Posted by Chad M. on Monday, September 19, 2011 ? Leave a Comment?
Robert Heinlen is one of the best known names in Sci?ence Fic?tion; up there with Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asi?mov as some of the truly mono?lithic giants of the genre. With that said, Heinlein?s writ?ing is prob?a?bly the hard?est to be objec?tive about, because the ground it cov?ers can be so bat?shit insane. How?ever, I?ll be gloss?ing over Heinlein?s later work and focus?ing on one of his more per?pet?u?ally pop?u?lar (and prob?a?bly most read?able) nov?els, Star?ship Troop?ers. Because rather than mak?ing opposite-sex clones of your?self and sleep?ing with them,? or?just every?thing in Farnham?s Free?hold, Star?ship Troop?ers is about some?thing closer to sanity.
The story fol?lows Juan Rico on his jour?ney from High School grad to mem?ber of the elite Mobile Infantry? mark?ing the first appear?ance of pow?ered armor in fic?tion. The mobile infantry are, there?fore, pretty much the arche?typal space marines. The Mobile Infantry go through train?ing from hell like any good spe?cial forces unit, and go on a hunt for mas?sive space?far?ing bugs that have rav?aged human colonies. Now, don?t think you?re get?ting off easy, reader, because?Hein?lein has a pen?chant for deal?ing out chunks of his per?sonal phi?los?o?phy sec?ond only to Ayn Rand.? And in this case, his philo?soph?i?cal bent is, depend?ing on your par?tic?u?lar inter?pre?ta?tion; either in favor of serv?ing the gov?ern?ment in order to attain full vot?ing rights, or in favor of a mil?i?taris?tic sys?tem where only sol?diers can vote. Nat?u?rally, your inter?pre?ta?tion may vary. But hey, even if the pol?i?tics bug you (pun intended), there?s still plenty of large-scale arthro?pod extermination.
Star?ship Troop?ers was first turned into a video game with the obscure 1982 com?puter game Klen?dathu, named for one of the plan?ets the bugs oper?ate from. In addi?tion there were a few games based on the (enjoy?able if you know what you?re get?ting into) 1997 Paul Ver?ho?even adap?ta?tion, but to be hon?est? I?m going to go in a dif?fer?ent direc?tion from my usual Page To Pixel arti?cles and have a look at the influ?ence Star?ship Troop?ers has had on games in general.
You may have noticed pow?ered armor is a pop?u?lar choice for video game protagonists.
Now, as I men?tioned before, Star?ship Troop?ers is pretty much the source for the con?cept of pow?ered armor. Suits of pow?ered armor, of course, have been seen in every?thing from the Broth?er?hood of Steel?s bulky, Impe?r?ial Dark Trooper-esque suits to the sleek nanosuits in Cry?sis, to Earth?worm Jim?s Super-Suit. Pow?ered armor of course serves the func?tion of any armor, to pro?tect the soft fleshy per?son inside, as well as for?ti?fy?ing and increas?ing the strength of that per?son. The suits may also have addi?tional func?tions such as tar?get?ing sys?tems ( the Silencers in Cru?sader), means of travel such as jet?packs ( the Jump Jet Troop?ers in Com?mand & Con?quer), or even Preda?tor?style stealth as seen in Cry?sis and (nat?u?rally) Alien vs. Preda?tor.
In addi?tion, the con?cept of the space marine began in Star?ship Troop?ers, although the Mobile Infantry aren?t marines per se; the idea of space?borne troops that oper?ate from drop?ships began here. There were per?haps two non-video game fran?chises that helped to evolve our mod?ern con?cept of the space marine in the 1980s. The film Aliens fea?tured a squad of Colo?nial Marines sent to dis?patch alien ?bugs?, and Warham?mer 40,000?s Space Marines are the 8-foot tall, ornately armored, two-hearted heroes of the Imperium. Per?haps not coin?ci?den?tally, both are get?ting video game install?ments con?cen?trated on in-your-face space marinery.
Con?sid?er?ing Blizzard?s typ?i?cal orig?i?nal?ity, it?s entirely pos?si?ble they came up with the idea for space marines on?sorry, can?t type that with a straight face.
The space marine is prac?ti?cally a video game arche?type. The Doom guy, the Ter?ran Marines in Star?craft, Mas?ter Chief, Com?man?der Shep?ard and the assorted meat?heads of Gears of War all fit the space marine style to a T, and they?re just the tip of the ice?berg. Halo is prob?a?bly the best exam?ple of Star?ship Troop?ers? endur?ing legacy on video games. It ticks all the major fea?tures that Troop?ers con?tributed? you play a space marine in pow?ered armor, oper?at?ing from the Foe Ham?mer dropship?I don?t want to call Halo uno?rig?i?nal (for my own ben?e?fit, as I know the inter?net will bite my head off for not con?sid?er?ing it to be a com?pletely orig?i?nal work.), but the impact of Heinlein?s themes are quite clearly shown in the?game.
Finally, the entire Mil?i?tary Sci?ence Fic?tion sub-genre, one which encom?passes numer?ous nov?els and games, was essen?tially launched with Star?ship Troop?ers. Even Star Wars fran?chise games like TIE Fighter and Repub?lic Com?mando fall into the mil?i?tary SF genre, pre?sent?ing a look at the rank and file front-line fight?ers as opposed to the more glam?ourous heroes the movies present.? So the next time you?re play?ing?a game set in the dis?tant (or not too dis?tant, for that mat?ter) future, and you?re drop?ping from a ship or flip?ping your ride over with the help of your armor-strength, remem?ber where it all started.
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Filed under Page to Pixel, PC ? Tagged with brotherhood of steel, command & conquer, Doom, Fallout, games, gaming, halo, Master Chief, orca, robert heinlein, spartan, starship troopers
Source: http://bnbgaming.com/2011/09/19/page-to-pixel-starship-troopers/
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