BattleSphere

BattleSphere is a 3D space combat simulator for the Atari Jaguar console by 4Play/ScatoLOGIC Inc., released in 2000. It was the first console game to feature network play for up to 32 players.

Released after the Jaguar's demise, cartridge components and other supplies needed to manufacture the game were scarce, resulting in not enough copies to meet demand. A second edition of the game, with additional features and improvements, was released as BattleSphere Gold in 2002. Copies of both editions of the game are extremely hard to find, but are regularly produced for sale on eBay. The first copy of BattleSphere was sold on EBay for over $1500. [ [http://slashdot.org/games/00/03/02/1430232.shtml Slashdot article on the eBay auction] , March 4, 2000]

Development

BattleSphere was originally called "Star Battle", named after a mainframe game written by one of its creators back when he was in high school. PlayNet, the forerunner of AOL, almost bought Star Battle for its online services in 1986.

The development budget for BattleSphere was rumored to be less than $10,000.

Gameplay

The game is about 7 races, the Oppressors, the Smg'Heeds, the O'catanut, the Slith, the Se'bab, the Telchines, and the Thunderbirds fighting a war over who will control and colonize the galaxy. It features 5 different play modes and the ability, unusual for a Jaguar title, to play over a network of up to 16 consoles, each with a pilot and an optional gunner, for a total of 32 potential players. This network capability has been largely untapped, due to the game's release after Atari's takeover by JT Storage and abandonment of the Jaguar platform.

The "Se'bab" is "babes" spelled backwards, along with "O'catanut" is "tuna taco" spelled backwards. Another race name, "Smg'heed", appears to be a reference to the insult "smeghead" from the TV show Red Dwarf. Also, the default high scores for one of the gameplay modes features names of all the major characters from the show. All of the ships for The "Oppressors"' are named with a phallic theme, i.e. the "Penetrator" supership.

The game has the following play modes:

ingle player

* Alone Against the Empires - Strategic play mode where you have command of other spacecraft and must move through a set of hexagonal sectors to defend your scattered starbases from enemy attack, and eliminate enemy starbases on the higher levels.
* Gauntlet - Defend six starbases in a single sector from wave after wave of increasingly tough enemy attackers.
* Free-For-All - Destroy as many other starships as possible.
* Pilot Training - A series of training missions.

Multiplayer (networked)

* Gauntlet - Same as single player game, but using a 2nd console as an ally.
* Battle Sphere - 2 opposing teams scattered across 8 consoles attempt to capture or destroy each other's starbases, a sort of 3D Netrek.
* Free-For-All - Same as single player game, but with human opponents at up to 16 networked consoles. Unused player slots are occupied by robot players.

Homebrew development

After Hasbro bought out Atari, it took relentless lobbying by the BattleSphere fanbase and much behind the scenes persuasion to convince Atari to release the Jaguar console into the public domain. This makes the Atari Jaguar the very first proprietary console to be officially completely released to homebrew development. Without this event, BattleSphere, though completed in July 1998, would not have been allowed to be encrypted and released.

Concealed within Battlesphere lay JUGS (The Jaguar Unmodified Game Server), JUGS allowed anyone to develop and run Jaguar games if they owned a copy of BattleSphere and a Catbox. BattleSphere was the first game to include a development system hidden within it.

References

External links

* [http://www.scatologic.com/ ScatoLOGIC Inc./BattleSphere homepage] (no longer updated)
* [http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=1065 BattleSphere at AtariAge]