SRE: Clones

Several people have expressed an interest in producing a new version of SRE. I list them below. If you’re on the list and want to be removed, or if you’d like your email address or web site listed so that people can contact you, please let me know! For anyone writing a clone or similar game, I’m happy to help give feedback or talk about anything I can remember about SRE’s internals. All I ask is that you don’t use the name Solar Realms Elite; that would lead to confusion, as there are many clones.

These games were complete and are playable at some point:

Matt Heaton

Created Starpires^[1], a Facebook/Kongregate game similar to SRE. This had been the most active SRE-inspired project until 2013, when it disappeared. I can’t find any information about what happened to it. Also, I can’t see it on Internet Archive because they set up a robots.txt that blocked archiving.

Yanick B

Wrote an SRE clone in PHP + MySQL called Solar Imperium^[2], but stopped working on it in 2011^[3]. The source is available^[4] (also fork^[5]). Also see the design notes^[6].

Stephen U.

Wrote a web-based clone of SRE called New Kingdoms^[7]. He writes, “I chose to make it land based though so regions/units may seem a bit more BRElike.” Shut it down after getting hacked^[8].

Geoffrey W

Wrote a C-based CGI version of SRE called Internet Imperialists^[9]. (This is a play on the name of the SRE 0.99x series: Intergalactic Imperialists.) Internet Imperialists was GPLed but I no longer know where to find the source code.

These are people who worked on games or libraries in parallel to SRE:

Robert Yogurt

Star Empire Elite^[10] is a similar to Space Empire Elite, Space Dynasty, and SRE. It’s playable on the web. {link broken}

Ozz Nixon

Declan Nation^[11] is inspired by SRE. As of Jan 2019, it is being rewritten as Declan Pro, a modem+telnet+unity game.

Edward S

Edward didn’t write an SRE clone, but he helped contribute ideas for the door libraries used in SRE and many of the SRE features like “flavors”.

David A. Holland

David didn’t write a clone of SRE, but he cloned SEE, the game that SRE was a clone of. Thus, SRE and David’s game, Professional Galactic Empires^[12], could be called cousins. PGE is an Internet-based client/server game. The source code used to be available but the link is broken.

These are people interested in working on a clone:

Michael Pedersen

Had started a Facebook version of SRE. I’ve asked him to use a different name so that it’s not confused with the original.

Michael S.

Interested in writing a Java/Perl version with 3D graphics and sound. Non-commercial.

Sean McN

Interested in writing a client/server version of SRE that would allow many players to play simultaneously.

Jeramie H

Began writing a telnet-based server version of SRE. Implemented telnet server, menu system, and ANSI-based UI, and put up a demo.

Thomas S

Interested in writing a Jovian Realms Elite, implemented as a Perl server invoked by Unix inetd. Would allow many players telnetting in to play simultaneously. Put up a demo.

Ed S

Interested in writing a Total Realms Elite, client/server telnet-based server version of SRE that would allow many players to play simultaneously. The game would span a long time frame, and empires would evolve from medieval to futuristic, allowing for different technologies to be used during different phases of the game. Research would play a greater role than in SRE. A friend of his worked on a telnet-based Tradewars game.

Johan S

Interested in creating a web-based SRE clone with nicer graphics, supporting 30 or more simultaneous users. He is redesigning the turn system design to support so many users.

Jason W

Interested in fixing Y2k bugs in SRE. Unfortunately I no longer have the source code, so I didn’t have anything for him to work on.

Vinh T

Interested in a web based SRE clone with nice graphics and user interface.

Jeffrey B

Interested in writing a Cold Fusion web version of SRE.

Andy B

Interested in working on an SRE clone.

Darryl P

Working on an SRE clone called Space Dynasty Elite (SDE). You can telnet to his BBS at cyberia.darktech.org.