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View Full Version : Terra Nova - Strike Force Centauri


Fenris
09-11-2004, 08:32 AM
As it seems that this game was not mention yet i had to correct that.

It really is a shame that this game never got the fame it deserved as it is beside Wolfenstein 3D and Doom the most innovative FPS released yet. When it was released it was criticlly acclaimed in every review nevertheless it remained quite unkown like many other games of the famous Looking Glass Studios, which went bankrupt because many of their games where far ahead of its time.

And that's the exactley what happened to Terra Nova: SCF, it was far ahead of its time.

The story of TN takes place in a distant future of mankind. The settlers of Jupiter where claimed as dissidents of the earth Haegemonia. After several years with smaller incidents, a treatment was signed, so the settlers of jupiter were allowed to leave the solar system for Alpha Centauri. 150 later the first planet 'New Hope' was colonized and in the following years Alpha Centauri flurished and first trade routes to earth where established.
In the recent past many transports and small settlements have been raided by strange pirates never seen before. The peace in Alpha Centauri seems to be threatened so the council has chosen to promote you, Nikola Ap Io, to STF Sqaud leader of the new formed Strike Force Centauri special unit.

Your equipment is a more than men high battle armor (similar to those of the Brotherhood of steel, for those who know Fallout) the PBA. Together with a team of up to 3 mates you will be sent to on many very different missions.

Now that's the story so far as you might already have guessed TNSTF is a highly tactical squad based FirstPerson Shooter. Unlike many of todays shooters the AI of both your troops and your enemies is very good. The stories between the missions is told by E-Mails you may read or not and Full Motion Videos and the Missions are also ofen Script based. You can choose your team mates, and may configure every PBA seperatley. In the first few missions you don't have to look at your configuration but later a lot of equipment will become availabe such a personal shields or land mines new PBA suits (recon and heavy) and of course better weapons.

Every missions brings some new stuff and you will never have the feeling that you have seen something before.

Within every mission there are plenty of ways to play but one allways remains the same: a good reconaissance is everything so unless you don't have an assault mission always take a recon suit or at least a recon specialist with. Yes thats right, every team mate brings some skills along, so if you want to blow something up don't forget a demolition specialist, but lets return to reconaissance. Every PBA has a Probe built in, so you may deside to launich it and control it over you mainscreen or one of your PBA.
Your team mates are very independent but you can also give them a lot of orders.
At the end of every mission you have to return to a certain pickup point to wait for the DropShip. Is the Pickup point unsafe the drop ship will not come.

I could write lots of more about this great game but I am running out of time so I will finish this shortly.

Many of the aspects of this game are used in games now, but none of them could cover the whole bandwith of intense story clever missions and units and great action as good as Looking Glass' Terra Nova.

It is shame that this gem has been overlooked back in 1995.

Wael
09-11-2004, 11:48 AM
A great game,
I think...

Have been searching a place to buy it for ages.

Too bad it isnīt abandonware though.

Rogue
09-11-2004, 12:36 PM
nice game

The Niles
09-11-2004, 02:32 PM
Own it and yes it is great. Even if it was abandoned it would be too big to place on Abandonia. Ebay has a few copies on it no doubt.

Rogue
09-11-2004, 04:56 PM
At the start of CD's games gained in size because of nice intros, in game cut scenes and other stuff.

Wonder how big is the ISO. Will check tonight (played the game not long ago).

Morrin
10-11-2004, 06:08 AM
Yeah, I've always been intrested of Terra Nova but never found it :(

Wael
10-11-2004, 04:00 PM
Feeling lucky...

Cdaccess (http://www.cdaccess.com/) seems to have it...

Should propably order along with The Last Express when I get my credit card.

Acid-Kun
17-02-2005, 10:34 PM
Hello
Does someone happen to have a game called "Terranova: Strike force centauri" ?
I used to have this game a long long time ago and I loved it! I believe its considered as abandonware, atleast I couldn't find any websites selling it (except for E-Bay :P)
Thanks in advance.

Timpsi
18-02-2005, 04:43 AM
CD Access has Terra Nova. http://www.cdaccess.com/html/quick/terranovpj.htm

Great game. :)

The Niles
18-02-2005, 10:50 AM
I have it as well but I never played anything other then the demo. I bought the game itself in a sale of old software less then a year ago and I have not bothered to play it yet.

Acid-Kun
19-02-2005, 10:46 AM
Blast... oh well, guess I just have to wait a year or two :D Thanks for finding out.

JimmyBlackwing
22-06-2007, 09:57 PM
To start this off, I am aware that the game is still sold by CD-ROM Access (http://www.cdaccess.com/html/quick/terranovpj.htm). Before going further, I must point out that this site may very well be selling illegal reproductions of the game--my limited searches have shown that every other game on their site has either very few copies available, or none at all. Why, then, would they have 400 copies of a game so unknown that it has sold around 54 copies in the last 5 years (http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cdaccess.com/html/quick/terranovpj.htm)? Not only that, but 400 jewel case-only copies, when Terra Nova, as far as I know, never had a jewel case release. To top it off, they couldn't have ordered a shipment of 400+ copies, as Looking Glass (sole developer, publisher and license holder) folded in 2000, while the first Wayback listing for Terra Nova's CD-ROM Access page only dates back to January 2001. :huh: It doesn't make much sense unless you assume that they are selling illegal reproductions. Since I didn't find any Abandonia policy about online stores selling unofficial copies, I decided to post a request, and let you decide for yourselves if the game is abandonware.

Terra Nova was developed and published by Looking Glass Studios, and it is among the first tactical first-person shooters ever. It's difficult to find versions of the game on the Internet, but there are non-ISO downloads under 40 MB. These lack cutscenes and possibly speech, however. In all, it might be possible to get a version of the game under 40 MB, and definitely under 100 MB, depending on what files you left in, and what compression type you used. It's a great game worthy of being on Abandonia, even without cutscenes and speech--also, the story is a bit on the thin side, so its removal would not make that much of a difference. If it's decided that the game is not yet abandonware, I think it at least deserves a page on the site with a review and screenshots, like many "Sold" games have. Your decision, though.

velik_m
23-06-2007, 07:23 AM
They have many copies because it was a major bust (one of the reason the company folded).

Let me direct you to the Looking Glass Studio fan site: www.ttlg.com. Check their forums.

Also this might be a good time to get yourself familiar with bittorrent.

JimmyBlackwing
23-06-2007, 04:45 PM
Yes, I know it was a bust, but how does that explain this small, no-name online store getting 450-500 copies of it a year after Looking Glass died? TN was a 1996 game, so it's doubtful that LG would have even had that many copies left over if they had survived that long. Oh, and I don't want TN for myself--I already have it. I'm just saying that it would be an excellent addition to the site. :ok:

velik_m
23-06-2007, 04:57 PM
They made lots of copies, they sold little of them, there's a lot of them left. What's so hard to understand?

I guess they could've used them for landfill, like atari games in the 80s.

JimmyBlackwing
23-06-2007, 09:08 PM
Sure, they sold very few copies, but why would they keep 450-500+ copies of a complete bomb for 4 years? And why would a small online store get them all a year after LG died? LG would have sent them to a retail liquidator, or just thrown them all away, like most companies do. CD-ROM Access, even today (http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=cdaccess.com), is not a very well-known site--there is no reason for Looking Glass to have unloaded any copies onto them, even if there were any left over. Also, why would they keep 500 copies sitting around for a year before listing them, even if LG had unloaded them on them? And why did only one online store get a bunch of copies, instead of LG splitting them up amongst several stores? And why are all 400 copies missing their boxes, when Terra Nova never had a jewel case-only release? It just doesn't add up.

Also, I'll have you know that it's very, very easy to make a copy of Terra Nova--I've done it myself. To make that many copies, they'd need little more than a bunch of jewel cases and blank CDs, a CD press, a printer and time. Plus, Terra Nova is among the most abandoned games in recent history, with the sole developer, publisher and distributer being bankrupt for 7 years, and the license never being bought by another company. The trademark even expired a few years ago, if I remember correctly. With no one to stop them, why wouldn't they do it? It makes too much sense.

The Fifth Horseman
25-06-2007, 10:55 AM
Also, I'll have you know that it's very, very easy to make a copy of Terra Nova--I've done it myself. To make that many copies, they'd need little more than a bunch of jewel cases and blank CDs, a CD press, a printer and time. Plus, Terra Nova is among the most abandoned games in recent history, with the sole developer, publisher and distributer being bankrupt for 7 years, and the license never being bought by another company. The trademark even expired a few years ago, if I remember correctly. With no one to stop them, why wouldn't they do it? It makes too much sense.[/b]
Yes, but CDAccess may have bought them on a clearance sale for all we know, and unless proven otherwise we have to continue to assume CDAccess being a valid distributor.

This said, I agree that your claims do seem to have a point. If you manage to provide more substantial proof that CDAccess is selling counterfeit copies, they might even get shut down by ESA (for obvious reasons).

JimmyBlackwing
25-06-2007, 04:21 PM
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(the_fifth_horseman @ Jun 25 2007, 11:55 AM) 296235</div>
Yes, but CDAccess may have bought them on a clearance sale for all we know, and unless proven otherwise we have to continue to assume CDAccess being a valid distributor.

This said, I agree that your claims do seem to have a point. If you manage to provide more substantial proof that CDAccess is selling counterfeit copies, they might even get shut down by ESA (for obvious reasons).
[/b]

Ok. It might be tricky, but I'll try. I'll post again in this thread when/if I find anything.

The Fifth Horseman
26-06-2007, 11:28 AM
Good luck. :OK:

gregor
27-06-2007, 08:38 AM
ehm putting CD Access out of business would release tons of games...

there is a good point that company is not alive and no one holds the rights anymore. there is just one site that is selling copies of the game. and even that ones, according to Jimmy, are suspicious.

The Fifth Horseman
27-06-2007, 12:24 PM
ehm putting CD Access out of business would release tons of games...[/b]
That it would. Shadows Over Riva, anyone? :P

And that means if there is any possibility CDAccess may have indeed been selling illicit copies of software, it should be checked.

Dave
06-09-2007, 06:15 PM
400 in stock??? :blink:

Icewolf
07-09-2007, 08:35 AM
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(David86 @ Sep 6 2007, 08:15 PM) 309322</div>400 in stock??? :blink:[/b]Credible? :huh:

The Fifth Horseman
07-09-2007, 09:11 AM
Very uncertain.

Dave
07-09-2007, 11:29 AM
Unfortunatly (or maybe not) this is the only buy link I've found, yes it's strange...
Moved to rejected until we won't find some problem with CDAccess.