''SubSpace'' is a
2D space shooter
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
created in 1995 and released in 1997 by
Virgin Interactive
Virgin Interactive Entertainment (later renamed Avalon Interactive) was the video game publishing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group. It developed and published games for major platforms and employed developers, including Westwo ...
which was a finalist for the
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentation ...
Online Game of the Year Award in 1998.
''SubSpace'' incorporates quasi-realistic zero-friction
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
into a
massively multiplayer online game
A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players, often hundreds or thousands, on the same server. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent world, persistent open world, alt ...
.
It is no longer operated by VIE; instead, fans and players of the game provide servers and technical updates.
The action is viewed from above, which presents challenges very different from those of a
three-dimensional
Three-dimensional space (also: 3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a geometric setting in which three values (called ''parameters'') are required to determine the position of an element (i.e., point). This is the informal ...
game. The game has no built-in story or set of goals; players may enter a variety of
server
Server may refer to:
Computing
*Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called clients
Role
* Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers and su ...
s, each of which have differing objectives, maps, sounds, and
graphics
Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture ...
.
''SubSpace'' is considered an early entry in the
massively multiplayer online
A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players, often hundreds or thousands, on the same server. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world, although there are ...
genre due to its unprecedented player counts.
History
''SubSpace'' evolved from a game originally called ''Sniper'' (1995), a project to test the effects and severity of
lag
Lag, or similar, may refer to:
Lag
* Łąg, Poland
* Lag (company), a French guitar maker
* Lag (cue sports), a brief pre-game competition to determine which player will go first
* Latency (engineering), a slower response time in computing, commu ...
in a massively multiplayer environment over
dialup
Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to establish a connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) by dialing a telephone number on a conventional telepho ...
connections. After its creators realized its viability as an actual game, public
beta testing
Software testing is the act of examining the artifacts and the behavior of the software under test by validation and verification. Software testing can also provide an objective, independent view of the software to allow the business to apprecia ...
began in February, 1996, and it became fully public later that year. The game was released commercially in December 1997 with a list price of
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
27.99 for unlimited play, requiring no monthly or hourly fees.
[A Brief Subspace History - In the beginning there were negs...](_blank)
on subspace.legendzones.com (Retrieved January 30, 2008, archived) The game was originally developed by Burst, led by Jeff Petersen, Rod Humble and Juan Sanchez, for the
US branch of the now-defunct Virgin Interactive. The title was showcased at
E3 1997
E3 (short for Electronic Entertainment Expo or Electronic Entertainment Experience in 2021) is a trade event for the video game industry. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) organizes and presents E3, which many developers, publisher ...
.
When the game was officially released, it was not a commercial success due to a lack of marketing and the relative newness of internet gaming. Two years of playing for free became problematic as many players refused to pay for a game that they had beta tested for two years, and instead opted to pirate the software.
SubSpace server software being distributed with the commercial release of the game allowed users to host their own servers on their own computers, enabling them to preserve the game.
Once VIE went under in 1998, many of its remaining US assets were purchased by
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
, but the ''SubSpace'' license was not. This caused all of the commercially hosted servers, including the official VIE servers, to eventually go offline permanently, and independent user-run servers became the only choice for hosting zones, including original zones previously hosted by VIE.
Gameplay
''SubSpace'' players control one of eight ships which are equipped with weapons and a variety of special abilities. Players interact with each other in
zones
Zone or The Zone may refer to:
Places Climate and altitude zones
* Death zone (originally the lethal zone), altitudes above a certain point where the amount of oxygen is insufficient to sustain human life for an extended time span
* Frigid zone, ...
, which are typically split into multiple arenas.
Players in each arena are then divided into teams; friendly ships appear as yellow, while enemy ships appear blue. The keyboard is used exclusively for control of the ship and use of in-game chat functions.
Although each zone can have its own unique style of gameplay, certain basic gameplay mechanics are ubiquitous throughout all zones.
Map elements
Each arena uses a 1024x1024 map as the field of play. Some arenas may use the entire size of the map, while others may enclose the players in a smaller space. A coordinate system (A-T horizontal, 1–20 vertical) allows players to easily identify and communicate where they are on the map.
Maps may contain obstacles such as walls or asteroids which cannot be moved or destroyed. Maps often use gates, which open and close at random or regular intervals. If a player's ship gets caught in a gate when it closes, the ship is relocated ("warped") to a random location on the map.
Safe zones allow a players to evade enemies or simply take a break from the game. While in a safe zone, a ship cannot take damage but also cannot fire. Most safe zones have a time limit; players who stay in a safe zone too long are kicked from the game and must rejoin the zone. This prevents players from camping out in a safe zone and leaving their computer idle for an extended period of time in order to maintain their state in the game.
A flag or ball may be present as well. Their importance and role in the game depend on the zone.
The most common map elements in ''SubSpace'' are
prizes
A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements. , or "greens" (for their green color). Prizes allow players to upgrade their ships and gain special weapons or abilities. While prizes are generally plentifully scattered throughout the map, the upgrades or abilities they award are randomly selected by the zone.
Energy
Rather than dealing with ammunition counts and hit points separately, ''SubSpace'' combines both of these elements into a single unit of measure: energy. Each ship is equipped with a certain amount of energy, from which it must draw its health as well as its weapons power. When a ship's energy is reduced from its capacity (whether from firing weapons or enduring enemy fire), the ship will automatically recharge back to its maximum capacity over a period of time; however, sustained weapons fire or enemy fire will inevitably cause the energy to drop lower.
Once the ship's energy drops below zero, the ship is destroyed and the player is respawned elsewhere in the area. Any upgrades, weapons, or special abilities are lost. The energy mechanic forces players to be cautious of their energy usage, as reckless weapons fire could result in a quick death.
It is usually not possible for players to commit suicide; if a player's own weapon causes more damage than that player has energy, the player's energy will simply be reduced to one and begin recharging. However, suicide was possible in early beta versions of the game and the offline practice mode included with the original ''SubSpace'' client.
Ship Control
Thrust (Up for forward, Down for reverse) and rotation (Left for counter-clockwise, Right for clockwise) make up the basic movement of the ship. Ships maintain inertia once they are set in motion and cannot be brought to a complete stop except when in a safe zone. In addition, ships experience
inelastic collision
An inelastic collision, in contrast to an elastic collision, is a collision in which kinetic energy is not conserved due to the action of internal friction.
In collisions of macroscopic bodies, some kinetic energy is turned into vibrational energ ...
s with walls and asteroids but do not take damage from them. Ships do not collide with each other.
Players achieve their ship's top speed by maintaining thrust. Each ship is also equipped with afterburners (Shift+Up/Down) which allow the ship to exceed its typical top speed; however, this gradually drains the ship's energy. When afterburners are disengaged, the ship's inertia returns to its normal top speed, not its speed with afterburners.
Ships can instantly warp (Ins) to a random location on the map. This action requires the ship to be at full energy, and its energy is totally drained once the warp is complete, although the ship will begin recharging its energy immediately.
Ships may also attach to other friendly ships. In this scenario, the attaching ship loses thrust control and becomes a weapons turret on the back of another ship. This is technically achieved by performing a warp, thus requiring full energy to attach and draining energy in the process. A turret ship takes damage like a normal ship and may detach at any time. In addition, a ship carrying turrets may detach one or all of them at any time.
Scoring
Players primarily increase their score by killing other players. Each ship has a bounty, which is increased by collecting prizes, killing enemies, or other in-game mechanics. When a ship is killed, its bounty is added to the killer's score.
Each zone implements its own scoring system and may award bonuses for certain achievements.
Competitive Play
Many ''SubSpace'' players are organized into
squad
In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army do ...
s. These squadrons serve the same purpose as clans or teams do in other online games and allow players to cooperate and improve their skills, as well as to become more familiar with fellow players. In addition, many squads compete in competitive
league
League or The League may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band
* ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football
Sports
* Sports league
* Rugby league, full contact footba ...
s hosted by various zones. Dueling is another favorite pastime and many zones have separate arenas for this purpose alone.
Ships
Within any given zone, a player can choose between up to eight different ships: Warbird, Javelin, Spider, Leviathan, Terrier, Weasel, Lancaster, and Shark.
Standard VIE Settings
''Standard VIE Settings'', SVS for short, (also referred to as Standard SubSpace Settings
) is a server configuration conforming to the physics and rules used in non-special game types hosted by
Virgin Interactive Entertainment
Virgin Interactive Entertainment (later renamed Avalon Interactive) was the video game publishing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group. It developed and published games for major platforms and employed developers, including Westwoo ...
(VIE) before the company's dissolution. The term is sometimes used informally to describe servers which seek, through other means, to preserve the spirit of the game as it was originally played.
Zones
Gameplay can vary depending on the zone. Some zones are just free-for-all style gameplay, while others are capture the flag, or even powerball style. Zones typically have multiple public arenas, whose settings and maps are the same, which players are automatically distributed to upon joining the server. This serves to reduce crowding in highly populated arenas.
There are also numerous sub-arenas in ''SubSpace'', and these sub-arenas can at times have greater populations than the "main/public" arenas. They differ from the main public arenas, in the sense that they may have their own settings, map, graphics, and bots (if required – or modules in
ASSS zones).
Flag Games
*War – Standard flag game whose name is derived from its original zone (War Zone). The objective is to claim all flags for one's own team. Flags can be picked up by opponents only. Flags that are picked up are dropped after a set time. Flagging games usually involve bases to store flags and are heavily team-oriented.
*Bounty Rabbit – One player is the rabbit, and has the 'flag'. The rabbit's kills are worth 101 points while a regular players' kills are only worth 1 point. Kill the current rabbit to become the new rabbit. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. This game is usually run by bots in a main arena or sub-arenas.
*Turf – Territorial flag game in which flags are located at specific locations around the map. Ownership is claimed by simply passing over the flag by any player. Turf games can either be won or involve periodic point rewards.
*Basing – Similar to Turf, except there is a base with one flag. The team that controls that flag controls the base, and thus the base is often completely populated by the controlling team. Trench Wars is an example of a popular basing game.
*Running – Flags in running zones do not have drop timers, and may only be claimed by killing an opponent carrying flags or picking up neutral flags. Variants include Rabbit Chase.
Kill Games
"Kill" games have no 'rounds' or 'games'; the objective is simply to kill as many opponents as possible while keeping one's own deaths to a minimum. The original Alpha and Chaos zones followed this basic premise.
However, some zones offer their own variants of this style of gameplay:
*King of the Hill – Each player starts off with a crown, which may be lost if the set amount of time runs out. A player's timer, which is displayed at the top right of the screen, is reset every time they kill another player. However, if a player has already lost their crown, they may only regain it by either killing a flagger with a crown (sometimes marked by a red dot on the radar), or by destroying any two players. Generally though, flaggers with low bounty do not give others their crown. The game is then won when there is only one crowned player left standing.
*Speed – Each round of a Speed game has a time limit. The winner of a round is the player with the most kills for the round. In Speed Zone, ships began with a higher "bounty" (and more weapons and other power ups) than in other zones. Speed Zone proved to be less popular than the Jackpot/Running, Chaos, or "flag" zone games and support was discontinued shortly after ''SubSpace'' went to retail.
Ball Games
Ball games involve taking control of a ball and scoring it in the opposing team's goal. Players cannot fire weapons or warp while carrying the ball, and can only carry the ball for a few seconds. Before the ball timer runs out, they must pass the ball to a teammate (using Ins, Tab, or Ctrl keys), or the ball will shoot out from their ship in a random direction. If a player dies while carrying the ball, the ball is dropped immediately and may be picked up by anyone. A team wins a game when they achieve a certain number of goals, or the game may be timed, with the highest-scoring team winning when time expires.
*Hockey simulates futuristic ice hockey in a space setting. the "ball" is the equivalent of the hockey puck. Each ship's settings have been modified to fit that ship into a unique role on the team; for instance, Lancasters and Sharks are "goalie" ships. the Warbird, Javelin and Weasel are Forwards, Spiders and Terriers make up the midfield, and the Levithan is a defensive beast. The rules of the game are based on real hockey rules with some variations due to the 2d nature of the game.
*Powerball (
Soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
) – is similar to hockey, in that it also features two teams (Warbirds and Javelins) and goals at opposite ends of a symmetrical map. Powerball primarily uses SVS settings, except that the Warbird and Javelin have identical ship settings, creating two evenly matched teams. Each ship starts with 100 bounty and comes "greened" with a number of basic upgrades and randomly selected special abilities (e.g. burst, repel, etc.). It is not possible to choose any other type of ship. Although scoring goals is the primary objective of Powerball, shooting and killing other players is very much an important part of the game.
Customization
A zone is a server to which players can connect using a client. Perhaps the most attractive feature of ''SubSpace'' is the extremely high degree of customization that zone sysops can implement. Almost every element of the game can be replaced, from the ship graphics to colors and sounds. Apart from a few basic settings, many game settings, such as ship speeds, energy levels, and such, can be changed. This allows a vast variety of zones to exist.
Game software
''SubSpace'' utilizes a
client–server architecture. Initially, both the client and server were provided by VIE. The client executable was titled SubSpace while the server was called SubGame. A new client, titled Continuum, was created by
reverse engineering
Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompli ...
without access to the original
source code
In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...
by the players PriitK (one of the creators of
Kazaa) and Mr Ekted.
The original server software, heavily modified, is still the most common, although an
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
alternative,
A Small Subspace Server, is now available.
Continuum client
Continuum, first released in 2001, was developed as a clone of the SubSpace client, but now contains new original features exclusive to the client over the original. Continuum is the official client of the ''SubSpace'' Central Billing Server. It was developed primarily because of the original SubSpace client's failure to prevent hacking. As such, it has been adopted by several zones as a requirement in order to play.
A Small SubSpace Server
ASSS (
A Small
SubSpace
Server) is an
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
server designed for use on
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
and other
Unix-like
A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...
operating systems, but can be configured for use on Microsoft Windows.
Both are downloadable from
Bitbucket
Bitbucket is a Git (software), Git-based source code repository (version control), repository shared web hosting service, hosting service owned by Atlassian. Bitbucket offers both commercial plans and free accounts with an unlimited number of p ...
. ASSS is under active development.
Re-release
Continuum was released in the fan-reconstructed variant in
digital distribution
Digital distribution, also referred to as content delivery, online distribution, or electronic software distribution, among others, is the delivery or distribution of digital media content (media), content such as Sound recording and reproductio ...
on
Steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...
on July 3, 2015.
Reception
In 1997 ''
Next Generation
Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to:
Publications and literature
* ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company
* Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...
'' named ''SubSpace'' as number four on their "Top 10 Online Game Picks", reasoning that "Its minimal bandwidth requirements mean pretty damn good gameplay, and the software pings the various arenas to see where you'll receive the lowest latency. Nicely done: simple, addictive, and really multiplayer."
See also
*''
Infantry
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine i ...
''
*
Cosmic Rift
''Cosmic Rift'' was a two-dimensional massively multiplayer video game designed by lead programmer Jeff Petersen. It is based in a science fiction universe wherein players can fly from an overhead view one of 13 spaceships, each with their own str ...
*
Altitude (video game)
''Altitude'' is a multiplayer 2D aerial combat video game developed by American independent software developers Erik Measure and Karl Sabo. The game was released on May 1, 2009 for Microsoft Windows, Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It became availa ...
*
List of MMOGs
This is a list of notable massively multiplayer online games (MMOG), sorted by category.
Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter games (MMOFPS)
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG)
Massively multiplayer onl ...
References
External links
Subspace-Continuum.comSubSpac3.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Subspace (Video Game)
1997 video games
Free online games
Massively multiplayer online games
Multidirectional shooters
Space combat simulators
Video games developed in the United States
Virgin Interactive games
Windows games
Windows-only games
Windows-only freeware games
Commercial video games with freely available source code