Impulse is coming!

Published on February 4, 2008 By Draginol In Personal Computing

Since 1999, Stardock has been a pioneer in digital distribution. The original Galactic Civilizations was the first PC game to be released at retail and digitally at the same time. Its flag-ship product, Object Desktop, made the transition from being a retail product to being digitally distributed with a subscription in 1999.

For the past few years, Stardock has distributed its content with Stardock Central:

Stardock Central

And while Stardock Central was very cutting edge when it was launched back in 2003, it's getting a bit long in the tooth. For the past year, Stardock has been working on a new platform that will finally combine Stardock's various technological assets into a single place. This new platform is called Impulse.

Impulse

Impulse isn't just a cosmetic make-over of Stardock Central. It greatly expands the capabilities of Stardock's digital distribution offerings.

Here are 5 key differentiators of Impulse:

Users do not have to load Impulse to use the software or games.
Impulse will support third-parties submitting their software or game, name their price, and then after review having it available -- all done nearly automatically. Stardock already has this system in place on WinCustomize.com with "Master" themes.
Impulse will integrate its next-generation social networking features in the Community tab that will let users have friends, chat about games, have blogs, and more.
Impulse includes built in support for backing up your purchase to CD/DVD.
Impulse allows users who buy software or games at retail to still manage their updates and re-download the entire product on Impulse (for products that support this feature).

Impulse provides a cleaner UI than Stardock Central.

Managing your software on Impulse is a snap. If you bought a game or software program at retail or even from another digital distributor, you may be able to still manage updates and such on Impulse.

Impulse is still in internal beta at Stardock but it expects to release it in mid February with additional features for it being added through the course of the year.

Comments (Page 3)

sleepydawg

on Feb 05, 2008

Don't know what all this talk is about a missing winky. One look look at the new "Impulse" and winky popped right up.

ZubaZ

on Feb 05, 2008

One look look at the new "Impulse" and winky popped right up

TMI Please and thank you.
ZubaZ waits for Bichur's throbber to make an appearnce

PuterDudeJim

on Feb 13, 2008

When! When?

Philly0381

on Feb 14, 2008

Geesh, when it ready for release, that's when!

pjdark

on Feb 14, 2008

wow that looks amazing. i'm stoked!!!!!!

JJ930

on Feb 17, 2008

It looks great!!!

I do hope that this version will recognize the registrations on a couple of things that the old Stardock Central (

doesn't recognize!

Keymac

on Feb 18, 2008

Looks like the future is finally arriving and was worth waiting for! And I echo Kevin_C, I do a lot of beta testing and re-formats are a way of life and so is time spent in wading thru all those licences etc... can't wait for the beta release!

Burntcrispy

on Feb 21, 2008

[in my best sarcastic voice]

So, is a beta going to be available on Stardock Central for object desktop subscribers?

Yarlen

on Feb 21, 2008

ZubaZ

on Feb 21, 2008

So, is a beta going to be available on Stardock Central for object desktop subscribers?

Too funny. As long as it's not pushed to Component Manager 2k8 I'm cool with it.

taltamir

on Feb 28, 2008

The best feature I can think of would be for impulse to check a target directory for an existing install, and reassociate with it.
Lets say I have had to reinstall windows but did not get a chance to archive my games (which is kinda silly to do anyways considering how much space they take, and how long it will take).
Windows is on its own partition separate from the games. So all the games are still there, they just don't have registry entries. With steam I just reinstall steam, click install on the games, and it finds them and reassociates with them in less then a second. With neverwinter nights I run the updater and it recreates the registry entries in less then a second.
With SDC I have to reinstall and redownload every single game I bought. It is a waste of my time and YOUR money (bandwidth costs money).

I would say every 3 months or so I have to leave the computer on overnight to download and install all my SDC games. When all it should have done was reassociate. It doesn't need a SCAN function (That would be stupid).. just, if installing into an existing directory, check for an existing install.

Heck, its only been a month since I last reformatted (upgraded the motherboard for a new E8400) and now vista SP1 comes out... guess who is formatting again?

SteveGosselin

on Feb 28, 2008

The best feature I can think of would be for impulse to check a target directory for an existing install, and reassociate with it.

SpacePonyLordMike

on Mar 01, 2008

Will you be offering an opportunity for website owners to promote impulse via an affiliate program?

As an example: Someone offers great mods for SoaSE and wants to be able to continue to devote large amounts of time to their development. They ask that everyone who uses their mods to buy the game via their site. If they also offer mods for other games as well then the visitor’s interest might be peaked, thus persuading them to purchase a game they might not have considered before.

That sure would provide modders an opportunity to become full or part timers in promoting the games and by being able to produce higher quality mods they would extend the life of games on the market.

Lotherius

on Mar 07, 2008

Awaiting news on this.....

mike b1954

on Mar 07, 2008

Stardock but it expects to release it in mid February with additional features for it being added through the course of the year.

Any chance of a latest update on this wonderful app . . ?

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