/vr/ - Retro Games

>>7177569
Solar Winds. There were two of these games, but they used the exact same engine so it doesn't really matter. DOS shareware, you pilot a spaceship and play the mercenary. Take missions, earn money, use it to upgrade your ship. You also could pull power from parts of your ship and spend it elsewhere, like taking power from your engine or sensors to give to the shields. It gave you a really big universe to explore as well. There's a hyperdrive type system that burns your power, but moves you very fast. With that system, you can reach the furthest planet from the start in about two minutes. It's about an hour flight otherwise. There's NPCs to talk to, fights to get into, and all sorts of shit to see.
The downside is the game doesn't really play fair. CPU controlled units can move better and faster than you, and they don't seem to lose power ever. The most common method of death is getting into a fight with a relatively easy enemy, and accidentally getting him behind you in a loop and being unable to shake them off. The other way is getting pelted from enemies off-screen. Speaking of loops, the controls are tank-style. You turn left or right, and give yourself movement forward, or hit the breaks. That's it. People who complain about tank controls in RE games would have a fit with this game. Oh, and when you die, that's it. Game over, hopefully you saved recently. Oh, and it's more than possible to eat up too much power with your engine and put yourself in an unwinnable state. Or accidentally say the wrong thing to an NPC and end up in an unwinnable state.
Decent game, but it certainly feels like a one man operation, complete with lack of beta testing.