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Meet Starflight, one of the first great space opera adventures, available here on GOG.com for just $5.99.

Some of you may not know this game but that’s why we write these fascinating articles, right? [url=http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/starflight_1_2]Starflight 1 begins on the planet Arth, when your civilization discovers that they were, in fact, a colony planet of Earth. Excavations into the ancient colony landing sites enable humans to build starships, and set course for new life and new civilizations. You are set to embark on a mission to re-explore space and discover why the Old Empire collapsed. As time goes by and you discover new planets ready to be colonized, discover new lifeforms, and eventually build yourself a proper battleship, an old threat emerges and will humans triumph this time over the mysterious Crystal Planet which endangers the galaxy, or will it all fall to ruin and ashes again?

Gameplay consists of oddly familiar features for the genre, in part because Starflight defined a number of standard elements space opera adventure games. For example, you start out with a ship that is held together with duct tape and baling wire. Most of the cool features aren’t available yet--like weapons. Initially, you will need to get by with mining and trading, but after you’ve paid your dues, things start to get more interesting. When you’ve earned a little cash through hard work you can enroll a crew to man six different posts (each has a direct correlation to your ship’s performance) and upgrade every part of your spaceship. You can also land on planets (but not all of them, some are so high gravity that you will crash if you try). After you touch down safely, you can send a terrain vehicle to travel around the planet for minerals, artifacts, or alien lifeforms (that ring a bell for anyone? :).

The Starflight universe consists of over two hundred stars and several hundred planets to explore, and the Starflight II universe is even bigger. No RPG can be good without random encounters, and you’ll meet aliens of all kinds and shapes. Some will be belligerent, and some will be friendly, and you’ll rarely know until after they’ve fired at you.

Starflight 2 basically takes all the good things from it’s predecessor and improves on it drastically. Following the events of the first game, the galaxy is at relative peace but a race of cowardly, gelatinous blobs gain access to superior technology and it’s your mission to find out how to stop them! The story may start a bit ordinarily, but it definitely ramps up to an exciting finale! If you’re a fan of Starflight--or another game in our catalogue that has you flying around the stars and talking to aliens--you should definitely pick up this incredible two pack for just $5.99 today!
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GOG.com: Meet Starflight, one of the first great space opera adventures, available here on GOG.com for just $5.99.
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dear GOG, since u have finally done justice to Starflight, and the right way has been taken, now it is time to work on these other true gems:

Dragon Wars (Interplay 1989)
the touchstone about RPG and the spiritual successor of The Bard's Tale series, impossible to disregard it.

Soulbringer (Infogrames-Interplay 2000/Funbox Media Ltd 2010)
a too-early forgotten action RPG, with strong RPG elements, an innovative combat system and a very, very long storyline.
Post edited November 27, 2011 by meudoland
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meudoland: snip
Dear meudoland, do you need to quote this wall of text in full every time you are typing to GOG here? :)
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meudoland: snip
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Lexor: Dear meudoland, do you need to quote this wall of text in full every time you are typing to GOG here? :)
oops, just fixed!...
Post edited November 27, 2011 by meudoland
Great game! but... I really wish it were the Atari ST version of this game, or the Amiga.
The graphics were night and day better, and in 1989, that was a pretty big deal.
Not that I don't appreciate it, but I do wish it was the good version.
Yeah, agreed, i played it on the Amiga and its graphically night and day.
This is one of the true gems that be handicapped by the ugly cga and ega graphic of that days.
I wished soemone would make a reboot of this games with todays technology.
Still a game that is worth the hours playing ;)
Anyone know how close this is to the Genesis/Megadrive version?
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

I grew up playing StarFlight on a DOS machine, and I got it running on several later machines as well. I have original boxed copies of both 1 and 2 sitting in a place of honor on my software shelf.

I have to admit a strong nostalgia factor, but both games really are excellent. I hadn't thought about the similarities with Mass Effect, but there definitely are quite a few, even though the games play completely differently. The interstellar politics, secret galaxy-wide conspiracy/looming catastrophe, dealing with governments, and planetary exploration parts (including mysterious alien ruins!) are all there. Both Starflight games have space combat though, which makes them better! (Also, Starflight 2 has bartering, and every race behaves differently at the trading table, which makes it extra fun.)

They really are the classic epic-scale, mixed-gameplay space opera, and are so VERY worth checking out. Bring along some paper to take notes though, you'll need it! :-)

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Ric1987: Anyone know how close this is to the Genesis/Megadrive version?
Screenshots from all the versions:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/starflight/screenshots
Sound will differ as well. I think several versions have gameplay quirks of some sort or another (in at least one, iirc, normal shields work fine in nebulae, which renders one major "quest" irrelevant).
I just bought this game and it looks incredible, but I'm having trouble getting the game to start. Each time I load the game, DOSBox 0.74 tells me to "Place disk containing file STARA.COM into any drive and press any key when ready". The STARA file is in the PLAY folder, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with it. Any help please?

Cheers,
daryoontdp
I had same problem daryoontdp, and sent an email off to tech support. got a reply to right click the desktop shortcut and click run as administrator. That seemed to work to get me past the stara.com thing, but now i get to a screen that says LOAD GAME on top, then in a box in the middle it says Game in progress but not saved, then beneath that box it says Press any key to exit.

I can't seem to get past that point now. This is starflight 1 btw.
The, Game in progress but not saved issue that Araden had, I'm having too! Help
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Araden: I had same problem daryoontdp, and sent an email off to tech support. got a reply to right click the desktop shortcut and click run as administrator. That seemed to work to get me past the stara.com thing, but now i get to a screen that says LOAD GAME on top, then in a box in the middle it says Game in progress but not saved, then beneath that box it says Press any key to exit.

I can't seem to get past that point now. This is starflight 1 btw.
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dotails: The, Game in progress but not saved issue that Araden had, I'm having too! Help
Be sure to check out the Starflight Game Forum, both of you; this may have already been discussed: http://www.gog.com/en/forum/starflight/#1336446257
Post edited May 13, 2012 by tfishell