Status Update for Cluster Wars

Can someone provide us a current status update for Cluster Wars?

I just received an email from Jay, who is the owner and supporting patron of Cluster Wars. He reports that Vern Holford, the designer/developer/moderator of this legendary game is gravely ill and now in hospice care.

I don't know the current status of Cluster Wars with any certainty, but I believe that there had been one game currently running, and that it had been suspended at some point. I am guessing that Vern's health issues might have had something to do with it. If there are any Cluster Wars players who'd like to report on when the game was last processing turns, I'd like to hear about it.

Obviously I am deeply saddened to have heard this news. Cluster Wars (and the core design known as Empyrean Challenge) made a big impression on me a long time ago. It is easily in my top-5 games of all time. Vern, as designer and host, supported new and veteran players alike with great respect and professionalism at all times. My thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family.

I went looking for Vern Holford of Empyrean Challenge fame, this morning, over on Facebook.

As near as I can tell, Vern Holford died a couple of years ago. I say that based upon a couple of postings:

https://www.facebook.com/vern.holford

https://www.facebook.com/vern.holford/posts/155818431177053

If anyone could track down what year that Vern Holford was born it, I will include is along with the year that he died in issue #19 of Suspense & Decision. I looked for his obituary, but didn't find one.

Another bit of info. I exchanged emails with Jay on the status of the game.

He said that Vern's son had not responded to emails asking for them to send the game files and source code to him. So, it's unlikely to ever get going, unless there has been a breakthrough that I haven't heard of.

Too bad, as the game was getting to a good place and nearly ready for relaunch.

Another update.

I pinged the Jay about the status of the game. He was able to get a copy of the source code in January and an effort to rebuild the game is underway. It was written in an old, obsolete language and needs updating.

So, great news!

[quote='RktSci' pid='137892' dateline='1588533826']
Another update.

I pinged the Jay about the status of the game. He was able to get a copy of the source code in January and an effort to rebuild the game is underway. It was written in an old, obsolete language and needs updating.

So, great news!
[/quote]

Excellent job!

[quote="RktSci" pid="137892" dateline="1588533826"]
I pinged the Jay about the status of the game. He was able to get a copy of the source code in January and an effort to rebuild the game is underway. It was written in an old, obsolete language and needs updating.
[/quote]

Do you know if there are any updates? I know that 2020 is not the best year for anything and I see that Cluster War's site is parked and up for sale.

This was the game that motivated me to look at PBM/PBeM.

I can't help but wonder what the obsolete language was.

[quote="Davin" pid="138079" dateline="1607324727"]
I can't help but wonder what the obsolete language was.
[/quote]

I don't have anything old enough to actually run the files on to check, but those screenshots look like something you'd get from a DBase type application. (Edit: There's an old post from Darth Pedro that mentions using Access, so maybe VBA (totally a guess).)

  CentralCommand/setup.exe: PE32 executable (GUI) Intel 80386, for MS Windows

There was a small group of people working to redevelop the game from scratch, but participation on that project forum dropped off, and now it looks like their board is being eaten by spambots.

I’d like to work on it myself, if I can get a collaborator. I’ve had a space empire game design of my own that I will write one day, and a gamer pal of mine is designing one himself right now. (He’s looking for playtesters!)

I wouldn’t bother picking up Verns MS Access code - obsolete. Better to write a modern app. His genius was in the design, not the implementation.

Do you have a link to that project forum?

I started writing a server based on the original rulebook (and the errata that I've uncovered), along with a browser client to post orders. I've been scraping the posts from the two web sites, along with the updated manuals. (I've noticed that Darth Pedro posted PDFs of the rules here, but I can't find any attachments in the forums.)

Two things stopped me - the initial setup and Vern/Jay own the intellectual property. The IP is a pretty hard stop. The initial setup (seeding the cluster) makes it "easy" to create a cluster with 100 systems according to the printed rules. What's missing is the details. How did Vern set up the distances between systems, allocate between empty orbits, habitable planets, gas giants, asteroid belts, etc? Stuff like that has a big impact on the feel of the game.

I’ll email Jay to see if he will extend permission to recreate the game. I believe he bought the IP (and source code) specifically to get the game up and running again somehow - he had been funding Vern’s efforts to this end, I believe.

Did you see the hochler forum?

As for universe creation - Vern’s parameters were that each player should have a number of stars in his local mini-cluster, reachable with Hyper Engine - 1 tech, and each mini-cluster would be isolated from the others, and the central mini-cluster, by a distance requiring tech 3 to cross. Further, each mini-cluster was in one of the 8 “corners” of the 30-LY overall cluster, if viewed as a cube in space. And each mini-cluster would have the same number of habitable worlds, but the bulk of the HAB was going to be found in the middle.

[quote="ixnay" pid="138088" dateline="1607365029"]
Did you see the hochler forum?
[/quote]

No - thanks for pointing that out. (And you're right about spambots taking it over!)

Marc Hochler has the source code and was working on recoding early this year.

[quote="RktSci" pid="138097" dateline="1607380653"]
Marc Hochler has the source code and was working on recoding early this year.
[/quote]

That's good to hear!

I'm bad at strategy games (as everyone will soon find out on the Galac-Tac game!), so I'm not sure why I'm so interested in EC. Will be a lot of fun to finally play it and find out :cool:

Any updates from Jay or Marc Hochler?

No. I will ping Marc tonight!

Any updates from Jay or Marc Hochler?

Yes. I have a bit to check out. Then I will have an update here.