Slashdot Mirror

Yes!

I still love and play Starflight from the 80s! It had alien diplomacy, exploration, space combat, resource management, several mysteries and a count down to doom....it was awesome. I still like the exploring in the game..

Here's a link to a fan site for Starflight I & II
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Maze/4979/sta rflight.html

There is even thoughts about Starflight III
http://www.starflight3.net/

The project looks a bit stalled...but that is what online communities do with projects right? ;)

While the Star Control series was (is) great, my pick for best space game (and probably one of the most influencial) is Starflight by Binary Systems.

It had great music (as far as 1986 PCs were concerned) a deep plotline, and a HUGE universe. It had worm holes, mining missions, new races, randomly generated weather environment, a crazy AI system, doomsday plot and time limit (you could continue to play even after the game was "unbeatable" due to the destruction of your "home" solar system).

Ship upgrades, weapons, had to pick your crew of different alien races (which had different strengths and weaknesses and affinities/dislikes for other races). I could rant about this game for a long time, it changed my life (I played it when I was six, when it came out, my grandfather was nuts about it and marveled at their fractal world generation and "3d" rendering when you landed on a planet).

Starflight is probably the best space game ever, you can find VGA fan-made ports of it around, you need to slow your frequency way down if playing on modern hardware.

A fan-made updated version Starflight III is in the works, with slow progress. Drop a line if you remember this game, they would (probably) love to get some support. I think they are taking applications for help (no, I am not affiliated/contributing).

I still have the original box (its like a three fold record (vinyl) album) with the galaxy map (which I traced so I could draw worm holes and hostile territories without hurting the original). The game also had a cool code wheel copy protection thing that was a hoot. The team from Binary Systems is awesome, browse around for some pictures from the box, wild stuff. They were truely dedicated to this game.

I can hear the theme music in my head now...da da da da da da da da daaa daaa daaaaaaa da da da da da da da daanaaaaaah!

I don't think so - I mean, I was in my early teens and mom/dad certainly made sure I was painfully aware of the consequences when I did something wrong in real life. I think it was more an issue of deciding, "do I want to play a game that includes at least one way of dying on every screen, or a game where you're encouraged to try even the craziest possible solutions, without fear of dying for no good reason."

You could have a middle ground, and I think later games (even Sierra games) finally found it - kill players for doing something really dumb or ignoring an obvious bit of information they should have noticed earlier, but don't kill/penalize them just for climbing a tree, walking too far off the "edge" of the world (desert, swamp, etc.), or picking up a piece of glass. ("OUCH! That glass was sharp! Roger Wilco has bled to death!")

> I remember games like Starflight, where there was no "Save As"; you had to copy the entire game
> to another directory if you wanted to branch off and try something. Now THAT was a hardcore game.

Oh man, you ain't kidding! I'd like to think that they would have had a different save-game method if our computers had had, say, hard drives back then. (I'm sure my two 5.25" SF1 Saved Game discs are still somewhere in my parent's attic :-) ) But yes, it did make you very hesitant to do anything too wild and crazy (or to put it less perjoratively, anything too exotic and adventuresome). That was a good thing sometimes, but it could make you overly cautious too.

What a great game, though. Hurry up, Starflight III !

Starflight III

First of all, I didn't think so many people knew / loved MULE. My eldest sister -- 25 now -- and I used to bash on our C64 constantly, and MULE was our favorite game of all time. Still is..... I went out and bought her an NES with a 4-person adapter and a copy of MULE, and we play it whenever we're able to visit each other.

That being said, MOM and Starflight were games that I miss even now. Apparently there's an effort being made to bring Starflight 3 to light; and some guy did a bit of modernizing work on Mail Order Monsters, too.

Even funnier, I thought I might have the old star charts in a drawer. I didn't, but I did find the original disk. I wonder if that star chart is floating around anywhere online?..?

Starflight was released in 1986. It featured CGA graphics (EGA later?), diplomacy, 80 star systems, 5 races, simple trade interstellar and planetary navigation and a plot that games today can't touch. Published by Electronic Arts.

Starflight II: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula, released in 1989, this was a worthy sequel. It featured more star systems, more sophisticated diplomacy, VGA graphics, moderatly complex trade and additional plot elements. Published by Electronic Arts.

Star Control, published in 1990 was a pretty cool melee game. It offered a few ships you could fly around, develop strategies for and have realtime battles with either against an opponent or an AI. Published by Accolade.

Star Control 2: The Ur-Quan Masters, published in 1992, was what Starflight 3 should have been. It had many elements of the starmap of Starflight, many of the underlying plot elements and game engine of that series with the Star Control melee combat grafted on.

Starflight 3: Mysteries of the Universe, yet unreleased, is an Open project with many of the original Starflight crew, Binary Systems, aiding in consulting or programming.

Here's what I want to know: Is there any official link between the Starflight and Star Control families? Was there swindling involved? Was I deprived of a Starflight 3 I would have paid double for vs. a Star Control? Why oh why? As far as I'm concerned, the Open Starflight 3 will be great, no matter what, but the real Starflight 3 that seemingly "almost was" would have been worthwhile.

Apologies for the long rant it took to get here. Any responses appreciated.

Pardon me, I think I hear the Uhl whispering in my head.