forgotten open-ended space trading games on retro systems

[romanaOne]

So I have only heard of elite from older people. I totally missed this game.

I have played Star Flight I & II (DOS) and  Escape Velocity (68K Mac) Unfortunately, it won't work in BasiliskII and the versions for newer macs are not as much fun.

Starflight got kind of tedious, but it was cool to go land on planets and the many different alien species said funny things and looked neat.

Escape Velocity was a 2D Elite-like game for 680X0 and PPC macs. It was the first open-ended, space  exploration, trading and fighting game I'd ever seen. It also had Captain Hector who would at random times nag you to register and, if you didn't for a long time, he'd blow up your ship.

Since both of these games, errr,  failed to take the world by storm in their day, I wonder:

Are there any other obscure, OLD, open-ended space trading/exploration games playable on the many emulated systems for pandora?

The 3D stuff in oolite really gives me a headache. It's a nice game, but not my thing. I prefer games more 2D,  wordy, and cartooney.

 

[MrConfusion]

FOFT, definitely. I recall I did not find it nearly as terrible as reviews stated. Or maybe I just did not want to admit to myself I had paid Big Money for utter crap .

But it is basically a 3D Elite clone, so maybe not for you. Amiga version was least buggy according to reviews.

I'd try the Amiga version of Elite too...

(Maybe Captain Blood, though my memory of that one is a bit vague, which would imply it was not particularly spectacular even way back then...)

 

[iprice]

More flighty space shooters than trading...

Starion on the 8bit machines.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/GLi05Nb1Bgw?feature=oembed

 

[LTStone]

Don't forget about Moonfall for amiga or c64 :

http://www.lemonamiga.com/?game_id=1773

 

[romanaOne]

(Maybe Captain Blood, though my memory of that one is a bit vague, which would imply it was not particularly spectacular even way back then...)

I only tried the DOS version of this game at a friend's house. It was pretty terrible. No idea what you were supposed to do and I think there were strange hieroglyphics you had to look up in  a manual to understand.

Err, LTStone, your link to Lemon Amiga goes to Blasteroids. I looked up Moonfall and Blasteroids and they both look kinda cool. Hell, like most people who only had DOS PCs, everything Amiga looks kinda cool. I seem to remember a certain bait-and-switch with the screenshots of computer games back in the day: you'd have these gorgeous Amiga screenshots on the back of the box of some cruddy EGA DOS games.

Off to try to configurate uae4all....

 

[LTStone]

oops , sorry 

 

[pmprog]

Space Trader

Was ace playing it on my Handspring Visor Deluxe... One of the reasons I wanted to try and port POSE - but then source for this is available too...

Source code

 

[mongrol]

I also played a lot of Space Trader on my Handspring Visor.

One I was fond of was Empire by Firebird. It was like a 2d Elite.

Another one I played a lot of on C64 for Star Trader. Not sure if it was related to the above.

 

[klapse]

Well it isn't an open-ended space trading game, but a grand 2D space adventure with multiple parallel plotlines. (If Captain Blood can be mentioned then I figure this can as well)  And you can do resource gathering and a limited amount of trading

The Ur-Quan Masters!

http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=uqm-070

UQM Easier combat version!

http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=uqm-070e

 

[ekianjo]

(If Captain Blood can be mentioned then I figure this can as well)

Captain blod has nothing to do with space trading though... if we start mentioning space adventure games this will be a whole different topic i guess  

 

[ekianjo]

Back on topic, there is Whale's Voyage on Amiga (and PC i guess) which I seem to remember as a mix of space trading and Alien.

Deuteros was a very fun game where you establish a colony on Mars or something and you try to keep it thriving using trading and meeting your needs. Very much a management simulation that does not involve traveling anywhere, but it's in space I guess

 

[iprice]

EPIC on the Amiga? Another shooty space game rather than trading etc.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/zrco0txG9XY?feature=oembed

 

[vcoleiro1]

I used to play Starglider 2 on the Amiga a fair bit.

 

[romanaOne]

I just remembered Spaceward Ho!. The Palm game Space Trader mentioned above reminded me of it. Used to play the demo on 68K Mac but I see it has been ported to Palm. No flying around or piloting, but lots of trading, fighting, and executive decision making.

I still play it from time to time in BasiliskII.

 

[spud42]

Well it isn't an open-ended space trading game, but a grand 2D space adventure with multiple parallel plotlines. (If Captain Blood can be mentioned then I figure this can as well)  And you can do resource gathering and a limited amount of trading

The Ur-Quan Masters!

http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=uqm-070

UQM Easier combat version!

http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=uqm-070e

played the dos game StarControll II,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Control_II

when checking it seems that Ur-Quan Masters is the open source version ..... lol

still got my original box and everthing... a massive game , came on 4 floppy disks... lol recommended 20 MHz 386.

would this work in dosbox on a pandora?

also got my original Frontier Elite II on floppy

damn i dont have a PC with a floppy drive any more!!!

 

[thatgui]

would this work in dosbox on a pandora?

It does

damn i dont have a PC with a floppy drive any more!!!

You can currently get Starcontrol I+II for 2.99USD on gog.com, probably cheaper than buying a USB floppy drive

 

[oskda]

Off to try to configurate uae4all....

I love emulators a lot of, really, but you have too other options today like FPGA implementation to have an amiga and lot of other machines by hard, in only one machine.

For example MIST FPGA computer can emulate Amiga (AGA) o el Atari ST(e), como de sistemas de 8 Bits (C64, ZX-Spectrum, MSX, Atari XL/VCS, Apple II, Colecovision, Sega Master System, Nintendo NES, etc), but it is some expensive: like €200.

UnAmiga or ZXDOS are projects near to reach market (ZXDOS should reach market this September or October), and will cost like €80 with case.

In a FPGA computer you select a core and you have that computer instantly.