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Master of Orion 2 - Battle at Antares

In 1996 I was seconded from Microprose UK to Simtec in Austin Texas (A Microprose studio) to help out on Master of Orion 2 (A 4X turn based strategy game).

I was an artist at the time and was sent out to help with their art workload. My job there was to work on the game's intro sequence.

It was fun and interesting – Although the exteriors of the scout craft and the space station had been made I had to optimize and articulate them and create everything else you see in the intro from scratch and animate them single handed. The work was done in Autodesk’s 3D studio Dos version (this was around the time the first version of 3DMax was being released but there were no spare copies).

 

My time ran out before I finished it and I left notes to fix the glitches – but they went with it as it was and added the soundtrack.

 

Simtec had some serious talent – and they were all friendly and welcoming. When I left they were working on a super hero game that looked stunning.  I was greatly saddened when they were closed down the following year.

 

Despite being there for only a couple of months I have many fond memories of my time there and the people I worked with. The place was unique - for example the project leads would meet every wednesday to discuss the game in The Yellow Rose of Texas - a pole dancing joint that had free food.

 

Master of Orion 2 Intro