What is Escape Velocity Nova?

Back in the mid-nineties, a gaming tradition was born. Almost overnight the Escape Velocity sci-fi trading and combat game garnered hordes of fans, for whom the sun became a distant memory.

Escape Velocity: Nova, produced by Atmos Software and published by Ambrosia, is the third game in the Escape Velocity series. Like its predecessors, Nova gives you command of a dreary space shuttle and the challenge to work your way up by completing various missions so you can purchase new ships, weaponry, and other items. You can also commandeer the ships of your vanquished enemies.

Like the original and its sequel, Nova utilizes plot lines that function in the background. Land on a planet and go into a local bar, and a stranger might approach you with a deal. The missions range from special deliveries, escort jobs, and bounty hunting to taking sides in a conflict.

Earn a sufficiently powerful ship and enjoy the perverse thrill that made Escape Velocity a classic: galactic domination. Hail a planet and demand tribute, and it will deploy its defensive fleet. After you blow its fleet out of the cosmos, the planet recognizes you as its overlord and pays annual tribute. Sweet.

Escape Velocity has matured very well, and Nova is proof of this. Impressive 3D graphics caress your eyeballs while top-notch sound immerses you in the game, making even routine deliveries awesome fun.

Jump into a new space sector and watch as lasers, missiles, and chain gunfire tear between parties engaged in combat, while the explosions boom from your Mac’s speakers with frightening authenticity.

Nova includes several features that allow players to handle routine travelrelated tasks with ease. In the Map screen, for example, if you hold down the Shift key while clicking the systems to which you want to travel, the game marks the complete path for you. (Otherwise, you have to plan each leg of the trip separately as you arrive in each system.) Click the jump button upon arrival in a new system to advance to the next leg of the journey. It’s also easy to avoid the most common mistake in Escape Velocity — hailing the wrong planet to land on. To select the correct planet and land without frustration, simply use the number keys to scroll through stellar objects.

Escape Velocity is based on a plug-in architecture that has always encouraged third-party development, and for years players have modified the resource files to create their own ships, items, campaigns, and worlds. This remains true in Nova, but plug-ins from the previous games won’t function with its new architecture. Players will have to register (and pay for) their copies to gain complete access to the game files, whereupon they can sculpt the plug-in of their dreams — and stop the abrasive Captain Rectorship from continually heckling them for the shareware fee.

Escape Velocity veterans will find in Nova more of what they love about the series, as gameplay is essentially unchanged: You start with nothing but an old beater ship and a goal of galactic domination by any means. Although the game starts at a slow pace, the terrific variety of ships, weapons, items, and upgrades pick up the tempo once you start making some bank. The game is as fun as it ever was, it’s more beautifully designed than you could expect a shareware game to be, and it holds incredible potential for the future.

Barylick, Chris. (September 2002). Escape Velocity: Nova. MacAddict. (pg. 48).

Download Escape Velocity Nova for Mac

Architecture

IBM PowerPC

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: SheepShaver