12. Add-on Information

12H. Gryphon

12I. Jupiter

12J. Banzai!

ADD-ON SUB-MENU:

What is an Addon?:

An addon is a third party program that is designed to work specifically with VGA Planets.

Generally, these addons add new Special Abilities to the game.

Brief and General Information About Some Addons and Utilities:

I have added the full document text of some of the more popular Add-ons. I have not substantially

changed the text of these documents, I have only formatted them for this Guide.

To view the full text for an Addons or Utilities, click the appropriate Hyperlink.

Dan & Dave (Dan Gale and Dave Killingsworth) are reknown for their Add-ons for VGA Planets.

Listed here are some of their best:

Asteroid:

Added asteroids that could be caught and used as super fuel for Ships.

Jumpgate:

Allows for the construction of Jumpgates to enable Ships to move vast distances instantly.

Raceplus:

This addon adds one or two new abilities for each of the Races. These abilities were generally tied to specific Hull Slots.

Starbase Plus:

Added a few features for Starbases, such as Starbase Minesweeping. Also added the Ability to transfer via Hull Slot 16

(Medium Transport) Ship Components from one Starbase to another.

Tachyon:

Allows each Race to build two (2) and only two (2) Tachyon devices into any Ship as it is being constructed. This Tachyon

device will decloak any cloaking Ship within range.

Dan Gale's Campaign Editor:

If you want to customize your galaxy, pre-place Ships, or just take out all those nasty Amorphous Natives,

this is the way to go. Worth every penny!

I did not include documentation for this utility. If you want it, buy it. It's worth it.

Michael Raith contributed this addon. Fhost is one of the biggest and it adds sooo much to the game.

Fhost:

Adds some features to the game and allows for advanced Fighter and advanced Torpedo Mission.

A must have.

Oleg Shvartsman chimes in with several Add-ons that add a whole lot of neat Abilities to the VGA Planets universe.

These aren't must have's. But if you do have them. Use them!

Gryphon:

Adds a whole bunch of new Abilities (and Friendly Codes) to the game.

Gryphon team game option allows the host to switch all race specific abilities into ship specific abilities. That means any ship given

That means any Ship given to another Race will still retain its Race specific Abilities.

NOTE: This addon, as well as the Nemesis addon were combined into an addon called Jupiter.

Nemesis:

Adds a whole bunch of new Abilities (and Friendly Codes) to the game.

Nemesis team game option allows the host to switch all race specific abilities to be traded amongst the different players.

That means any Ship given to another Race will still retain its Race specific Abilities.

NOTE: This addon, as well as the Gryphon addon were combined into an addon called Jupiter.

Jupiter:

A combination of Gryphon and Nemesis into one addon. Also adds a few new features.

Thore Schmechtig made this little Add-on because he was [apparently] upset with the Red Wind Carrier.

Banzai!:

Allows Fighters launched from the Red Wind Carrier to perform suicide attacks against enemy Ships.

Andy Duke wrote one of my favorite Add-ons.

Teleport:

Allows Starbases to teleport 20% of a Planet's Colonists, Megacredits, Neutronium, Duranium, Tritaniu, Molybdenum, or Supplies

to another Starbase. Multiple Starbases can teleport to one Starbase in the same Turn.

GivePlan:

A very handy and easy utility for giving a planet to another race.

Homeworld:

A very easy utility that checks to see if a Race's Homeworld has been conquered. If so, it removes a good portion

of that Race's remaining empire.

Informer:

A great little utility to allow Players to view information in their Turns. Does not replace PLANETS.EXE.

Killing Floor:

This addon allows for fleet combat and replaces the native VCR function of VGA PLANETS.

Machines of Yore:

Penguin:

Planmap:

If you wish to edit HULLSPEC.DAT, ENGSPEC.DAT, TORPSPEC.DAT, OR BEAMSPEC.DAT OR THE TRUEHULL.DAT

files, this will do it all.

In other words, it allows you to edit ship stats and weapon stats and engine stats. It also allows you to edit what

Races are able to build which Ships.

This can also be used to view Turns, but not perform actions.

Tim Wisseman threw this little utility in with the Registered version of VGA Planets. I have added no write-up for this one.

Ships.exe

Not an addon, but does come with the Registered version of the game. Allows a Player to view the Ship Lists of all Races.

VPA:

VGA Planets Assistant. This is another user interface for the DOS version of VGA Planets. Also works with Winplan.

It allows the Player to access all information from just one screen and is so much easier to use than PLANETS.EXE.

Also it used to allow Player to do a few things PLANETS.EXE and WINPLAN.EXE do not. But this feature has been

neutralized by Tim Wisseman, but there is an Hconfig setting to allow them.