Metaltech/Tribes Universe Games Released For Free!

[Expack3]

In celebration of Tribes' 20th anniversary, every Starsiege and Earthsiege game has been released for free! Do know there are some oddities, such as Earthsiege 2 lacking its soundtrack and the Starsiege: Tribes download actually being for Starsiege Universe.

[Collector]

I would have thought that Activision had the IP for the Tribes games. I didn't even realize that Hi-Rez Studios had developed a new game in the series.

The reason that they are missing their soundtracks is that several of these originally had Redbook CDA tracks, which can't be part of an ISO. They would have had to done a BIN/CUE or some other format that can image the audio tracks, too. My installers rip the audio tracks and use _inmm patched EXEs for disc-less play with music.

I have not tried it, they would probably work with the ISOs, but there would be no audio tracks to rip. _inmm would probably complain about the missing when starting the game, but that could be solved by copying over the original EXEs from the ISOs. I guess I will have to DL these ISOs to see if the installers are compatible. It would be possible to upload the tracks for the installers to DL.

[Collector]

For anyone trying to use the SHP installers for these freeware release go to this support thread: http://sierrahelp.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=4362

[stuntology]

I've never heard of these games, but they look pretty interesting! I'll definitely give them a look.

[Collector]

They were originally developed by Dynamix. They are mechwarrior games, but then Dynamix was also the original MechWarrior developer. The first few games were produced by Mark Crowe of Space Quest fame. I guess that they were one of the few Sierra/Sierra family franchises that Activision did not get. The current IP holder, Hi-Rez Studios continued development with Tribes Ascend in 2012.

This is not the entire library of Metaltech/Tribes universe games. Metaltech: Battledrome was an early one is missing and a couple of the Tribes games. There are also a few other games that are often considered part of that universe, like two Cyberstorm games and some include CyberGladiators (what became of the CRY.SYS project) and Hunter Hunted.

[Tawmis]

In celebration of Tribes' 20th anniversary, every Starsiege and Earthsiege game has been released for free! Do know there are some oddities, such as Earthsiege 2 lacking its soundtrack and the Starsiege: Tribes download actually being for Starsiege Universe.

So weird; the first game downloads; all the other say they download; but they never do.

Might be a firefox issue.

[Collector]

Works for me in FF. AV issue?

[stuntology]

Too bad only the first one's a DOS game- I'll have to wait until I've got access to a windows machine to try out the others (or try fiddling around with Wine again!)

[Collector]

What are you on?

[Maxor127]

I think there was a non-Tribes Starsiege mech game too.

[stuntology]

I'm on Mac.

[Collector]

What about a Mac variant of Wine?

[Rakeesh]

Great news on the day I decide to check this forum again

I had played the first Earth Siege game, but never finished it.

Silly question: I haven't been able to make head or tails about the Metaltech/Earthsiege/Starsiege/Tribes universe. Do the games represent some cohesive storyline? Are there some prequels, or does the story "start" on one of those games? When do the spin-off start to branch off the main story line?

[Collector]

There are synopses at the beginning of the games. How consistent they are with each other is another matter. I couldn't find much of anything about any of the Tribes games on YouTube in the short amount of time I was willing to look, and I didn't look for the Cyberstorm games and Battledrome didn't have an intro but here are the intros from the first three (pre-Tribes) games.

The original Earthsiege: Earthsiege 2 part 1: Earthsiege 2 part 2: Starsiege: