Realistically I love the Colonial Vipers in the new Battlestar Galactica. Any scene showing them maneuvering is just amazing because it looks like they really put a lot of though into the "physics" of it.
Ultimate Sci-Fi Ships
- Thread starter minidog
- Start date
Newtonian physics can now be easily done in CGI ...
In fact, Babylon 5 was the first sci-fi show to make exclusive use of CGI.
So not surprisingly, it sported a lot of true, Newtonian physics and concepts virtually never highlighted before.
Newtonian physics can now be easily done in CGI.
In fact, Babylon 5 was the first sci-fi show to make exclusive use of CGI.
So not surprisingly, it sported a lot of true, Newtonian physics and concepts virtually never highlighted before.
One of my all time favorites!:thumbsup:
30 years of Star Trek
http://www.ussenterprise.co.uk/misc/30years.htm
http://www.ussenterprise.co.uk/misc/30years.htm
imperial star destroyer - this is sheer class
http://i18.tinypic.com/5xf95so.jpg
spectrum Angel interceptor
http://i10.tinypic.com/52n95jq.jpg
space 1999(eagle moon 5)
http://i14.tinypic.com/68i5auf.jpg
http://i18.tinypic.com/5xf95so.jpg
spectrum Angel interceptor
http://i10.tinypic.com/52n95jq.jpg
space 1999(eagle moon 5)
http://i14.tinypic.com/68i5auf.jpg
Am I the only guy that goes for B5?
Am I the only guy that goes for Babylon 5?
At least the Babylon 5 Earth Alliance ships?
Am I the only guy that goes for Babylon 5?
At least the Babylon 5 Earth Alliance ships?
I'm with you Professor. Babylon 5, superb show. Earth Alliance ships were very utilitarian. My preference was the ships of the Centauri Republic. They were all sorts of decadent.
For realism sake i give major props out to my current favorite show Battle Star.
The current and last season of Stargate geatured new enemies called the Ori and their ships have a design i've never really seen before. Its neat. Like a huge flying toilet seat lid with energy in the middle.
I do enjoy all the capital sized ships from starwars to. Something about that world war one style of making huge *** platforms and having them broadside each other to death is awesome.
May this thread delve deeper and deeper into nerd chatter. I'm liking it
For realism sake i give major props out to my current favorite show Battle Star.
The current and last season of Stargate geatured new enemies called the Ori and their ships have a design i've never really seen before. Its neat. Like a huge flying toilet seat lid with energy in the middle.
I do enjoy all the capital sized ships from starwars to. Something about that world war one style of making huge *** platforms and having them broadside each other to death is awesome.
May this thread delve deeper and deeper into nerd chatter. I'm liking it
Eck, I'll see you half-way on some things ...
What kept me watching was the fact that no one was "holier than thou" like you get in all sorts of shows.
Even the alleged "super-badies" weren't any worse than the "super-goodies," and a testament to the plots of years 2-4 as it really got rolling.
The dialog -- especially between the characters played by Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas -- outstanding at times.
And the sub-plots were quite entertaining, a nice "personal touch."
In the end, B5 may have been a tad simplified overall -- but far, far better than Star Trek any day.
Same deal with the Mimbari and other races.
Another cool aspect I like that they really built on was the fact that humans were "new" to intersteller travel -- less than a hundred years old.
We built up both a reputation, but also some arrogance, and then that played into all the things that we think are "good" v. "evil" but were more about "order" v. "chaos."
My engineering side will still take Star Furies and Earth Capital ships any day to the "artificial gravity" and some "fighter jet" physics in Battlestar.
However, unlike virtually every other sci-fi show -- Battlestar Galatica cakes the crown on real -- and I mean real -- drama! It's so frac'n good! Man, some of the situations -- not watered down one bit! Finally, real characters! Real depth in a sci-fi show!
And I'm not just talking Firefly type swagger (which was entertaining and original as well -- especially with no aliens, only humans who find themselves in the real struggle of independence v. alliance, and where English and Madarin are the dominate languages), but actual, real drama -- like I've never seen in a sci-fi show. It's just so original -- especially the ******, the considerations -- Lee Adama, now there's a man I relate to (except cheating on his wife, of course)! The man has some values that just don't budge -- and his testimony on Baltar, the surreal, but completely neglected reality -- deammnn!
It will never cater to me like Babylon 5's "purity" (at least for Earth Alliance) did, but there is something nice about the mix.
I guess my "pet peeve" is "artificial gravity" -- at least for humans -- if you haven't noticed.
It's actually probably the most difficult technology to master -- and I don't think we would master many other things before it.
But because CGI wasn't commonplace until Babylon 5 first showed it was possible (and they even had to redo graphics for the early years later on), it was difficult to have an entire show without some "artificial gravity" anytime you took to space.
But that's just me, and I'm clearly a biased engineer -- heavily biased and, even more so, overly-opinionated.
What interested me was the real physics of Earth Alliance ships.
What kept me watching was the fact that no one was "holier than thou" like you get in all sorts of shows.
Even the alleged "super-badies" weren't any worse than the "super-goodies," and a testament to the plots of years 2-4 as it really got rolling.
The dialog -- especially between the characters played by Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas -- outstanding at times.
And the sub-plots were quite entertaining, a nice "personal touch."
In the end, B5 may have been a tad simplified overall -- but far, far better than Star Trek any day.
Well, the entire Centarium concept was unique, yet familiar.
Same deal with the Mimbari and other races.
Another cool aspect I like that they really built on was the fact that humans were "new" to intersteller travel -- less than a hundred years old.
We built up both a reputation, but also some arrogance, and then that played into all the things that we think are "good" v. "evil" but were more about "order" v. "chaos."
Yes and no. The ships still aren't up to B5 true-realism, but now that CGI is commonplace (B5 was the first show to do it), the can focus in on more "real manuvering" in newer shows like Battle Star, even if they are still playing to the "fighter jet" mentality.
My engineering side will still take Star Furies and Earth Capital ships any day to the "artificial gravity" and some "fighter jet" physics in Battlestar.
However, unlike virtually every other sci-fi show -- Battlestar Galatica cakes the crown on real -- and I mean real -- drama! It's so frac'n good! Man, some of the situations -- not watered down one bit! Finally, real characters! Real depth in a sci-fi show!
And I'm not just talking Firefly type swagger (which was entertaining and original as well -- especially with no aliens, only humans who find themselves in the real struggle of independence v. alliance, and where English and Madarin are the dominate languages), but actual, real drama -- like I've never seen in a sci-fi show. It's just so original -- especially the ******, the considerations -- Lee Adama, now there's a man I relate to (except cheating on his wife, of course)! The man has some values that just don't budge -- and his testimony on Baltar, the surreal, but completely neglected reality -- deammnn!
Stargate manages to combine a bit of bravdo and almost retro-tech or "near current" into Sci-fi, something that has only been attempted really in Firefly and Space, Above and Beyond.
It will never cater to me like Babylon 5's "purity" (at least for Earth Alliance) did, but there is something nice about the mix.
I guess my "pet peeve" is "artificial gravity" -- at least for humans -- if you haven't noticed.
It's actually probably the most difficult technology to master -- and I don't think we would master many other things before it.
But because CGI wasn't commonplace until Babylon 5 first showed it was possible (and they even had to redo graphics for the early years later on), it was difficult to have an entire show without some "artificial gravity" anytime you took to space.
I'm not really a big Star Wars nut at all -- and not much of a Lucas lover -- except some aspects of Raiders.
But that's just me, and I'm clearly a biased engineer -- heavily biased and, even more so, overly-opinionated.
Oh, one more thing ... Robert's Wing Commander ...
If you grew up with PC gaming, as I did, you learned all about Chris Roberts and his Wing Commander series of video games which basically broke Origin Systems. Chris wanted to do an Star Wars simulator, but LucasArts would have none of that. From there, Origin got its best selling Wing Commander series. It was geeky, gaming, but original in many regards, especially the presentation. And that's why it sold ... it was "all about the space fighters", far more than Robert's could have done with Star Wars, although the capital ships (and the "Cat ships") were fair well done too.
That was Origin's money maker until, of course, the big budget, multi-million dollar interactive movie versions (III cost $3M, IV cost $10M, Prophecy was around $5-6M) drowned the company into expenses it couldn't handle for their sales. They were well ahead of their time, and I don't think anyone will repeat it. Of course, looking at Wing Commander III today, you can see Roberts was clearly a noob at directing, and the production was shambled compared to real movies of the time.
But you can't fault him for not picking the best cast! I mean, you had Major Todd "Maniac" Marshall -- played by Tom Wilson (known worldwide as "Biff" from Back to the Future to most) -- playing across from a very mature Colonel Chistopher Blair -- played by Mark Hamill (who I assume needs no added credits). Thrown in the mix were Captain Eisen -- played by Jason Bernard (never forget him as "Mr. Brackmen" in Herman's Head of all things -- despite him being in everything from V to the Judge in Liar Liar, of which he died during final filming). More, bigger stars were Admiral Talwyn played by legendary Malcolm McDowell (from A Clockwork Orange through Star Trek: Generations among other credits) and a more well known (compared to 13 years ago) Josh Lucas (Stealth, among worse, and better, movies). And yes, the mechanic is pornstar Ginger Lynn if she looked familiar.
http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing3/wc3trailerhi.avi
I'll never forget all those quotes, even cheezy as they are now. But hey, it was 1994 -- CGI was just getting off the ground, period (even Babylon 5 was just starting -- and had a bigger budget). Virtually all blue screens ... until they spent $10M on Wing Commander IV. In all honesty, although it didn't have the "big story," it was best most well done of the series. Although "Maniac" was certainly better with all that extra and true-set filmed 35mm. Again, remember, this is mid-'90s stuff and only $10M for a lot of CGI.
http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing4/wc4trailer.avi
By the time Prophecy hit, and Roberts attempt to get refocused on the gameplay and all the space fighter-genre/epic he created, Origin was basically out of money. And then the genre itself completely collapsed at the same time.
http://download.wcnews.com/files/wcp/prophecy-divx.avi
I mean -- one company, Volution, came out with what could be considered the best space flight sim engine of all-time in Freespace 2 (built upon the already "almost perfect" Decent Freespace -- not to be confused with the Decent series, completely different engine/design/approach, and they were stupid to reuse the name), but its sales were nothing in 1999+. Again, the entire space sim genre market dried up, consumer-wise, and it's largely become open source / community developed at this point. A big reason -- like for flight sims -- is the console, it just doesn't cater to it. Everything is "dumbed down" in controls and gameplay -- no more 30-40+ buttons and options.
Robert's did go on to product the full-length feature flim Wing Commander, but other than character names, it was not true to its roots at all. In the end, I was both disappointed but I liked it very much. It was almost like world war II surface and aircraft -- only in space -- with a nostalgic flavor. The perception 3D displays were very realistic and accurate (so much so you almost don't notice the technology) and the torpedo and other ship-to-ship combat very spectacular. But it was definitely the reality that the entire series was completely dead -- other than what community developments are doing with various game engines to continue the saga.
I always loved the space fighter options and selection in the series. It was the halmark. Once Robert's got away from that, it was it's end.
BTW, Robert's would head up Digital Anvil, which is a Microsoft game publishing house. Other than a few direct and indirect spin-offs (Freelancer and Starlancer), most of their game development has focused on consoles and similar works -- e.g., Brute ***** was one of their early Xbox titles.
If you grew up with PC gaming, as I did, you learned all about Chris Roberts and his Wing Commander series of video games which basically broke Origin Systems. Chris wanted to do an Star Wars simulator, but LucasArts would have none of that. From there, Origin got its best selling Wing Commander series. It was geeky, gaming, but original in many regards, especially the presentation. And that's why it sold ... it was "all about the space fighters", far more than Robert's could have done with Star Wars, although the capital ships (and the "Cat ships") were fair well done too.
That was Origin's money maker until, of course, the big budget, multi-million dollar interactive movie versions (III cost $3M, IV cost $10M, Prophecy was around $5-6M) drowned the company into expenses it couldn't handle for their sales. They were well ahead of their time, and I don't think anyone will repeat it. Of course, looking at Wing Commander III today, you can see Roberts was clearly a noob at directing, and the production was shambled compared to real movies of the time.
But you can't fault him for not picking the best cast! I mean, you had Major Todd "Maniac" Marshall -- played by Tom Wilson (known worldwide as "Biff" from Back to the Future to most) -- playing across from a very mature Colonel Chistopher Blair -- played by Mark Hamill (who I assume needs no added credits). Thrown in the mix were Captain Eisen -- played by Jason Bernard (never forget him as "Mr. Brackmen" in Herman's Head of all things -- despite him being in everything from V to the Judge in Liar Liar, of which he died during final filming). More, bigger stars were Admiral Talwyn played by legendary Malcolm McDowell (from A Clockwork Orange through Star Trek: Generations among other credits) and a more well known (compared to 13 years ago) Josh Lucas (Stealth, among worse, and better, movies). And yes, the mechanic is pornstar Ginger Lynn if she looked familiar.
http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing3/wc3trailerhi.avi
I'll never forget all those quotes, even cheezy as they are now. But hey, it was 1994 -- CGI was just getting off the ground, period (even Babylon 5 was just starting -- and had a bigger budget). Virtually all blue screens ... until they spent $10M on Wing Commander IV. In all honesty, although it didn't have the "big story," it was best most well done of the series. Although "Maniac" was certainly better with all that extra and true-set filmed 35mm. Again, remember, this is mid-'90s stuff and only $10M for a lot of CGI.
http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing4/wc4trailer.avi
By the time Prophecy hit, and Roberts attempt to get refocused on the gameplay and all the space fighter-genre/epic he created, Origin was basically out of money. And then the genre itself completely collapsed at the same time.
http://download.wcnews.com/files/wcp/prophecy-divx.avi
I mean -- one company, Volution, came out with what could be considered the best space flight sim engine of all-time in Freespace 2 (built upon the already "almost perfect" Decent Freespace -- not to be confused with the Decent series, completely different engine/design/approach, and they were stupid to reuse the name), but its sales were nothing in 1999+. Again, the entire space sim genre market dried up, consumer-wise, and it's largely become open source / community developed at this point. A big reason -- like for flight sims -- is the console, it just doesn't cater to it. Everything is "dumbed down" in controls and gameplay -- no more 30-40+ buttons and options.
Robert's did go on to product the full-length feature flim Wing Commander, but other than character names, it was not true to its roots at all. In the end, I was both disappointed but I liked it very much. It was almost like world war II surface and aircraft -- only in space -- with a nostalgic flavor. The perception 3D displays were very realistic and accurate (so much so you almost don't notice the technology) and the torpedo and other ship-to-ship combat very spectacular. But it was definitely the reality that the entire series was completely dead -- other than what community developments are doing with various game engines to continue the saga.
I always loved the space fighter options and selection in the series. It was the halmark. Once Robert's got away from that, it was it's end.
BTW, Robert's would head up Digital Anvil, which is a Microsoft game publishing house. Other than a few direct and indirect spin-offs (Freelancer and Starlancer), most of their game development has focused on consoles and similar works -- e.g., Brute ***** was one of their early Xbox titles.
The five ships flown in Wing Commander III ...
Again, a lot of the series was built for flying different ships for different missions. Different guns, tactics and all sorts of things that have been far removed from the "unlimited" (or nearly unlimited) "ammo/missiles" and "no power/resource" issues of most "shoot'em up" games today.
You had the lightweight Arrow ...
http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing3/wc3ms - arrow.avi
And the slightly tougher Hellcat ...
http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing3/wc3ms - hellcat.avi
And my personal favorite, the heavy fighter Thunderbolt (with a rear *** and one torpedo bay) ...
http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing3/wc3ms - thunderbolt.avi
And then there was the clunky bomber in the Longbow (Captain Eisen, can I please take a Thunderbolt instead of this immobile Thundercrap?) ...
http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing3/wc3ms - longbow.avi
And finally, the sexy, new super-fighter in the Excalibur that you used to slay your mortal enemies in the end, of course ...
http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing3/wc3ms - excalibur.avi
There was over 90 minutes of video in WCIII, all virtually CGI or CGI backdrops, with tactical mission briefings that actually weren't that cheezy -- and definitely not for the time. We're talking 1993 devlelopment with 1994 release (as most CGI backdrops had to be created before filming), about just a year after T2's release.
Again, a lot of the series was built for flying different ships for different missions. Different guns, tactics and all sorts of things that have been far removed from the "unlimited" (or nearly unlimited) "ammo/missiles" and "no power/resource" issues of most "shoot'em up" games today.
You had the lightweight Arrow ...
http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing3/wc3ms - arrow.avi
And the slightly tougher Hellcat ...
http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing3/wc3ms - hellcat.avi
And my personal favorite, the heavy fighter Thunderbolt (with a rear *** and one torpedo bay) ...
http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing3/wc3ms - thunderbolt.avi
And then there was the clunky bomber in the Longbow (Captain Eisen, can I please take a Thunderbolt instead of this immobile Thundercrap?) ...
http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing3/wc3ms - longbow.avi
And finally, the sexy, new super-fighter in the Excalibur that you used to slay your mortal enemies in the end, of course ...
http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing3/wc3ms - excalibur.avi
There was over 90 minutes of video in WCIII, all virtually CGI or CGI backdrops, with tactical mission briefings that actually weren't that cheezy -- and definitely not for the time. We're talking 1993 devlelopment with 1994 release (as most CGI backdrops had to be created before filming), about just a year after T2's release.
The Millennium Falcon
http://www.javierayuso.com/starwars/ships/MillenniumFalcon.jpg
T-65 Incom X-Wing Starfighter
http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/1/17/Xw1.jpg
The Ebon Hawk
http://ruliweb.empas.com/data/review/2003/08m/xbox/sw/18.JPG
Slayn & Korpil B-Wing Starfighter
http://www.thearc.tv/Pictures/StarWars/b-wing.jpg
Slave 1
http://www.gwiezdnewojny.terramail.pl/galeria/galeria5/slave1a.jpg
The Havoc
http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/0/0e/Havoc.jpg
http://www.javierayuso.com/starwars/ships/MillenniumFalcon.jpg
T-65 Incom X-Wing Starfighter
http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/1/17/Xw1.jpg
The Ebon Hawk
http://ruliweb.empas.com/data/review/2003/08m/xbox/sw/18.JPG
Slayn & Korpil B-Wing Starfighter
http://www.thearc.tv/Pictures/StarWars/b-wing.jpg
Slave 1
http://www.gwiezdnewojny.terramail.pl/galeria/galeria5/slave1a.jpg
The Havoc
http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/0/0e/Havoc.jpg
17tobyracing
Banned
Darth's Tie Fighter...
The Invaders TV show spaceship.
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