Starflight™ 1+2

I still remember the first time I encountered Starflight on the Atari ST. Out of nowhere (and a fan of Star Trek) I was in charge of an upgradable spaceship and RPG like crew (can be anything from aliens to androids to humans), set to explore the galaxy, find new worlds and new civilizations, kill them, or talk to them and make a good profit, where no man has gone before. Very atmospheric game and at times for me the game was even more than the Elite series. I was there in unexplored space, trying to locate good enough planets for colonization while trying to save my home world (the relocated home planet of humans), while trying to find info about the ancient past and seeing what can be done about the future of humanity. Landing on strange new worlds, mining them or locating alien life forms and ancient ruins. Traveling between star systems at incredible speeds while choosing how to interact with alien species found out there. Some of them friendly, some of them hostile, all of them weird. Traveling and fighting is done in an almost real time format which never gets in the way or feels too fast. Just remember, when you get into a fight, RAISE SHIELDS, and before you try to land on a planet that the planet will not squash you due to extreme gravity! The game might not look like much today in the graphics department, but it was just right back then and I strongly suggest you buy it if you like sci-fi. If you ever felt like commanding your own spaceship with dedicated officers ala Star Trek, you will enjoy this. Starflight 1 is the game I played for many hours and I don't remember finishing! I have barely played Starflight 2, so I can't honestly comment on that, but the little I did I find more of the same goodness, but more improved. My review is for the first game.

For me, that' s not an exaggeration. I am a game design student in large part because of these games. Amazing scope, a fantastic sci-fi story told in a way no linear narrative ever could, and a wide open space of possibilities; I have essentially been chasing the feeling this game originally gave me for two decades, and only a handful of times have I even come close.

Possibly the only game I ever played where even the copy protection mechanism was entertaining. The game relied on your entering a game code to "validate" your installation. It would initially let you play even if you entered the wrong value a time or two, but eventually your in-game ship would be pulled over by some sort of galactic space cops, and you needed to give them the correct answer or bad things would happen. My girl friend and I used to both play this all the time, back in the day. It had a lot of humor in the interaction with alien races, but it was a pretty neat game in general, with both strategy and role-playing elements. I'm not sure how well it'll play in this day for someone who's never heard of it, but it has a lot of nostalgia value for me, so I'm sure I'll enjoy playing around with it again.

This is an immense, unique and ambitious game from dedicated devs back in the day. There is a story here, but largely this is an open galaxy in which to trawl through. Interact with aliens with varied morals. Discover loot, trade it for cash to hire and upgrade your crew and to upgrade your ship. The randomly generated terrain of most planets is a side effect of the limitations of memory on discs when this came out but in Starflight they've spun it into a feature. All the planet scanning, mineral collecting, galactic exploration you see here became the basis for similar concepts in many space games not the least of which is Mass Effect. With the only downside being the cumbersome UI and other relics of old design, this is a grand game of space exploration.