Galactic Assault on My Mac
Got a PR from Virtual Programming about a new game that they’re releasing for the Mac…Galactic Assault: Prisoner of Power. Lot’s of he-man war words there. But it doesn’t look like an FPS, but rather an RTS from the screens. The storyline seems to be based on Inhabited Island, which I find is actually called Prisoners of Power, a Russian Sci-Fi novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky in the 70′s. The book setting is amusing, actually:
The novel is set in the 22nd century of the Noon Universe. Mankind is the prevalent race in the Galaxy, capable of interstellar travel. Human social organization is presumably Communist…
There is no state structure, no institutionalized coercion (no police etc.), yet functioning of the society is safeguarded by raising everyone as responsible individuals, with guidance of a set of High Councils accepted by everyone in each particular field of activity.
It is a society of highly morally evolved individuals that has solved all of its material problems, knows no crime, feels no threats (except possibly from unchecked scientific exploration) and spends much of its efforts in scientific research (space exploration done mostly by volunteers), arts, education and caring for the young. Teachers are the most honorable profession.
Wow! That must mean the majority of the world’s population has been eliminated. Based on my years of reading Fark, I ain’t seeing this happening anytime soon. But wait, it gets better…because the plot includes a member of this advanced civilization landing on a more primitive (read: 20th century tech) planet, and finding himself in the capital of a totalitarian state:
The population is governed by the oligarchy of Unknown Fathers through brutal police and military repression. The city is grim and polluted. Ordinary populace leads the life of privation and misery.
I was intensely amused by the description because it seems to be pinging on the whole “Founding Fathers” thing in our country. But I think that the Soviet censors didn’t appreciate that, since they picked up on the satire of the Soviet society that the book is. Actually, a read through the whole plot and analysis of the book is quite fascinating, and I think I’ll pick up a copy and read it before I play the game. I wonder how much of the plot and setting actually survives into the game?
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