Starsiege: Tribes (usually shortened to just "Tribes") was developed by Dynamix and published by Sierra in 1998. At the time of its release, Tribes was the only game of its kind. It had large outdoor areas combined seamlessly with indoor ones, vehicles, jetpacks, character classes and it supported a large number of players (a maximum of 128).

The character classes depended on the level of armour that you chose. The Light armour class could move quickly but had very little health and could not wield heavy weapons. The Heavy class had lots of health and could wield the devastating mortar weapon, with the cost that they could not move quickly. The Medium class was somewhere in the middle.

In addition to this, players could customise their classes further with special packs that they could obtain from inventory stations. Only one pack can be worn at any time. The Energy pack lets players jetpack for longer, the Repair pack allows players to repair damaged objects and other players, the Ammo pack increases the amount of ammunition that a player can hold, the Shield pack provides extra protection at the cost of draining energy, and the Jammer pack jams enemy sensor systems.

Deployable packs included mobile inventory stations (for equipping players with armour and weaponry), ammo stations, sensors, cameras and remote turrets. Players could also fit new turret barrels onto the large base turrets so that they could fire a different kind of projectile.

Like its sequels, Capture the Flag (CTF) was the most popular game mode in Tribes. Each team tried to steal the enemy's flag and take it back to their base. Each base was equipped with generators, sensors and turrets. Often, in order to take the flag, players must be sent out to the base beforehand in order to destroy the turrets so that the flag runner could capture the flag with less difficulty. This design gave players extra tasks that they were rewarded for so that, unlike some games, not everyone would run for the flag at once.

Other game types included Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture and Hold (similar to Unreal Tournament's Domination mode in which players must capture towers and hold them for a certain amount of time in order to score), Defend and Destroy (players must destroy certain items in the enemy's base before the enemy does the same to them), Find and Retrieve (flags are scattered about the map and a team must bring ALL flags back to its base in order to win. This may mean stealing flags from the enemy's base too), and Practice (each map has varying objectives such as to negotiate an obstacle course or practice sniping).

Tribes was not commercially successful and neither were its sequels, but it established a cult following. This following has stuck by the game even after the closure of Dynamix and the announcement that Vivendi would no longer be supporting Tribes Vengeance. This following has developed many maps and mods for the series. Some of the more popular mods include Annihilation, Renegades and Meltdown.

With the release of Tribes Vengeance in 2004, Vivendi decided to release the game for free. We are currently hosting the download on our site.

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