Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares

Combat system

The whole tactical ship combat system has many similarities with the system used in Renegade Legion: Interceptor. This not is not only restricted to technical aspects. If one examines the ship graphics in Interceptor more closely, there should be a moment of déjà vu.

Development

The folks at SimTex were calling this game Master of Antares when it was in early development. Later the name was changed to Master of Orion 2 so the game would be more easily recognized by consumers as the sequel to the award-winning original.

References

• Loknar’s ship was christened as “Avenger”, exactly the same as the ship you need in X-COM to travel to Cydonia. Even the graphics are similar! Take a look at them and compare! Coincidence?
• Another coincidence with X-COM? Perhaps the similarity between "Elerium" (the alien energy source from X-COM) and the "Elerians" (the matriarchal psychic race of Moo2) is intentional?
• In another X-COM coincidence... both Master of Orion games as well as the first X-COM game have an alien race named "Silicoid", however the look of the creatures is very different between the two game series.
• The Antaran Star Fortress (when you travel to their homeworld via Dimensional Portal) is commanded by a Ship Captain. His (her?) name is Xyphys, the Antaran Warrior, and has the following abilities: "Fighter Pilot* Helmsman* Ordnance* Security* Weaponry*" as noted in the moohero.lbx archive.
• Phasers, food replicators, transporters, federation type government, the human leader being bald, charismatic and democratic and a few of the ship designs may be references to Star Trek:The Next Generation.

Awards

• Origin Awards
  • 1996 - Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game

Information also contributed by Chris Martin, Dum Gri, lilalurl, NGC 5194, PCGamer77, Technocrat and WildKard.