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Battlezone:
Battlegrounds
Bzg front
Information
Developers: Various
Publisher: Macmillan Digital Publishing
Release Date: September 1998

Battlezone: Battlegrounds, often shortened to Battlegrounds, BZGrounds, or BZG, was the first official expansion for to be released for Battlezone by Macmillan Digital Publishing. It consisted of a total of 98 new maps of varying quality spread across multiplayer and Instant Action, the LevelCataloger program to install and manage them, and the 1.4 Patch. Unlike the later expansion Battlezone: The Red Odyssey it does not include any new factions, nor does it include a significant number of new units.

History

The maps contained within Battlegrounds were developed at varying times between Battlezone's February release date, with most being released online some time before Battlegrounds' development. Macmillan gathered them through a variety of means, making direct requests to some authors and putting out a public request for submissions through Realm X,[1] though some maps were created by their designers specifically for Macmillan's use.[2] After Macmillan's enlisted designers Toni Chaffin and Jason L'Hirondelle sorted through the maps and selected the ones they wished to include, they then created a review and description for each for use in LevelCataloger's database.[3]

Maps

Instant Action

Battlegrounds introduced 46 Instant Action maps to Battlezone, some of which provided new narrative and others which did not, on average of a higher difficulty than the campaign missions in the original. Several of the maps provided a connected narrative through their out-of-game briefings regardless, notably the Alternate and Enforcer & Slingshot series. As a result of an issue with LevelCataloger's database the Instant Action map Capture the Relic is inaccessible to the program; this caused most counts of the included maps to be one short.[4]

Multiplayer

Most of Battlegrounds' 52 multiplayer maps followed the already-existing formulas of the Deathmatch and Strategy gamemodes, with a few branching out into Sniper Deathmatch and Race, but Battlegrounds also included maps that had play similar to a rudimentary form of the Capture the Flag and Strategy Capture the Flag gamemodes that would later appear in Battlezone II.

Re-release

When the Battlezone Gold Pack was released in September 1999 to commemorate the launch of Battlezone II, it bundled Battlegrounds alongside Battlezone, its other Macmillan-published expansion Battlezone: The Red Odyssey, the Official Strategy Guide and the Battlezone II Demo. Battlegrounds gained much greater exposure through the Gold Pack than it ever did alone, and standalone copies of Battlegrounds are rare as a result.

Gallery

References

  1. Star-Searching in a Realm of Development on wired.com
  2. Battlezone: Battlegrounds, Part___1 subform.txt
  3. Battlezone: Battlegrounds (Manual), pages 6 & 15
  4. Battlezone: Battlegrounds, inputdat.txt
Battlezone Series
Games Battlezone (Battle Grounds · The Red Odyssey · Rise of the Black Dogs · Gold Pack) · Battlezone II: Combat Commander
Remasters Battlezone 98 Redux (Battlezone 98 Redux: The Red Odyssey · Battlezone 98 Redux: Odyssey Edition)
Soundtracks Battlezone (The Red Odyssey · Rise of the Black Dogs · Early Test Soundtrack) · Battlezone II (Battlezone II Music Pack)
Demos Battlezone (Instant Action · The Red Odyssey) · Battlezone II
Strategy Guides Battlezone · Battlezone II
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