Hard Nova
| Developers | |
|---|---|
| Spaceport Malibu | |
| Publishers | |
| Electronic Arts | |
| Release dates | |
| DOS | 1990 |
| Reception | |
| Metacritic | N/A |
| IGDB | N/A |
| Taxonomy | |
| Monetization | One-time game purchase |
| Modes | Singleplayer |
| Pacing | Real-time |
| Perspectives | Bird's-eye view |
| Controls | Menu-based, Direct control |
| Genres | RPG |
| Themes | Sci-fi |
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|
Hard Nova is a sci-fi role-playing game designed by Karl Buiter in which the player controls either a female mercenary named Nova or a male one named Stark, each of whom have different attributes and dialogue options. The player navigates through space and from planet to planet with their starship and can engage in ship-to-ship combat. Over the course of the game, additional crew members can be recruited, though they are unable to be controlled during ground combat, instead attacking enemies on their own while the player directly controls Nova or Stark. It can be considered a spiritual successor to Buiter's earlier game, Sentinel Worlds I: Future Magic, though the two games are not part of the same series or setting.
Hard Nova was released in 1990 for DOS, with Amiga and Atari ST versions releasing the following year.
Availability
| Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail | |
Requires information from the game's documentation. | |
Monetization
| Type | Notes |
|---|---|
| One-time game purchase | The game requires an upfront purchase to access. |
Microtransactions
| Type | Notes |
|---|---|
| No microtransactions | None |
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
| System | Location |
|---|---|
| DOS |
Save game data location
| System | Location |
|---|---|
| DOS |
Video
| Graphics feature | State | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Widescreen resolution | |||
| Multi-monitor | |||
| Ultra-widescreen | |||
| 4K Ultra HD | |||
| Field of view (FOV) | |||
| Windowed | For DOSBox toggle with Alt+↵ Enter (see the glossary page for other workarounds). | ||
| Borderless fullscreen windowed | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
| Anisotropic filtering (AF) | |||
| Anti-aliasing (AA) | |||
| High-fidelity upscaling | |||
| Vertical sync (Vsync) | For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds). | ||
| 60 FPS and 120+ FPS | |||
| High dynamic range display (HDR) | |||
| Ray tracing (RT) | |||
Input
| Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Remapping | ||
| Mouse acceleration | ||
| Mouse sensitivity | For DOSBox set in the DOSBox configuration file. | |
| Mouse input in menus | ||
| Mouse Y-axis inversion | ||
| Controller | ||
| Controller support | For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds). |
Audio
| Audio feature | State | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Separate volume controls | ||
| Surround sound | ||
| Subtitles | No voiced audio. All dialogues are text only. | |
| Closed captions | ||
| Mute on focus lost | For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file. |
|
| Royalty free audio |
Localizations
| Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | No voiced audio. All dialogues are text only. |
Other information
API
| Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| DOS video modes | EGA, MCGA, VGA |
Middleware
- No middleware information; you can edit this page to add it.
System requirements
| DOS | ||
|---|---|---|
| Minimum | ||
| Operating system (OS) | 3.0 | |
| Processor (CPU) | 8088/8086 | |
| System memory (RAM) | 512 KB | |
| Hard disk drive (HDD) | ||