Babylon 5: Into The Fire (PC, 1999)

It's surprising that the award-winning sci-fi television series Babylon 5 hasn't yet been adapted into a PC or console video game. The series became a fan favorite thanks to its complex, multi-layered story arcs, and computer-generated visual effects. Sierra Entertainment decided to give Babylon 5 a shot back in 1998, and developed it as a space combat simulator. Babylon 5 Into the Fire aimed to take the visual style of the show and transfer it into a massive space environment with more than 1,000 ships, 200 unique locations and 100 specific missions.

BABYLON 5: INTO THE FIRE Slide Show (8 images)

Sierra worked closely with special effects company Netter Digital, which created the show's CGI in the fifth and final season. In addition, Sierra also announced that several Babylon 5 actors had signed on to provide voice acting for the game, including Bruce Boxleitner (John Sheridan), Mira Furlan (Delenn), Jerry Doyle (Michael Garibaldi), and Tracy Scoggins (Elizabeth Lochley).

Early impressions of the game were quite good (check out a clip of Babylon 5: Into the Fire). The game was also designed to incorporate advanced A.I., while offering players a choice between a story-driven mode and straight-up single player or multiplayer combat. Details about the actual story of Into the Fire were kept super secret, but the Sierra team reportedly worked closely with Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski and Babylonian Productions, to make sure the plot was part of Babylon 5 canon. Everything looked like it was going great for the title - Sierra even planned to throw a huge Babylon 5 preview party in the fall of '98. But the game was delayed until the following year, and that's when the bottom fell out.

Babylon 5: Into the Fire had plenty of hype and fan support, but the space combat simulator fell through the cracks during a corporate restructuring.

After making too many acquisitions in previous years, Sierra became a bloated mess and was forced to undertake a drastic reorganization in September of 1999, which led to the closure of several development studios, numerous layoffs, and several game cancellations. One of the casualties was Into the Fire, which lost the majority of its development team at Sierra's Yosemite Entertainment (which had also been working on the highly anticipated MMO Middle-Earth).

Even though Sierra cancelled the title, other developers were interested in picking up the IP of Into the Fire, including British developer Codemasters. A glimmer of hope emerged in 2000 when several ex-Sierra developers formed a new company, Sector 14 Studios, and tried to keep the Babylon 5 spirit alive. However, Sierra declined to sell the rights to the game, even though the publisher had no plans to do anything with it. The scenario was similar to Fox canceling the TV series "Firefly" and then prohibiting series creator Joss Whedon from taking the show to another network. Thus, the assets of Into the Fire have collected dust over the last eight years.