November 24^th, 2003 (12:00am) - Blasting out of North Carolina like the Enterprise at warp nine Malfador Machinations’ latest entry in the much revered Space Empires series, Starfury, has been taking the world by storm. With its open ended gameplay and endless replayability gamers have embraced it as the thrilling science-fiction action RPG it is, but for many the action doesn’t stop with what’s contained on the CD. Space Empires: Starfury, like all of Malfador’s games, caters to the mod crowd; those individuals that seek to modify a game’s contents. From creating new weapons to brand new starships practically everything in the game can be modified (aka ’modded’).

While modding the game doesn’t require two decades of programming experience it can be a daunting task for those new to the world of modmaking. To help facilitate mod creations Aaron Hall, the mastermind behind Starfury and Space Empires, has released an invaluable reference guide to modding Starfury.

At twenty-seven pages the guide covers everything you need to know about changing Starfury into whatever your vision of the game entails. The guide provides helpful descriptions needed to understand what the various files discuss, and then it breaks down each directory into how each file relates to the overall game. With everything laid bare the creation of new mods is made one step easier, although an active imagination is still just as important as knowing what each file does. The guide can be found at the Starfury Downloads page at http://www.shrapnelgames.com/malfador/Starfury/6.htm.

Another interesting tool that Aaron Hall has made available is a random map generator for the game that can be downloaded from the Starfury Downloads page at http://www.shrapnelgames.com/malfador/Starfury/6.htm. This small file (it weighs in at only about half a meg in size) creates brand new maps at a click of a button. It’s perfect for modmakers, or for people who want to spice up their campaign. It should be noted that while the map generator has been released by Malfador Machinations and Shrapnel Games, it is not an officially supported tool.

For more information on Space Empires: Starfury be sure to visit the official homepage at http://www.shrapnelgames.com/malfador/Starfury/1.htm