Captain’s log, 25.04-05 in the year 4620. We’ve found the planet they call Earth in the Sol system of the Pythagoras cluster. There are no signs of life but we will try to find the underground station.
I’m playing Starflight, released in 1986 for the IBM-PC. The four-color CGA made it hard to distinguish terrain types, and I found it challenging to use the controls via the emulator on my laptop. After a bit more research, I found a “cracked” Amiga version that doesn’t require using the copy-protection codewheel every time I leave starbase. Also, the expanded color palette is very welcome, and the controls were more streamlined. Except for space battle where I still don’t know what I’m doing and randomly shooting at enemy craft.
Starflight is impressive. I’m amazed how much game they were able to pack in given memory and disk constraints. You start out as a starship captain from the Arth system, hire a crew, and explore the galaxy. The galaxy is huge! All those little circles represent solar systems, each of which may have multiple planets. There are more hidden in the green blobbed nebulae.
I don’t know what the object of the game is yet. Starting out, I needed to make some money to improve my ship and train my crew. To do that, mining is the name of the game. I was told that the innermost rocky planet was a good place to start prospecting so that’s what I did. Then I decided to explore the third planet and found strange artifacts such as a blue bauble, a silver gadget, a bladed toy, and strange cloth. There were ruins and a message telling me about a black egg. Also, there were strange creatures. And despite the simple graphics, the game gives you the feeling that you are indeed an explorer. It feels like you’re in Star Trek exploring strange new worlds. Even the silhouette of my starship reminds me of the Enterprise. Except mine’s much smaller and only has six crew members.
Not only is the galaxy large, planets are sizeable areas to explore in one’s all-terrain-vehicle. You pick a landing site and then drive around the local area grabbing minerals and specimens of the local fauna and flora. Sometimes there are ancient ruins where you load up on endurium, fuel for your starship. As a chemist, I’m delighted to read the chemical composition of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere of each planet I visit. We note the climate and the gravitational field, and determine if it’s suitable for colonization. If so, we log the planet and gain a reward upon returning to starbase, which is also where we sell our minerals and specimens, upgrade our ship, visit the bank, and if needed, hire crew replacements.
Then I ventured outside the Arth solar system. The nearby system is a K-class star, slightly unstable, apparently. On one of the planets I find a message asking me to report to another planet in a different system but the message is cut off. Clues lead to more clues, and in the meantime, the message board at starbase suggests that things are amiss. The sun of Arth is dying. Other ships were destroyed by androids. And as I venture further into outer space, I encounter aliens! The dialogue system is in real-time and you need to keep your wits about you. Do I try to be friendly? Do I raise my shields and prepare to fight? These encounters are tension-filled and even nerve-wracking, and you can be destroyed quickly by superior foes.
I’ve now learned a little more history from some of these encounters. A long time ago there was an old empire, but as starfaring expanded, different alien races encountered each other, and war often broke out. But now something is beginning to threaten all of life. There is no longer any life on Old Earth. It might be a race against time but I don’t know what to do yet.
Interestingly, Pluto is not a planet in Sol. At the time Starflight was released, Pluto had not yet been downgraded into a dwarf planet. Mars is mineral-rich and there was a polar station but it has been long deserted. In the meantime, I’ve made some friends and made some enemies. My ship is pretty formidable and I’ve got a good crew. I’ve picked up some useful and interesting alien devices and I have a reasonable guess of what I might need to do to prevent galactic destruction, but I need more specific information. Meanwhile the price of endurium is going up as people look to flee for safer havens. But for now, I’m elated that I rediscovered Earth!
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