Derek Smart
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Derek Smart is a software designer and Internet personality living in Florida. He is the creator of the Battlecruiser 3000AD video game series, now Universal Combat.
Smart has participated in a number of public discussions on Usenet and the web. Characterized by controversy, rhetoric, and profanity-laced personal attacks, these flame wars have been recorded in numerous annals of internet and gaming culture.
Smart is devoted to and protective of his work, and has been known to find and participate in discussions of his games on the Internet. In the past, heated discussions have led supporters and detractors of Smart and his work to visit online communities in which they were not previously involved and join arguments there. These sudden increases in population and posting can elicit anything from amusement to hostility, depending on the community involved.
3000AD Games
During production of Smart's first game, Battlecruiser 3000AD released by Take Two Interactive in 1996, he made bold claims as to its features, including references to a neural net used by the AI. A Gamespot review [1] of the released game, concluded from gameplay that this neural net was most likely non-existent, but noted that it was impossible to prove one way or the other without access to the source code. In contrast there are several other reviews of this early game which were perfectly happy with the AI used in his games.
In 1996 the game was released by publisher Take Two Interactive unfinished, and contained many bugs that made it very difficult to play. For its time, it was also criticised for what many believed to be an exceedingly complex interface and gameplay. The manual that shipped with the game was also criticized as inadequate, outdated and poorly written. For these and other reasons, the game was publicly lambasted and Smart voiced his opinions on the premature release frequently and strongly.
Shortly before Take Two Interactive was to go public, Smart took legal action against the publisher for their release of the game in its unfinished form. In a statement lauding Smart's work and efforts, Take Two Interactive president Ryan Brant announced that the matter had been resolved. Smart was reportedly paid an unspecified amount of damages by Take Two Interactive and regained the publishing rights to his game. Take Two Interactive later went public and in its filings listed Smart's first game as one of its best sellers for that period.
A constant stream of patches and upgrades were later released for the product over the next few months and, eventually, a final patch was released to fix most of the major bugs. Smart then later released the game for free on the Internet and hosted on the popular download sites.
Over the new few years, Smart continued to work on improving his game as he originally visioned. In 1998 the popularity of the freeware downloads of the original BC3K game later convinced Interplay to publish an improved and finished version in 1998 as Battlecruiser 3000 AD 2.0. In 2001 Smart released this game for free on the Internet, where to this day continues to post large downloads at some of the popular download sites. For such an old product, to this day it remains in the top downloads list for the space-sim genre.
Smart continued to work on improving his franchise and advancing the technologies in his game. The sales of the Interplay release of the game gained him an exclusive deal with Electronics Boutique for his next game, Battlecruiser Millennium which his company 3000AD, Inc self-published and released in 2001.
In 2003 Smart signed a two product deal with Dreamcatcher Games for Battlecruiser Millennium Gold and Battlecruiser Generations. The latter being a brand new addition to this franchise with greately improved features and newer technologies over its predecessors.
A few months later, the publisher had discussions with Smart that resulted in a decision to change the premise to be more action-based than the Battlecruiser series had been known for. The name was changed to Universal Combat.
The game was not ready in time for the 2003 holidays and was shipped in early 2004 at half of the originally announced price. In an attempt to prevent history from repeating itself, Smart took legal action against the publisher to stop shipment of the game which was still in final Beta stages and which he felt required more testing. He failed to obtain a temporary restraining order which would have prevented the publisher from releasing the game.
Despite an earlier 2005 announcement by Dreamcatcher Games to publish Smart's next sequel, Smart later terminated his publishing deal with the publisher and severed all ties with Dreamcatcher Games
The game received average to mediocre reviews in several game magazine reviews.
Smart's 2005 game, Universal Combat A World Apart is a full sequel to the original Universal Combat with a variety of revisions and enhancements especially to the graphics engine.
Smart also released Universal Combat Gold in 2005. This is an updated version of the original Universal Combat with new scenarios and graphics enhancements.
Also new to 2005 is the fact that both of the 2005 games can currently only be purchased via online resellers.
Published Products
External Links
- 3000AD Inc. website
- Derek Smart's website
- A compilation of Derek Smart interviews
- A collection of materials on various controversies surrounding Derek Smart, with commentary critical of Smart.