baumann

unread,
May 18, 1996, 3:00:00 AM5/18/96
to

Yea, offical note of cancelation(if there is such a thing) for metalords
in Computer strategy(although someone here mentioned that it was printed
somewhere else first.) The lawsuit with FASA WAS actually settled a
long time ago and what has FASA actually done with the mech genre
anyway? 3-4 games in the last 10 years and the two strategy games were
a disgrace! Truth is that battletech is such a simple system(in
comparison to other tactical wargames like steel panthers and X-com)
that it becomes fairly boring when the computer is rolling all the dice
and keeping all the records. With every release out showing acrade
quality graphics a total re-do on the graphics would be fairly easy(in
comparison to finding another design which is next to impossible-there
are only a handful of truly great designers out there and a few are in
dry spells for the last few years.) so the age of the graphic engine is
merely an excuse. SH now has the FASA licence and owns simtex. SH is
probably hesitant to put out a product for another company which would
crush and battletech product(which would necesarily be shackeled to the
Battletech universe and rules). Had SH not purchased Simtex I'm sure
the game would have been published months ago.
0 new messages