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Romanians In Space is a 3D space shoot-em-up game with a light simulation flavour. The game was heavily influenced by Freelancer and Freespace. In an alternate reality 1988, Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu set out to conquer the United States Of America. Ten years later, he is the emperor of Earth, and Romanians are his people. He rules with an iron fist, keeping over four billion people (he killed two billion already) fed and oppressed. Romanians are now the chosen people, and they have inherited the Earth. After a hundred years of Romanian domination over the planet, things look bleak. Romanians have no one to conquer and oppress anymore. The new emperor, Traian Basescu, has promised that in thirty years we would conquer the galaxy and hope was restored. His promise came through, but with it, came war and suffering, for the galaxy is also inhabited by extraterrestrial creatures (hereby called alien scum), some peaceful, some not. The intergalactic war raged on as Romanians quickly subdued every alien race they had encountered. Now, the threat comes from within. Remnants of the former republic of Hungary have formed a new nation on a recently-conquered planet. They claim independence and a chance to live freely. This cannot stand. Traian Basescu ordered several squadrons to destroy the Hungarian separatists, but they failed to achieve victory. They were killed. However much it may strain supply lines, the war is now fought on both fronts. You have been assigned to join the 88th fighter squadron, of the 3rd Romanian Fleet, designated Cacanarii. You will be providing cover for larger, less maneuverable cruiser-class vessels in their attempt to overpower the Hungarian forces. If you do well on your assignments, a letter of commendation and a promotion to covert-operations could be yours. Follow your destiny. Viciously murder millions of non-Romanian alien scum. The game sparked controversy in Romania when its story (which was a satire on Romanian-Hungarian relations) made news headlines and appeared on TV. During that news-cycle, a number of talk shows discussed the story and its impact. Even a Romanian Government Minister at the time took umbrage. Upon further inspection, it all proved to be a joke, and everyone understood that it was satire. But it did end up drawing a lot of attention and as such, the game’s development was rushed so that it could capitalize on this new-found fame. The game was released to relatively poor acclaim. It was severely lacking in content, with players usually finishing the single-player only missions in about two hours. The graphics proved to be dated, even for the time. The release was done through Rodipet (now defunct), a nation-wide distributor of press items (newspapers, magazines). It was on shelves for about three months, selling roughly 1000 copies out of the 8000 sent to stores. In 2007, the full game was made freeware. |
