Space Sandboxes

[Anonymous No.3061993]

Help me out /vr/. I'm looking for some good times in outer space!
Do like VGA Trek, Star Control, Masters of Orion, WC:Privateer, and even the last stage of Spore.

Give me your best space stories. Tell me about games I might like. You can even tell me about X-Wing games if you must.

The less my predetermined mission matters, the better.

[Anonymous No.3062046]

>>3061993
not /vr/, but I like Flatspace.

[Anonymous No.3062056]

Civ: AC

[Anonymous No.3062157]

Space Trader!!

[Anonymous No.3062162]

>>3062157

[Anonymous No.3062171]

>>3062162

[Anonymous No.3062178]

Not retro since it came out in 2003, but I would be remiss not to recommend Freelancer. It's a lot like Privateer.

[Anonymous No.3062229]

>>3061993
Have you tried Elite 2?
It has a realistic size galaxy. As in, the stars planets and whatnot and the distances between them are 1:1 scale. They move around realistically too, so day night seasons etc... some planets have space ports/stations on/around them, you can land on planets or dock in space stations, you can trade, be a pirate, be a cop, etc...

Here's a video of the intro, which basically shows off the engine a bit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbegNmKRZUM

Actually, there are some modern game attempts at Elite 2 type games which are probably also worth checking out.
A remake is being made by basically one guy, called Pioneer Space Sim, which is also worth a try.

There's also some weird little indie games that draw heavily from the Elite series. Like Noctis IV which is just about exploring a procedurally generated galaxy, you can also take a walk planetside.

[Anonymous No.3062252]

>>3062046
Looks good. Should I start at the first one, or is one of them particularly better than the others?

>>3062056
Alpha Centauri? Good game, but I was thinking more like spaceships.

>>3062157
Looks interesting. How does it play? Kind of looks like SC with a stock market.

>>3062178
I think I still have that around here somewhere. Good game.

Anyone have more? It seems to be an underrepresented genre.

[Anonymous No.3062263]

>>3062229
I have played Elite, but I never knew they made a second game! Goddamn that looks good.

[Anonymous No.3062267]

>>3062252
>Should I start at the first one, or is one of them particularly better than the others?
Actually, I haven't play 1, only 2.
If you can, get the most recent one one, 2k.
The fact you can add your own ship parts and stuff is really nice, especially when you want to just mess around or would love some specific part that just doesnt exist.

[Anonymous No.3062307]

The Escape Velocity series
Pictured is Escape Velocity Nova

[Anonymous No.3062789]

>>3062157
>>3062162
>>3062171

My nigger, I wasted so many hours on this game.


PalmOS was awesome.

[Anonymous No.3063271]

>>3061993
Actually, I just remembered, there's this eastern european game that is a lot like Master of Orion, except it actually focuses on a protagonist, you start out as a small time army officer and you become commander of the entire empire. When you are still just an officer, your travelling space is actually restricted and you have to do fixed missions. Then when you take over the empire, it becomes like MOO2, even the music is kinda similar in a sense.
One important difference is that when you invade a planet, it actually shifts to RTS mode, albeit an extremely flawed one.
It has it's limitations but it's worth experiencing.
Anyone here who can come up with the title?

[Anonymous No.3063297]

>>3063271
derp, I just got it
It's called Imperium Galactica

[Anonymous No.3063312]

Spaceward Ho!

It's a whimsical, turn based 4x game. I remember it being more of a time waster, than a challenge. But I still spent many, many hours with the Amiga version.

[Anonymous No.3063315]

Star Flight was the game that inspired star control

[Anonymous No.3063347]

>>3063315
I was just gonna mention that.

[Anonymous No.3063385]

>>3062307
Seconding this.

Escape Velocity is basically Elite's concept with the gameplay of something like Asteroids, and that simplicity means the scope of it is fucking incredible. There are so many branching paths and conflicting storylines that you'd have to play through each installment a dozen times to see everything, and if you want you can easily ignore the storylines entirely and just bum around shooting pirates and hauling ore.

[Anonymous No.3063702]

For something more RPG oriented, there's Hard Nova, Sentinel Worlds, and Space Rangers. Also I think Buck Rogers becomes one once you get the spaceship.

[Anonymous No.3063705]

>>3063702
Also Whale's Voyage, but the controls are ass.

[Anonymous No.3064614]

>>3061993
Not retro, but Space Rangers are fun

[Anonymous No.3064634]

>>3061993
>Lists Star Control
>Doesn't list Starflight
bruh

[Anonymous No.3066034]

>>3064614
>lines on top of the HUD
this annoys me

[Anonymous No.3066072]

>>3066034
Old version, has been fixed eons ago.

[Anonymous No.3066104]

Feels like I'm the only one who played this.

[Anonymous No.3068264]

>>3066104
I played that, but I was like 6, so I didn't understand what I was doing.

[Anonymous No.3068270]

>>3061993
Ascendancy
I have the DOS version. It's pretty fun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascendancy_%28video_game%29

[Anonymous No.3068276]

>>3063315
>>3063347
>>3064634
my nuggas

[Anonymous No.3068815]

>>3064614
russians

[Anonymous No.3072165]

>>3062162
>>3062171
You can play this on Android now.
Look in the Google store for "SpaceTrader"

[Anonymous No.3072171]

>>3063312
Oh man, when I worked at Microsoft we had over a dozen people playing. The multiplayer was writing to a shared savefile, and it was turn-based, so everyone would be putting in orders from their desks and one guy's workstation had a shared folder and the copy that would process turns and write back the gamestate to that shared file.
Man that was a long time ago.

[Anonymous No.3073316]

>>3062307
Oh man EV:Nova was so cool. My friend at highschool lent me a copy of it once and I had a blast. I remember the writing being really good.

[Anonymous No.3073963]

Why aren't frontier or first encounters ever mentioned in these threads?

These are games with vast universes, cool as hell lore where you can actually bring your ship all the way down from orbit and land it manually in a starport on the surface. And the physics are actually realistic.

[Anonymous No.3075213]

>>3063312
I had a network of Quadra 700s (4 of em) in my spare room in the late90's and we would have Ho! Parties.

Also seconding EV Nova and Elite II.

[Anonymous No.3076662]

>>3061993
Not /vr/ but no man's sky looks like it's going to be amazing.

[Anonymous No.3076728]

>>3072165
PRODUCTIVITY IS GONE FOREVER