These games were once in development but now are 'lost in the aether' with broken links that used to lead to more information but now they lead nowhere or have just dropped from the face of the internet.

From Stewart Davies

9/12/2001 - I saw Stewart at GenCon again.  Still doing demos and still working on improving the Beta version

9/7/2000 - I was able to catch a bit of a demo on this game.  It is yet another game that started as modifications to Star Fleet Battles that eventually grew into its own game. Currently Star Trek based, it is designed so it could be used in any universe.  Email Stewart for more info on the Beta version that is out.  If you get a Beta version and send him all the problems you find, he will send you a copy of a computer program to design your own ships.  

From Mythic Fox Wargames

2/25/2012 - I see no mention of Aether Lock on the current Mythic Fox website.

6/8/2009 - Aether Lock's website is updated, more info and they are looking for playtesters.

The following are listed as key features of Aether Lock:

Imperfect Information

Ships begin games of Aether Lock as traces, ghosts on the enemy's sensor screens. Your ships hidden from the enemy they won't know what they're fighting until the battle is joined.

It's best to keep a few small ships handy for scouting duties, so you don't run into a nasty ambush and don't forget to use your decoys to trick the enemy into diverting resources away from the body of your fleet.

Combative Initiative

Aether Lock is played in short turns, players move and fight with a fraction of their fleet before using our combative initiative system to decide who goes next.

This way players can take several short turns in a row, but watch out! Taking multiple turns passes important resources to the enemy. So you CAN move your entire fleet in one go but your opponents reply is likely to be much more devastating!

Balanced Fleet Composition

While players are free to compose their fleets as they wish the game is constructed so that a balanced fleet is desirable. As already noted above you won't use your entire fleet each turn just a portion of it.

The bigger the ship the more of your turn it takes up to use. So do you want to use your entire turn up pummelling the enemy with your massive Dreadnought, or would you rather use a handful of Destroyers and Cruisers for a more surgical strike?

Sensors and Targeting

It's not all about having big guns, although those certainly help, it's about finding the enemies fleet and getting locked onto their juicy targets.

You can fire at a ship easily enough, however once you've got a targeting lock on them they're in real trouble. Now all the ships in your fleet can hit them from much further away and much more easily!

And much more...

There's also a complete ship construction system, rules for fighters and other small craft as well as scenarios and much more.

12/17/2008 - An update on Aether Lock from James Doxey at Mythic Fox:

As you covered in July we were scheduled for release late this year or early next. Things have slipped back a little but we feel it is better to take the time to make sure our game is as good as it can be. We've been tweaking the background as well as some of the rules and I'm really excited about what we have to offer;

Engaging game play: Based on our new Combative Initiative System players are kept constantly in the grip of the action. No player is ever move than a minute from an important decision.

Full in-game FTL movement: Aether Lock has been built from the ground up with in game FTL and conventional movement at the heart of it.

Sensors and Targeting: Identify the target, get firing solution and hold onto it. Aether Lock's not just about having the torpedoes, it's about having the targeting locks necessary to hit something with them.

I want to go ahead and blurt out more but I'm saving specifics for Q1 2009 when our website will go live. Plus we do now have a release date in mind for the product, that's contingent on a number of external factors so I'm hesitant to give it out at this stage but I can tell you it ends with a nine!

7/7/2008 - Aether Lock from Mythic Fox is in the works.  They are currently in the fleet design and balancing phase of the development and are hoping for a late 2008 or early 2009 release.

"Man has left his dying cradle.

Centuries ago our last ship, the Astraea leapt into the void. Living in vast floating space Arcs our ancestors scoured the heavens for a new home. Finding nothing they turned upon one another.

The first stellar war consumed billions of souls as mighty Arcs were consumed by flame. After a century of war only a handful of Arcs remained, six forming an alliance against the seventh and banishing it to the edge of known space.

Now a thousand years later with resources dwindling like the life and light of Sol the galaxy is again an uneasy place. The Communion of New Eden and their fanatical devotees seek to break the Six Arc Alliance and claim a patch of sky for themselves.

Have they found a habitable planet?

A place man could again call home?

Welcome to Aether Lock, a new gripping fast paced tactical space combat game. Using our new combative initiative system you're never more than a minute from an important decision. Manage your resources, out think your enemy, don't let the dice do the talking because you make the decisions and your ships and their crew will live and die by them.

In Aether Lock good tactics and bold play will win the day more often than lucky dice rolls."

From Wessex Games

2/25/2012 - I can find no mention of Astronef on the current Wessex Games site and any searches only find mentions in 2009 and before, nothing since then.

2/3/2007 - Astronef is in development by Wessex Games as a Victorian Science Fiction space game as part of their Redcoats on Mars series of games which includes Aeronef (VSF flyer combat), Aquanef (VSF submarine combat), and Land Ironclads (VSF 2mm land combat).  Also Astronef is supposed to be based off an entirely different premise of space combat that Iron Stars, another game of VSF space battles.

Dark Lightening includes:

          * a rapid initiative and turn sequence

          * a multitude of options that put you in control of your ship's fate

          * unlimited starship speed

          * unlimited "sliding" tabletop size

          * and of course "Dark Lightening," the frightening new weapon of the 23rd century.

From Rampant Chicken

10/3/2009 - Updated info on Deep Black, still hopefully due in 2009.

Sculpts of the initial ships from the first fleet are done with the rest in the works.  

-The initial fleets are Russian Federation, The Commonwealth, The Nation of Islam, and one other, still to be decided.
- Each fleet has 3 standard ship designs, Battlecruiser, Destroyer, Frigate. Each of those comes in one or more varients.
- A free PDF download will be available of the basic rules with the Advanced rules having full fleetlists for the initial 4 fleets.

2/17/2009 - Coming in 2009 is Deep Black:

Mankind has rekindled its links to the past and old rivalries and wars begin anew billions of miles from where they once fought. Welcome to Deep Black, a table top miniatures space combat game set in a distant future.

Key Features

* D10 and points based 
* Customizable ship stats with fully scaled models cast in resin 
* Simple inertia based movement and turns 
* Full ECM and ECCM 
* Capitol ships, fighters, bombers and Wild Weasels 
* Full fleets and backgrounds for several major forces 
* Rules for Skirmishes, and optional rules for large fleet scale battles.

From Zac Soden

8/9/2003 - Deep Space Warfleet is the latest version of BattleSpace Fleet Command, a name change was decided upon due to a another game had a similar name and this version is radically different to Fleet Command.

Starship fleets are constructed from plastic building bricks such at LEGO but at a much smaller scale than usual, allowing massive space vessels to be represented by models less than 25cm in length.

If you would like to help playtest this new version, contact Zac Sodoen at zac_soden@hotmail.com for more information.  Please enquire only if you are serious about playtesting and giving feedback.

From Vandering Publications

11/2/2007 - The URL above for Vandering Publications is no longer active

7/7/2002 - I had heard of a new game in the works called DTS so I went to the DTS Webpage and emailed the company for more information and here are a few things I found out from Martin Bourne of Vandering:

DTS (dramatic tactical system) is a simple, fast play wargames rules concept that was originally used for spacegaming, but WWII naval, pre-dreadnought naval, American Civil war land (??) versions
have all appeared.

The DTS project has rather stalled recently owing to other projects, but the basic system is still around and reasonably far developed.

We find that two players can comfortably finish a game in 2-3 hours with about 7-10 ships a side.  Games can be quite even in that even winning positions tend to collapse very quickly.  The scale is one to one (tactical ship combat) and is in 2D.

From Decipher

2/19/2003 - Matt Colville posted the following info on the Trek-rpg.net message board:

"I designed an initial draft of Engage for Decipher, we did some preliminary research on how to get minis done, but the game is now on the back burner."

From Azure Dragon Games

12/10/2004 - Some updates on ISOS were posted on their website on 8/12/04:

After some minor playtesting and a great deal of re-thinking, the Sigmaverse! concept has been totally dropped. Darkness & Aether is still in the mix and the new future space combat setting is called: Legacy of Earth. Legacy of Earth focuses on our local part of the galaxy as Man fights Man. Eventually, someday Mankind might find an alien life form, but that is far in the future. For now the forces of Mankind do battle among themselves, seeking to become the dominant state.

Along with the changes in setting, the decision has been made to jettison the D20 mechanics as it were. Although I think it is possible to create a nice and sophisticated D20/OGL space combat system, I would prefer to try and do things with the game that I just do not believe are congruant with a D20/OGL mechanic. Other then Battlefyre and the use of 2d10, nothing much is ready to be revealed about the system.

12/12/2003 - A list of the factions for ISOS is now posted. A larger update and playtest pack are on the way.

8/5/2003 - Sean Hillman writes to let me know about an upcoming game, In the Shadow of Stars.  It is due later in 2003 and here are some development notes on the game:

- Basic System: A derivation of the D20 RPG system, applied to Fleet Combat.

- Scale: 1 Hex = 200km; 1 Counter = 1 Ship or Flight of smaller craft; Fleet sizes can range from 1 to 50 ships per side!

- The playing surface will be square grid using 1” size. Square playing pieces are included. Right now there are no plans for Miniature support though this will hopefully change. Players can use Miniatures from other games.

- Ships will lose base abilities as they take damage. Depending on their size and generator, a ship may be able to use some or all of its weapons and special abilities in a given turn.

- Will be compatible with D20 RPGs so that characters can take part in battles. Will include 2 Prestige classes!

- Comes with two intrinsic and evolving Settings: One far future and one Space / Steampunk

- Pseudo Historical Tech Tree for both Settings

- Full Tactical Game and Ship construction rules for non-historical campaigns.

- Will be supported by Rules for Operation and Strategic campaigns. (Later Product / Online Support).

From Digital Alchemy

"Interstellar Warfare brings the simplicity and flexibility of cards to the realm of tactical space combat games allowing players to easily design ships, manage power, record damage and more without ever putting pen to paper or using complicated math. Players simply select ship hull panels and add ship system cards to design new warships. Construct warships to fill various roles within your fleet and send them into battle to devastate your enemies."

5/5/2012 - Digital Alchemy emailed SCN with an update on their products and they indicated: "Interstellar Warfare ended up being canceled back in 2007, production of its components became prohibitively restrictive. It has been removed from our new website"

2/25/2012 - No changes on the Digital Alchemy website that still says this game is due out in 2007.

6/6/2007 - The 'Latest News' on the Digital Alchemy page states:

"Due to various delays in production the release of Interstellar Warfare has been delayed.  More news to come."

5/22/2007 - When asking about DA's new game Firing Solution, they gave this update on Interstellar Warfare:

"Interstellar Warfare met with a number of production issues due to the components that have delayed the project. At this point we don't have a specific release date yet... although it will likely be released as a PDF product before the boxed edition."

11/14/2006 - News from Digital Alchemy:

The deafening quiet about Interstellar Warfare has finally lifted... due to production schedules and quite a few game play enhancements that came out of playtest we have pushed back the release of Interstellar Warfare until February. The big news is that the game now has 3D movement and firing arcs and that the MSRP has been lowered to $34.95.

Space

Space is a three dimensional environment but is rarely treated as such in space games due to the complexity involved.  Interstellar Warfare changes all that by providing simple playable rules for 3D movement and weapons fire without vectors, tables or complicated math. Optional 2D rules are included for those who prefer two dimensional thinking.

Movement

Interstellar Warfare movement is Inertia based so ships continue to travel at their current speed and heading until power is applied to the engines to perform maneuvers. Ships may increase/decrease speed, turn, roll, change altitude and more.

Ships

Ships are constructed by selecting a ship panel such as a destroyer or battlecruiser and combining it with weapon and equipment cards. Each ship panel specifies how much space it has for ship systems and all weapon and equipment cards list their required space. Simply fill a ship with weapons and equipment up to its space limit to create a new ship. Ship panels have all necessary power, speed, altitude, damage and roll indicators to track a ships status during the game.

Weapons

Weapons are defined by their Firing Arc (Fore, Aft, Broadside, Turret), Mount (Dorsal, Ventral, Spinal),

Short/Medium/Long Range, Damage, Power & Space Requirements and Special Abilities. A Weapons mount may limit its ability to fire at targets of differing altitudes.

Equipment

Point Defense Systems, Stealth Hulls, Reactors, Armor and other special equipment may be added to ships making them more suitable for their intended role within a fleet.

Tactics

Interstellar Warfare’s 3D battlefield provides unique tactical challenges. Due to bulk and available power larger vessels tend to stay close to the galactic plane while smaller vessels frequently move above or below them keeping out of reach of their deadly spinal weapons. Fleets consist of large warships with long range weaponry and a host of smaller vessels to screen the fleet against attackers and maneuver into their opponents blind spots.

9/18/2006 - The release of Interstellar Warfare is still a month away in October but the first supplement, Reinforcements, is set for a November 2006 release.  It will feature  additional new and existing ship panels, and ship system cards allowing for larger and more varied fleets to be created, as well as new installation panels to fortify your territory.

6/26/2006 - Dan from Digital Alchemy gives me this information about their forthcoming game, Interstellar Warfare:

Interstellar Warfare is a tactical space combat game played out on a hex map. Players build ships by selecting ship panels and adding system cards to create unique ship designs. All ship abilities, power allocation and damage are tracked on the cards allowing players to build fleets and send them into battle without ever running to a photo copier or using pencil & paper. Movement is inertia based and in 3d without vectors or other pesky math. The boxed set will include everything needed for play, 20+ ship panels, 100+ ship system cards, hex map, rulebook, counter sheet, and damage/power markers. All cards and ship panels include full color artwork.

Interstellar Warfare will be shipping mid/late September and will be available via distribution and from our site. The website contains some information about IW including some art, but alot more will be coming between now and release.

2/25/2012 - The blog site above is no longer active and another site from 2009 is still there but has little information and no updates.

7//12/2009 - A new game in the works:

"Legions In The Heavens Enduring, or LITHE, is a MASS scale spacefleet combat game currently being designed to handle more than a hundred ships on the table at once.

It's focus will be on the five main ship classes it specifies which will break down into your, Small Craft (Class 0), Frigates (Class 1), Destroyers (Class 2), Battleships and Fleet-Carriers (Class 3), and Megaships (Class 4).

Other main focuses of the game will be Communication and Battlegroup Tactics."

From Dream Pod 9

8/5/2003 - I talked with some guys at DP9 at GenCon.  Spin It is delayed indefinitely.  To get a decent price they need to print a whole bunch of these games, but their current sales projections are not high enough and they don't want to store thousands of these games.  Their hope is if a major retailer would pick it up so they sell lots more initially.  Until then, we wait and hope.

1/19/2003 - DP9's January info fax includes Spin-It Space Battle, but then it states that the release of this product has been pushed back to later in 2003.

10/22/2002 - Another delay to January 2003.  DP9's October 17th info fax includes Spin-It as a January 13th release and states it was delayed from November and the price increased to $29.95us/$39.95can

8/31/2002 - In DP9's August 20th info fax, it states "Due to unexpected delays the release of the Spin-It Spacebattle boardgame has been pushed back to October" and later it gives a date of October 11th.

7/5/2002 - In DP9's June info fax, it now lists Spin It as a September 6th release.

5/24/2002 - When checking DP9's monthly information fax available online, I found the following information on Spin It: Space Battles, due to ship on July 26th:

This is the first release in Dream Pod 9’s new boardgame line!  Spin It™ is an innovative concept of quick-to-play, family-oriented games. This installment pits daring space pilots against one another in lightning-fast space battles. Allocate energy, take a gamble with death-defying maneuvers and use special powers to triumph over your opponents! Everything you need to play (board, game pieces, notepads, randomizer, etc.) is included in the box — it’s an excellent introduction to tabletop gaming. For 2 to 8 players, ages 8 and up.

DP9-700, Spin It Space Battle Boardgame, $24.95us/$29.95can

From Columbia Games

9/4/2002 - The status of Star Kings was asked in Columbia Games Forum and the reply was:

"'Star Kings' is delayed. We are not happy with the strategic depth the current game has - fun for awhile, but... I doubt it will be ready this year."

3/29/2002- Tom Granvold (of Tom's Spaceship Miniatures/Game Lists) just sent me the following info from Columbia Games newsletter:

Columbia Games took a week off to attend the GAMA trade show in Las Vegas. The event was productive and fun and we made many new contacts. We premiered a sneak-peak off a new game in development called Star Kings where human and alien fleets battle for control of resource planets and bases. Star Kings uses a game system adapted from Wizard Kings. Expected for release this Summer. Sneak-Preview coming to the website soon.

SCN will let you know when their preview is up.

From VBAM Games

2/25/2012 - No update for years on developing their own system.

10/18/2003 - VBAM (Victory By Any Means) is a campaign game in the works where you can play an entire race (not just a ship or fleet) and conduct an entire war one step at a time.

The developers VBAM have announced their new space combat system. The VBAM: Tactical System will be based on vector movement, realistic damage, and fully integrated with their Campaign Guide. In addition, they are also planning an addition to their site to highlight the details of both games in the near future.

More info when it is available.