It’s hard to imagine (and thus very slightly belated, lol) that three years ago yesterday – Monday, August 31, 2009 – GSB finally went public with first-day sales of its pre-release beta version. I’m privileged to have been one of those hopeful players who not only was primed and ready to make the purchase on Day One, but who had previously crossed his fingers for good luck and then registered a forum account even in advance of that fateful day.
As the last “surviving” (forum-active) veteran from before that intoxicating early date, I thought it appropriate to make a public observance of this milestone.
Hats off to cliffski for daring to press on, regardless, with this interesting, unusual, graphically awesome and moddable game! That seed of an idea grew into a mighty oak whose trunk eventually also branched out into five DLC expansions as well as a campaign, too. The wonderful GSB adventure has indeed come a long way since the summer of 2009.
This game was – and still is – very fortunate to have sparked the creation of a major modding community devoted to it. Even after cliffski eventually progressed to developing Positech’s next game, Gratuitous Tank Battles, GSB was – and still is – highly regarded by the fiendishly clever player-technicians, talented idealists & space-warfare enthusiasts who refused to stop creating mass amounts of new & exciting content for it.
While the modders (myself among them) have made great efforts to keep the GSB flame alive, we haven’t done so only for the sake of having our own playable creations see the light of day. We also have some hopes that, all trends to the contrary, there may yet be some further official development added to this game. Only time will tell. But until then, we who remain modding are united in our refusal to let this game slide into the dark.
Congratulations to GSB as it enters its fourth year of life!