SF Tidbits for 10/19/06

Posted on October 19, 2006 by John DeNardo in Tidbits // 6 Comments

John Scalzi interviews Cherie Priest.
Cherie offers some background information on her new book Wings to the Kingdom, sequel to last year’s Four and Twenty Blackbirds.
SFF World interviews Joel Shepherd.
Now blogging (sort of): Hiro from Heroes. [via On Our TV]
Sci-Fi Brain looks at Sci-Fi Gaming.
ChapterFeeds has posted Chapter 1 of Firebird by R. Garcia y Robertson.
The Sci Phi Show is a podcast that discusses philosophy in science fiction. [via SFF Audio]
Geek-Trivia: What are the lyrics to the faux-aria musical piece “Battlestar Operatica”?
From Seed Magazine: Climate Changing Sci-Fi: how global warming is turning a genre once filled with pipe dreams into a pipeline of ideas.
USA Today lists The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived. [via Ed Champion]

Jim Shannon // October 19, 2006 at 2:17 am //

Speaking about Sci-fi and gaming, does anyone here remember Steve Jacksons “StarFleet battles”? This was an awesome game sustem very rich in game play. It was played with counters sometimes die cast

starship models and or a mix of both. Sorry Console fans, it was a paper type game. Lots of dice rolling.

Jim

jp // October 19, 2006 at 10:23 am //

“does anyone here remember Steve Jacksons “StarFleet battles”?”

Why yes, yes I do remember SFB. I remember buying it in the early 80’s when it came in a plastic bag and had the small rulebook, large folded up map, and the cardboard pieces. I guess the only thing that’s changed over the years is the size of the rule books. I haven’t played in ages. And I think it was/is released by Task Force Games and/or Amarillo Design Bureau. I’m not steeped in the history of the game’s production, so don’t sue me. 😉

As for the whole console vs. PC debate, that’s for Gaming Signal. And there are some cool SF related (well, Star Trek anyway) games coming out for the 360, PSP and PC very soon. I’ll be playing on both types until my PC can no longer hack it.

Then I’ll have to decide whether to upgrade, or spend more time reading SF. Or watching it. Hmm.

tbor // October 20, 2006 at 7:24 pm //

“Star Fleet Battles” listing at Boardgamegeek.com

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/1589

And the latest, somewhat simplified incarnation, “Federation Commander”:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/19854

tbor

Fred Kiesche // October 21, 2006 at 2:56 am //

Heh. The only connection between Steve Jackson and SFB is that the guy behind SFB is also named Steve!

😉

I actually dug out my SFB stuff thanks to the showing of the “new” Star Trek (“Balance of Terror”, natch). I then dug around the internet and found the Federation Commander game and bought the basic set (wince…a basic set runs $50.00 these days!). Looks most excellent, the components are top-notch and the game looks like it puts the fun back into a system that sure was bloating up with the rules.

jp // October 21, 2006 at 10:50 am //

Darn you Fred, you made me go look at FC. Just look at this sweet pic:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/137880

Crap, now another game to put on my list.

Fred Kiesche // October 21, 2006 at 8:14 pm //

It’s a nice shot, but you could have pretty much have done the same thing with earlier editions of SFB. Take a look at Star-Ranger.com for additional pictures of the game components (the miniatures are additional drains on the wallet!), plus lots of other nifty stuff such as SW/ST crossover games, etc.