1 I wonder if Steve Barcia will come out of mothballs for us. MOM2?

2 I'd certainly drop some money on a MOM2 or a MOO2++.

The Baldur's Gate announcement is now out - it's for an updated high-resolution version of both Baldur's Gate I and II.  I'd rather see a new game - but I knew that wasn't likely.

They're updating the Infinity Engine for this, which could provide the perfect platform for new old-school RPGs.  Hint hint, Obsidian.  Hint hint.

3

For a lot of these games, a modern remake with identical game play sounds like the perfect outcome. That's what they're promising us for XCOM, for instance. The game play in the original isn't broken, and doesn't need fixing. But the graphics are woefully out of date. Giving is the original game with a modern graphics engine is just the ticket.

I think MOM could use a similar refresh, with maybe a small amount of tweaking to fix bugs and to adjust game balance. But overall it doesn't need to be improved, at the level of game dynamics.

But that's for strat games, which don't have a story built in. For something like Baldur's Gate, I can see why you'd want something new if you've already played the originals enough times to be able to quote the dialogue from memory.

4 Yes, updating MOM or MOO2 needn't be a long or complex task, and I expect a Kickstarter drive would for either would quickly be flooded with cash.  What Firaxis is doing with XCOM looks amazing, but just bringing the games up to modern resolutions while keeping the gameplay identical would be enough to get me to buy in.

The team working on the enhanced Baldur's Gate say they'll be adding new content - they have the original source code - so it's more than just a fresh coat of paint.  (Not that there's anything wrong with fresh paint.)  I've played through each game twice, but I wouldn't mind another run through in the new high-res version.  Particularly if they can get the original voice actor for Minsc back for the Throne of Bhaal segment.  (That expansion was done by a different company, and they didn't/couldn't get the original actor, and his replacement just wasn't the same.)

5

I would love to see a sequel/remake/enhancement of MOM, or Age of Wonders, or Reach for the Stars (I will pretend the 2000 version never existed.) or MOO2 (I will pretend MOO3 never existed either.).  I would throw money at a Kickstarter campaign for any of those.  I would throw money at re-releases of the AD&D Gold Box games on DOSBox, but that might result in something crashing my HDD.

But then the question becomes 'We own the rights?'  Knowing that is a big determinant on whether you can do so.  I know Stardock, before they developed Elemental, tried to get the rights for MOM, but that fell through...

C.T.

6 Reach for the Stars!  There's a name I haven't heard in years.

7

I still have the C64 version of Reach for the Stars sitting around somewhere.  Too bad I no longer have a system to play it on, and the PC version is not the same. 

I have the 2000 version too, which ranks as one of the worst gifts I ever specifically ask for.  Warlords is another SSG title that I want to see more of, since Warlords 3 appear to be the last turn-based version before they went completely to Warlords Battlecry and realtime play.

C.T.

8 There was a Warlords 4, but it was a bit rushed and lacked polish.  
I really liked the Warlords Battlecry series, though.  Not the same as the original, but enormously fun to play.  You could build up a small retinue of elite units that would follow your hero from map to map.  I usually ran around with a squad of maxed-out dryads and fairies shooting everything that moved.
Wouldn't mind seeing a Warlords Battlecry 4 at all, even if it's just a tweaked version of the same engine.