Starflight™ 1+2

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

I sent in an inquiry to GOG awhile back, asking if this one was in their queue; they replied they couldn't say...but I'm super psyched to see someone might've been paying attention! I first encountered Starflight back...god, I can't remember when. My best friend recommended it, and I picked it up based on his recommendation. I was almost immediately blown away. The size, depth and scope of this game was unlike anything I've ever seen before--and to be honest, I've never found another game like it. It's a nice mix of RPG/trader/shoot-'em-up/exploration. You start out with a crappy ship, a lousy crew, a pathetic amount of fuel and are effectively turned loose on the galaxy. There are multiple alien races to encounter, and it's entirely up to you which ones you ally with--and which ones you decide to blow away! (A word of advice: Don't have Elowan AND Thrynn in your crew, or you won't be able to interact with either!) There are ancient artifacts to discover, worlds to explore, and an ancient weapon of mass destruction slowly working its way toward your home. Unlock the secrets, destroy the weapon in time and save Civilization As You Know It...or don't. Either way, the game doesn't end--but note that if you allow Arth & Starport to be destroyed, you can't barter with anyone else, nor can you upgrade your ship. Parting words: Think of this as an early Elder Scrolls type of game...only in space. And with a quirky(er) sense of humor. Oh--I should add that all this only applies to the original Starflight. Starflight 2 ramps up the difficulty level to a ridiculous level with a weakass nonsensical story. It's a shame they come packaged together.

This was a truly great game for its time tho i never played the PC version only the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis cartridge. Tho it had slightly better graphics on the console im sure the PC version has more gameplay. Assemble a crew and scout the planets for resources to upgrade you're ship. Explore distant galaxies meet exotic new life forms and kill them. They just don't make games like this anymore.

Sorry to say this, but it is possible that you're not gonna be able to play these awesome classics at all without browsing through the forums. I see, this is a VERY old series, but there must be a way around these problems which are basically make the games impossible to start up. If there is, then I have no clue why GOG haven't fixed them, if there isn't I'd kindly ask to please include an official troubleshoot guide by GOG itself, and next time please do a bit more extensive testing.

a huge nebula to explore space travel planet exploration trading system aliens! combat story -- the unknown great game. i had atleast 20 pages of notes and star information in an old notebook... still have those pages of scribbled text of faded pencil ive since gone to explore starcontrol2 UQM open source game. also a fantastic recommendation with added 3do audio dialog.