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| Space Combat | |
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| Developer(s) | Laminar Research |
| Publisher(s) | Laminar Research |
| Designer(s) | |
| Engine | |
| Latest version | 1.4.0-a on 11 December 2004 (Mac), 1.4.0 on 24 April 2004 (Windows and Linux) |
| Release date(s) | Unknown (Mac and Windows), 10 May 2004 (Linux) |
| Genre | Space flight simulator |
| Mode(s) | single player |
| Rating(s) | |
| Platform(s) | Mac OS, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and Linux |
| Media | |
| System requirements | |
| Input | |
Space Combat is a game produced by Laminar Research to provide a simulation of space combat with accurate physics, unlike most other games of the same genre. Although originally a shareware game, the latest version of Space Combat - 1.40 - is now freeware.
Although it has no plot whatsoever, Space Combat is a rather interesting game to play. The laws of physics are modeled fully, so ships do not behave like aircraft: they behave like spaceships in a frictionless vacuum. This means that any velocity picked up will be maintained unless an opposite force is applied by the engines.
As well as the lack of plot, however, Space Combat also has other shortcomings: the graphics are poor, and there is little aim to the game - there is no sense of completion. Nonetheless, it is an interesting way to look at dynamics and Newton's laws, and can help make them easier to understand, as well as helping to combat the poor treatment that the laws of physics receive in films and games nowadays.
Space Comabat was largely developed using the Apple Macintosh computer with Mac OS X, but is cross-compiled to the Windows operating system as well and should, although it is not recommended, run on Mac OS 9. Also, to further development of Laminar Research's main product, X-Plane, a Linux version has been released. The 3D graphics are fully based on the cross-platform OpenGL libraries.