Iron Seed

Ironseed

Ironseed logo (website version)

Developer(s)| Channel 7
Publisher(s)| Softdisk
Designer(s)| Jeremy Stanton
Programmer(s)| Robert W. Morgan III[1]
Composer(s)| Andrew Sega
Platform(s)| MS-DOS
Release| 1994
Genre(s)| Space trading and combat simulator
Mode(s)| Single-player
Screenshot of the main game screen. Top left side: 3D starmap, top right side: ship status and resources. Bottom left: message window, bottom right: interaction "cube".

Ironseed is a 1994 MS-DOS video game, developed and published by Channel 7. It is a real-time strategy, science fiction, space trading and combat game.

## Contents

* 1 Plot
* 2 Gameplay
* 3 History
* 3.1 Development and release
* 3.2 Legacy and support
* 3.3 Successor and source-code release
* 3.4 Port and Rerelease
* 4 Reception
* 5 References
* 6 External links
* 7 Features
* 8 History
* 9 See also
* 10 References
* 11 External links

## Plot

The game plays in fictional alternative reality in the future, several hundred years ahead. The game starts when the name-giving space ship, the "Ironseed," flees a theocracy on Mars. The ship is manned with a disembodied, digitized only crew of rebels originally scheduled for termination. In hastily fleeing, the ship suffers damage and gets lost in time and space. The crew finds itself in unknown space somewhere in the Milky Way with a badly damaged ship and nearly depleted fuel reserves. First objective is therefore finding resources for ship repairs and fuel while gathering intelligence about the surrounding space and also their own history. After encountering other alien species and learning about some greater threat, the ultimate goal becomes to forge an alliance of several alien races to counter this threat.

## Gameplay

The player begins with a single ship and a chosen crew. Planets are randomly generated and numerous ship designs and crew selection allow for different playing styles. Technology research, space exploration, resource management and gathering, production, crew management and alien diplomacy are essential elements. New ships, new upgrades, and ancient artifacts help the player in their efforts. Combat can be both in the form of random encounters or planned for by the player.

## History

### Development and release

The story and art were created by Jeremy Stanton, the code was written by Robert W. Morgan III. The music was composed by the computer musician Andrew Sega who gained reputation in the 1990s demoscene as Necros. The game was released and distributed by Softdisk in 1994.

### Legacy and support

The game was written with Borland Turbo Pascal for MS-DOS and the usual hardware at that time. Also, like many software at that time, a buggy CRT library included in Turbo Pascal was used, resulting in 'Runtime Error 200' messages on CPUs faster than approximately 200 MHz.[2] Therefore, running the game on modern OSes and faster hardware needed emulation solutions like DOSBox. The "Runtime error 200" bug was finally fixed with a fan patch in 2013, almost 20 years after the game's original release.

### Successor and source-code release

After the game was unavailable commercially for many years it was re-released as freeware around 2003 to promote the development of the successor Ironseed II / Ironseed Reborn.[3] As progress on the development of the successor and further patching of Ironseed was unlikely, the source code of "Ironseed 1" was released by the developers to the public under the GPL in March 2013. A final patch (v1.20.0016) was released with the source code, but also the forum was shut down. Later version 1.30.0001 was put on GitHub, for the first time including the graphic assets and sound effects under GPL,[4] but the commercial DMP sound module stripped out to comply with its license.[5][6] From the source code release missing is also the soundtrack, while it seems the rights on the soundtrack still belong to the developers. For instance, Morgan redistributes the soundtrack on his personal website and also the freeware release included the soundtrack.[7] In September 2013, due to availability of the source code, a FreePascal and SDL based port for Linux became available on GitHub.[8][9] In August 2015 the Ironseed.com mainsite went offline without warning, but came back online in January 2016 under a new ironseed.net domain. In April 2016 the game was ported to the ARM-based Pandora handheld, based on the previous Linux port.[10]

### Port and Rerelease

Work on a re-skinned rerelease by the original developers as a port for Windows is underway using the Unity Engine. Samples and the forum for discussion can be found on reddit in the ironseed subreddit.

## Reception

Ironseed received a Top Dog award from Home of the Underdogs,[11] who highlighted the game's replayability through the random planets and options, and allowance of different playing styles through the various ship designs and crews. It drew comparisons with the earlier Starflight series and the later Master of Orion.[12]

In March 1995 the Slovenian computer magazine "Megazin" rated Ironseed 63 of 100.[13] In March 2017 Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Adam Smith revisited Ironseed, compared it to Star Control 2 and Captain Blood,[14] and described it as "weird, trippy sci-fi that blew my tiny mind" and "a little bit Space Rangers, a little bit Star Control and just a teensy bit FTL."

## References

1. ↑ Ironseed on redshadowsoftware.com
2. ↑ Information about the Borland Pascal CRT bug
3. ↑ Ironseed-Reborn on redshadowsoftware.com
4. ↑ version.txt on karynax/ironseed "v1.30.0001: Source, graphical assets and sound effects have been released under GPL. The DMP library has been replaced with stubs."
5. ↑ A followup update: Source has been put up on Github. on spacesimcentral.com (4 April 2013, archived)
6. ↑ /karynax/ironseed on github.com
7. ↑ ironseed on redshadowsoftware by Robert W. Morgan "We also own all rights to the music."
8. ↑ linux.org.ru
9. ↑ ironseed_fpc by Yaroslav Salnikov "Ironseed, old dos game by channel7, changed to make it possible to compile it with freepascal compiler on Linux." (September 2013)
10. ↑ Ironseed on pyra-handheld.com by ptitSeb (April 25, 2016)
11. ↑ HOTU TopDog Award (Relaunched HOTU Version)
12. ↑ "Iron Seed review". Home of the Underdogs. Archived from the original on 2012-09-05. https://web.archive.org/web/20120905190648/http://www.hotud.org/component/content/article/37-strategy/20244. Retrieved 2012-09-22.
13. ↑ Megazin_1995_03 Ironseed Review (Slovenian)
14. ↑ Have You Played… Iron Seed? by Adam Smith on Rock, Paper, Shotgun (March 21st, 2017)

## External links

* Official website (Ironseed.com archived)
* Ironseed, website of programmer Robert W. Morgan.
* MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

## Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

## History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

On February 13, 2025, Freyholtz stepped down as the site lead to move onto new projects, leaving operations to Tracy Poff, a veteran coder on the site, and Atari staff.[18]

## See also

* IGDB - game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/.
2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/.
3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1.
4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521.
8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media.
9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned.
10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner.
11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames.
12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games.
13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/.
14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/.
15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/.
16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/.
17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames.
18. ↑ "An update on MobyGames leadership". 2025-02-13. https://www.mobygames.com/forum/3/thread/269628/an-update-on-mobygames-leadership/#post-269628.

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