Anyone whose been following my artistic adventures knows of my love for the Homeworld series.

It began sometime in the 90s, when I got a hold of a Sierra magazine and poured over the new games that were coming. One of them was Half-Life, but the other was Homeworld. I was immediately drawn to the prospect of 3D space battles, and the images of the ships posted only made me wonder what it would be like to command them. It was like a dream come true, finally being able to command space battles (as Starcraft, at the time, was only 2D).

Years later, I came across Homeworld: Cataclysm, since Homeworld itself was long off the shelves. Since it was the closest thing to Homeworld that I'd get, I picked it up, installed it, and played it. I was not disappointed; The music quickly became my favorite, and every CD I burned for my player to listen to on campus would have a music track from the game (attained one way or another- usually through Nabster during the height of that service).

But eventually I wanted to play with the Taiidan ships, and the Kushan ones. The only way I could do this was to get Homeworld. As soon as I spotted the Game of the Year edition for the first game, I picked it up.

There was some skirmish games I played, and things to get used to, but then I played the story.

I never looked back.

I became drawn in by the venture from Kharak to the core, and drawn in by the atmosphere Homeworld presented. As the years went on, I came to appreciate more and more the depth of the story it presented. I fell in love with Homeworld because it was completely different from the science-fiction universes, until then, that I had experienced. Energy beams could only be fired from a dedicated spaceship; a novel concept coming from the assumption that starships had many of these. Bullets as the weapon of choice for the universe was also a novel idea that I became attracted to, as well as a universe without magical energy shields. Finally, the tie-ins with Biblical Mythology and the grand quest of a mere 2-600,000 survivors from a population of 300 million...finding their lost Homeworld in an all-or-nothing gambit... was unparalleled in any experience I had before.

And when I looked back on Cataclysm, my disdain increased because of the gestures Barking Dog took to destroy the uniqueness of the atmosphere. Some of the great things in Homeworld were casually shoved aside for the sake of that game, and it introduced things to poison the clear-sky atmosphere of the first game. This is why it has my disdain, despite being my introduction to Homeworld.

But Homeworld... firing it up and playing it today only brings me closer to an already powerful game. I expect to be returning to Hiigara over the span of the week, when I have the time, in my free hours. As my fandom for Homeworld is going into Perihelion over the past few weeks, expectantly a number of Homeworld fanart has been popping up here.

As I said at the Relic thread for Remembering Homeworld: Homeworld is like the book you never want to see made into a movie because of what Hollywood would do to it, yet you want the author to make more of.

Ten years... despite the rough-and-tumble treatment of the name, franchise, and mythology in its sequels I still continue to hope for a future of this unique universe without watering it down for the sake of sales.

Fortunately for all of us, Relic has made a gesture for the fans and allowed the release of the stand-alone demo of Homeworld... which is skirmish and MP compatable through Gameranger, as well as containing the first four missions and the cut mission "Raider's Retreat."

Get it here. Now. And play.
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