From Jonathan's Reference Pages
K240 changed somewhat during its two-year development. We can find information in various magazine articles.
The One Amiga August 1993 gives a start date of May 1992, about nine months after the release of the original Utopia. The article depicts the game as we'd recognise it, but with a few differences. The game uses different sprites for the turrets of Protected Resiblocks and for another unidentified building, a radically different design for the Transporter, a slightly different sprite for the Fleet Battleship, and different palettes for Terran ships. We also see slightly different sprites for the Construction Yard and Environment Control which appeared in the CU Amiga K240 demo.
At this point, the title "K240" wasn't decided on. The article interviews the programmer, Graeme Ing, who codenames "Utopia 2" but in a "stop press" the article reveals a new title, "K240: The New Worlds". The developer describes how a lot of features were cut from the original design, including multiplayer. He mentions that some scenarios would have special missions like destroying shield generators, although only the Swixarans have this in the final game.
We also see a different date format, like Y3.010.61, and screenshows show two unknown numbers to appear in the top-right of the screen - perhaps debug information or a removed feature. The review suggests a December 1993 release date, but K240 would not be released until after May 1994. The game's setting was described as the Large Magellanic Cloud, a star cluster 160,000 light years from Earth. The final game manual places the setting in an area called the Fragmented Sectors only 300 light years from Earth, but the cover still bears the title "Magellanic Mining Guidelines".
Amiga Action September 1993 concurs with The One's preview and shows many of the same screenshots. It also reveals that the game's backstory was that two alien races have encroached on the empire and taken much of its resources, forcing the Terrans to expand into asteroid mining. The game is described as having forty building types, seven spaceship types and sixteen hardpoints, which concurs with the final release, give or take a slot for the Orbital Space Dock.
Amiga Power October 1993 is the next preview chronologically. By now, K240 appears to have lost its subtitle "The New Worlds". It describes scientific research as a gameplay mechanic, rather than blueprint purchase.
Amiga Format February 1994 gives a brief preview of K240 which shows two ship designs which didn't appear in the final game. It defines the title "K240" as the name of a mining operation at the Large Magellanic Cloud's fartest edge.
CU Amiga March 1994 includes an in-depth interview with the game's designer, sprite sheets and an early development screenshot. It's revealed that the title is from Sector K240 where the game takes place. The Orbital Space Dock and the blueprint purchasing system are definitely in there. Spy satellites were still work-in-progress.
This issue came with a demo of K240 on disk, which is very close to the final game. Compared to the screenshots in most previews, the ships have taken on their characteristic Terran grey colour.
Amiga Computing April 1994 has the last k240 preview, revealing a chunk of backstory. The Empire enters a period of internal strife and minor wars, during which communication breaks down and natural resources are depleted due to overmining. Corporate-controlled worlds consequently hoard their resources, and the empire begins to break down. It's saved by the discovery of minerals in the Large Magellanic Cloud, by ships returning from a 40-year voyage.
Screenshots appear in an advertisement in CU Amiga and on the back of the retail game box, showing the blue and green ships which may be the original Destructor, Terminator or Imperial Transporter. The game manual refers to the Terminator's "lurid (original?) colour schemes". The green colour of the Orbital Space Dock may be a holdover from before all ships were painted a more uniform Terran grey.
The back of the game box shows an unused green wireframe design for the Transporter, and an older design for the Sci-Tek screen.
The CU Amiga advertisement also reveals the use of cheat codes that appeared in the final game. Several screenshots show the button layout from the code PANEL, and one demonstrates the ICBM code which gives four of each missile. The ad also shows the older sprite for the Construction Yard, which appears in the CU Amiga demo.
The illusion of animated buildings is achieved using a palette trick. COLOR14 and COLOR15 alternate between dark red (700) and yellow (FF2). When COLOR14 is red, COLOR15 is yellow, and vice-versa. This effect is used on the mine, deep bore mine, seismic penetrator, satellite silo, landing pad, and ore teleporter. Look closely at the mine to see how this is achieved.
It's also used on the orbital space dock, and all terran ships except the transporter and imperial transporter.
The missile silos, however, are genuinely animated (if only in three frames).
All four-square buildings consist of four of the same sprite.
More than one version of K240 was released. Pressing 'V' in-game reveals the version. The following version number appears in a cracked version released by TRSI & Zenith with a blue intro on disk 1:
K240 - VERSION 1.886, 20-5-94 13:25
The following version number is given by a Paradox cracked version with an random-coloured intro on disks 1 and 2 naming this the "final fixed version", and a trainer by Backlash on disk 2 calling this "K240 Final". (Not to be confused with a very similar trainer by Backlash referring to "K240/Utopia 2", presumably an earlier release, probably 1.886). This version number also appears on my own retail version of the game.
K240 - VERSION 2.000, 7-6-94 11:15
Presumably, version 1.886 is either an early release or a review copy leaked from an Amiga magazine. Version 2.000 may have been released to fix bugs, such as fleets appearing at the wrong asteroids.
No version string is present in the CU Amiga coverdisk K240 demo, although given its release date of March 1994 it must predate both of these versions.
Gameplay takes place in an area of eight by five "sectors", each forty pixels square. A Scout ship moves two pixels per game day, taking about 20 game days to cross a sector.
According to the game's manual, the Scoutship's speed is 740 light seconds per day. It's possible to conclude that the region of space for one game is an area of of 118,400 by 74,000 light seconds, or 237.27 x 148.30 AU, where 1 AU is the distance between the Earth and the Sun.) An asteroid exactly one sector away is almost thirty times further away from you than the Earth from the Sun.
A scout ship could travel from the Earth to the Sun in a day and a half, or from the Sun to Pluto in 27 days. A speed 5 asteroid moves 1 pixel per ten days, or 37 light seconds per day, giving it a top speed of 128.38km/s.
The game's manual describes Sector K240 as a cube of over fifty light years across, or over 3 million AU cubed. As your segment of K240 is only a few hundred AU per side, it's a very tiny piece of Sector K240 indeed.
The game manual describes the Terran Empire in the year 2380 as consisting of countless billions of humans on over a thousand worlds. In 2009, the population of Earth is estimated at 6.796 billion, and in 2007 the population growth rate was an estimated 1.19% per year. At this rate, the human population in 2380 would reach 547.40 billion.
A growth rate of only 1% would yield 272.57 billion. A massive growth rate of 2% would yield a figure of 10.54 trillion. The human race would likely limit its growth rate using policy and technology, given a major overpopulation problem, so a constant growth rate of 2% seems unlikely.
The Terran empire include "over 1,000 inhabited worlds", a figure which can be assumed somewhere between 1,001 and 1,999. Supposing a growth rate of 1%, the population in 2380 would be an average of between 136.45 million and 272.30 million per inhabited planet. In 2215 when the human race faced an overcrowding problem, the total human population was 52.78 billion.
Page created: 8th November 2009. Last updated: 20th December 2009
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