X-COM is a registered trademark of Microprose Ltd. All other work on this site is (c) Chris Johnston. No contents of this site may be reproduced without the author's consent.
The author may be contacted at cpjohnston@aol.com
A Near Future SF Campaign By Chris Johnston
It is the year 1999. Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) have started appearing with disturbing regularity in the night skies. reports of violent human abductions and horrific experimentation has struck terror into the hearts of millions. Mass public hysteria has only served to expose Earth's impotence against a vastly superior technology. Many countries have attempted to deal independently with the aliens. In August 1998, Japan establishd an anti-alien combat force, the Kiryu-Kai. Equipped with Japanese made fighter aircraft, the Kiryu-Kai certainly looked like a powerful force, however after 5 months of expensive operations they had yet to intercept their first UFO. The lesson was clear: this was a worldwide problem which could not be dealt with by individual countries.On December 11th 1998, representatives from the world's most economically powerful countries gathered secretly in Geneva. After much debate, the decision was made to establish a covert, independent body to combat, investigate and defeat the alien threat. This organisation would be equipped with the world's finest pilots, soldiers, scientists and engineers, working together as one multi-national force.
This organisation was named the Extraterrestrial Combat unit.
Taken from the "UFO: Enemy Unknown" manual. (c) Microprose Ltd
If you've contacted me recently about the XCom campaign asking for more information, and I haven't replied to you, my sincerest apologies. I do try to reply to all emails, however I know I've missed some. One of the reasons I've not "finished" the site is that over the years I've managed to lose a lot of the game notes. I still have hardcopies of some stuff, but the electronic originals are gone. Hardly surprising since the first files were originally created on an Amstrad 8086 and were transferred across four different PCs over the course of the campaign.
However I have been trying to reconstruct some of my basic background notes on the aliens & their technology from memory. If you've emailed me in the past and asked for this info, then please do get in touch again, and I'll send you what I have. At the moment it's just unformatted plain text not fit for publication, but you might find it useful.
Regarding EHLYDAS and UFO: The Invisible Struggle, both are going to be re-written and published in full to the web in due course. Unfortunately they're both going to need extensive re-writes, and they're fairly low on my list of priorities at the moment. But one day, yes one day...
I'm particularly interested in getting in touch with someone called Rob who emailed me at around the beginning of December 2001. This person was planning to run an XCom game using Trinity (I think), Road Rage for car chases and another game for air combat. I really wanted to talk to you about your ideas. Unfortunately a totally mad week at work (thanks in part to the author of the GONER-A virus) meant that I never managed to finish the email I had drafted for you, and now I find I've lost your email address. If you're reading this, please do email me again.
Some people have contacted me with queries relating to the XCom computer games. I'll deal with them in order of increasing irritation.
To start with, don't ask me for game tips. Despite the fact I ran the XCom RPG, I suck big time at pretty much all the XCom games (I usually get wiped out before getting Blast Bombs in the original, and much quicker in "TFTD")
Secondly, don't ask me technical queries about getting the game to run with this graphics card or that soundcard. Solving computer problems is what I do at work, I don't bring the job home with me.
Finally, a couple of people have emailed me asking where they can download copies of the game from, or for me to actually send them the game. I have one thing to say to these people...
XCom/UFO is a great game, one of the classics, in in gameplay terms it still stands up well against current game releases. You'll get hours of gameplay out of it. Put your hand in your pockets and buy a copy. You can pickup the original game for as little as £4.99 on budget, or get the excellent bundle with all the XCom games up to and including Interceptor (plus the Email game). While I do believe that software is generally overpriced, and I support the Abandonware concept for really old OOP games, for something like XCom which is available in the shops at a very reasonable price, I can't find any justification for piracy. I'm not going to send you the game and that's final.
Normal service will now be resumed.
Chris Johnston, 8 Dec 2001
Series 1 : "The Enemy Unknown"
Epilogue 1: "Golden Apocalypse" The series that never was.
Epilogue 2: "UFO: The Invisible Struggle"
Epilogue 3: "XCom2: The Resurrection"
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"The XCom/UFO Roleplaying Campaign" is a Big Chris/Slightly Daffy Production.
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X-COM is a registered trademark of Microprose Ltd. All other work on this site is (c) Chris Johnston. No contents of this site may be reproduced without the author's consent. The author may be contacted at cpjohnston@aol.com
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DISCLAIMER: X-COM(R) and X-COM(R) Logo are trademarks of MicroProse Ltd. This roleplaying campaign background was inspired by the games UFO:ENEMY UNKNOWN and X-COM(R) TERROR FROM THE DEEP and is in no way connected with Microprose or the game designers. The X-COM series of games are absolutely first rate, and I recommend them to anybody who likes an enthralling strategy/combat game.