It Is Total Annihilation!

After getting Civilization V through Steam, I had started digging around through their store to see what else they might have on hand.  There were some older games, a few that I thought I might like to go back and revisit.  As SynCaine mentioned the other day, the game has changed.

Still, there is a lot to plow through on Steam, so I sat down and made a short list of games I’d like to find there.

At the top of the list was Total Annihilation, probably my favorite RTS of all time.

Of course, I actually own the game already.  I have the main CD and the two expansions, all of which are over 10 years old.  And because they are that old, they are a bit of a pain to install.

You have to install the base game first, then the two expansions.  But you have to install the expansions in the right order or everything gets mucked up, and I can never remember which is the right order.

Then there are patches to go find and units released by Cavedog as post GA downloadable content to track down in order to get the full package.  There used to be a great site that had everything centrally located, but it has been down for a few years.

So I would have gladly dropped some cash to get a Steam installed version that put the whole thing together for me.

However, it was not on Steam.  Frankly none of my list was on Steam, but I’ll get to that in another post.

In digging around though, I did find Total Annihilation over at Stardock.

They too have a Steam-like service and a small library of games, including TA for just $9.99.

$10 was a no-brainer.  I would have paid more.  And I don’t even have to pop the CD in the drive to play.

I gather from the logo and what I have read that Atari ended up in possession of the rights to the game.

And, true to my expectations, the install did lay down all of the content, patches, and what not.

I am not exactly thrilled to have to have installed another Steam-like client on my system.  Stardock’s client, Impulse, isn’t quite as intrusive as Steam, but it also isn’t as polished.  I suppose one pays for the other.

I was also able to dig out my old Stardock account information, so I actually have access to Galactic Civilizations I and II again now as well.

Now I just have to find a site for maps.  There used to be some great maps for the game.

That and an updated AI.

There used to be a vicious AI that would start dropping nukes on you at about the 15 minute mark in a skirmish.

More stuff to find.  Who has a good Total Annihilation site up their sleeve?