Tanarus fps tank game

[Kashmir]

A while back now i posted that tanarus was going to be free to play again and has been now for a while .The game is maybe 12 years old but it's still got a lot going for it with a few options of reg tanks like Vanguard with 7 bays / Devastator with 10 bays / Lightning with 6 bays / Magrider with 5 bays / Chameleon with 5 bays / they all come with theyre own pearls of wisdom in open arena's .
lightnings in both pheonix wars and force wars
then there is duel arena's and 10 vs 10 arena's.

some of you already might have tried out this game and thought it's not for you as it's got a steep learning curve to it .
there's a bit more info on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanarus_(computer_game)

so hopefully maybe i'll see you in the game some time
sorry if i have posted this in the wrong place or anything guys ... but good tank games are hard to find !

[SeabeeTim]

Bad news about Tanarus...

I'm old school Tanarus/Infantry, back when they first came out. I left them both when Sony sold out and started charging at the door. On my way out I told them all that pay-2-play would be the death of those games. In essence, I think I was right.

Obviously pay-2-play didn't work out so well for Sony, because they're free again, but they're also lying in a state of waste. I'm not interested in Infantry anymore, because when I left Infantry I found America's Army, which makes Infantry look like Pacman, but just recently, like, within the last 24 hrs, I tried to get back into Tanarus, and that's not working out so well for me.

It's been four or five computers, and three or four operating systems ago since I last played Tanarus. Tanarus has been all but abandoned by Sony, they still host it on their servers, but they're not supporting it anymore, I guess they're all preoccupied with their cash cows. The last time I played Tanarus I think I must have been running Windows '98, because, from what I'm reading on the Station forums, (A note from the Development team to the community), XP users are having issues with it. These days I'm running 64 bit Vista.

I tried downloading the game again--yesterday--(the old "LaunchPad" hasn't changed a bit, 'news' dated 2000), and just like it says on the forum, when I try to run the game, I get a black screen. Running off of an eight year old memory, I make some clicks on a black screen, and I almost get into the game, I hit a brick wall, but not before I make note that there are seventeen players in the game--that classifies as a ghost town IMHO. Seventeen players--I hope, for their sake, they're all in the same arena...

It's sad, Tanarus was an outstanding game, way ahead of it's time, but it depended on free play for it's population. It looks to me like about seventeen players, give-or-take a few, are keeping it alive, but the only hope I see for it is if someone else throws a few dollars at Sony to take it off their hands, updates the game to fix the many compatibility issues, and puts it back on the free market. I can't even imagine how those handful of players are still functioning in the world of Tanarus--as is, unless we're talking about people so far behind the times they're still running Windows 2K... I would love to play Tanarus again, but I'm not going to downgrade my system over it.

There's an upside to Tanarus, it used to be very popular, and could be again with a bit of maintainence and a good host. It will never be a pay-2-play worthy game, especially now that TV gamers have gone online, but a free MM game like Tanarus will attract a storm of cheap PC gamers (like me) which opens a lot of doors for advertising $$$. I hate advertisements as much as anyone--probably more--but I hate advertisements less than I hate paying for--anything.

So, unless/until something remarkable happens with Tanarus, I think I'll have to pass. Which is what brought me here, searching for the alternative solution. I haven't found it yet, but now I'm going to research this site a bit. I'm seeing some games here, are they free? Are they good? I'm downloading the latest version of America's Army, the patch didn't agree with my 64 bit Vista, so I have to do an uninstall, and redownload the whole darn thing all-over-again. In the meantime, I'd love to come across a good--free--MM sim game. What's good here?

Sorry, dude, I rant sometimes, waiting on a 1.5 gig download...

[Skybird]

Seabee Tim

Asking for free games on this site, Steel Panthers is on my mind, old-fashioned hex-field strategy/cosim. It is from DOS-days, but for several years now has been heavily modded to several new evolution stages. I consider it to be one of the very best tactical-level hexfield-titles ever, maybe even the best (for tactical scale). The graphics are a bit old, but it has been taken to Windows platform. There are two variations, a modern-era one called MBT, and a WWII-based one, called WWII. Both games are for free if you accept the version without comprehensive editors and 800x600 being highest resolution, if you want higher resolution or the editors, they come as full price games. These two features are the only two differences between the free and the full price version.Check the sticky on top of the forum list.

Best commercial and highly realistic tank simulation here is Steel Beasts Pro, focussing on modern era.

A (commercial) tank game loved by many, featuring WWII scenarios, is Steel Fury (publisher just went bankrupt, so official support looks grim - you've been warned, but the community has engaged in modding).

Better keep your hands off T34 vs. Tiger, it was prematurely released, is published by the same bankrupt publisher, and thus it's poor shape is unlikely to be substantially improved.

Check the according stickies.

[SeabeeTim]

Thanks for the reply, Skybird.

I don't mind paying for software, shareware is fine, but I don't like bills, so once I've purchased software I want free-play. Besides, in my experience, free play games have a longer shelf life. I'm only interested in first person massive multiplayer games, like America's Army. Since I have AA, I'm not really interested in any infantry type games, mostly looking at simulators now, tanks, ships, aircraft...but only mmfps, I hate AI. I also prefer free demos over blind purchases, I've made my share of bad buys. I'll look at the tank games you've shown me, if you know of any other sim games that fit my requirements, I'm open to all of your suggestions.

Thanks again!

[Skybird]

not sure i understood what you mean when saying "I don't mind paying for software, shareware is fine, but I don't like bills", but it may be a language problem of mine (I'm not English by native language). where you pay for a game, you get a bill, right?

If you want to focus on both simulation and MP, as you said, your options in this forum department are limited, I think. Steel Panthers is tactic/strategy, Steel Fury has no MP. You are left with TvT (which has issues due to having been released too early and is not supported since the developer went bancrupt, so I recommend to think twice about it), and SBP, which excels in MP.