Through The Grapevine?

[Fionn]

I'm a newcomer to the SE line. I hadn't even heard of the series until about a month ago when I read something from somebody who mentioned he wasn't too excited about another game's release since he was too preoccupied with the upcoming SE4.

I noted that someplace in the back of my mind but didn't think much about it until I spotted the demo listed on GameSpot's "Newest Downloads" sidebar. I thought I'd give it a try, having nothing else to do at the moment.

In a nutshell, I'm glad I did. :-)

Anyway, I feel like I came very close to missing something extremely good here and that got me to thinking: how did other people discover the series? Through the grapevine? Friends and neighbors? Alien intervention?

IOW, how did y'all end up "in the know"?

(We'll leave "why didn't anybody tell me before now?" for another thread . . . )

[jars_u]

Well to make a long story short I found SE4 by reading a review in Computer Games Magazine (my faviorte computer games magazine) for AOA:WDK which I purchased from battlefront.com about a year ago (was originally available from that site - at the moment Combat Mission is their "big game") then when the patch/new Version came out Mike had moved over here to shrapnelgames.com which is where I first heard about SE4, having never played any of the older Versions. I played the demo to death and pre-ordered my copy. Even though I work for a major retailer of "main stream games" I tell anyone who will listen about all the smaller devlopers that I know of because I find the support and end products are usually much better.

Jim

[Master Belisarius]

I have discovered Se3 in December of 1997, in Games Domain Review (http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdreview/zones/strategy/index.html )
They gave to SE3, the Gold Award (considering that the game was shareware).

[Paladin]

I heard about Se3 Last year (A99), when two friends, (both fellow students in physics, I'm in computer engineering ; ) were discussing about it. I didn't notice it that much at first, because the graphics seemed crude at best.
Then again, this summer I noticed the MM site showing up in my browser, so I decided to have a closer look, and I saw there was now an Se4 demo!! Back then the demo was down for refit, so I played Se3 for a while, to get the hang of it...
Since then, what's left of my spare time (total minus girlfriend, job, family obligations, friends, chores...; )

And I am glad I did too, as I try as much as possible to push the game to all my friends so that we can all go multiplayer 8*))

[Darwin]

Man,
Do I feel like the old timer here. I discovered Space Empires in August of 1995 when I bought a shareware CD. SE2 was on there and I spend hundreds of hours playing the shareware in fact the only reason I reqistered was it had a bug in it. And crash when you went into combat. (Think about this for a second. Would you ever register something that didn't work in the first place.) Don't know what possesed me to do that, but, I'm glad I did.

------------------
Lord Darwin,
Space Empires Fan since
Space Empires 2 in 1995

[Dweeb]

I actually started out playing Space Empires 2! I don't remember how I found out about it, possible a search on a shareware site. It was the first Windows-based conquer the universe game I played. I liked it and registed it. I was impressed that Malfador mailed me a new disk when they developed a new Version. One note - a friend of mine actually prefers SE2 to SE3, although I came to believe that it was just not difficult enough to win.

[Taqwus]

Hm. I'd only heard about the SE series upon reading somebody's post on Usenet (CSIPGS, specifically), which led to some checking at gamesdomain.com and elsewhere for info.

Good stuff. =)

------------------
-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[Iron Giant]

I actually found this game this way:

Saw a full page Ad in a gaming magazine for "Reach for the Stars", another 4x game, months upon months ago.

So in trying to get info on it, which they keep pushing off the release date for, I found a little used game forum for it, where someone actually posted a link about SE4.

Well, since the people releasing RFTS were sitting on the demo and not giving out any more release info (some of their pages still say "Release date: December 1999"!!!), I figured I'd check out this demo.

Dang glad I did: I have lusted after a computer Version of Starfire for 15 years.....

[Instar]

Once upon a time, when I had no life (hahah), I was browsing shareware sites for games. I found some decent games, nothing impressive. And then, I chanced upon SE3. I played the demo relentlessly, and was very impressed. (Ah, the I remember the days of Version v1.13)
And then I ventured forth into the uncharted waters of the Internet and found some fan sites, many of which were cool. I found out about SE4 and lo and behold, I was lucky enough to become a tester, for which I express immense thanks to MM.

[Noble713]

One day, several years ago (at least 4), a friend of mine brought a floppy into school and installed SE2 on one of the computers. I was hooked instantly. I went to his website once and discovered that there was a third Space Empires game, and have been following the series since.

[MaxOMan]

Well, since you asked the question, I got to thinking and couldn't right off the top of my head remember EXACTLY how I came to learn of SEIV. I think I saw a brief explanation of the game (something of a very short "preview") of the game on cdmag.com in their news releases one day.

Best piece of news I've read in a long time, come to think of it!

[llreye]

SE2 demo: from GamesDomain(?) but spreadsheet combat didn't sit too well. SE3 demo: was fun and challenging as was the fullgame. SE4: eventually saw fan sites change logos, etc.
-MKC

[Cyrien]

I also got it on a shareware CD (SE2) around 95.

[Rambie]

I downloaded the demo of SE2 years ago, before SE3. I thought it was neat, but got hooked into the things.

Then in Last '97 I got ahold of SE3 and was hooked. Then I was one of the lucky ones to get picked for the Beta for SE4. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Rambie