Software:Earth 2140

From HandWiki
Short description: 1997 video game
Earth 2140
European cover art
Developer(s)Reality Pump Studios
Publisher(s)
  • NA: Interplay Productions
Composer(s)Joachim Schäfer
SeriesEarth
Platform(s)Amiga, MS-DOS, Macintosh, Windows
Release1997: MS-DOS
2001: Amiga, Macintosh
Genre(s)Strategy
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Earth 2140 is a 2D real-time strategy computer game created in 1997 by Polish-based Reality Pump Studios and published by TopWare Interactive (later acquired by Zuxxez Entertainment). It has two sequels, Earth 2150 and Earth 2160.

Plot

Earth 2140 takes place in the year 2140. In the year 2048, a global nuclear holocaust had engulfed Earth and reduced its surface into a nuclear wasteland, forcing most of the world's population into underground cities. Tensions rise between the Earth's two major factions, the Eurasian Dynasty (ED) and the United Civilized States (UCS), as both sides vie for the world's steadily dwindling resources. A UCS raid on an ED base is enough to ignite the rivalry into full-scale war as the ED fails in its bid to control Mexico and the UCS counterattacks Scandinavia, Great Britain, France, and the Iberian Peninsula.

Factions

The United Civilized States (UCS) controls all of North and South America, Western Europe, North Africa and Australia. This nation is populated mostly by hedonists, due to the near-complete automation of the workforce. Automated butlers are the standard in UCS households; even politics and war are left up to the machines. As such, UCS citizens are often portrayed by their detractors as decadent "pigs". A glitch in the upgrade of the UCS war processor GOLAN caused the giant robot to miscalculate the military strength of the Eurasian Dynasty, thus compelling it to launch an attack on the ED. After losing several battles in Mexico, GOLAN quickly adapted to the ED threat and began to retake lost ED territory and win battles in Europe. The UCS is generally more technologically advanced than its adversary, employing robot infantry and automated bipedal combat vehicles (more commonly known as mechas).

The Eurasian Dynasty (ED) controls Eastern Europe and Asia. The antithesis of the UCS, the ED is run by an autocratic monarchy under the Khan Dynasty that often makes life harsh, short, and without luxury for its citizens. As the less technologically advanced of the two factions, the ED utilizes cyborgs, traditional 20th/21st century standard vehicles such as tanks, and armed helicopters in its arsenal. Because of its technological disadvantage, the ED finds itself more often on the defensive throughout the Earth 2140 storyline.

Gameplay

Earth 2140 requires the player to complete various objectives, mostly destroying all opposing units and structures (or capturing them). Failure of missions happens when all the player's units are wiped out or a vital objective is not met. Structures are built by deploying mobile vehicles on suitable terrain. Mines used to fund the player with money for purchasing can only be built where ore is available. Materials used to gain funds at 1000 credits a piece are carried from a mine (or material on ground) by a BANTHA truck or Heavy Lifter and placed at the Refinery and converted into credits. Mines eventually finish when all ore is extracted.

Each faction has four types of units. The player can create up to 5 queued units and even an infinite queue of the same unit. Unlike most strategy games, credits cannot be refunded when recruitment is cancelled and structures cannot be sold. In some missions, it is possible to call for reinforcements only once. Structures can only be removed with self-destruction. All structures except the Construction Center require power from power plants. Lack of power will cause buildings to operate slowly. Destruction of a power plant leaves a permanent scar on the terrain, which drains vitality of any units nearby. Certain types of buildings must be built to enable the player to build others and to recruit more types of units and vehicles, especially the Research Center. To capture an enemy structure, the player must send in enough units to overwhelm enemy units in garrison. Capturing the opposing faction's factories enables the player to make use of otherwise unavailable technology (depending on the research center progress). Guard towers and superweapon launchers cannot be captured. Most of the units and vehicles just move, attack and escort, but certain ones serve with special tasks such as mine laying, cargo carrying and others. Not every vehicle is land-based. A unique feature in the game is that a vehicle once disabled (easily accomplished with ion technology) can be reprogrammed to join the player using a HMCR repair vehicle.

Expansion packs

Two expansion packs were released for this game:

  • Earth 2140: Mission Pack 1
  • Earth 2140: Mission Pack 2 - Final Conflict

Reception

Reception
Review score
PublicationScore
GameSpot6.3/10[1]

GameSpot gave the game a 6.3 out of ten. Brendan Caldwell from Rock, Paper, Shotgun called the game an imitator of Command & Conquer.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Dultz, Marc (May 1, 2000). "Earth 2140 Review". GameSpot. https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/earth-2140-review/1900-2535789/. Retrieved February 7, 2024. 
  2. ↑ Caldwell, Brendan (February 7, 2019). "Have You Played… Earth 2140?". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/have-you-played-earth-2140. Retrieved February 7, 2024. 
  • InsideEarth - Earth 21xx Community
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
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