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Homeworld
Developer(s)	Relic Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Sierra Entertainment
Version	1.05
Platform(s)	Linux Mac OS X MorphOS Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	September 28, 1999
Genre(s)	Real-time strategy Real-time tactics Space simulation
Mode(s)	Singleplayer and Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: E
Input methods	Keyboard, Mouse

Homeworld is a real-time strategy computer game released on September 28, 1999, developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment. It is best known for its full three-dimensional movement, engrossing storyline and unique soundtrack. Homeworld was followed by Homeworld 2 in 2003.

Plot

Beneath the scorching sands of Kharak, the Kushan people have discovered the remains of a long-forgotten titanic spaceship. Buried within the ancient remains, the secret of their lost homeworld.

For thousands of years, the Kushan have survived on the arid planet Kharak, corralled into the temperate geographical poles by a vast, unforgiving desert. Scarcity of arable land and natural resources has coloured Kushan history with near constant inter-clan (or Kiith) warfare.

As new technologies emerged, religious and political conflict partially gave way to unified scientific exploration. DNA sequencing of Kharak's native life revealed no genetic resemblance to the Kushan, giving rise to their "XenoGenesis Theory" - which stated they were not native to Kharak at all.

The first space flights reinforced this idea. Small metallic debris, the largest no bigger than a hand, were retrieved from low orbit and analyzed to be made of materials totally unknown to them. In addition to helping accelerate their space technology research, the debris confirmed that a large advanced spacecraft had once been in orbit. It wasn’t until an ironic twist of fate later in their history that boosted them even further along their development.

A high-powered satellite designed to scan the planetary system had malfunctioned upon deployment, and was scanning the Great Desert around Kharak's equator instead. It strangely found something beneath the sands: a derelict city with a massive central metallic structure. An expedition uncovered that the central structure was the spacecraft they had found traces of before in orbit. It carried advanced spaceflight technologies including a Hyperspace Core, one of a few ancient machines that were the Homeworld setting's foundation for all faster-than-light technology.

More importantly however, a stone with a galactic map bearing two coordinates was found. One was recognized as Kharak. The other bore a name so ancient it was common across all their languages and dialects: Hiigara. "Home". The stone would become known as the Guidestone, and confirmed the XenoGenesis Theory. Kharak's people united in building a megalithic "Mothership" that would bear 600,000 of them to their destination, made rugged and self-sufficient in order to survive possible problems during the long trip. It is during the Mothership's final testing phase that the single-player game begins.

Gameplay

Homeworld is known both for its multi-player online and single-player elements. The player may choose to play as either the Kushan or Taiidan, both online and in the single-player campaign. While each unit serves a particular function and represents a tradeoff in strength, offensive power, speed, and cost, the differences between the two factions are mostly in cosmetic ship design. Parallel ships (the "Vengeance"-class Kushan Assault Frigate versus the "Kudaark"-class Taiidani Assault Frigate) look different but have identical armor, speed, weapons power, etc - although tests have shown that the Kushan Assault Frigate has a tendency to survive longer due to the way its turrets give it an almost 360° firing arc. However, each race does feature two unique units (the Kushan Cloaking Fighter and Drone Frigate versus the Taiidani Defense Fighter and Defense Field Frigate), and equivalent ships often have different gun positioning, usually in favor of the Taiidan.

The screen is devoted entirely to maximize the field of view, so the only toolbar is hidden and appears only when the cursor is moved to the bottom of the screen. Orders such as moving and formations are given both from right-click menus, and hotkeys for more advanced gameplay.

The inclusion of a completely null-space 3-D fighting environment yields challenges to the player that are not typically encountered in standard 2-D based real time strategies. Since the area of play is generally void of significant obstacles to create "terrain", there is little emphasis on the control of a certain choke point in order to establish defensive perimeters.

Single-player

The single-player campaign includes 16 missions, and focuses on a persistent fleet concept, which causes all ships built during a mission to appear in the next (as long as they are not destroyed). The ultimate goal of the single player mode is to find the Homeworld of the chosen protagonist race, though the vantage point will remain unchanged regardless of the player's actual choice of race (in this and subsequent Homeworld games, the Kushan, called Hiigaran in "Homeworld 2", are the canonical "heroes").

Multi-player

Homeworld can also be played in a deathmatch mode where the player can choose the number of opponents, the map, enabling or disabling researching and fuel consumption. These games can be played with up to seven computer-controlled opponents, which have an adjustable difficulty setting and a setting that allows you to determine whether they attack the human player or other computers more often. The multiplayer community for Homeworld was large from its very beginnings in 1999. At its peak in 2000 and 2001 there were more than 18,000 players registered to the Ladder. Several dozen clans were active at the peak, since its release more than one hundred individual clans have been founded. There are still hundreds of active players and a handful of large clans. Today the original community of dedicated players still survives at the community operated RelicNews forums, the publishers official forum for the game, and on IRC. Many terms are used during multi-player online play as well. For a comprehensive list of these see Homeworld Terms.

Homeworld's original multiplayer lobby system was closed in October of 2008. To play online the player needed to create an account and download the latest patch (or version).

Currently you can play online using a program called GameRanger.

Musical score

The soundtrack CD-ROM

With the exception of a song by the rock group Yes entitled "Homeworld (The Ladder)" (from their 1999 CD "The Ladder"), most of the music in the game is ambient. It includes Samuel Barber's Agnus Dei, the choral version of his Adagio for Strings, performed by Santa Barbara's Quire of Voyces. A 13-track CD soundtrack was bundled with the Game of the Year Edition of Homeworld and features the original soundtrack by Paul Ruskay. The re-release of the Game of the Year Edition, marked by a "Best Seller Series" stripe, does not contain the soundtrack.

Mods and source code

Homeworld's source code was released in late 2003, which allowed fans to port the game to other platforms (such as Linux and Mac OS X), [1][2] with homeworldsdl.org being the most active project with support for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
Because of the modular nature of the file system almost every aspect of the game can be altered, including the basic models and textures, the in-game interface, music, and effects. Notable mods were based on well known sci-fi series such as Babylon 5, Star Trek, Gundam, Macross and Star Wars.

Homeworld: Raider Retreat

A promotional disc of Homeworld called Homeworld: Raider Retreat was included with the pre-order of Homeworld: Cataclysm. Aside from skirmish and tutorial missions, Homeworld: Raider Retreat contained the first 4 missions of the Homeworld campaign and an additional fifth mission called Deep Space - Turanic Raider Planetoid, which was not included in the final version of the game. The playable mission has since been released and is available online.^[1]

Sequels

• In September 2000, Barking Dog Studios released a stand-alone expansion, Homeworld: Cataclysm. Taking place 15 years after the events of Homeworld, the story centers on Kiith Somtaaw and its struggles to protect Hiigara from a parasitic entity known as the Beast.
• A full sequel, Homeworld 2, was released in late 2003. The game pits the Hiigarans against the Vaygr, a powerful, nomadic raider race.

Reception

Homeworld was given high marks by most of the gaming community, and earned numerous awards, including both PC Gamer's and IGN's game of the year award for 1999. The game was praised for its eye-catching, movie-like graphics engine, large battles, appropriate soundtrack, compelling storyline, and revolutionary 3D interface.

Design

The spaceship designs in this game bear a strong resemblance to the designs popularized by illustrators Chris Foss and Peter Elson, who are both mentioned in the special thanks section of the game's end credits.

Real world references

Some locations from the game and its sequel are references to real world locations in the Middle East (such as the Garden of Kadesh), and the storyline has many parallels to The Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and their search for the promised land.

Awards

• E3 1999 Game Critics Awards: Best Strategy Games
• IGN 1999 Game of the Year
• PC Gamer 1999 Game of the Year
• Well-Rounded Entertainment 1999 Game of the Year

References

External links

• Official Relic homepage
• Homeworld wiki on wikia
• Source code

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Homeworld
Developer(s)	Relic Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Sierra Entertainment
Release date(s)	October 15, 2005
Genre(s)	RTS
System(s)	Linux, Mac OS, Windows
Rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone
Series	Homeworld

This is the first game in the Homeworld series. For other games in the series see the Homeworld category.

Table of Contents

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Portal: Strategy		Homeworld at Encyclopedia Hiigara

Homeworld
Developer(s)	Relic Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Sierra Entertainment
Designer(s)	Erin Daly
Release date	28 September 1999
Genre	Real-time strategy
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Age rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone (E)
Platform(s)	PC, Mac OS X, Linux
Media	1 CD
System requirements	* Windows 95/98/NT 4.0 (w/ service pack 4.0) Pentium II 233 processor 32-MB RAM 80 MB HD Space (plus 50 MB permanent Swap File) 4X CD-ROM 4 MB PCI Video Card (16-bit color, Direct X compatible) 16-bit DirectX compatible soundcard Win-compatible Mouse DirectX 6.1
Credits | Soundtrack | Codes | Walkthrough

Summary

Homeworld was the first game in the Homeworld series of the same name. Released in 1999, the game quickly became a surprising success, taking the Game of the Year award from IGN and Game Critics Award on E3 expo. Since then the game has been the only of its kind (a 3D real-time strategy game) to be highly successful.

Screen Shots

Mothership

Kadeshi fleet

Ship wreck at Karos Graveyard

Kushan destroyer attacks Taiidan installations

Trivia

• Homeworld was originally meant to be a game adaptation of the cult space opera television show Battlestar Galactica but Relic failed to obtain the rights. The story concept was designed later.
• The Game had also had a second release, in year 2000, it was called "Game of the year edition" containing official strategy guide and CD with Soundtrack, and latest patch
• In 2003 Relic released source code for Homeworld, which is available on Relic Developers Network webpage.
• When the source code was released fans created editions for Linux and Mac OsX.
• Despite it being several years old, the community is still alive, and it's possible to play multiplayer games on dedicated servers that is still running ever since.

External Links

• Official Homeworld webpage
• Homeworld wiki
• Relic.com - game developer webpage
• Homeworld IRC Channel: #homeworld on RTSnet

Reviews

• IGN review (9.5/10)
• Gamespot (9.0/10 + editors choice