Oolite Bulletins

Dinosaur Planet makes three. Two more to go …

The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs?

The Land That Time Forgot also counts. One more to take the pot!

There's at least one other "classic" SF novel which includes dinosaurs (at least for a broad and possibly old-fashioned definition of "dinosaur", i.e. creatures from the Mesozoic Era which are now extinct - IANAP*).

* Palaeontologist

Well, there's always Kings of Space by Capt. W. E. Johns, the first book of the Tiger Clinton series - the characters explore the solar system in a home-built flying saucer, on Venus they find dinosaurs. But to be honest it's only one chapter and they don't actually land, it's too dangerous.

Kings of Space will do it. Over to you!

The classic SF novel I was thinking of was Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth, which features a plesiosaur and an ichthyosaur (which are not apparently dinosaurs in the true sense, but marine reptiles). A contemporary SF novel featuring dinosaurs is Michael Swanwick's The Bones of the Earth, which I would recommend.

AS was here!

Soddit... OK, let's think of something different.

Let's have five different game settings (including tabletop RPGs, wargames, computer games, etc. but NOT Elite and its derivatives for obvious reasons) that use jump-drive style interstellar travel - e.g. you commit to your final destination before you start to travel and can't change it in mid-flight unless something goes badly wrong.

Only one per game universe please, e.g. if you had Elite you couldn't have Elite: Dangerous, Oolite, the Elite: Encounters RPG, etc.

The Foundation / Isaac Asimov
Dune / Frank Herbert
Battlestar Galactica (I think)
Dark Matter

Stargate Universe

<chortles> Nice tactical answer from montana.

I was going to add 4000AD, but the hyperspace destination is indeterminate. Traveller, I think.

Traveller certainly qualifies in terms of Jump mechanics, but isn't it largely the inspiration for Elite?

The Foundation / Isaac Asimov
Can't find out much about games based on this, can you point me at a source that says there's one with a jump drive mechanic?

Dune / Frank Herbert
All of the games I can find based on Dune are set on Arrakis without space travel, don't think it really applies.

Battlestar Galactica (I think)
Definitely, several games based on it have jump mechanics.

Dark Matter
I'm having a lot of trouble finding out about Dark Matter - it seems to be a sideways scrolling platform game, and discontinued, so I'm a bit reluctant to accept it as a game that has jump drive mechanics as a major part of the game.

Stargate Universe
Don't appear to be any games involving space travel (as distinct from using the stargates) unless I'm missing something. As I recall spaceships in Stargate can usually change their destination in flight etc. so I don't think that describing this as a jump drive game really applies. I know that the rules are different in the Stargate Universe TV show but I'm not aware of any games based on it.

Traveller
Definitely - so far as I'm concerned it's a separate universe from Elite.

OK, so far that's Foundation possibly, BSG, and Traveller

Two or three more to go. And a reminder that I'm looking for games, not books or TV shows etc.

ffutures wrote: ↑Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:49 am

Two or three more to go. And a reminder that I'm looking for games, not books or TV shows etc.

My bad, I missed this part so my suggestions were incorrect. So lets add

Master of Orion
Wing Commander

to replace Dune (correct, all games are based on the plant) and Dark Matter. I am also not aware of any game based on the Foundation but I might missed it.

montana05 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 08, 2018 11:04 am

ffutures wrote: ↑Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:49 am

Two or three more to go. And a reminder that I'm looking for games, not books or TV shows etc.

My bad, I missed this part so my suggestions were incorrect. So lets add

Master of Orion
Wing Commander

to replace Dune (correct, all games are based on the plant) and Dark Matter. I am also not aware of any game based on the Foundation but I might missed it.

OK, both of those qualify - Master of Orion is a lot like Elite in allowing jumps to any system in range, Wing Commander has jump routes which aren't necessarily related to distance as I remember it.

I'm getting nowhere with the Foundation, so it looks like there is still one to go.

Hint - At least one VERY well-known MilSF author worked on the design of a game universe which has jump-style travel, and has written novels set in it.