It did it at least eight times in my last game - even worse often showing ships that are NOT listed in the little "reference_card" supplied.

Surely there is no need for it to be even in the GOG version?

Ah, so it just the old ghost of the copy protection then. Good to know!

That screen caught me at off-guard as well during my first time playing the game. While it is confirmed any button can be pushed to proceed, there were a rumor that picking the wrong ship would still continue the game but sneakily setting the player at a disadvantage.

It makes me curious about the original copy protection. Are there any MoO1 veterans here who can attest what originally would happen if the ship was misidentified? Would it simply assign a new ship for the player to identify, or would there be something more to it?

Been a while as MoO was the first game I bought at GOG. A lot less hassle than the discettes (crooonx craaanx) but I think it kicked you out and deleted the autosave (save7).