Spaceship Warlock

Spaceship Warlock
Developer(s)	Mike Saenz, Joe Sparks
Platform(s)	Macintosh, Windows
Release date(s)	1991 (Mac), 1994 (Windows)
Genre(s)	Adventure game
Mode(s)	Single player

Spaceship Warlock is an adventure game created by Mike Saenz and Joe Sparks. The game featured arcade action and interactive dialogue, which enabled the player to type whatever he chose. The game was released in 1991 for the Macintosh and in 1994 for Windows. It was graphically ahead of its time and acquired a cult following. The game was a first person adventure set in a sci-fi future, in which the protagonist is captured by space pirates led by Captain Hammer, whom he ultimately joins. The player then goes on to battle and ultimately overthrow the evil Kroll empire and restore freedom to the galaxy.

Spaceship Warlock was one of the earliest and best-known multimedia CD-ROM games to combine all original animation, story, music, and game play. Spaceship Warlock is widely considered a pioneering work, and it received many awards and honors, including the "Game of the Year" award from Macworld magazine.

Captain Hammer, an eyepatch-wearing space pirate and revolutionary leader, is aesthetically a blatant nod to Nick Fury. Some of the game's outer space scenes are reminiscent of the art of Chesley Bonestell.

Lawsuit

The game's creators were involved in a legal dispute over the copyright:

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"Two leading multimedia developers, Michael Saenz and Joe Sparks, have been in court since the fall of 1993 in a dispute about the ownership of the copyright in their successful game, Spaceship Warlock. The dispute focuses on whether Joe was an employee or independent contractor of Reactor, Inc. (Mike Saenz's company) when they developed the game. If Joe is right in claiming that he was an independent contractor, he is co-owner of the copyright and has a right to half of the profits from the game. These profits could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars."

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