- This article is about Stardock, the software company. Stardock is also the title of a book by Fritz Leiber.
Stardock Corporation is a software development company founded in 1993. Stardock initially developed for the OS/2 platform, but was forced to switch to Microsoft Windows due to the collapse of the OS/2 software market in 1997/8. Most of their computer programs allow a user to modify or extend an interface, although they also have an interest in computer games, particularly turn-based strategy games.
Stardock runs TotalGaming.net (http://totalgaming.stardock.com/), an online content distribution system for downloadable video games.
Stardock has created and maintained WinCustomize (http://wincustomize.com/), a GUI customization community.
Products
Most of the products below are tied together with Stardock Central, a program allowing download of the components of Stardock's subscription services, whether bought as part of a subscription or separately. Some are only available for Windows 2000 and/or Windows XP.
Object Desktop
Stardock's flagship product is Object Desktop, a subscription-based software suite that includes several programs for customizing elements of the Microsoft Windows GUI. Originally released in 1995 for the OS/2 market, it was converted to Windows in 1997/8, and currently (Janurary 2005) consists of the following components:
- WindowBlinds - for skinning a Windows operating system with new visual styles and controls
- DesktopX - for creating new desktop designs and active objects
- IconPackager - for managing the icons used in Windows
- WindowFX - for adding special effects and animations to Windows XP and Windows 2000
- SkinStudio - for designing new skins for WindowBlinds and Windows Media Player
- IconDeveloper - for designing new icons
- ObjectBar - for replacing the standard Windows Start button
- Keyboard LaunchPad - for assigning common computing actions to hotkeys
- ControlCenter - a modular sidebar with CPU and disk space usage monitors, folder links, virtual desktops and other features (due to be replaced by ObjectBar 2.0)
- Theme Manager - a package system for theme and skinning programs, including popular non-Stardock applications like Winamp and Windows Media Player
- Object Edit - a notepad/wordpad replacement with syntax highlighting
- Tab Launchpad - a tabbed launch bar - now mostly replaced by ObjectDock
- DriveScan - a disk space visualization program
- Enhanced Dialog - adds options to the standard Windows common dialog boxes
- RightClick - a skinned extensible desktop right-click menu
TotalGaming.net
Stardock's games subscription product is called TotalGaming.net (previously The Drengin Network). As of Janurary 2005 it includes the following Windows games (bold games were developed by Starodck):
- Galactic Civilizations - a turn-based space strategy game similar to Civilization, originally released in 1995 for OS/2; a sequel is in development
- Stellar Frontier - an top-down space colonization and combat game
- The Political Machine - players compete with the computer to become President of the United States
- LightWeight Ninja - a children's side-scroller featuring an undersized ninja
- The Corporate Machine (previously Entrepreneur) - a 2D strategy game; players attempt to obtain a legal global monopoly in a given market, competing against an AI or other players
- B.U.G.S. (Bill's Unbelievably Ghastly Space Ships)
- O-R-B: Off-World Resource Base
- Disciples II: Ultimate Edition
- Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood
- Celtic Kings: Rage of War
Stardock has often sold its strategy games as having a competitive "human-like" AI, particularly that of The Corporate Machine and Galactic Civilizations. Galactic Civilizations was released one month after Master of Orion III, and the former met with considerably more success in the marketplace and user reviews; some believe that this was because players found the AI in MOO3 lacking. It should be noted that AI programmer and CEO Brad Wardell has gone on record as saying that he has no qualms about letting the AI "cheat" (typically by recieving free money to spend) at the very highest levels of difficulty if doing so improves gameplay; most gamers appear to be satisfied with this as long as the rest of the AI is on a "level playing field".
WinCustomize
Aside from its subscription packages, Stardock also sells a variety of icon packs, premium themes consisting of content for more than one program, and programs that do not fit into its subscriptions, including:
- The WinCustomize Browser - a specialised user-interface to the WinCustomize.com (http://www.wincustomize.com/) website], available by 2-year subscription to the site
- ObjectDock - provides a free skinnable dock similar to the Mac OS X dock (available in a paid-for version with tabbed docks)
- CursorXP - a free program to drastically change the appearance of the mouse cursor, including animations (a paid-for CursorXP Plus adds click effects and resizing)
- LogonStudio - a free program to edit and apply Welcome screen skins
- BootSkin - a free boot screen changer that operates using a driver rather than replacing the standard boot screen in the kernel
WinCustomize is the name of the site that provides downloads for all of Stardock's skinning and desktop enhancement products, on which these products are sold.
History
Initially a builder of PCs (named StarDock Systems), Stardock quickly branched out into software development, where it has remained despite a change of platform.
OS/2 Era (1993 - 1997/8)
Stardock's initial software product was a computer game for OS/2 called Galactic Civilizations. Stardock never actually recieved any royalties from the initial sales of Galactic Civilizations due to publisher fraud, but the market had been created for subsequent addon packs including the Shipyards expansion, and Stardock later sold a significant number of licenses to IBM for part of its Family FunPak (under the name Star Emperor). Stardock went on to create OS/2 Essentials, and its successor, Object Desktop, which provided the company with a large base of users.
At about this time, IBM decided to abandon OS/2. However, they did not make this decision public, and Stardock continued to develop applications software and games for the platform, including Avarice and Entrepreneur. With the advent of Windows NT 4 Stardock found that their core user base was slipping away, and was forced to reinvent itself as a Windows developer - not before losing most of its money and staff.
Windows Era (1997/8 - present)
The newer, smaller Stardock was heavily reliant on the goodwill of its previous customers, who essentially purchased Windows subscriptions for Object Desktop in anticipation of the products it would consist of. Having put together a basic package (including some old favourites from the OS/2 era) Stardock began to bring in external developers to create original products.
Stardock's first major Windows success was with WindowBlinds. There turned out to be a large market for skinnable products, and Stardock prospered, growing significantly in the next five years. Although it is not true that Stardock was responsible for the msstyle skinning engine in Windows XP, the release of this operating system did stimulate sales in Stardock products, and despite growing competition proportional to the market the company remains in a strong position.
In 2001 they added a widget creation and desktop modification tool, DesktopX. This has not had such a wide uptake as other products; some believe this is because it is harder to use and to create for, others because users do not understand the functionality that it offers. DesktopX competes with Konfabulator and Kapsules in the widget arena.
Stardock's games have had more mixed success. The Corporate Machine sold reasonably well, but LightWeight Ninja was not as popular. In an echo of Stardock's previous experiences with games publishers, Strategy First appears not have fulfiled all its contractural obligations for the distribution of Galactic Civilizations. However, several games from the Strategy First lineup have appeared on Stardock's TotalGaming.net service, so it may be that some payment was made in kind. More recently, The Political Machine (timed to coincide with the 2004 U.S. presidential election) has sold well.
Litigation
Like many software companies, Stardock has been involved in litigation in relation to their business:
- In 1998 they were sued by Entrepreneur Magazine for use of the trademark name "Entrepreneur" for one of their games. Stardock claimed that their use of this word was not related the magazine's business, but did not have the money to fight the case - the name was changed to The Corporate Machine.
- Apple Computer have on several occasions threatened legal action unless content was removed from Stardock servers (Brad Wardell once half-joked that Apple's lawyers "had Stardock on speed-dial"). They were particularly displeased to see ports of the Mac OS X interface appearing months before the software was released. In contrast, Microsoft has not objected to the use of its work in derivative works, and many skins and themes are based on their designs; one of the big selling points of ObjectBar was the ability to emulate the Windows XP taskbar.
- In December 2003 TGTSoft sued Stardock (and Brad Wardell personally) for declarative relief, claiming that they should be able to use the IconPackager format without charge; Stardock maintained that they should be entitled to royalties or a license fee on such software. The case was eventually settled out of court, with TGTSoft licensing the format for use with their products.
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