X (computer game series)
| X | |
|---|---|
| Genres | Science fiction space trading and combat simulator |
| Developers | Egosoft |
| Writers | Helge Kautz |
| Platforms | Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows |
| Year of inception | 1999 |
| First release |
X: Beyond the Frontier, July 1, 1999 |
| Latest release |
X Rebirth: Home of Light February 15, 2016 |
X is a science fiction space trading and combat simulator series created by German developer Egosoft. The series is set in the X-Universe where several races populate a number of worlds connected by jumpgates. The games feature free roaming gameplay with trading, combat, empire building, and missions; leading to the series' phrase: "Trade, Fight, Build, Think". The series, which was launched in 1999 on the Windows platform, consists of four base games: X: Beyond the Frontier, X2: The Threat, X3: Reunion, and X Rebirth with a new rendering engine and plot.
The fiction behind the X series is provided in the games themselves and in four novels by series fictional writer Helge Kautz: Farnham's Legend, Nopileos, Yoshiko and Hüter der Tore (The Keeper of the Gates).Farnham's Legend is available in English.
Over the course of the 21st century, mankind experimented with wormhole technology and successfully built jumpgates in space between Earth and Mars paving the way for the colonization of the solar system and interstellar transport. A jumpgate was shuttled to Alpha Centauri in an attempt to claim a foothold in interstellar space. Even before the gate left the solar system scientists discovered that many objects classified as black holes showed the characteristics of artificial wormholes. There were alien jumpgates which the human constructed gates could connect to. The Terrans had discovered the X Universe, a seemingly uninhabited collection of star systems connected by a vast network of large, bi-directional jump gates.
Puzzled by the lack of intelligent life within this network but driven by their curiosity and the urge to colonise the new worlds the Terrans ventured into the X Universe intent on expanding their territory. Terraforming machines were created and dispatched to terraform planets into habitable worlds. The Terraformers were self-replicating spacecraft, governed by a simple artificial intelligence. During a software update several flaws were introduced into the Terraformer fleet and distributed between them causing a radical change in behaviour. The Terraformers replicated and attempted to re-terraform colonised planets, causing the planets to lose their ability to support human life. In an attempt to halt the Terraformers the Terrans became embroiled in a war with their creations. No colony was able to defend against the attacks and mankind was pushed back to the Sol System where the Terraformers launched an attempt to destroy all life forms and terraform all of the inner planets.
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Wikipedia