How did you discover the I-War game(s)?

I'm curious if all you lads have bought the games when they came out or if you stumbled over them in mysterious ways.

I first discovered Edge of Chaos in January 2005 - I was a big fan of a German computer magazine called "PC Action". Because of nostalgic reasons, I still have all of the magazines from that time.

They bundled the (unpatched) German version of the game on their DVD and this is what got me into I-War. I immediately liked it, although trying to play it without a joystick was painful. I believe I persuaded my parents to buy me a crappy joystick which wouldn't center if I didn't touch it and had rubber feet. :sick:

It still wasn't perfect, but way better to play and I spent hours with it. And of course, with this website. So if it hadn't been for PC Action, this site would've probably been gone.

My grandmother got this game for me for my birthday. No, she's not a pirate. At the time, I was around the same age as the young Cal Johnston, so the fact that it was Cal's birthday at the start of the game was a lovely coincidence that made me identify with him that much more. I used to tear up every time I watched the opening cutscene.

I was also terrible at the game, unfortunately. I never managed to complete it. In fact, I never managed to even make it to act 1, back then. I did bring home a surprising amount of cargo though; I just went to space stations and asteroid colonies and waited until someone dropped their cargo, then I docked with the pod I wanted and brought it home.

When I finally got to the point in the game where I could just use Jafs, I still always carried one home myself. Now, I will especially make sure not to let Jafs handle the antimatter. His accidents have caused many, many deaths.

I discovered I-War (1) some time after watching Babylon 5 for the first time. Remember the first episode "Midnight on the Firing Line", where Garibaldi disrupts a Raider attack on a cargo vessel? That was the FIRST time ever I had seen a fight in space with actually realistic physics. I was in love, pure and simple - and I was a lost cause for all the Star Wars, Star Treks and whatnot.

So when the first I-War game came out and promised me the "B5" feeling I was in, head over heels.

Fortunately, I had a Logitech Wingman Extreme joystick at the time bought for a game like Strike Commander or something along those lines. I was quite heavily into simulation games at that time. Still, even with the joystick (which I threw away not to long ago for it being a Gameport joystick, which in turn required a Soundblaster card), I wasn't terribly good at playing the game. But I was not terrible, either, so with enough patience I managed to finish the first game and was well on my way with the add-on "Defiance" when I encountered a mission that I was unable to finish. And believe me, I tried hard, and often. I still have to finish I-War and Defiance again. Unfortunately, the often cited issues with hit detection in I-War make it hard not to lose interest. Also, being an adult, I have much less time for gaming than I used to have.

Anyway, WRT Independence War 2, I did play the demo back in the day, but while I-War and Defiance managed to get me fall in love heavily, IW2 didn't get my excited AT ALL. With the first 2 games, I loved the awesome (even by today's standards!!!) CGI sequences, coupled with the story-driven mission and the overall feel. IW2, however, was more like Elite's pretty and shallow little brother. Also, I didn't care for the Storm Petrel (I still love the shape of the Dreadnaught), and... I dunno, it just wasn't my thing.

Only when the I-War games were released on GOG (I still have the original CDs for I-War and Defiance in my shelf, looking straight at me), I finally realized that IW2 was actually a fairly decent game and grows with you the longer you play it. Granted, it does have a lot of shortcomings, but graphics-wise it is still among the most beautiful space games ever made.

I have all games installed on my computer and plan to re-visit them properly as soon as my time allows.

My older brother roped me into I-war 2. (Mostly because I asked...) I used to play Search and Rescue (a helicopter flight sim) and when I first spotted the comsec's cockpit on his screen, I asked if it was a very cool chopper. :lol: In my defense, he was on the other end of the room.
So after watching him play for a few hours (act 1 - much piracy grabbed me attention!) I asked him to install it on my computer. He did so and I spent the next nine months playing the campaign. I finally finished, rather spooked by the Chaos Aliens (they were cool though,) but it took me another couple years to get I-war 1. I heard it was on GOG, so I bought it and hammered through the story in a few weeks, which is also how long it takes me now to get through the I-war 2 story.
Speaking of, the EoC story didn't make much sense when I first played, but I was seven at the time. I didn't even know half the words they used, so... Since then, I scrutinized the story to figure it out, and it's epic.

--IronDuke

My dad bought the game bundled with Flight Simulator 98 and MechCommander 2. I think he got stuck in Act 0 because of a glitch, and it wasn't till many years later that I put the disk in and tried it. I was quickly hooked. I then bought I-War 1, Deluxe through Amazon. I found out later that it was supposed to have four disks, and I only got the first two.

I'll start off.

I was introduced to Iwar2 when I was a kid, back in 2005. I was browsing the local Dollar Tree and I saw this disc in the dollar game rack. I thought it was one of those third person ceiling view strategy "shooters", like the original grand theft auto or spore. I was surprised to find out, when I got home, that it was the furthest thing from that. Back in the day, it was the most challenging game I had ever played. And even now, though I'm a veteran of Kerbal Space Program and Star Wars Battlefront II, it's hard to fight and fly. Especially with the fact that I don't have a joystick xD.

But how were you introduced to this great game?