Digital Gamers will offer four products based on the Starfire game system. The first product, available in the fourth quarter of 2003, will allow subscribers to play the tactical game online. This will be followed later in 2003 by a series of online tools to simplify the tasks performed by a Space Master.

In 2004, Digital Gamers will round out its Starfire product offerings with the Space Mastered Campaign, allowing groups of up to ten players to compete in their own private space mastered campaign; and with the Starfire RTS, allowing thousands of players to compete against each other in a game based on the Starfire strategic rules.

All four Starfire Online products will be implemented using Sun Microsystems' Java^TM technology. Users will run freely-downloadable client software to access servers providing the actual game logic. The final decision about which J2SE release to use for the client will be based on how widespread support is for each version. Digital Gamers intends to support client software running on Linux and Mac OS X, as well as Windows. As of this writing, the release that appears to be most widely supported is J2SE 1.3.

The Starfire Online products will be provided through the Digital Gamers branded gaming service. Subscribers who wish to play the Starfire games will select the Starfire Design Studio as a premium service when subscribing, gaining access to the Starfire Tactical Combat, Space Master Aides, and Starfire RTS products. The Space Mastered Games will be a premium service, with a small additional charge for each campaign in which a player enrolls.

29 January 2004

Work continues on the Starfire Online Tactical Space Combat game. Version 0.3.0000 of the Starfire Online Tactical Space Combat game is going through internal quality assurance prior to being released to the play testing community. Version 0.3.0000 allows players to select from a pre-defined catalog of ship designs and scenarios, specify the starting placement of their forces, and move their units on the map.

Version 0.4.0000 is in development, and will add the capability to fire a few weapon systems (currently E, F, and G) at enemy units. With the completion of version 0.4.0000, the major functionality for the game will have been completed. At that point we will begin extending individual functional areas of the game to reach a complete implementation of the Elite tactical space combat ruleset.

With the release of version 0.5.0000, we will begin opening testing to the entire player community (testing is currently limited to Digital Gamers, Inc. staff and certain non-staff designated by the Starfire Design Studio). Watch here for a future announcement regarding open playtesting.

29 January 2004

We will shortly begin testing of several Space Master Aides. The initial tools will include system and scenario editors, a map tool for viewing a collection of systems connected by a network of warp points, and a contact generator allowing Space Masters to enter movement orders for player units and fleets and determine when and where detection events occur.

We will also be releasing a tool supporting Space Masters who have system data in GSFUtil format (and possibly also in Galaxy43 format), allowing them to import their pre-generated systems and use them with the Space Master Aides.