abbayarra: (...)

Fyxylplyx: MEAT OF THE POST FOR THOSE THAT DONT LIKE TO READ:
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To summarize one process in a detailed step-by-step that will back up your save-game files:

1. Use the "SAVE GAME" feature from within the game, and exit the game.
2. On your desktop, file explorer, go to the /STARFLT directory (wherever you installed it)
3. RIGHT-CLICK-DRAG the PLAY folder and DROP it on any blank area in the STARFLT directory.
(Thats the same window / folder you are dragging it from)
(Just right-click, drag it 2 inches down into a blank part of the window and drop it)
4. Choose "Copy Here" from the menu that pops up when you DROP the PLAY folder
5. This will make a new folder called "PLAY - Copy" that has all the game and save files.
6. You can do it again and again and it will make folders named "PLAY - Copy (2)", "PLAY - Copy (3)", etc.
7. You can rename them, or just note the date & time of the folder, or whatever; manage the folders as you see fit.
8. When you want to restore a save game, copy the files from your "PLAY - Copy (x)" folder into the original "PLAY" folder overwriting all the files inside.

This step by step will get the job done. For more information and options, read the rest below.

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LONGER EXPLANATION

I had the same issue where I could not return to the game I had been playing when I quit without saving. Loading the game after a crash or no-save-quit would give a final screen saying:
.========================
[].GAME IN PROGRESS BUT..[]
[] ...........NOT SAVED...............[]
[]................................................[]
[]..PRESS ANY KEY TO EXIT..[]
.========================

This game came out in 1986, so you have to think like a person that had to use floppy disks to store their save-game. The two important files that keep a save-game are called

STARA.COM
STARB.COM

These are like the two floppy disks A and B that came with the old 1986 game.
They are in the <where ever you installed from GOG>/STARFLT/PLAY directory.

When you save the game, it changes these files (STARA.COM and STARB.COM.) When you run the game, it changes these files into something else that is a "Game in progress" file that can't be loaded up as a save-game. The game can only load up save-game files that were made from the ESC menu "SAVE THE GAME" option. If you quit in the middle of a game without saving, the STARA.COM and STARB.COM that are left are not usable.

In order to *really* save your game in a way that allows you to come back to it any time you want at any point in the future, you have to manually copy those two files (STARA.COM and STARB.COM) into some other directory. Then when you wish to restore the save, you would manually copy the two files you backed-up right back into the PLAY directory, overwriting the unusable STARA and STARB files.

This means you must manually manage your save game files. The game doesn't do it for you, and the .BAT files included in the PLAY directory only work if /STARFLT is in the root directory of your C drive. Mine is installed on a different drive altogether.

Depending where you installed your Starflight game, you should be able to find these directories named

/STARFLT/PLAY
/STARFLT/SAVE
/STARFLT/START

The "PLAY" directory is where the game runs from and where it stores the last save-game.
The "SAVE" directory is probably empty because the game isn't in a root directory (and it doesn't need to be.)
The "START" directory is where there's a copy of a fresh game that has just started.

If you have no useable game files backed up anywhere, you have to copy the files from the START folder into (and overwriting) the PLAY folder. This starts you back as if you'd never played the game before. The START folder is like a save game that someone made right when they first entered the game for the very first time ever.

It sucks. I had to start over, but now I realize how to back up the game and return to whatever points I saved at. This should be simple for anyone comfortable with Windows. If you are compu-illiterate, just follow the steps at the beginning of the post.

I pine that no one posted this in the 4 years that folks have been asking about this.