mystery-science-theater-3000 posts

For a while now we have been following the little know but long production of Darkstar, a sci-fi full motion video PC game that has been in development for about 10 years and features appearances by members of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 TV cast . A few months ago its Director/Producer J. Allen Williams finally announced that the game would be available on November 5.

That day is today and sure enough you can now order the 2 disk DVD boxed copy of Darkstar via mail order at the game's official web site for $29.99. There's also some other items for sale including the game's soundtrack, a PDF guide to the game as well as another PDF that acts as a "coffee table" behind-the-scenes book. The game was also supposed to be available for download via Steam today but at the moment it hasn't shown up on the service.

Last December, we wrote about Darkstar, an independently development multi-media themed adventure game that's been in the works for 10 years. At the time the game's Director/Producer J. Allen Williams would not give a release date even though he stated that the game has been content complete for a year.

Now Fidgit has posted up a massive three part interview with Williams which goes over, in almost nauseating detail, all of the issues that Darkstar has had to deal with in its long development process. At the end of the interview Williams states that the game will finally be released in the fourth quarter of 2010 via download on Steam and other similar sites. Williams also says the game will be released in retail stores in the first quarter of 2011. However plans to use songs from the classic rock group Rush have now been scuttled due to the band's management asking for high prices for the use of the songs. Williams now says that a "custom score of progressive rock music" has been composed to replace the Rush tunes but will not affect the release date.

It's a game that's been in development for 10 years but there's still no specific release date. Nope, we are not talking about Duke Nukem Forever but Darkstar. You may be asking yourself, "What's that?" It's a sci-fi adventure game with live action cut scenes that was first announced in 2000. It's main claims to fame are the appearances of several members of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 TV cast as well as songs from legendary rock band Rush.

The official MST3K community site Satellite News got a quick update on the game's progress a few days ago with Darkstar's Director/Producer J. Allen Williams saying that the game has been content complete for a year now. He states, "The crash in the economy has slowed us down a bit, because many of the publishers have no money right now, and others are being very careful about how much they put into third-party productions, and rightfully so." Still he claims the game is "definitely coming out" but would not specify a release date. Williams does confirm that Darkstar will be release for the PC and Mac first with a console release coming later.

In the meantime you can check out this newly released Flash-based trailer that shows off the game's CGI and live action cut scenes. It can also serve as a dance track. Nope, we are not kidding.