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Dynamix Closed Down?
ioctl writes: "According to Planet Tribes, Dynamix is being shut down by its parent Sierra (or more appropriately, Vivendi Corp.). Story here and here. Looks like my buddy just wasted $50 on Tribes 2... =P"
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Ah, the Incredible Machine. Seeing that I'm still young, this was my first real chance to absorb computer screens for hours at a time and enjoy it, for it was not homework or some simple game like PacMan.
Can't stay in the league unless you win the Super Bowl every year, huh?
Pretty soon there won't be any room for new ideas at all. Its really too bad.
No love for the first-person adventure games?
There were some major titles in that section too from Dynamix:
-Rise Of the Dragon
-Heart of China
Not to mention some incredible sports games in the "Front Page Sports" series.
heard dynamix got into another biz. www.dynamix.net
tribes 2 was definitely not targetted at the hard core tribes 1 cult following you describe.
tribes 2 is/was for the masses. mostly what this means is the learning curve of the game is much shallower than in tribes 1.
Billybob jr
Still climbing up the tribes 1 learning curve after over 2 years of playing.
The real message, IMO, is this:
"Destroying a division to increase short term profits is a sign of bad management. We are unhappy with the way that you have handled the situation with Dynamix. Your disregard for your employees will result in a boycott. You should reconsider your decision before it's too late."
It's not a Sierra decision, numbnutz. Talk to Vivendi.
LOL .. are you delusional? T2 a "killer app"?
A killer app is something everyone wants/needs, I hardly think a game will ever fall under this category, especially since T2 has been out for a while now and I don't even have a copy or the urge to go buy a copy.
No, the only thing that's gonna drive Linux desktop usage to the top is when it can run Windows apps cleanly, quickly and without endless hours of tweaking to get things running in the first place.
A game just doesn't cut it.
Trips
Don't forget that Tribes connects to a central server to give you a list of all the other servers. If that gets shut down then you'll have to go into irc and give IP's and whatnot to connect to a game. Not fun.
when Vivendi/Sierra start closing down other "not-profitable" game workshops they own.
GL to all current members of Tribes 2 development team.
Regards,
=}DS{= Gunt.
You need to know how to configure your machine. So sorry you can't achieve what everyone else with Tribes 2 can - or are you just grasping at an excuse for lack of skill?
"Yeah, bad frame rate. And lag. That's why I keep dying."
I understand that, that's why I wished he never had to sell. Sadly, I knew he couldn't keep it on his own, I just think (financial considerations aside) that Origin, Sierra, and others would be making much better games if they were still under control of people willing to take risks to make a great game. A far cry from EA who will not publish a game it does not think will be a bestseller
:) Is System Shock a "much better game" than Doom ][? A lot of people think that, but Doom ][ sold a heck of a lot more copies than System Shock.
Well, first you have to define what a "much better game" is.
I honestly don't think you would get many more "much better games" even if the smaller companies still controlled their own fates. You would still have things like people burning out (RG and the Ultima series) and umpteen clones of a popular game (remember all the Asteriods/Pacman/etc clones in the early 80s?), or the owners deciding everything has to be different (Ken Williams/Sierra).
Games are, by and large, a for-profit enterprise where the developers want to get Joe to part with his beer money for their product because said product has enough entertainment value. You can't ever put financial considerations aside. If you do, you die.
"All the darkness in the world can not quench the light of one small candle."
I am utterly surprised that the V12 engine, a derivative of the Tribes 2 engine by GarageGames at www.garagegames.com hasn't been mentioned. With minor exceptions where Sierra's intellectual property was removed from the engine and replaced with other code, it essentially the source code to the Tribes 2 game engine, already near the state where it could be used to create high-quality games for Linux. The EULA requires a $100 per-seat license fee for the source code and distribution must be through GarageGames, but the model seems quite pragmatically attractive, seeing as how open source hasn't quite caught on in the 3D games arena like it has for operating systems etc. If you ask me, this is a big chance to improve the gaming scene for alternative platforms.
$50 dollars can hardly be spent on anything more worthwhile than Tribes 2. It's a great game, and it's been released. I don't think all the servers out there will disappear.
This page is still up:
:-)
http://www.dynamix.com/jobs.html
"Just imagine- no traffic, no commute, low crime rate, reasonable cost of living, clean air and best of all, a creative fun place to work."
They forgot "no irritating colleagues"
ahh, Stellar 7 had a sequel, I believe it was "Nova 9" or something. I remember playing that for a while.
Its quite a shame if they quit tribes. I really liked the new challenges that game offered, outdoor shoot-em-up in large teams with cool teamplay features. :-), Especially for linux. Maybe something for Loke ?
Hope someone else picks up the thread, i'd like more of those "RTS-battlefield-simulator-FPS"-games
Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
Aristotele
and some more
In my opinion, and others' Tribes 1 is a far better game than Tribes 2. Tribes 1 is a faster game that takes more personal skill aswell as team tactics.
There are still alot of people who are playing Tribes.
Thowards the release of Tribes 2 cheats started poping out for Tribes 1, which dynamix refused to patch, saying Tribes 2 comes first.
Like Quake 1 before they should open source the game and let the players themselves patch it.
Especially now, the game is pretty stable with the latest patches and such. If they got the axe the day it was released that would not have been good at all. The only way I can see a game being an investment is if you are the type wait for a mission pack or map pack add-on. There can still be good mods to look forward too. I got my copy for 27 bucks. I still think it is money well spent.
For an online game like Tribes 2 it's very important there will be a company behind it. Master servers, IRC server (irc.dynamix.com), patches that will eliminate bugs and cheats. Hopefully sierra will take the place of dynamix on the above. but if it won't Tribes 2 will die All you need is one widespread cheat and the community dissolves.
I don't like the fact that Dynamics is going out of business but if you look at Sierra's history with the company it really is no suprise. Example: Sierra buys Dynamics, the Red Baron series, (one of the first games to use 3d cards) is cancelled for lack of support and staffing is shuffled or cut. Starsiege comes out, finally breaking out of the hideous Earthsiege series. It's an average game but shows great potential. Before it hits the shelves most of the Starsiege team is rolled into the Tribes team or laid off. Let's face it, Sierra cares about Racing sims and Half-Life. I realize they have thei place but the company isn't known for innovation. fnord
Fnord!
If that's shut down what is going to happen?
I know you can connect to a server via the console, but how many other people know?
Having been one of the fans whose hopes for the Babylon 5: Into The Fire space combat simulator were screwed by Sierra, I can only say that this is yet another bucket of water in the ocean of disgust for anything related to Sierra.
:/
The B5:ItF fans and developers fought for about two years to keep the project alive somehow, and at several turns, Sierra (and whatever parent company, of course) all but threw monkey wrenches into the process. Now the project is officially dead, and I will probably retain my bitterness toward anything Sierra (other than mountains, which are not associated with the company using the name) for a very, very long time.
And don't ask me about TNT.
You're a troll, but I'll bite... :). You can really feel that you are part of the game universe. No matter if the realism is sloppy as in CS, or the graphics are outdated as in U5, the FEELING is there. I want to escape from this world to a world of fantasy at least for a few hours per day, not just a breather - or even worse - watch TV for Bevery Hills 90210 reruns...
:)
What I don't understand is that somehow, gaming, especially PC gaming, is *still*(despite gaming business going beyond movie business back in '95) considered, if anything "childish". People will "grow out" of games, and if they do play games it's merely a 30-minute breather after work before dinner is ready.
Considering that men, and especially geeks are eternal children, I really don't see the point of bashing those having fun in the immersion of a computer game. With an immersive game I mean something that truly gives you the 'being there'-feeling). Counter-Strike, Falcon 4, Operation Flashpoint, Thief, Ultima V
So, keep on gaming and be proud of your hobby
Looks like my buddy just wasted $50 on Tribes 2...
Why is this a waste? Has the game suddenly self-destructed because the company no longer has a smiling receptionist and plush offices? Is he unable to enjoy it because of a terrible, gnawing concern over the fate of the poor employees? Is the thought that there might never be a Tribes 3 causing him to see the futility in fighting for the destiny of the inhabitants of Tribes 2?
Do you _really_ believe that all online play will suddenly become impossble without Dynamix? It's a big title - someone will pick it up.
Ironically, Windows is probably required to view this but here is a C|NET video clip of an IBM engineer ripping on Bill Gates right in front of him.
My favorite part is the little geek "high five" to the coworker next to him. Looks like they planned this.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
Games have been shown, and I am sure you all have anecdotal evidence to prove it, to improve productivity at IT firms.
Are shareholders at Dynamix aware of the effect that this will have on the technology sector as a whole?
The ongoing demoralization of people at these firms can only be complicated by this development.
Goat sex free since 2001
Maybe the price of Tribes2 will start falling so normal people can buy it (I bought mine used at EB fer $25 :). If this spells the end for T2 it'd be a shame cause this is the first game in a while that actually looked like it coulda been a killer app. If you look at the minimum requirements you'll see that this game need some descent horse power just to get off the ground, pIII/thunderbird and 3D accel better than voodoo2. Hell.. A friend og mine hase q3 runing on an overclocked p166mmx with a voodoo3. Granted he only gets 30 fps. Too bad T2 was too damn expensive. Oh well, I'm just hoping the Linux version drops in price and the online game finder\player still works.
I almost cried the day I heard that Sierra was taken over by a French (I hated them already, this was just fuel to my fire) megacorp and was shutting down production of ALL the games that made them famous in the first place.
:) heh - check out 'Roger Wilco's Broomcloset' run by Jess Morrisette (sorry, don't know HTML)
When they killed off Space Quest (amazing stuff!!), Kings Quest, QFG, PQ etc etc. they didn't just take a few games off the market - they killed off an entire GENRE of computer games, games many people grew up playing.
Sure, it's great to get out your awp and blast holes in people when playing counterstrike, or run in guns blazing with Quake, even develop an army and tactical attacks on the latest Dune 2 remake (because let's face it, that's all they are nowadays). But I'll never forget the infuriating, involving and downright entertaining times I had playing Sierra's quest games. Modern 'adventure' games don't even come close - I've played 'Blade of Darkness' and both Diablos, but where is the puzzle that takes an inventive and amusing solution to complete and leaves you with a sense of accomplishment when you get past it?
Where's the involving storyline, the interesting characters?
Quest games (Sierra oldschool) are gone, but they need to be resurrected - both for first time gamers (ages 10+) to develop lateral thinking skills and the idea of following a storyline, but also for us veterans who just miss the genre.
That's my opinion anyway.
-Nano.
p.s. I want to see a Spacequest Movie made
Tribes 2 does suck. The product release was a complete disaster. Took them weeks to make it barely loadable/playable. I waited a year for T2 to be released, pre-ordered, next-day'ed and what did I get? A beta/alpha product who's minimum/recommended specifications were so unrealistic - my machine surpassed the recommended setup and I still received sub 30fps, sometimes as low as 10fps.
A good friend of mine works at Dynamix and was in fact the production manager for Tribes 2, he had NO IDEA that this was going to happen, apparently no one told the employees anything. So now he's out of work unless by some miracle he's one of the tiny handful of people that Sierra decides to keep on in some capacity. This is definately a bad thing for all involved...
I'll try to get in touch with him to get more info as soon as I can, he should be online sometime today.
Kintanon
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
Sierre is spending money on better games than Tribes2 now. :)
Didn't Tribes 1 require Glide (i.e. a Voodoo card)? I didn't think it could be played at all on Direct3D or OpenGL.
Knocking down the 5's? I actually had a 3 (top-level thread) knocked down in an article today.
:-/
I thought it was interesting. So did 3 moderators.
One comes by, and suddenly it's only score 2, and everybody with their thresholds set to +3 can't read it.
Oh well, such is the way of moderation, I guess...
Damn, if those servers go, it's back to Rune.
If Chaos Theory has taught us anything, it's that we must kill all the butterflies.
Umm, Stellar 7(new) was the sequel to Arctic Fox. If Arctic Fox was a sequel to Stellar 7(old), so be it, but don't say that it was a remake of Stellar 7(old), because it wasn't.
That's 'cuz Sierra forced them to release early, so it would show on Q2 as profit, much like this mass layoff will show a nice cost-cut on Q3 books.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Now if we could only say the same to the rest of Sierra.
Wouldn't Loki still be able to update the Linux version. If the win32 port is no longer updated, couldn't this potentially be the killer game app that forces the masses to Linux? I'm guessing this all depends on what rights Loki has to the game code.
Praying for the end of your wide-awake nightmare.
1. Buy a little company that puts out great games and has a loyal following.
2. Force them to release a game too early and spend months releasing patches to fix the problems.
3. Fire the staff and close the company once the game comes near to a final product.
I'll never buy another Sierra product again. And this is from a guy that bought *both* the Win32 and Linux versions of Tribes 2!
They really have some idiots running Sierra, eh?
1) Die
2) Go into seizures
3) Make a really good comic about this
or 4) All of the above
But, um, GOD DAMN. Is there no hope for GOOD GAME DEVELOPERS in this modern age?!?!
-NeoTomba
Rock and Roll may still turn out to be a "flash in the pan", my friend, on the relative geologic scale of human endeavour.
I am for the complete Trantorization of Earth.
What would you say the potential for World War II online is? I haven't met anyone who actually plays it, but I've been somewhat interested in it. Are there battles between whole divisions at a time or is it just a few people here, a few people there? Also, does everyone just sign up for the allies as I picture them doing so?
WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
However, in line with Vivendi's (the French parent company) thinking, we will soon see:
Personally, I can't wait!
What'dya mean there's no BLINK tag!?
It was nearly free (as in beer) -- I had never played with it, but always wanted to. The thought of licensing an engine for $100 was always intriguing to me, even if they didn't have a Linux port (blasphemy!).
..
What will happen to these licensenees? Will GarageGames.com continue?
.. and more importantly
Who will support my copy of Stellar 7 for the Amiga?!
Jason F
I really like this game, it is the only FPS I've wasted my time playing in the past few months.
....
I'm curious why (or if?) Dynamix is the only software house this is happening to with the merger. It doesn't seem like they are dead wieght, I mean Tribes 2 is a great game and I can't see why it should see an early end.
If only the source code would somehow 'accidently leak' out now
I watched my good friend from high school pour his heart and soul into this game. They re-invented the FPS and brought people together in a way which was more positive than other team games like tac ops and team fortress only tried to do. I would send my bud an email to console him but his account is probably already locked out :(
Well hopefully Loki has the rights to continue with the game. This is a sad day for gamers.
What this means is that most of the target audience for Tribes 2 has already bought the game. Management knows this, and so they will feel completely justified in cutting off T2 support, since most of the profits from the game have already been made.
And from upper management's point of view, things like "customer satisfaction" mean nothing in this case, because it doesn't have a dollar sign in front of it.
Oh, I can attest to that - my SO recently (at the office she works at) brought home a box and T-shirt. Inside the box:
Some pins (western style - a boot, a horse, something else)
Some blue cord
Some red beads
At her job is red and blue paint (BTW, if you haven't guessed it, red and blue are - tada - company colors)
She damn near killed me when I asked her if that was her "flair" package...
Sad thing is, it was...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Dynamix had about 100 employees... about 30 of them were working on Tribes 2. so, obviously, there was a lot of slack there. Tribes 2 is being advertised on http://www.sierra.com startup page. It's not like they aren't going to support it anymore. the master servers will still be up! And I have a feeling that if anyone at dynamix is going to be offered a job with Sierra, it's going to be those that were working on Tribes 2.
Sierra also killed the Babylon 5 game when they were taken over by Havas. Eventhough previews for the game were great, a ton of people were waiting to buy it, and development was nearly done.
Corporations couldn't care less about customers.
D
The first, last, and only tech news site on the net
here are some posts from dynamix employees that i've ripped from http://www.tribalwar.com "It is true that the lot of us were locked out of the building today. Why this is happening nobody knows for certain, aside from those in upper management at Siera/Vivendi. The whole thing is quite a shock for most of us, aside from those few in upper management at Dynamix who could not manage the meager bit of human decency that it would have taken to give us a warning. It is like that in corporate america, these people really do not seem to have come equipped with a soul. I blame the 60-70 percent of Sierra that has nothing to do with creating anything but instead leech of the top like a bloated lamprey. Not only are they the cause of this situation, but they are the ones that stand to benefit in the short term whether they intended it or not. This liquidation is all about artificially inflating 3rd quarter profits for V/U, much like releasing before the game was ready wasabout inflating 2nd quarter profits.We should have become wary last week when a part of Dynamix management took their sick days afterreturning from a visit to Sierra One thing I would like to say about the Tribes team: Please do not hate Dave Georgeson or the rest of the team. We all busted our asses and worked longer thanhumans ought to to make this game great, and you willsee that the latest beta patch has many of thefeatures that were cut for release, and the stabilityand performance that it should have had. Dave did whathe could to make this game work and fought for moretime when Sierra insited that we ship a buggy game. He also has been religious about reading beta and meta tester's input and post release comments and doingwhat he can to make the game what the audience wanted. Please do not flame this guy. He can be a bit of a jerk sometimes, and working under him was hard, but I really think that he tried to do you right with T2. (Dave, Mitch, and Eric can ignore that comment). Trust me, this whole thing is a lot more complex that that, and cuts straight to the heart of the greed of VU's corporate interests. If you work for a major conglomerate, this will happen to you too someday. These types do not care about you or anything but cash. I would like to say also: Thank you for your help in making the game. We tried always to weigh game changes against the community's wishes, and where we have failed, it was not for trying. We did our best. So long, and thanks for all the Fish. See you in the pubs." and from Rated Z, a dynamix employee (and great tribes player) " Ok, I've kept my mouth shut for a long time. I'm Eric, and working for Dave wasn't "hard", it was fucked! I will never work for anyone like that again. Whoever you are, Anonymous employee, no offense, but you must have had an office in the far corner. As for Dave trying to do you (the Tribes playing public) right: Bullshit. Dave did what Dave wanted to do. And Dave's "you" was the 5 guys on TW that posted 2 page bitches about one thing or another who managed to offend him enough that he replied. Actually, I shouldn't even say "caught his attention" since a major part of his day was spent surfing and posting on TW. Dave G is/was PRODUCER, not Publicist, QA Lead, Art Director, and Lead Designer. There were 30+ people on that team; everyone of them worked very hard, and very long. How many of them have you even heard of? I love Starsiege: Tribes. I've played 5+ days per week, since the day it came out. First, as BMF Balefire, then as Rated z. I try hard not to appear a bitter, petty, disgruntled ex-employee, but I'm sicker than shit of the spin doctoring that I've seen on this forum in the last few months. So here I am, disgruntled and saying "Fuck that." "
If I buy a car and have a miserable experience with the dealership or company, I can always get my next car somewhere else.
Games, unlike cars, are one of a kind. When a great new game comes out, you don't have the option of choosing which publisher to get it from; you take it or leave it.
Suppose Tribes 3 was published by Sierra in a few years. How many people here would honestly not get it because of what Sierra did to Dynamix?
I would have at least expected Siera to keep the core programmers and artists since it's them more than anyone else that made Tribes what it is today. I don't have much hope that a Tribes 3 would be just as good.
It appears that it was an AC that posted it- they START at zero.
It was never modded to begin with.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
hangs out on efnet #celebs-n-models. nice guy.
Let's not forget how they shut down "Babylon 5: Into the Fire" after about 75% of it had already been finished, but subsequently refused to give the ex-developers access to their work.
It really seems that Sierra Management consists of the most clueless of assholes, worse than anything else you usually see in the world of the big game developers...
- Starting WWI
- Bending over for the Nazis
- Indochine^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HVietnam
- Participating in the destruction of gaming as we know it
Of course no. 4 is less serious than the previous three, but I think we can all conclude that France makes messes that others have to clean up. T2 is just the latest victim.Let's get drunk and delete production data!
You mean ... moderators are idiots?!
Stop the presses!
Like other recent stories where some of us looked back to when we were teenagers BBS'ing and stuff, this thread brought it back.
I'm a UKian, but for three months lived in San Diego, CA - I got my first proper computer, an AST PremiumExec 386sx/20, and ran a WWIV BBS. (Was anyone here ever a user of Xcellent! BBS in 619? It would be cool to chat.) I went out and bought Red Baron and was amazed! It was something like six discs and seemed massive, hi-tech and atmospheric. I also got Heart Of China which took ages to complete - it had a plot about saving a nurse from some triad in China, and that only got completed a couple of years ago =). It was my first real foray into big, good, games, and though I don't play them much now, it gives me plenty of nostalgia! I remember me and a Russian friend got 4D Drive and 4D Boxing, and a few others...
Ah memories.
thenerd.
The camels are coming. I'm in love.
Tribes players knew about it around August 9th at 7PM.
Have you ever played Space Quest - the lost chapter? I'm sure there are other fan created games in the devestation left after the sierra shutdowns...
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
This is very true - but it doesn't alter the fact that the first thing a loser always types after dying is "damn lag!"
After two bad experiances getting games from Sierra (as publishers) I decided to pass on by.
One of the two was Lords of Magic. Quite honestly the game was buggy, features were missing (like the note in the Readme file that going to the World map would crash the game). This was nothing but Beta at best and I was very anoyed after 2 months waiting for patches, to the point that I just gave up.
THe other (whose name eludes me), looked nice, I say looked nice because I never got to play it. It had a bug where it couldn't handle your CD-Rom drive being anything besides D. I had two Hard-Drives in the machine. They offered to let me send it in and they would replace the media for a nominal cost (realise I just spent $20 on the game).
At that point I wrote off Sierra for good and have actually been excited about a product, and have forced myself to put it back on the shelf and walk away when I see the Sierra logo on the side.
Which brings us back to the present. They are acting as publishers for a rather intersting new game thats due out in about two weeks Arcanum The music they have on-line is wonderful. The demo I downloaded is intreging enough that I just might buy it even though it has a kiss of death from them. It also looks like it is designed to have other games plug into it to expand the universe (ala modules in D&D). I would recomend any fan of games like Baldur's Gate or Septera Core to take a look at it.
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
I give high praise to the A/V teacher for his life achievements. How he got convinced to teach there is beyond me. I'd also say the animation program's department head is an excellent find, because of her knowledge of hand-drawn techniques and colour theory. I've found the other instructors to be mostly current on software, somewhat knowledgeable of the content they're teaching, and mostly lacking in real product experience. If you're thinking "i'm going to make games for a living", just because you took this program, you'll be in for a shock. If you're stressed by the academic environment and work provided by the college, I find that interesting, because I found it excessively slow-paced, way too easy, and unrealistic to the normal development times of the software industry. Basically do nothing for 95% of the time and you can still graduate easily if you have a few brain cells. At best, you'll go out of your way to learn all that you can outside of the college curriculum, because it isn't sufficient to get anyone a job into any game development company. The only exceptions I know of, are from people that had years of experience and/or education before taking the program. Some guy works for Matrox, he had some university and wrote an engine 'before' going to the college. One makes PlayStation games, he taught himself OpenGL in his spare time. (Obviously didn't need to spend it on college work) Anyway, enjoy making Arkanoid & Pacman clones. That's all they'll teach you. They assume no one knows how to program or do graphics when you start. They should require a college/university degree in computer science or graphics design so they could maybe teach more advanced topics. Not that they would have anyone to teach advanced topics... Try www.gameinstitute.com They seem to have a little more advanced & relevant education. It would be a good addition to what the college teaches. (Well, a start to the oodles of information really required to make games)
There was one patch the week it came out. And it runs on (from what I have seen on forums in a variety of places) abut 95% of the machines that meet the sequirements. There was some issue of spyware(Not it T2, in stuff like Audiogalaxy) somehow causing errors in T2, but that was resloved.
However, an entire company of people who signed such agreements wouldn't be able to survive. They would have an injunction slapped on them immediately and their investors would probably sue them for not disclosing their legal liability, etc. Isn't this a great world we're living in?
My laptop has an ATI Rage w/ 8 mb (Celeron 600) and I can play, just at a low detail level. If you're expecting to be above 40 fps all the time you'll probably need a 1Ghz machine and at least a GF2 w/ 64 MB, probably at least a GTS.
Tribes 2 is mainly an online game. If the master servers get taken down, you can no longer play online (except over a LAN). Hence, your money would be wasted.
T2 was the most bug ridden piece o' crap ever to be mass produced on the CD media. There were over 30 patches the first week it was out, and yet it still doesn't run at all on 20% of the machines out there. UE error after UE error. It's about time a company that tries to rip off the public got shut down.
"Red Baron" was the best flightsim of the genre for many years and the predecesser to the dynamic campaigns that are now in Rowans "Mig-Alley" and "Battle of Britain". "Aces of the Pacific", "Aces over Europe" and "A10" were all great games as well.
"Red Baron II" I thought was a great game as well, despite the bellyaching which filled the forums, it gave me a lot enjoyment over a long period, much longer than most games. The semi-dynamic nature of the campaign allowed for continued playability without boredom.
About three years ago, the Dynamix team was building the "Desert Fighters" sim, with a dynamic campaign, and lot's of exotics that hadnt been in a flight sim before, such as the Italian Air Force, and lots of exotic aircraft unique to the theatre. With Havas buying Sierra, the game got cut while in Beta testing. Which was a sad day for flightsimming, I am sure Dynamix would have raised the bar for flightsims again. The flighsim team wa cut and all Dynamix development went into Tribes.
With those decisions, the tentative "Aces over the Pacific II" went the way of "Desert Fighters" too. I was really annoyed when "Desert Fighters" got cut, especially so close to release. The Dynamix line of FlightSims had been great games all.
I bet a lot of people interested in flight simming owe there fascination with the genre from Red Baron. I know I do, thanks Red Baron, I have probably spent far and away more on flight sim games than one copy of RB would have costed way back when.
macam
shouldn't that be WASD fare well? (sorry, sorry)
Hmmm.. considering a GeForce2 GTS/32mb is about 1/4th the speed of a GeForce3 (I get 200+ fps on UT easily.) Tribes 2 is playable on my K6-400 w/ TNT2 if you turn down the detail settings about half way. You're just expecting too much out of an Athlon 650 when for less than $100 you can more than double your speed.
It has been for a long time. No matter how brilliant a post you make, it'll hardly stay at 5 for very long - some dickjuice moderator will come by a few days after the discussion has died down and he'll dock you one Karma point with an Over-Rated.
It's almost as if some punk-ass retard uses his moderation points to simply go over old posts and knocking down the 5's.
As for the whole Tribes 2 bit, it's no secret that there are a lot of Tribes 2 fans. It's quite a popular game. I'm sure a lot of Slashdot readers are Tribes 2 players, but no matter how good a game is, that won't protect the developer from having to keep moving forward constantly.
Cavedog's excellent Total Annihilation didn't keep them around, and there are STILL dedicated TA fans out there.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
It looks like Sierra is trying to shed itself of any remaining talent and decency. They pull this kind of crap every year, screwing over some part of their workforce. It's no wonder the company does so poorly, they shoot themselves in the foot annually. "Oh, gee, we have so few good titles, we're not making much money. Let's dump the people that make our few remaining good games, and save money! YEAH!"
Some people don't understand the concept that moderators should focus on moderating up rather than down.
Oh, for a second there, I thought the article might be talking about Dynamix.net, where one can get all that good japanese porn.
It seems to me that the adventure gaming genre pretty much died when 320x240 went out of style.
Once King's Quest 8 went to 640x480 hi-color, that series went downhill, with Space Quest coming soon after.
For anyone looking to return to the low-res days, though, do some searching for abandonware. A great place to start is The Gaming Depot.
Actually, as a game developer, I can tell you that during crunch time, when the stress is at it's highest, we are way more likely to kill other people, rather then ourselves.
Being that Stellar 7(old) was written long before Arctic Fox, your point is moot.
Voodoo cards run better if you use wickedGL drivers or the specific patch for it floating out there. But, it is the MINIMUM system. Don't forget that the MINIMUM system to run win95 is "386sx-16 with 4mb ram." Win95 dogged on a 486-66.
They had also just started work on a new killer game
...
It had the best 3D engine I've ever seen
Anything wrong here? I smell bullshit. Or at least a very limited exposure to 3D engines.
Absolutely... and to think that Starcraft was released back in 97. All this latest greatest eyecandy stuff is BS. Starcraft uses 2-D bitmaps and still works these newere modern FPS games.
Well.. i guess it wasn't like we were going to get one anyway.
Damn. Tribes is the only fps that's ever captured my attention, i think.
I encourage anybody interested in adventure games to give it a try if you haven't already. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
This is really great news, because now all their cool software will become Open Source, and I don't have to pay the $50 for Tribes2!
Not necessarily. Because Tribes 2 is scriptable, in theory cheats could be counter-acted by community developed server mods. Consider CSHP (Client-Side Hack Protection) for UT. It's just a script you install on your server, to help get rid of those damn aimbots. Granted, CSHP isn't perfect, but it's a lot better than the alternative.
There's nothing to say something similar couldn't be done for Tribes 2, if a cheat like that appeared.
well, the master servers, auth servers, and IRC servers for T2 are run by WON.net. The only thing that isn't is irc.dynamix.com, which from what i understand is pretty much bytor's baby.
You forget Nova 9 which was the sequel to Stellar 7. I actually still have my copy of Nova 9 but I haven't ever tried to see if it will run under Win95 or not. It might as I've played Aces over the Pacific and A10 under Win95.
Plus the Tribes 2 designer would go along with the game. I personally think Garage Games should take it under it's wing, but that's just a personal feeling.
Did I already said all i needed was a freakin spinfuser and a jetpack?
It can't be #3 or #4, because the act of Penny Arcade EVER making a "really good comic" would be a far more groundbreaking event than the death of Dynamix.
Deathtrack.
and of course Abrams m1a1.
spent way too much time on my 286 playing those
and you forgot some game about "Abrams" tank simulation, I remember their logo in the beginning...
The Computer Game industry always seems to be this brutal, why should anyone in a subsidiary of Sierra actually be surprised, didn't they do just the same thing the year before, and the year before that?
Actually, I think the first warning to any of the developers on a project is when their company is bought by another. Followed closely by their shipping of the product.
In essence, your nothing but a contract programmer when you work on a computer game, and its probably even worse for the graphic artist and other "support" specialties.
Not an industry for the faint at heart, all guts and no glory.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I have attended Tribescon 1999 and Tribescon 2000, even have a signed Tribes 1 box with all the developers on it. (Very cool!) Very sad to hear about Sierra's sleazy business practices. But then Tribes2 was just about patched enough to play. Wonder if they ever get the VCR Demo record function working correctly. Guess we just have to wait and see.
Also, I wonder who shows up from Dynamix at Tribecon3. Humm, Ill buy first round of beers for the Dynamix crew. (-;
The Incredible Machine was a kid's game that I played because of the puzzles. What a waste.
I am for the complete Trantorization of Earth.
i'd still play TA over starcrap anyday
I think an Athlon 650, 256mb RAM, GeForce2 GTS/32mb is fine enough hardware don't you? Meets & exceeds the minimum requirements. Latest drivers, blah blah. I can get 80fps in UT with full detail. Yes, UT is an old game. But it was never designed the GeForce/NVIDIA cards anyway, so it's hacked to death to make it work with non Voodoo cards. The 3DMark 2000 tests ran smoother at the highest resoltuion/detail levels than Tribes 2 on this machine.
Actually, in almost all cases, downsizing includes one-time charges that cost more than retaining the employees for the quarter, or even half a year longer. Additionally, NY investors have grown tired of the "downsizing to reduce costs and increase profits" argument, so while it might cause future profits to increase, the gains won't materialize for another year or so.
And A10 Tank Killer
http://www.bullnet.com
Washington D.C., 8-10-01
.to kill people.
I salute you all for your spirited endeavourations in the field of the entertainment industry . When I visited the beutiful country of Eugene during my recent European tour, I was enthused by the reaction I received from the vibrant and dynamic population there. I'm sure that I've shaken the hands of more than a few Dynamix employees during my visit. I'm sure your excellent developments in the fields of military transport will not soon be always remembered.
In an impromptu statement, president George W. Bush has responded to the news of the closure of respected development house Dynamix with regret. A full transcript follows:
It has come to my attention that the the government of Sierra has decided to redundementalize the employees and workers of the fine people at Dynamix. I have been advised that I am highly regretful of this development and would like to ensure the recently unemployed future ex-employees that this great, free nation of ours still welcomes you all as citizens. America is a place for people of all races and creeds. Except for freeloaders, of cousre. And people who write those awful, violent video games that cause the youth of our great nation to violence. . to violate. .
I want the fire back.
I running a 1.33GHz Athlon, 64MB GeForce 2 GTS Pro, and a cable modem. It runs great with all details turned up. I haven't checked the fps lately, as long as I find it responsive and playable, it doesn't matter to me.
TELL IT, brother! Can I Get An AMEN! T&A > TA > StarCrack Bah.
Betrayel at Krondor!
Far as I'm concerned that's still one of the best computer games ever released. It was one of the primary reasons for the purchase of my second computer (the first being a tandy 1000, which didn't meet the minimum system requirements, alas). Not only did it have great gameplay and an interesting plot, but it has one of the best soundtracks of any pc game I know of, up to current times. Heck, I bought a second copy of the game when it came out on CD, since they redbooked the music so I could listen to it outside the game. The two sequels, alas, were absolutely terrible, but the original still stands tall.
I'm not a big fps fan, but the loss of the company that brought the world Betrayel at Krondor fills me with sadness. You will be missed, Dynamix.
~The.Hunter
"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain."
Meanwhile, Valve (also a Sierra company), hasn't released anything in over two years and is still going strong? I don't get it.
Earthsiege 1 & 2
Battledrome
when suits make decisions, gamers lose. it's as simple as that. example: ultima online 2. i would say "back to the garage," but it takes a million $ to make a decent commercial-quality game nowadays. perhaps there's hope in the mod scene. i.e. maps, conversions, neverwinter nights campaigns.
Let's get drunk and delete production data!
Boo fuckin' hoo. Before my upgrade, I ran Tribes2 on a Celeron300 overclocked to 450, on a damn-near no-name BX board (Lucky-Star 6ABX2V), with 288Mb of PC100 no name RAM, and a Creative Labs GeForce Pro. If I could get decent framerates at 800*600*32 on that piece of shit, then there's no excuse for anyone else to bitch about performance. On my new P3 1GHz, Cusl2-C, 512Mb PC133 system it smokes. If you can't get your machine to work right it's your problem. Either it sucks, or you do.
Quest games (Sierra oldschool) are gone, but they need to be resurrected - both for first time gamers (ages 10+) to develop lateral thinking skills and the idea of following a storyline, but also for us veterans who just miss the genre.
:)
This could happen. There is already an opensource Sierra On-Line Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI) in development at sarien.sourceforge.net . It would not be too much of a stretch to develop new AGI titles based on sarien.
Any wannabe game developers out there?
Oops, I just accidently posted the entire sourcecode to tribes and tribes2... dang, not them script kiddies are gonna spread it all over the internet...
Does this mean I will find no more soft asian pr0n on www.dynamix.net ?
happily, I still have the hun
Quite frankly, I've seen horse shit that had less horse shit in it.
Kind of throws doubt onto your other claim:
Also, I heard from my friend that the staff have taken their revenge and stolen nearly *all* of the equipment that Dynamix had. Nice :-)
I'm quite sure that most (if not all!) of the developers at Dynamix are not criminals.
Tim
PS. Interesting to see that this has been modded up, whereas the reply commenting that the poster doesn't know much about 3D engines has been modded down. Sheesh.
tribalwar.com has more on this, and apparently some (ex)-Dynamix employees are dropping into the forums (look for the topics with like 20 pages of replies).
Sierra merged with Columbia, huh? Well, maybe Dyanmix can offer to make a sequel to the Aces Over [campaign] series starring Mat Daemon and Ben Afflick.
when salmon are outlawed, only outlaws will have salmon
I'm still content to play UT:Tactical-Ops and Starcraft. ;-)
I've just finished D2:LOD, and it seems, no matter what game I get slightly sidetracked by, I always come back to Starcraft (Brood War).
I wish they'd bring out a new Starcraft, or even just another add-on like Brood.
War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
I fondly remember the Dynamix logo on one of my favorite games for the Amiga, ArcticFox, way back in 1986 or so, back before Dynamix had anything to do with Sierra.
You guys did fine work, and will be missed.
- jon
Ganymede, a GPL'ed metadirectory for UNIX
No, it's because they dicked around in beta for two YEARS.
I can't believe they're gone.
We're on the road to Tycho.
Back when I was in college in the late 80's (till about '91 or so) I used to deliver pizza to the Dynamix office.
Eventually, they got an charge account. The old bookkeeper thought they were a cement mixing company (she always pronounced it dyna-mix.) When she found out it was a software company, she thought that giving them a charge account wasn't a bright move, as she said "computers are just a flash in the pan".
Let's not forget that these are the wonderful people who brought us:
Red Baron
Betrayal At Krondor
Aces over the Pacific
Tribes 1&2
Outpost
The Incredible Machine
The Adventures of Willy Beamish
Stellar 7 (anyone remember that one?)
Red Baron was the first truly engrossing gaming experience that I had as a child. Playing Red Baron on The Sierra Network (later renamed The Imagination Network) was an experience far, far ahead of its time.
Farewell Dynamix, you served us well.
Bob Slydell: "We find it's always better to fire people on a Friday. Studies have statistically shown that there's less chance of an incident if you do it at the end of the week."
I worked for Dynamix in the late 90's and it was both the best and worst work experience I have ever had. Best because all of the designers, programmers and artists I worked with were highly dedicated, creative and fun. Worst because we all knew that Sierra was fubar and the Cendant/Havas/Vivendi conglomerate owners were pinheaded imbeciles. This does not surprise me AT ALL. In fact one of the main reasons I left was that I could see the handwriting on the wall. For anyone who bought a Dynamix game post '95 and had problems with it: every single game that was shipped with 'significant issues' (and there were a few) was kicked out the door, usually for Christmas, by upper level management. Sorry about that, but the developers were doing their best. Sad, sad, sad.
I am refusing to upgrade until the next Duke Nukem comes out.
I am for the complete Trantorization of Earth.
Customer loyalty is obtained in one of several ways- of which "customer satisfaction" is one of those things.
Piss off too many customers and they tell their friends, etc. There's a bitter harvest Sierra's going to harvest at some point and Vivendi's going to pull the plug on the whole division at some point. Of course, it's nothing but business, right?
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
And all of those games you listed are around 10 years old!
...All I can say is that my life is pretty strange...
You might want to check out Escape from Monkey Island and Gabriel Knight 3, and their predecessors.
Tribes 2 is a fantasic game.. what are you talking about? I've been playing it since Loki released the Linux version. If you don't have decent hardware, yeah, you won't get much performance. But this isn't designed for 1999 hardware.
... Is because they din't make a decent demo for Tribes 2. They are not ID Software & don't have millions.
Here is what I have uncovered:
0 .h tml
0 .h tml
...
http://www.sierra.com/corp/mr/relea...760,540,0
Here we find that....
"Thomas K. Hernquist has joined the company as President & CEO"
and
"Michael A. Ryder has joined Sierra as COO and Senior Vice President of Product Development"
But it doesn't give their email addresses. But wait, it gets interesting from here. I kept looking for email address from sierra and guess what. They have the very basic system that is used in so many corporate environments:
http://www.sierra.com/corp/mr/relea...760,540,0
Here you can see
Contact Information:
Kathy Gilmore Miller
Kathy.Miller@ sierra.com
Kathy had nothing to do with this, but when you look at her email address it become pretty clear that they simply use the firstname.lastname@sierra.com system for their emails.
That gives us...
Thomas.Hernquist@sierra.com
Michael.Ryder@sierra.com
So. Here is where I beg you not to be an ass. These guys will only listen if we are unified and consistent in our message. Just sending the words "FUCK YOU" isn't the message. It's pointless and wont change anything (even if it might make you feel better...)
The real message, IMO, is this:
"Destroying a division to increase short term profits is a sign of bad management. We are unhappy with the way that you have handled the situation with Dynamix. Your disregard for your employees will result in a boycott. You should reconsider your decision before it's too late."
Feel free to copy and paste this.
> How much better would things be now if Richard Garriott never sold (or had to sell) Origin to EA?
:sigh:)
Things wouldn't be any better. As Richard Garriott said himself, Origin wasn't big enough to survive by itself because Origin didn't have the muscle and deep pockets to grease the distribution channels well enough.
The reason EA does so well is that its management understands the distribution channel and has the size to pay the big stores to display their games.
(This also ignores the fact that with Ultima 6 and Ultima 7 Origin pushed itself to the financial breaking point.
"All the darkness in the world can not quench the light of one small candle."
If I spend $10 going to see a movie whose production company has been shut down, is my $10 wasted? Not unless the movie sucks.. and from what I've heard, Tribes 2 doesn't suck...
A game is entertainment, not an investment...
>> How much better would things be now if Richard Garriott never sold (or had to sell) Origin to EA?
>Things wouldn't be any better. As Richard Garriott said himself, Origin wasn't big enough to survive by itself because Origin didn't have the muscle and deep pockets to grease the distribution channels well enough.
I understand that, that's why I wished he never had to sell. Sadly, I knew he couldn't keep it on his own, I just think (financial considerations aside) that Origin, Sierra, and others would be making much better games if they were still under control of people willing to take risks to make a great game. A far cry from EA who will not publish a game it does not think will be a bestseller
And now we know the real reason why HalfLife is so popular. It seems that the middle of the gamer population runs at about 3 years behind in tech.
I Browse at +4 Flamebait
Open Source Sysadmin
You may want to look at Tribes 1 instead. You can probably pick it up for about $10, the gameplay is just as good as Tribes 2 and there are plenty of mature mods, and it runs well on older hardware.
I guess it just shows how much of a minority PC games are when a game thats sold 200k is considered top of the line, while crap thrown together with a PSX target platform will sell at least that much.
I Browse at +4 Flamebait
Open Source Sysadmin
I haven't bought a computer game from Dynamix in years. Sierra is not the best software compnay in the world but it is ok. Oh well. I don't think very many people are going to miss them.
Just because a bunch of people believe or do something stupid, doesn't make it any less stupid.
Form a company that develops software for obsolete consoles. There are heaps of them out there and it takes less money to develop for the limited systems -- more skill, but less money. Just think how well a new game for the SNES would sell.
When I lived down in Eugene, Oregon I always heard about Dynamix laying off people and how Sierra was such a weird company to work for. There is no way I would work for that company. Stability was the last thing Sierra has ever been able to offer.
In the past year or two, the following has happened:
Sierra shuts down their Yosemite division, firing some great programmers, game designers, and others. This was the group (for the most part) responsible for the great Kings Quest, Quest for Glory (earlier Hero's Quest), Police Quest, and many others.
Origin systems closes down in two phases. They went "Online Only" after Ultima IX, and those that stayed with the company were assigned to work on Ultima Online 2. Earlier this year, with the game a good deal finished, Electronic Arts stopped production on the game and fired all the employees.
Looking Glass studios, the maker of great, revolutionary titles like Thief I and II, and Ultima Underworld I and II shuts down due to lack of funds (mostly because Eidos had to sink so much money into Ion Storm to keep Daikatana afloat).
And now, as this story mentions, the gutting of Sierra is almost over, with Dynamix (the source of my favorite game of all time: Betrayal at Krondor and may others) being shut down.
I really worry about where the industry is going. There are many other companies that are wholly owned by larger companies that have had the quality of their products go down hill - New World Computing (of Might and Magic fame) has been taken down that road by 3DO, not to mention others.
How much better would things be now if Richard Garriott never sold (or had to sell) Origin to EA? The same could be said of Ken Williams selling Sierra. This list goes on and on.
Well, I'm done rambling on about the game industry. I'll go back to browsing the game stores for real games while avoiding "Who Want's to be a Gazillionaire 12" or "The Sims 15th Expansion Pack", or whatever crap the industry makes money on.
Incedentally my first word-processing software was Sierra's Homestar Plus for the Commodore 64. Yes, Sierra made a Wordproccessor!
If Sierra is the developer then they are directly responsible for the game. Buy it or boycott it - whatever you do will reflect straight back to them.
But if Sierra is publishing the game and a 3rd party is doing the development, then you are doing the 3rd party a disservice if you boycott the product simply because Sierra is getting the game on the store shelves for them (for example, where would Valve be today...)
it's funny ... the moron moderators modded you down for complaining about them! Slashdot is definately on a downhill slide.
The parent company of Sierra has run the entire business into the ground. Sierra used to be amazing. Now it's the poster child for repackaging the same stale products every year.
When I first read this, I thought "What do Slashdot readers care about exercise music?" Then I realized that you don't mean this Dynamix company. They are a leader in creating the types of music aerobics instructors use to teach their classes. Silly me... You meant the other Dynamix. ;D
1. Buy a little company that puts out great games and has a loyal following.
2. Force them to release a game too early and spend months releasing patches to fix the problems.
3. Fire the staff and close the company once the game comes near to a final product.
I'll never buy another Sierra product again. And this is from a guy that bought *both* the Win32 and Linux versions of Tribes 2!
They really have some idiots running Sierra, eh?
1. Tribes 2 was in beta for TWO YEARS. If you call 2 years in beta and THEN being forced to put up or shut up 'too early', I don't know what planet you're from. If the developers hadn't had their heads up their asses, they wouldn't have needed all those patches.
2. It's not Sierra; it's Vivendi that makes decisions like this. Clue for you: Dynamix is owned by Havas, which is now Vivendi.
*salute* Good job Dynamix, I think I speak for quite a few when I say we'll miss your work...
.ph0x
Forming their own company could be a great solution... I mean it's the whole company being flushed - and they do have skill. I would think it would be worth their effort to create a new company out from under Sierra.
---
ps -aux | grep mind
With only 15 minutes to clear out I wonder what it was like. Were there mobs of people running around screaming holding their most dearest possesions?? The whole thing is unbelievable.
There's a petition to save Dynamix up here.
Dunno what good it will do, but it's worth a try.
"One NIC to route them all, one NIC to find them, one NIC to serve them all, and in the darkness BIND(8) them."
I remember back in the early 90's when Sierra was much like a movie studio in that they only released a new game every couple months and made a big deal out of it. It was like a special even when a new King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, Liesure Suit Larry, or one of their new line of games was released.
Somewhere along the way, Sierra got bought out and they started churning out crap. I'm talking about buggy software, stuff that just wasn't fun, etc. They tried to broaden their line of games and ended up spreading themselves too thin.
The only Dynamix games that really come to mind right now are Heart of China and some tank game. They were fun, but nothing really original at the time.
...All I can say is that my life is pretty strange...
This has happened one before, when Big Bad Sierra(tm) closed down Yosemite Entertainment, the division that made Leisure Suit Larry etc. I am not surprised that this happens now - Sierra's upper management appears to be clueless. Ken Williams should never have sold the company.
Tribes 2 is one of the few online multiplayer shooters not yet plagued by lameness (CS anyone?). Fortunately, it's in a playable state after the latest patch. I was looking forward to more patches though...
Let's get drunk and delete production data!
Yeah, let's have more "lateral thinking" like using tape, a cat and maple syrup to make a fake mustache.
No thanks.
Ultimately I think adventure games died because they mostly sucked. Then again maybe I am just a cynical jerk.