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Meet Starflight, one of the first great space opera adventures, available here on GOG.com for just $5.99.

Some of you may not know this game but that’s why we write these fascinating articles, right? [url=http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/starflight_1_2]Starflight 1 begins on the planet Arth, when your civilization discovers that they were, in fact, a colony planet of Earth. Excavations into the ancient colony landing sites enable humans to build starships, and set course for new life and new civilizations. You are set to embark on a mission to re-explore space and discover why the Old Empire collapsed. As time goes by and you discover new planets ready to be colonized, discover new lifeforms, and eventually build yourself a proper battleship, an old threat emerges and will humans triumph this time over the mysterious Crystal Planet which endangers the galaxy, or will it all fall to ruin and ashes again?

Gameplay consists of oddly familiar features for the genre, in part because Starflight defined a number of standard elements space opera adventure games. For example, you start out with a ship that is held together with duct tape and baling wire. Most of the cool features aren’t available yet--like weapons. Initially, you will need to get by with mining and trading, but after you’ve paid your dues, things start to get more interesting. When you’ve earned a little cash through hard work you can enroll a crew to man six different posts (each has a direct correlation to your ship’s performance) and upgrade every part of your spaceship. You can also land on planets (but not all of them, some are so high gravity that you will crash if you try). After you touch down safely, you can send a terrain vehicle to travel around the planet for minerals, artifacts, or alien lifeforms (that ring a bell for anyone? :).

The Starflight universe consists of over two hundred stars and several hundred planets to explore, and the Starflight II universe is even bigger. No RPG can be good without random encounters, and you’ll meet aliens of all kinds and shapes. Some will be belligerent, and some will be friendly, and you’ll rarely know until after they’ve fired at you.

Starflight 2 basically takes all the good things from it’s predecessor and improves on it drastically. Following the events of the first game, the galaxy is at relative peace but a race of cowardly, gelatinous blobs gain access to superior technology and it’s your mission to find out how to stop them! The story may start a bit ordinarily, but it definitely ramps up to an exciting finale! If you’re a fan of Starflight--or another game in our catalogue that has you flying around the stars and talking to aliens--you should definitely pick up this incredible two pack for just $5.99 today!
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Nabuchodonozor: There is one dude, http://tinyurl.com/89alfan !
Wait, do these games resemble Mass Effect to any meaningful degree?

That might make me buy them.
Starflight is mostly famous for the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive port of the 1st game.

Also, there is an unofficial sequel to these two games called: Protostar: War on the Frontier. Hope this one gets a GoG release.

Still...gonna buy these two.
Oh... Starflight is placed fairly near the top on my "must play before I die"-list of retro games. So I'm obliged to buy it.

More like this please! :)
Post edited November 24, 2011 by Zeewolf
Another game older than me. It's not what I expected when first heard about EA signing up ...
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trebor8273: thanks once again GOG, a instant buy here, shame we will never see a new game in this series
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Nabuchodonozor: There is one dude, http://tinyurl.com/89alfan !
I'm pretty sure you mean Star Control 2 :P
Excelent, another Wishlist +1
keeveek the sites Good OLD games what where you expecting EA to release??
I remember this - I had this on the Amiga, remember getting excited setting up Characters but then getting bored pretty quick once I was in game - I was pretty young at the time though so that's nothing to go by...
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Jaime: Wait, do these games resemble Mass Effect to any meaningful degree?
You fly in space with a multi-race (generated) crew, land a rover on the planets, scan them for resources, and fulfill the trekkie mission of boldly going. Imagine Mass Effect with less sex and whining and more freedom.

Speaking of Mass Effect, there a space tactics game called Rules of Engagement the backstory of which mentions hyperjump accelerator stations (built by an ancient race) capable of launching any ship under Mass Limit (game's capitalization) far far away.
Scrap that, Mass Limit is mentioned in RoE series, squad tactic series Breach (interlocking with RoE) and space sim series Universe.
Post edited November 24, 2011 by grviper
Based on this, well it show you how much EA has changed right now.
Cool, something close to my birth date. Just might pick this up in the near future.
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Jaime: Wait, do these games resemble Mass Effect to any meaningful degree?
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grviper: You fly in space with a multi-race (generated) crew, land a rover on the planets, scan them for resources, and fulfill the trekkie mission of boldly going. Imagine Mass Effect with less sex and whining and more freedom.

Speaking of Mass Effect, there a space tactics game called Rules of Engagement the backstory of which mentions hyperjump accelerator stations (built by an ancient race) capable of launching any ship under Mass Limit (game's capitalization) far far away.
Scrap that, Mass Limit is mentioned in RoE series, squad tactic series Breach (interlocking with RoE) and space sim series Universe.
That description reminded me of http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2678/voyage-of-the-b-s-m-pandora
Is Starflight anything similar?
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grviper: You fly in space with a multi-race (generated) crew, land a rover on the planets, scan them for resources, and fulfill the trekkie mission of boldly going. Imagine Mass Effect with less sex and whining and more freedom.
That sounds really interesting, actually. I normally have a very hard time getting into games from the 80s, but I guess I'll pick that one up.
Hey, well done GOG for getting this gem of a game. Definitely on my "to buy list". However if you are a bit short on cash (like myself) at the moment, there is also a community re-make (Star Flight The Lost Colony) for you to check out here http://code.google.com/p/starflighttlc/

It still at the Beta stage, but playable.
Post edited November 24, 2011 by Geraldine
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Geraldine: It still at the Beta stage, but playable.
Release 1.01 is still beta?

I remember from my abandonware days that SF has a very ironic crew generator. The best race for a medic is also the most fragile. The most awesome starter skills are possessed by a "race" that never levels up.
Post edited November 24, 2011 by grviper