"The Rebel Squad project" ??

[flark]

I just stumbled upon an interesting article by a 'Niklas Jansson' about a potential merging of the games; Rebelstar Raiders, Rebelstar 1 & 2, Laser Squad (+expansion) and X-COM. I found both his ideas and artwork very appealing and exciting. I've never heard of either Niklas or this project before and am very intrigued to know more. Is this simply an artists pipe dream or does this guy have a genuine intention of making this game a reality? I really do hope so, but he doesn't seem to make it clear.

 

If anyone has heard of Niklas before or can provide more information about this project please let me know. Otherwise I hope you find the article as interesting as I did.

 

The Rebel Squad project

 

Prometheus Spawning Grounds

[FullAuto]

Interesting ideas, though I wonder how far he'll get on his own.

 

It's amazing just how varied the inspirations are.

[flark]

I agree, it seems like a massively ambitious project to take on alone. As a comparison just look how long UFO Extraterrestrials took to complete. Still, if this guy did have a team behind him I would love to see the end results. I love the way he has taken inspirations from all of Julian Gollop's games. I really do think there is potential to successfully merge them together into something fantastic. I hope he keeps up the excellent work. Good luck to him.

[Pete]

It does look incredibly good so far!

[FullAuto]

Gone the same way the Gollops actually did with Rebelstar Tactical Command on the GBA, more cartoony in style.

[Azrael Strife]

Brilliant concept art.

[Space Voyager]

Brilliant concept art.

Agree!

[Slaughter]

Thanks for the heads up! Moved topic away from the frontpage however.

[Bomb Bloke]

Gone the same way the Gollops actually did with Rebelstar Tactical Command on the GBA, more cartoony in style.

Ugh. Comparing something to that game isn't much of a compliment. Still haven't been able to bring myself to actually finish it.

 

Unfortunately that title is my only experience as far as Rebelstar is concerned.

 

(Not that I have anything against that art style; in fact, I really like it. However, that particular game just wasn't that much like X-Com, and the development quality was far from... impressive. Or at all acceptable for a retail GBA game of the time, really).

 

Some of his ideas look to be inspired by Final Fantasy Tactics (the first one specifically). But that game's pretty similar to X-Com anyway, so that impression might just be mine.

 

Odd that there's no notes on how he plans to make the game a reality. Maybe he's waiting on some programmers to approach him, or perhaps he wants to get his design plans thoroughly sorted out first. Or perhaps he's just "messing about" for fun - read as written, there seems to be all sorts of copyright issues involved.

[flark]

Thanks for the heads up! Moved topic away from the frontpage however.

No problem.

 

 

Ugh. Comparing something to that game isn't much of a compliment. Still haven't been able to bring myself to actually finish it.

Same here.

 

Unfortunately that title is my only experience as far as Rebelstar is concerned.

That IS unfortunate. I grew up playing Rebelstar Raiders(Spectrum), Rebelstar 1(Amstrad & Spectrum) and Rebelstar 2 (Spectrum) almost continuously. I hardly ever played any other games back then and the only reason they became slightly tedious was because of how good I became at them. I ran out of human opponents (friends) who were willing to play me due to me being so kickass awesome at them.

 

Rebelstar Raiders is 2 players only so was quickly ruled out for me.

 

Rebelstar 1 on the Spectrum is so easy I'm sure a novice could easily defeat it on the hardest difficult level. On the Amstrad the game is slightly improved and a little more challenging as a single player game, but it is still very easy for me to complete even on the hardest difficulty level, without losing a single soldier.

 

Rebelstar 2 (Spectrum game only) is the only one which remains slightly challenging as a single player game. Again though, with my vast experience I can usually complete it on the toughest difficulty level while only suffering 2 or 3 losses and wiping the floor with the Aliens on the scoreboard.

 

I suspect this probably all sounds terribly big headed from my part , but then again for any of you guys who have played them on any kind of regular basis you will probably be just as good and hopefully agree with me.

 

Anyway Bomb Bloke, what I was meant to be getting around to saying was you really SHOULD get around to playing some of the original Rebelstar games. Despite being ancient and a little on the easy side they are still great games. I recommend Reb 1 the Amstard version, and Rebelstar 2 Spectrum (the only choice of course). Download a couple of emulators and the games - they're all really easy to find and set up, even by a novice like me, and it wont cost you a penny.

 

Odd that there's no notes on how he plans to make the game a reality. Maybe he's waiting on some programmers to approach him, or perhaps he wants to get his design plans thoroughly sorted out first. Or perhaps he's just "messing about" for fun - read as written, there seems to be all sorts of copyright issues involved.

That's what I found most strange and also couldn't figure out.