Tachyon: The Fringe

Tachyon: The Fringe is a Space combat simulation video game developed and published in 2000 by Novalogic. It features the voice acting of Bruce Campbell as main character Jake Logan in a 3-D space simulator. Tachyon was developed by Randy Casey, who had previously written two other titles for Novalogic: F-22 Lightning II and F-22 Raptor.

Tachyon: The Fringe
Developer(s)NovaLogic
Publisher(s)NovaLogic
Producer(s)Michael S. Maza
Designer(s)Randy Casey
Programmer(s)Randy Casey
Artist(s)Keith Rust
Timothy Higgins
Writer(s)Lukas Mandrake
David Merrick
Kevin R. O'Hara
Jason Ryan
Composer(s)Tom Hays
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
Release
    • EU: March 30, 2000
    • NA: April 20, 2000[1]
Genre(s)Space combat simulation
Mode(s)Singleplayer and Multiplayer

Story

The story of Tachyon: The Fringe is set in the 26th century, where mankind has left Earth to colonize the far reaches of space, and has many characteristics of a space opera. The Sol system is a place of relative peace, which is kept by the police force called Star Patrol. Out on the Fringe, where Star Patrol has little presence, megacorporations, pirate clans and colonist groups clash, frequently violently.

The player takes the role of Jake Logan, a mercenary fighter pilot working comfortably in the Sol system. Early in the campaign you are framed for the terrorist bombing of a starbase and are exiled to the Fringe, barred forever from your home. The primary conflict in the Fringe is between the Galactic Spanning (GalSpan) corporation and a group of anti-sol spacer colonists, the Bora - for mining rights, space stations, and territorial control of the Fringe, and they each offer Logan a new start. The Bora want to preserve their independence in the Fringe, particularly their Bora sector, threatening GalSpan's profits in the region.

If the player sides with the Bora, they fight to stymy the "Spanners" attempts to demoralise and displace the Bora, and sabotage GalSpan operations. After many setbacks, Jake overcomes overwhelming odds to destroy the massive new Hephaestus mining station live in front of the Tachyon News Service, humiliating GalSpan and tanking their share price, forcing them to shut down their operations in the fringe and leave the Bora alone.

GalSpan meanwhile offers the chance to work for them, defending GalSpan interests and destroying Bora "terrorists". After many successes GalSpan completes their new Hephaestus station, causing the Bora to launch an all-out assault, which Jake defeats. Jake then escorts the defecting Bora leader to the GalSpan side, who urges the Bora to abandon their homes in the face of the unstoppable GalSpan to resettle further out in the frontier.

Gameplay

Tachyon: The Fringe is a first-person space combat simulator. Among several features, (such as power and shield management), the game implements "sliding", where the player can maintain a constant velocity while having free control over the orientation of their spacecraft. This is intended to provide an ease-of-motion where the player can strafe, fly backwards and otherwise maintain a higher level of control over their spacecraft.

Missions

In story mode, the player chooses missions from the Job Board. Some missions are offered by neutral parties and do not drive the main storyline (though they do occasionally affect the TNS News bulletins). Eventually, the story will reach a point where it becomes necessary for the player to ally with either the Bora Colonies or the Galactic Spanning Corporation. The Bora missions are usually higher in difficulty and less rewarding monetarily. GalSpan pays well and often has missions in tandem with other pilots, but is more morally grey. Since the two factions offer different fighters and different weapons, they encourage different play styles, as well as different storylines.

Reception

The game received favorable reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings.[2] Kevin Rice of NextGen called it "a solid space-simulation game; it just doesn't offer much in the way of anything new."[13]

According to Mark Asher of CNET Gamecenter, the game was a commercial flop, with sales of 20,385 copies and revenues of $778,095 in the United States by July 2000. He cited this performance as part of a trend of falling sales for space flight simulators and the wider flight simulator genre.[15]

The staff of Computer Games Strategy Plus nominated the game for their 2000 "Sci-Fi Simulation of the Year" award.[16]

See also

References
  1. IGN staff (April 20, 2000). "News Briefs". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on August 31, 2000. Retrieved April 22, 2021. Tachyon In Stores: Rush to the stores and grab this one up, cause [sic] it's there just waiting for you to pick it up.
  2. "Tachyon: The Fringe for PC". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on May 11, 2019. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
  3. McDonald, Thomas (May 4, 2000). "Tachyon: The Fringe". Gamecenter. CNET. Archived from the original on August 16, 2000. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
  4. McElveen, Nick (May 26, 2000). "Tachyon: The Fringe". Computer Games Strategy Plus. Strategy Plus, Inc. Archived from the original on May 25, 2003. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
  5. Berg, Gordon (August 2000). "Aspiring, but not Inspired (Tachyon: The Fringe Review)" (PDF). Computer Gaming World. No. 193. Ziff Davis. p. 102. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
  6. Harris, Neil (June 19, 2000). "Tachyon: The Fringe". The Electric Playground. Greedy Productions. Archived from the original on August 19, 2002. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
  7. Ellis, Keith "DNM" (June 13, 2000). "Tachyon: The Fringe". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on January 7, 2001. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
  8. Werner, Nash (June 20, 2000). "Tachyon: The Fringe Review for PC on GamePro.com". GamePro. IDG Entertainment. Archived from the original on October 1, 2004. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
  9. Johnny B. (May 2000). "Tachyon: The Fringe Review". GameRevolution. CraveOnline. Archived from the original on September 22, 2015. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
  10. Kasavin, Greg (May 5, 2000). "Tachyon: The Fringe Review [date mislabeled as "May 8, 2000"]". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on January 27, 2005. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
  11. Hart, Rico (May 25, 2000). "Tachyon: The Fringe". GameSpy. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on February 15, 2002. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
  12. Ward, Trent C. (May 5, 2000). "Tachyon: The Fringe". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
  13. Rice, Kevin (August 2000). "Tachyon: The Fringe". NextGen. No. 68. Imagine Media. p. 96. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
  14. Kuo, Li C. (August 2000). "Tachyon: The Fringe". PC Gamer. Vol. 7, no. 8. Imagine Media. Archived from the original on March 15, 2006. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
  15. Asher, Mark (July 14, 2000). "Game Spin: Crunching Diablo II Numbers". Gamecenter. CNET. Archived from the original on August 16, 2000.
  16. CGSP staff (February 8, 2001). "Computer Games Magazine announces nominees for annual best in computer gaming awards". Computer Games Strategy Plus. Strategy Plus, Inc. Archived from the original on February 9, 2005.
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