List of Space simulation/strategy/exploration games

[ar81]

I found a list here http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=125092

Privateer may not have up to date graphics, but it brings me some flashbacks.

Starscape seems a great concept for a space comic.

Urquan masters is the Windows version of the old Star Control II, quite a classic, despite of those old DOS images.

Evochron renegades looks like a great space shotter sim with great graphics. Unfortunately it lacks some realism.

Battle of Yavin and Battle of Endor seem the best Star wars games I have ever played. Well, that's just my opinion.

 

[meow44]

simulation rachat de credit​

interesting post. thanks for sharing

 

[cr1]

Anacreon... Isn't that kind of like the Asimov books? :speakcool:

 

[n72.75]

There is infinity: http://www.infinity-universe.com/





and of course there's also Orbiter...



:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

 

[Hielor]

It's missing:
Sword of the Stars
Freelancer

 

[TMac3000]

Master of Orion III - Very complicated, but apart from the schizophrenic diplomacy engine, quite realistic.

Star General - Terrible graphics, but great empire-building, galaxy smashing fun.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Master of Orion III - Very complicated, but apart from the schizophrenic diplomacy engine, quite realistic.

Call me an old fart, but Master of Orion I and II were much better at the times of their release, respectively. The III sucks enormously.

But are we talking about strategy games related to space in a general understanding, or just about those ones, which present the opportunity to fly a starship AND do a strategy?

To this category, Parkan falls.

 

[blane]

I miss Freelancer.

And Eve of course

 

[Kveldulf]

Since you're linking to the egosoft forums, there's obviously the X series, which is nice for all your empire building needs.

Anyway, I've always wondered why some space sims never really hit home with the Elite and Privateer crowds. From what I've read, Evochron Renegades is one of the closest you can get to Elite, yet it recieves little attention (to be honest, I dont even remember how I heard of it).

 

[Robsoie]

Bumping a bit this topic as it is related, this month Elite from David Braben and Ian Bell got its 25th anniversary :
http://elite.frontier.co.uk/
(that is David Braben company website, if you look for Ian Bell website, it is there but sadly not updated since years http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/ )

Elite was a breakgrounding software miracle that inspired so many space games and basically launched the space trading/free form genre of game.

But to me, while i enjoyed Elite on my old amstrad few years after the original release on BBC micro, it was in fact Frontier: Elite 2 years later on my old PC that actually was the revolution to me, and mainly due to its newtonian physics that was basically a revelation to me (Elite had arcade level of controls, though not really intuitive ones, and was mostly about combat as once you bought the equipment, there was nothing more to do than attacking other ships).

Frontier First Encounter (Elite 3) while improving some weakness from FE2 was worse in some other sectors, and maybe additionally because it was coming only after FE2 , it did not catched my interest as much as Elite 2.

Combat was the weak point of both FE2 and FFE and it was not really my interest, my fun was more coming in flying around stations and planetary landmarks, exploring asteroids while having fun with the newtonian physics impact on my ships own moves.

Elite 2 and to a lesser degree its sequel are the reason i am currently flying in Orbiter, i found it because i was actually looking for alternative to FE2 and FFE.
And as nearly every space games around were only using arcade-type of control, i was looking for newtonian heaven without necessarly a combat part, and i found it with Orbiter.

While playing again FE2 and FFE with some D3D and OpenGL window port was fun, Orbiter made such an impression on me and my childhood "i want to be an astronaut" dream, that i never looked elsewhere than in Orbiter after that.

 

[PriestLizard]

The ultimate test of whether you really want those Newtonian physics in your space games. Prepare to tear your hair out as MIR just doesn't get any closer because you got the angle about 1 degree out.

LoL what a nice description in that post.

As for Master of Orion I must agree that I found II much, much more better than III. Also, there is FreeOrion ( http://www.freeorion.org ), which is still alpha version. Also in the alpha stages is Star Trek Supremacy , a "birth of the federation" clone (but free): http://www.startreksupremacy.com

Not really space, but still justan awesome open source project: UFO Alien Invasion ( http://ufoai.sourceforge.net )... its basically like theold legendary X-Com games but it has an awesome engine and great gameplay.

 

[SiberianTiger]

There was also an Elite-like game called Privateer made by Origin with setting of the outskirts of Wing Commander universe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_Commander:_Privateer). The graphics were nice for its time and I had much fun following the quest line. The combat part seemed to outweigh the commercial one.

 

[eveningsky339]

Surprised that I didn't see this one mentioned...

http://www.oolite.org/

Very customizable and enjoyable Elite clone.

And then there's Ad Astra, which one guy wrote in C all by his lonesome. Used to play it ad nauseam, but x64 Vista doesn't seem to like it.

http://www.a-astra.com/

 

[Brycesv1]

X3:terran conflict is epic
EvE online
sins of a solar empire

some of the best games i have ever played

 

[Kyle]

Sorry all, but EvE CANNOT compare slightly to Orbiter IMO..

 

[Hmuda]

Recently decided to start playing oldie games again and I happen to run into one of my old favorites: Moonbase aka Lunar Command

Basicly a very restrictive SimCity on the Moon.You have to supply energy, make sure the extra heat is removed via radiators, mine resources (LOX, H3, H2O), manufacture stuff, manage the workforce, make new discoveries, etc.

The game itself is really simplistic and nowhere near as complex as even SimCity1, but AFAIK, it's meant to be fairly realistic, since it was based on NASA models for future Moon-colonization.

Old DOS game from 1990, so don't expect anything graphics vise.

 

[cinder1992]

There was a remake of Wing commander: Privateer, it can be found at sourceforge under the name Privateer: Gemini gold. I'ts more up-to-date with graphics and plays a LOT smoother than the original... it also runs WITHOUT DOSBOX! :lol:

Almost forgot! Vega-strike is a good space game too. very simmaler to Privateer.

 

[Dambuster]

I may have said this before, but Infinity looks sooooo amazing!!!

 

[Killer Toilet]

Tachyon: The Fringe is a HIGHLY underrated space combat sim. It needs a remake on the current consoles badly. It looks dated, but that's because it was from 2001, but it's worth getting into if you don't mind fictional physics everywhere.

 

[Urwumpe]

I can't understand why this has not yet appeared here:

http://farcolony.sourceforge.net/index.html

It is still a very early prototype, but it looks pretty.