Hardwar

Not all chemicals
are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a major ingredient in beer!


Dave Barry

About Hardwar

Hardwar was one of my favourite games for quite a long time. Its a sci-fi combat and trading game reminiscent of the Elite series of space simulations. It is set on a space colony on one of Saturn's moons, Titan. The single-player game had a nicely done storyline to follow (although you could play open-endedly if you chose not to follow the storyline). There was also a multi-player version that could be run on a server.

You play as a relatively poor freelance pilot and can make money by trading, scavenging and fighting in order to upgrade your equipment. Since the release of the game by The Software Refinery and Gremlin in 1998, some additional features were added by the community and one of the game's original programmers which provide more control over your items and property, as well as your staff. Its one of the most atmospheric games you'll ever find, sadly it was marketted poorly and wasn't a commercial success but if you can get your hands on a copy you'll love it!

Old Game Results

As it was hard to find servers to play on, I ran a server for a while in early 2004. Unfortunately, the game wasn't that stable and various bugs could render the games unplayable after a while so I gave up in the end. However I see that since then Ian Martin, one of The Software Refinery's programmers, developed some patches to the community built patches to the game. So perhaps those problems have now been solved! Anyway, for old times sake, the results of the games I ran are given below.

Game 2

Game 1

Links

Wez's site - loads of Hardwar stuff, including a fully playable version and all the patches.
Captain Zedo's site - the Definitive Guide to Hardwar & Downloads.
Hardwar FAQ - the other Definitive Guide to Hardwar!