Waterworld: a New Expansion for Barren Planet

Saturday, 27th January 2024

Another expansion is available for Barren Planet! After the mining corporations Nuvutech and Avuscorp have finished fighting over the barren planet of Dapra, more resources are descovered on its neighbouring planet, Dalen. Dalen is a waterworld, and the corporations have had to develop naval mining and fighting units in order to seize control of Dalen's resources.

You are again taken on as a strategist, and your task is to manage your units across a number of battles, fighting off the enemy and exploiting resources, until your chosen corporation has complete control of the planet. Like previous campaigns, Waterworld has sixteen battles, of which between seven and ten will be seen in a single playthrough.

Released alongside the expansion is an updated version of the core Barren Planet game, version 1.02. You'll need version 1.02 to play Waterworld, so make sure your game is up to date. The new version of the game corrects a bug that affected the AI in the new campaign.

There's also a new feature in Barren Planet 1.02: support for Hercules graphics! If you're lucky enough to own an old Hercules-compatible PC with its characteristic green or amber monochrome display, you'll now be able to run Barren Planet without the aid of a slow CGA emulator program. Just run the game as normal, and a Hercules display will be detected if present.

If you want to download the updated game and the new campaign, head over to the Barren Planet web page and you'll find both among the list of downloads.