Starflight™ 1+2

I played Starflight 1 back on one of the original systems. The ship and crew customization was fun and I enjoyed the exploration. I had the printed star map that came with the game laid out on a table so I could keep track of stars I had visited and other points of interest I found. The highlight, though, was the story. You are tasked with investigating a mystery and what I learned at the end still gives me chills when I think about it. If think you might ever play this game, do not spoil it for yourself.

I played & completed Starflight 1. It felt uncannily familiar as Star Control 2 is basically a reboot of Starflight. Everything from exploring galaxy, harvesting biomes & minerals, travelling wormholes, meeting oddly familiar alien races, to having to deal with an inevitable march of death, which you of course have to discover first. It was like visiting the home of an old friend! But, it's not 5 / 5. The user interface, while looking and feeling good, is incredibly kludgy for the things you have to do with it, especially as the game runs in real time (why? oh why?). This makes, for example, space combat and communicating with aliens pretty much unbearable pain. While the UI feels like you're commanding a starship, contacting aliens while having to navigate slow menus is an incredibly painful choice. Also, while combat is mostly optional and you can oft just run away, the absolute kludginess of the interface takes away from developing your starship (beyond the engines). The contrast to SC2 could not be greater, where meeting aliens and the combat was the joy of the game. The other grievance is the soundscape. Damn, while some of the retro speaker beeps are cool – especially in the starbase – some things, like the intro, makes you want to rip your ears off. One thing that's IMO absolutely better is planetary exploration. It *feels* like you're landing on a planet and exploring it...if it weren't for the horrid interface coupled with the real time gameplay. In SC2 the interface was better, but the sense of awe wasn't there. I rated it 4/5 but dividing it it's more like: Star Control 2 retro vibes: 6 / 5 Planetary exploration: 5 / 5 Crew management & ship upgrades: 4 / 5 Battling the user interface: 1 / 5

Remember playing this for the first time & realizing just how big the universe was. I remember dropping on a random planet, random coordinates, and picking up something called a "mulligan." Never did find it again... Or anyone that knew what it did. Ah, memories.

Awesome game, Best exploration, simulation and strategy games out there of all time. For its time the graphics are great, playing is fun and the game-play is well designed. It wraps up star trek like exploration and diplomacy with mine craft sandbox play (ignoring the story line) with a pretty cool story line also.

Getting ready to re-purchase this game as I have still have the 3.25" versions. This game growing up ate so many hours of my time and I loved every minute of it. Also I loved the Sega Genesis version but this one holds a special place in my heart. Hope to see more people purchase this game its a gem!