Protostar: War on the Frontier

Lore & Background

Protostar: War on the Frontier was developed by Tsunami Media and released in 1994. During its first six months of development, the game was titled Starflight 3 and intended as a direct sequel to Starflight and Starflight 2: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula. However, collaboration between Tsunami Media and Electronic Arts, the copyright holder of Starflight, ended due to business reasons, forcing Tsunami to create a new game world unrelated to Starflight. The released game retains a basic framework of exploration, diplomacy, trade, combat, and spaceship upgrades that strongly resembles the Starflight games.

Reader's Guide

Protostar: War on the Frontier is significant as an example of a mid-1990s science fiction game that attempted to blend multiple genres—role-playing, space exploration, combat, and strategy—within a first-person real-time cockpit interface. Its development history illustrates the challenges of intellectual property licensing, as the game began as a licensed sequel but had to be reworked into an original property after the collaboration with Electronic Arts fell through. The game received mixed reviews: Computer Gaming World recommended it to newcomers but criticized it for failing to break new ground and for its muddled blend of science fiction themes. A sequel, Protostar 2, was planned but never released. The game's legacy lies in its attempt to carry forward the Starflight-style gameplay while establishing its own identity, though critics felt it lacked a distinct identity of its own.

Did You Know?

• The game's working title during the first six months of development was Starflight 3.
• After the collaboration with Electronic Arts ended, Tsunami Media had to create new assets from scratch, as EA did not grant permission to reuse artwork or source code.
• The game features two types of defensive systems: dampening fields and energy shields, which protect against wave guns and accel cannons respectively.