By Ben Bradley
We make no secret of our love of science fiction at Starburst Magazine, having enjoyed thousands of tales and ideas over our lifetime as fans. Watching movies, reading books, and playing games have all been a part of this. Of course, as fans, it’s impossible not to notice how much attention certain topics, themes, and concepts tend to stand out above the rest. Space just happens to be the biggest example of this in science fiction, connecting to so many of our favourite stories.
Big and Small
Space as a topic in science fiction reaches every level of entertainment, from the big names to the small games. On a smaller scale are the illustrations we see from online casinos, many of which lean on space for inspiration. If you click here to play slots online, you can see that games like Starburst (no relation), Star Spinner, and Stars Ablaze are just a few of the huge range of space-themed titles on offer. Playable over desktops and laptops, these titles are huge hits that blend science fiction and science fact into imaginative releases many players have enjoyed for years. Starburst in particular (again, no relation), is one of the most popular online slots of all time.
“Star Wars” (CC BY-ND 2.0) by Da Da Z
Heading for the biggest scale, it’s hard to overlook the success of Star Wars in practically every type of media available. From origins in movies to now non-canon expanded universe novels, games, and even discontinued slot games, Star Wars is an unstoppable force. It’s also a series that fully understands the place of space as an essential toybox for ideas. Like casino games, the basic concepts might not hold up to real scientific scrutiny, but it doesn’t matter.
Space is Imagination
Before humanity had conquered the planet, we were much more willing to accept the ideas of monsters and magic hiding at the fringes. Exploration into the unknown shone a light into these dark corners, revealing that as fascinating as our planet can be, it’s not home to real magic. Space, as the final frontier, has few such constraints. It’s a place of wonder, where anything might be possible, and this is what makes it a perfect fit from slot games to major movies.
Earth orbits the sun, just one star in a galaxy consisting of over 100 billion. In the observable universe, there are between 100 and 200 billion galaxies. Beyond the observable universe, well that we don’t know of, and might never. In other words, space represents a practically infinite canvas from which to draw inspiration, applicable to any medium we want.
“Space” (Public Domain) by US Department of State
Space as starting place for entertainment means we can let our imaginations run wild, where technology and alien biology provide an excuse to fall back on old ideas of magic and supernatural entities. Whether the backing of a small slot game series or one of the biggest movie franchises in the world, the flexibility we derive from stars and the gaps between them is the final resting place for fiction on the broadest scale. We might never travel between them as a species, but the same limits aren’t bound in our imaginations, so in what we think of, anything is possible.
