Best "Free" Game Ever!! Should come with every MIN

[Roughneck]

LOL. Low and behold. The absolute best space fighter game ever to appear on the PC has now made it's way to the Mac platform, and it's Free!!!

Freespace 2 is now available for the Mac.

This is quite literally the best space flight simulator I can remember playing.

Here's what you get.

[Roughneck]

A Freespace 2 Reference Bible can be found here.

Seriously, this game is worth buying a 3rd party gamepad for. It's that good.




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The Mini is my favorite, but it's not good enough to be my only computer.
Final Specs: 1GB RAM, 1.50 ghz G4, 60GB Hitachi 7200RPM hard disk, External DVD-RW connected via Firewire, Formac Studio TVR

[Roughneck]

Background Info on Original Freespace...



The original FreeSpace game was set in 2335. At the beginning of the game, Terrans (humans) have been at war with Vasudans (an alien species) for fourteen years. Suddenly, a third species, known as the Shivans, appears on the scene. The Terrans and Vasudans are directly threatened by their massive fleet led by the flagship Lucifer. As a result, the feuding races formed an alliance to defeat the technologically-superior Shivans. A group of zealous Vasudans called the Hammer of Light would interfere with the alliance, believing that the Shivans were gods. A fourth, unseen race is known as the Ancients, whose lore detailed their war with the Shivans and thorough knowledge of subspace portals that linked the universe's systems together. These portals are a natural phenomenon that are used to connect planetary systems to each other and allow quick transit between them through the use of "jump nodes".

In the final mission of FreeSpace, the Lucifer is in transit through the Sol jump-node. A small strike force of fighters and bombers are able to destroy the five main reactors that power the massive ship and destroy it as it leaves subspace. In doing so, they destroy the Sol jump-node, severing Earth's connection with the rest of the Universe. A large mod for FreeSpace 2 titled Sol: A History was released which tells the story of the Sol system from the time of the Lucifer's destruction, to several years after FreeSpace 2. It can be found here.
Silent Threat took place around the same time as the original FreeSpace. It chronicled the fall of GTI (Galactic Terran Intelligence), a rogue faction within Terran Command that specialized in secret operations and research.
FreeSpace 2 takes place 32 years after the events of the original FreeSpace. The alliance between the Terrans and Vasudans is sealed with the foundation of the Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance (GTVA). The GTVA campaign in this game is three-fold. Their first priority was in stopping the Neo-Terran Front (NTF) led by Admiral Aken Bosch. Bosch, a veteran of the GTI, united a group of rogue Terrans under the banner of hatred of Vasudans. Initially, he threatened to destabilize the Alliance and destroy the Vasudan race. The second priority was the discovery of the Knossos Device, a massive, ring-shaped machine believed to have been constructed by the Ancients. In essence, the Knossos Device appeared to be an artificial portal generator. This obviously interested the Terrans, who were still searching for a way to return to their homeworld. The third, and most dangerous, was the return of the Shivans. This time, the Shivans have a fearsome new array of ships, including the juggernaut-class Sathanas that is over 5.5 kilometers in length.
During the course of the campaign, the player learns about the truth behind the Neo-Terran Front and the nature of the Knossos Device. The NTF insurgency is quelled near the beginning of the campaign when the Knossos Device is activated; this opens access to a nebula that is discovered to be filled with Shivan forces. The eventual retreat and destruction of the portal is not enough to stop the second Shivan incursion, and as hopes for victory slowly disappear, humanity takes desperate measures in order to secure its survival.The most daring of these was the use of the GTD Bastion loaded with "Meson Bombs" detonated in the threshold of a jump node in order to seal it in the same manner as the Lucifer's destruction at the end of the the first war, which sealed the Sol system off from the rest of the universe.
_________________
The Mini is my favorite, but it's not good enough to be my only computer.
Final Specs: 1GB RAM, 1.50 ghz G4, 60GB Hitachi 7200RPM hard disk, External DVD-RW connected via Firewire, Formac Studio TVR

[OGN]

Looks fun!!

Are you sure it's free? What's with the comments on VT?
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2.4GHz MacBook Pro/4GB/320GB HD
2.26GHz Mac mini/4GB/500GB HD
16GB iPhone 3G
2 x 20" Apple Cinemas
http://www.hawaiimacnuts.org

[kes601]

Looks like you need to actually own the Windows version to get this to run, here are the requirements(notice the part that says "original game data files"):

Product Requirements:
Minimum:
Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later
PowerPC G4 867 MHz or faster
512 MB of memory
ATI Radeon 7500 or NVIDIA GeForce2 with 32 MB Video RAM
Original game data files + a minimum of 60 MB of disk space
OpenAL 1.0 framework installed

[Roughneck]

[Roughneck]

Just curious. Anyone other than I get this baby running?
_________________
The Mini is my favorite, but it's not good enough to be my only computer.
Final Specs: 1GB RAM, 1.50 ghz G4, 60GB Hitachi 7200RPM hard disk, External DVD-RW connected via Firewire, Formac Studio TVR

[Roughneck]

Ok, so am I to assume that I'm the only mini owner that's running this great game?
_________________
The Mini is my favorite, but it's not good enough to be my only computer.
Final Specs: 1GB RAM, 1.50 ghz G4, 60GB Hitachi 7200RPM hard disk, External DVD-RW connected via Firewire, Formac Studio TVR

[rosco]

[cinemafia]

Once I migrate some stuff off my Mini's internal onto my external drive, then I'll d/l and try it out.

[Roughneck]

[GrendelPrime]

Pulling down a copy now while I wait for Handbrake to grind through it's queue.
I'll have to see if my Mini will accept my M$ Sidewinder joystick.
The functionality of my M$ Trackball Optical has been effectively neutered under OS/X drivers.

[xmen65]

[Leander]

Works for me.

Is there a resolution option in this game?

I can only see detail options in the menus.

[Roughneck]