by Dan Moren
Crowdfunding campaign attempts to revive Escape Velocity: Override
A few years back, I shared some tips on how to get the classic Mac game Escape Velocity to run on modern Macs. Though that may have become an increasingly difficult proposition, it seems there’s a Kickstarter campaign afoot to remaster the second game in the series, Escape Velocity: Override:
Cosmic Frontier: Override is a single-player space-trading game in the mold of the inspirational Elite (1984). It is a remake of Escape Velocity: Override (1998), by the same scenario designer. It is planned to be released for Mac, Windows PC and Linux systems, with a target release date in the middle of 2021. We are seeking your backing to meet that target and release a game of the highest quality possible!
The Escape Velocity series, published by Ambrosia Software, was long one of my favorite games on the Mac, a combination of space combat, interstellar trading, and exploration that you could easily sink hours into. And, as mentioned, one of the driving forces behind the remaster is Peter Cartwright, the scenario designer for Escape Velocity: Override, though original Escape Velocity author Matt Burch does not have any involvement with the project.1
In this age of iOS and Mac games, Escape Velocity seems like the kind of property that would flourish, and I’m glad to see there may be some life left in the franchise.
- That appears to be the reason behind the remaster’s name change to “Cosmic Frontier.” ↩