My pics are Master of Orion 2(building an armada! my mentats control everybody!) along with Wing Commander 2 and X-Wing/Tie-Fighter(the reason i got a better machine in 1993).
Oh yes, and Buzz Aldrin's Race into Space. When you grew up a space dork like me(i went on to get an aerospace degree), this game was PERFECT. A neat little simulator of your own space program, mixing in actual video of american & soviet space flights. You can get it here from Underdogs.
― kingfish superman ice cream (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 3 October 2005 01:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― Laura H. (laurah), Monday, 3 October 2005 02:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― polyphonic (polyphonic), Monday, 3 October 2005 03:20 (eighteen years ago) link
http://www.galaxian.dds.nl/pics/galaxian-part-x.gif
Playing Tie Fighter back in the day was awesome. I'm hard pressed to think of any space-themed PC game that I've enjoyed more.
― Chris F. (servoret), Monday, 3 October 2005 04:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― Laura H. (laurah), Monday, 3 October 2005 05:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― W i l l (common_person), Monday, 3 October 2005 05:42 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ste (Fuzzy), Monday, 3 October 2005 07:10 (eighteen years ago) link
― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 3 October 2005 11:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Monday, 3 October 2005 11:18 (eighteen years ago) link
Starglider2 on amiga was also loverly, especially the flying whales.
― Ste (Fuzzy), Monday, 3 October 2005 11:30 (eighteen years ago) link
Does Arkanoid count? I always assumed that was in space.
― melton mowbray (adr), Monday, 3 October 2005 12:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― melton mowbray (adr), Monday, 3 October 2005 12:08 (eighteen years ago) link
I don't think I ever played X-Wing enough to judge one way or the other. I did love being evil in Tie Fighter, though-- running secret missions for the Emperor and crushing the Rebellion and so forth. Sometimes playing the evil side can be more fun, unlike in, say, Fallout 2, where enslaving people and killing children just made me feel really bad.
― Chris F. (servoret), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 03:01 (eighteen years ago) link
Oh, and Clive Owen starred in the FMV bits of Privateer 2.
― kingfish superman ice cream (kingfish 2.0), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 04:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― Navek Rednam (Navek Rednam), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 06:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― g-kit (g-kit), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 14:16 (eighteen years ago) link
-- kingfish superman ice cream (jdsalmo...), October 4th, 2005.
the experience was probably not too far off from making sin city!
― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 17:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― jeffrey (johnson), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 17:09 (eighteen years ago) link
(i also suck at Defender despite owning about 5 different versions of it on various platforms. i always miss shooting the landers by the odd pixel and then flying straight into them)
Jetpac, getting the thrust just right so you can do a circuit of the middle ledge without hitting either it or the other two ledges.
― koogs (koogs), Wednesday, 5 October 2005 14:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ste (Fuzzy), Wednesday, 5 October 2005 14:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 5 October 2005 15:01 (eighteen years ago) link
AIR FORTRESS
― Jordan, Tuesday, 10 July 2007 18:21 (sixteen years ago) link
Anyone ever play Subspace?
http://images.betanews.com/screenshots/scaled/1045207176-1.jpg
I used to be mega addicted to that game.
― Z S, Tuesday, 10 July 2007 21:39 (sixteen years ago) link
EXILE
did anyone ever read the introductory novellas that came with elite and exile?
― creme1, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 17:21 (sixteen years ago) link
I have to say that I have never been more excited to play a game than I was by both X-Wing and Wing Commander.
Also, props to Zaxxon!
― polyphonic, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 17:23 (sixteen years ago) link
star control 2!!!!!!
― s1ocki, Wednesday, 11 July 2007 17:44 (sixteen years ago) link
star control 2 ftw
― Fennster, Thursday, 12 July 2007 21:08 (sixteen years ago) link
SC2 is great. But Subspace, yeah. I keep meaning to re-downlaod that and play it... it didn't work on my crap-ass computer a million years ago, but it looked INCREDIBLE. It still kind of does... MMO PVP asteroids, yes please
― Will M., Thursday, 12 July 2007 21:16 (sixteen years ago) link
anybody play EVE online? What was the whole goon-related lawsuit thing about, anyway?
― kingfish, Thursday, 12 July 2007 21:33 (sixteen years ago) link
fuck, PHANTASY STAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
― creme1, Friday, 13 July 2007 01:55 (sixteen years ago) link
and metroid!!!!
I read the one that came with Starglider 2. It was shit. The game was lovely though (Ste OTM in other words).
― ledge, Friday, 13 July 2007 13:10 (sixteen years ago) link
Also tried to play exile on my recently acquired Amiga emulator but I couldn't get very far, I think lack of instructions didn't help.
― ledge, Friday, 13 July 2007 13:11 (sixteen years ago) link
Anyone play Captain Blood? I recently tried playing it again on an Amiga emu but gave up very quickly, and couldn't understand how I used to spend hours on it.
― Ste, Friday, 13 July 2007 13:54 (sixteen years ago) link
Life Force
― Mr. Snrub, Saturday, 14 July 2007 03:30 (sixteen years ago) link
name me some really good space exploration type games, maybe even rpg types, but the less combat the better.
old or new
what's megatraveller like ?
― Great Scott! It's Molecular Man. (Ste), Monday, 27 July 2009 11:42 (fourteen years ago) link
god i love this game so much!
― zappi, Monday, 27 July 2009 13:22 (fourteen years ago) link
oh man, me too. i never beat it though. would love to see an air fortress remake (or just have it on xbl).
― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Monday, 27 July 2009 15:40 (fourteen years ago) link
commander keen
― Lamp, Monday, 27 July 2009 15:41 (fourteen years ago) link
(ha just saw that i already revived this once for air fortress)
also:
solar jetman (frustrating but inventive and awesome)wing commander 2 (never beat this but loved it)colony wars (seemed like a great game, never got very far)
― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Monday, 27 July 2009 15:42 (fourteen years ago) link
another fun 8-bit game similar to Air Fortress is Layla. explore the interior of 8 asteroid fortresses in a Metroid style, with inbetween flying stages that play like horizontal Galaga bonus stages.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9dV5Yj4QuI
― zappi, Monday, 27 July 2009 16:30 (fourteen years ago) link
oh wow reminds me of wonderboy iv, nice boots too
― Great Scott! It's Molecular Man. (Ste), Monday, 27 July 2009 17:09 (fourteen years ago) link
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230601096692&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:US:1123
― I just want to give a shout-out to Buzzy Beetles (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 24 March 2011 20:08 (thirteen years ago) link
man, i would really love an updated colony wars/wing commander-style game
― adult music person (Jordan), Thursday, 24 March 2011 20:14 (thirteen years ago) link
It's unbelievably massive & detailed - it's still the gold gold standard for character creation, for me.
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Thursday, 24 March 2011 20:19 (thirteen years ago) link
i have that jacket btw, would buy another but it's SMALL
― I just want to give a shout-out to Buzzy Beetles (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 24 March 2011 20:20 (thirteen years ago) link
3. Hard sci-fi space combat that resembles submarine warfare but with lots of slug weapons! Ship "gravity" entirely dependent on constant acceleration!
― service desk hardman (El Tomboto), Tuesday, January 19, 2016 7:51 PM (1 week ago)
are there any good hard sci-fi space combat games?
― the late great, Sunday, 31 January 2016 04:24 (eight years ago) link
i am thinking a cross between a flight simulator and star control ii
― the late great, Sunday, 31 January 2016 04:25 (eight years ago) link
ever played i-war/independence war? no star control 2 in it to speak of but an interesting hard-physics capital-ship combat sim where you move from nav to weapons to engineering to comms on your giant bridge while failing to avoid missiles; it contains some of the only post-x-wing spaceflight-sim ideas and has a flatteringly vertical learning curve.
unfortunately there's no galactic free-roam, just a bunch of missions, and the story is boilerplate and the voice acting is very bad. star control 2 was a strange miracle in all these depts.
― denies the existence of dark matter (difficult listening hour), Sunday, 31 January 2016 04:52 (eight years ago) link
whoa! sounds cool
― the late great, Sunday, 31 January 2016 06:03 (eight years ago) link
a lot of my thing about star control ii is the interesting physics of the melee
i like the fuel mechanics a lot
― the late great, Sunday, 31 January 2016 06:04 (eight years ago) link
i like the ship of evil capitalists where you can feed crew into the furnace for fuel bursts.
― denies the existence of dark matter (difficult listening hour), Sunday, 31 January 2016 06:06 (eight years ago) link
in the single-player i pretty much always used the ship designed by the race of cowards with the rear-facing heat-seeking torpedoes
― denies the existence of dark matter (difficult listening hour), Sunday, 31 January 2016 06:09 (eight years ago) link
yeah the variety of ships was really something
― the late great, Sunday, 31 January 2016 06:20 (eight years ago) link
I-war looks pretty excellent
― the late great, Sunday, 31 January 2016 08:55 (eight years ago) link
for me it was a little like scratching right next to an itch, but it's def worth playing.
the game i want to play is the one described in the opening chapter of this parody of goosebumps--
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510Y8K9K56L.jpg
--which was either written by someone w a very dim grasp of what computer games were actually like in 1997 or by a total visionary, because the two friends seem simultaneously to be commanding vast opposing armies in a complex galaxy-wide campaign of such granular detail one kid has had to outfit his platoons with special suits to process the atmosphere of one of his friend's planets AND ALSO inhabiting first-person avatars as i guess the physical emperors of their states, aboard giant capitol ships with decks and ladders and bulkheads and enemy boarding parties, ships they are also apparently commanding, so apparently it is also a flight sim, with, we assume, newtonian, if not in fact quantum, physics. that's my game. i-war got the capitol ship part.
― denies the existence of dark matter (difficult listening hour), Monday, 1 February 2016 03:34 (eight years ago) link
around the same age i pored over the comically thick manual of this
http://iv1.lisimg.com/image/1494913/634full-star-fleet-ii-krellan-commander-cover.jpg
which i'd gotten, complete, from the library book sale and which was on 5'1/4" floppies and which couldn't be coaxed to run even though we did then have a 5'1/4" drive. that was the most amazing manual. i'm sure the game it seemed to describe doesn't really exist.
― denies the existence of dark matter (difficult listening hour), Monday, 1 February 2016 03:39 (eight years ago) link
yes, that's right, five-foot floppies, gather round, kids
― denies the existence of dark matter (difficult listening hour), Monday, 1 February 2016 04:34 (eight years ago) link
Game and Manual here: http://www.krazyawesome.com/videogames/star-fleet-ii-krellan-commander.html
― from the perspective of a gay man, i will post them now (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 3 February 2016 14:33 (eight years ago) link
commanding vast opposing armies in a complex galaxy-wide campaign of such granular detail one kid has had to outfit his platoons with special suits to process the atmosphere of one of his friend's planets AND ALSO inhabiting first-person avatars as i guess the physical emperors of their states, aboard giant capitol ships with decks and ladders and bulkheads and enemy boarding parties, ships they are also apparently commanding, so apparently it is also a flight sim, with, we assume, newtonian, if not in fact quantum, physics.
yeah but do the ships have bathrooms, though? Otherwise the title seems moot
― i was hoping the shitlords would not take this quietly (El Tomboto), Wednesday, 3 February 2016 22:05 (eight years ago) link
though a straight action game Colony Wars on PS1 ticks a lot of these boxes. You had the sense of the massive scales involved in space, and the massive distances required to slow down or change direction, and the battle advantages of certain angles of drift, from which you could strafe targets etc
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 3 February 2016 23:32 (eight years ago) link
DLH: Interstel also made Starflight. i unearthed the manual/disks last summer at my parents' house (note copy protection override hack in evidence):
http://f.cl.ly/items/2b251A1F0r0Z2s0S340m/starflight.jpg
just look at those guys. i studied that photo for hours.
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 3 February 2016 23:36 (eight years ago) link
this was all an irrelevant opening fakeout. after that it was suburbia and aliens were coming thru the toilets i think.
thanks forks! i think i tried it from home of the underdogs somewhere in the mid-00s but never got that running either, not sure if it was "v1.5" or not. the manual, anyway, remains glorious:
If you have just purchased STAR FLEET II or have never played the game before, please read carefully Sections 2 and 3 of the Star Fleet Officer's Manual, Volume 2 (the companion volume to this book) before you attempt to load or use the playing disks.
the companion volume!
― denies the existence of dark matter (difficult listening hour), Wednesday, 3 February 2016 23:53 (eight years ago) link
starfleet looks great. to be one of those men. my elvish-to-dwarvish copy-protection code wheel for pool of radiance is a treasured possession, but it's not space.
― denies the existence of dark matter (difficult listening hour), Wednesday, 3 February 2016 23:55 (eight years ago) link
flight.
― denies the existence of dark matter (difficult listening hour), Wednesday, 3 February 2016 23:57 (eight years ago) link
btw for seriously hard sci-fi, this piece is hard to beat
http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/02/the-audacious-rescue-plan-that-might-have-saved-space-shuttle-columbia/
― i was hoping the shitlords would not take this quietly (El Tomboto), Thursday, 4 February 2016 00:11 (eight years ago) link
I always thought Homeworld was beautiful looking. Pity I sucked at it.
― koogs, Thursday, 4 February 2016 02:44 (eight years ago) link
The 5th Gen poll reminded me of the game Star Control 2 and I had a huge rush of long-unaccessed memories flood into my brain. It has to be in my top 5 of all time... the music, the melee, the genuinely funny plot, I still feel creepy feelings about the VUX (and the mysterious Androsynth genocide), the Druuge and their slave trade, and the bizarre Mycon.
My first play through was mildly stressful, watching the Pkunk try and reunite with the Yehat once, twice and then finally a third time and I was deprived of my favourite melee ship and had to restart
The second time was enormously stressful... I was a diligent miner and took my time until the Kzer-Za sphere of influence suddenly started waning and winked out and the Kohr-Ah began their cleansing-- again, a restart
I definitely needed a walkthrough and definitely used a "here are where the good planets are" guide... there are few games that have enthralled me as so deeply as this one
― flamboyant goon tie included, Sunday, 25 October 2020 00:28 (three years ago) link
theres a very good free fan-made remaster of that game if you want to play it again http://sc2.sourceforge.net/
― ciderpress, Sunday, 25 October 2020 00:51 (three years ago) link
Oh yes, I played through that remake! It's excellent
― flamboyant goon tie included, Sunday, 25 October 2020 11:40 (three years ago) link