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Derek Smart is a software designer and Internet personality living in Florida. He is the creator of the Battlecruiser 3000AD video game series, now Universal Combat.

Smart has participated in a number of controversial public discussions on Usenet and the web.

3000AD Games

Smart's first game, Battlecruiser 3000AD was released unfinished by Take Two Interactive in 1996, and contained many bugs that made it unplayable.

In early 1997, Smart sued Take Two for reasons related to their release of the game in its unfinished form. The publisher negotiated with Smart and the lawsuit did not reach a courtroom. In late 1998, in a statement lauding Smart's work and efforts, Take Two president Ryan Brant announced that the matter had been resolved. Take Two later went public and in its filings listed Smart's first game as accounting for 14.2% of its yearly earnings.

A constant stream of patches and upgrades were later released for the product over the next few months and, eventually, a final patch was released to fix some of the major bugs. Smart then later released the game for free on the Internet and hosted on the popular download sites.

Over the next few years, Smart continued to work on improving his game as he originally envisioned. In 1998, a deal was announced with Interplay where it would distribute BC3K v2.0 through its Value Product Division . In 2001 Smart released this game for free on the Internet, where it continues to post large downloads at some of the popular download sites. To this day it remains in a top downloads list for the space-sim genre.

Smart continued to work on improving his franchise and advancing the technologies in his game. The sales of the Interplay release of the game gained him an exclusive deal with Electronics Boutique for his next game, Battlecruiser Millennium which his company 3000AD, Inc self-published and released in 2001.

In 2003 Smart signed a two product deal with Dreamcatcher Games for Battlecruiser Millennium Gold and Battlecruiser Generations. The latter being a brand new addition to the series, with newer technologies than its predecessors.

A few months later, the publisher had discussions with Smart that resulted in a decision to change the premise to be more action-based than the Battlecruiser series had been known for. The name was changed to Universal Combat.

The game was not ready in time for the 2003 holidays and was shipped in early 2004 at half of the originally announced price. Smart took legal action against the publisher to stop shipment of the game which was still in final Beta stages as he felt that the budget price of $19.95 would be unprofitable for his company. He failed to obtain a temporary restraining order which would have prevented the publisher from releasing the game.

The game received average to mediocre reviews in several game magazine reviews.

Despite an earlier 2005 announcement by Dreamcatcher Games to publish Smart's next sequel, Smart later terminated his publishing deal with the publisher and severed all ties with Dreamcatcher Games.

Smart's 2005 game, Universal Combat A World Apart is a full sequel to the original Universal Combat with a variety of revisions and enhancements especially to the graphics engine. Despite the enhancements, it received average to mediocre reviews.

Smart also released Universal Combat Gold in 2005. This is an updated version of the original Universal Combat with new scenarios and graphics enhancements.

Also new to 2005 is the fact that both of the 2005 games can currently only be purchased via online resellers. Smart also has obtained the license to Freespace and was keen on developing the Freespace franchise which lead to considerable protests from the fanbase with Smart expressing his views too.

1. "Press Release: Interplay Value Products Division to distribute Battlecruiser 3000AD v2.0". Interplay. August 5, 1998.

Flame War

Flaming is the act of posting messages that are deliberately hostile and insulting, usually in the social context of a discussion board on the Internet. In the past, heated discussions have led supporters and detractors of Smart and his work to visit online communities in which they were not previously involved and join arguments there. Smart explained: "Sometimes when I get online, and it's quiet, and I see something that attracts my attention, I'll post just to piss these guys off. That's why I do it. Because I'm in a good mood that day, I go in there and I start trouble."

Published Products

External Links

• 3000AD Inc. website
• Derek Smart's website
• A compilation of Derek Smart interviews

Controversy and Criticism

• Battlecruiser 3000 AD entry in Gamespy's "The 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming.
• Bill Huffman's Derek Smart pages at werewolves.org (likely to be accurate and critical of Derek Smart)

• Computer and video game designers
• Living people