Space Trader

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Space Trader

Developer(s)	HermitWorks Entertainment
Publisher(s)	HermitWorks Entertainment
Engine	GPL id Tech 3
Platform(s)	Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
Release date	July 25th, 2007
Genre(s)	First-person shooter, Action game, Strategy Game
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Media	Download
Input methods	Gamepad, keyboard, mouse, joystick

Space Trader is a video game developed by the Canadian developer HermitWorks Entertainment, for Windows XP, Mac OS X, Linux. It was released on July 25th, 2007. It started development in 2005, headed by Cameron Tofer and Marcia Tofer, both previously of Bioware, along with a group of other developers that have joined along the way.

Currently Space Trader is at version 1.0.4, with a beta version of 1.0.6 available. A free demo is also available on the website.

Combat in Space Trader

Space Trader is a combination first person action and trading game with co-operative multiplayer, tied together with online scoreboards. Players assume the role of Traders in a fictitious future universe. Their goal: to make as much money possible within a time limit. They accomplish this by leasing cargo ships, traveling to planets and trading with Merchants. Each Merchant trades different commodities, and each at different prices. Finding successful trade routes between these merchants is one of the strategic elements of the game. Players can also be stopped along the way by an omni-present government organization known as the Ministry of Accounts, and forced to pay taxes. As well, shady informants reveal the location of black market merchants and the location of criminal bosses, which the players can attempt to bring down for the bounty placed on their head by the Ministry of Accounts.

In multiplayer, players work together in combat and attempt to thwart each other in trading by taking as many bonuses as they can from other players. All scores from games are uploaded to the Space Trader Website, and players are ranked against one another. The Space Trader website features community scoreboards and forums, along with information about the game.

Gil Tartui, One of the dozens of Merchants in Space Trader

Space Trader is a popular game on The Great Games Experiment, and has maintained a spot in the 'Top 5 Viewed Games' since it was featured in early March 2007. In the May 2007 issue of PC Gamer, Space Trader was featured inside of an article about The Great Games Experiment. A screenshot from the game as well as parts of an interview with Phillip Daigle of HermitWorks Entertainment were shown.

Space Trader uses the open source id Tech 3, and is the first commercial title to use that engine since it was open sourced in August 2005. The full modified source code is available on the Space Trader website under the GNU General Public License.

[edit] Other Titles with the same Name

Space Trader is also a strategy game for Palm OS and Windows Mobile PDAs. It was released in 2002 by Pieter Spronck, a scientist at Universiteit Maastricht, and was inspired by David J. Webb's PalmPilot game SolarWars (which in turn was based on Matt Lee's popular Palm game Dope Wars) and the 80's classic 3D strategy game Elite (though it does not have Elite's 3D flight mode). The game is free software under the GNU General Public License. Space Trader has also a free web port called GHO-Trader.

Space Trader for Palm OS centers on buying and selling ten commodities in various star systems around the galaxy. The player has one of several types of spacecraft, and interacts with other traders, pirates, and police. It was very popular in the freeware community when it was released in 2002.^{[citation needed]} The creater of the game announced that he was going to create a sequel, called Picoverse, which was announced in late 2002 and expected to be finished in early 2003. As of February 2008, however, no news regarding the game has been released.