Babylon 5

Babylon 5 is an epic science fiction television series created, produced, and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The music for the TV series and related TV movies was composed by Christopher Franke. The pilot movie, The Gathering, aired on February 22, 1993, and the regular series initially aired from January 26, 1994 through November 25, 1998, first in syndication on the short-lived Prime Time Entertainment Network, then on cable network TNT. Because the show was aired every week in the United Kingdom on Channel 4 without a break, the last four or five episodes of the early seasons were shown in the UK before the US.

Video games

In 1998 a video game based on Babylon 5, named Into the Fire, was being developed by Sierra, the publishers of Homeworld. This game was to have cast the player as the pilot of a Starfury fighter craft through many missions of a dynamic storyline, while also giving the player an opportunity to "move up through the ranks" and eventually take command of capital ships and even fleets. It was to feature large battles and realistic physics. Multiplayer competitive and cooperative modes would have allowed players to pilot ships of alien races. Christopher Franke composed and recorded new music for the game, and live action footage was filmed with the primary actors from the series.

Related Topics:
1998 - Sierra - Homeworld - Live action

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Work on this game ended on September 21, 1999, when, as part of a corporate reorganization, Sierra canceled it and laid off its development staff.

Related Topics:
September 21 - 1999

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The web site FirstOnes.com followed the game's development and demise, and continues to track Babylon 5 mods for other games. FirstOnes.com also hosts the site of the Space Dream Factory, an independent project to develop several standalone games. The first of these, titled "Babylon 5: I've Found Her", is set five years before the series, and can be downloaded free of charge at the project's website.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Another independently developed, freely available mod is The Babylon Project, a total conversion of the computer game Freespace 2. The mod features several campaigns set during the Earth-Minbari War and the Raider Wars. Additional campaigns, including the Earth Alliance Civil War, are planned. Active development continues on the project's forums at Hard Light Productions.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~