SPACE "RPG" 90-93

 🚀 1990

01🧭Hard Nova

🕹A spaceship carrying a mercenary with the crew was hit by a meteor. Its hull was breached, and only the mercenary and the navigator A’kri Janr managed to escape. 

🌟Gerard Kendall, the head of Starkiller Mercenary Group, gave the survivors a new ship. 

🌟Now they have to find a new crew in order to complete their jobs. It's high time for mercenary work, as various groups are fighting for supremacy in the Four Systems. 

🌟Meanwhile, the sun of a remote planet is dying, and only a miracle can save an entire race from extinction... 

 

🕹Hard Nova is a sci-fi role-playing game with space exploration, spaceship customization and combat, and trading elements, somewhat similar in concept to Sentinel Worlds I: Future Magic.  

 

🕹There is no character creation in the game: in the beginning the player selects between the female mercenary Nova and the male mercenary Stark. 

🌟They have slightly different attributes and may gain access to different dialogue lines as the game advances. 

🌟Most other crew members have to be recruited from within the game world. 

🌟Three of them can be taken to locations on various planets, where they may interact with other characters and participate in combat, where only the leader is controlled manually.  

 

🕹On-foot combat is done in real time, with delays caused by weapon properties and the characters' proficiencies. Guns play a prominent role in battles.

🕹Experience points are awarded for harming enemies. When a character levels up, these points can be manually allocated to improve their parameters.  

 

🕹Each character has two sets of abilities, land-based and ship-based. 

🌟Land-based abilities include general aptitude in improving through combat, agility, stealth, fitness, various weapon proficiencies, etc. 

🌟Ship-based abilities include mechanics, programming, gunner skills, and others. Each crew member is assigned a role on the ship, such as pilot, engineer, technician, and so on. 

 

🕹The player is taken to a hovercraft when reaching the orbit of a planet. 

🌟An exact location can be selected, where the hovercraft can be controlled manually. Only a few places can serve as hovercraft docks, and the player needs to manoeuvre the craft precisely to land it. 

🌟The hovercraft may also be attacked by hostiles, which leads to action-based combat.

🕹When leaving an orbit, the player can navigate the starship J-21C Delphenus through space. 

🌟There are four star systems in the game: the powerful and militant Ariel, the Rouyn system known for its valuable minerals, the Ciberan system with its supplies of water and fuel, and the Mastassini system, where the player starts the game. 

🌟The systems are connected by stargates and each hosts several planets.  

 

🕹The player-controlled spaceship may encounter hostile ships, which can be fought in arcade action style. 

🌟The ship can be outfitted with various weapons, and improve in different aspects such as avionics, thrusters, etc. Better parts and fuel can be purchased on space stations. 

🌟The player can also trade between star systems, using the money to buy better equipment for the crew and customize the ship.

02🧭MegaTraveller 1: The Zhodani Conspiracy

🕹Based on the MegaTraveller table-top science-fiction game, your task in The Zhodani Conspiracy is to prevent war breaking out between the Zhodani Consulate and the Imperium - Zhodani officials have bribed some of their Imperium counterparts to try and bring about a war between the two sides. 

 

🕹In this role-playing game character creation is the first task. Characters can be created and then put through a choice of five military careers to gain skills and experience semi-randomly (there are more than 70 talents and abilities), or you can simply compose your squad of five from the pre-defined roster. 

 

🕹The character creation process begins with the player being presented with basic character profiles possessing randomly generated attributes. 

🌟The player has the option to accept the displayed character or "re-roll" to generate a new profile with another set of attributes. 

🌟An accepted character is enrolled in a military career, chosen by the player from the Army, Navy, Marines, Scouts, or Merchants. 

🌟The player guides the character through consecutive four-year terms to obtain training in various skills and earn service benefits such as retirement pay. 

🌟The longer characters remain in the service, the more skills and benefits they are able to acquire, but they do so at the risk of diminished attributes due to old age, injury, or even death. 

🌟When a character retires or "musters out", he or she is added to the pool of available adventurers from which a party is chosen by the player to begin the game.

🌟If a character is killed during the course of the game, the player may recruit a new party member in some planetary spaceports 

 

🕹The game begins in a city on the planet Efate. Here, as on all explorable planets in this game, the player observes the party and its surroundings from a directly overhead point of view and issues commands via hotkeys or clickable icons displayed onscreen. 

 

🕹The explorable terrain of planets is limited to certain cities and immediately adjacent regions. 

🌟Cities feature several types of buildings that are a recurrent feature on most planets, including a store for purchasing or selling armor, weapons, and other items, a library, a hospital, a police station, and a starport for launching and outfitting a spaceship. 

🌟Some cities host additional visitable buildings which may include a tavern or a hotel in which important non-player characters are located.

🌟Building types are color-coded for easier player identification. 

🕹The player directs the party's movements and issues commands to perform various actions such as communicating with non-player characters, using objects, or firing a weapon.  

 

🕹Combat takes place in real-time and requires the player to direct individual party members to target opponents and fire their weapons, reload, or move to a better position. 

 

🕹Space travel forms an important aspect of gameplay. When traveling within a single solar system, the ship and its surroundings are viewed from a third-person perspective on an "In System Travel Screen." 

🌟Navigation takes place in real-time as the player maneuvers the ship between explorable worlds, visits a gas giant to refuel, or engages in combat with other spaceships. 

🌟Some solar systems contain more than one explorable planet, but most such planets in the game may be reached only after the player's spaceship has been outfitted with a "jump drive" capable of interstellar travel and accompanying computer software to control it.

🌟In total there are 28 planets grouped within 8 solar systems, and there's not much space free of adventure and mystery. 30 different types of cargo exist for interplanetary trading and bartering. 

03🧭Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday

🕹Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday is a role-playing game similar in gameplay, interface, and visual styles to the Dungeons & Dragons games by SSI, despite the completely different setting and sci-fi scenario.  

 

🕹The player's first task is to create a party of six characters from a choice of five classes (Rocketjock, Warrior, Medic, Rogue, and Engineer) and six races (Human, Desert Runner, Tinker, Venusian, Martian, and Mercurian). Then, these six new NEO recruits are trained, and are thrust into the battle for Earth. 

 

🕹The game has five view modes:

🌟Solar System View: The map shows the positions on the inner planets and major asteroids from an "overhead" perspective. The player's spaceship can be moved around in relation to the planets. Ship-to-ship combat is started from this view.

🌟Overworld view: This is another overhead view, where the player can move the party around on the surface of a planet. Land combat can be started from this view.

🌟Adventuring view: This is a 3D view that shows the party's environment form their perspective. Land combat can be started from this view. 

 

🌟Land Combat: This is an overhead isometric view of the area that the party is in. Individual characters, NPCs, and enemies are displayed in scale.

🌟Ship-to-Ship Combat: The player sees the enemy space ship. Controls are limited to menus at the bottom of the screen.

04🧭Lightspeed

🕹In the future, the Earth is a wasteland, unable to sustain human life any longer. Mankind's only hope is to find a new world to colonize. 

🌟Giant transport ships are launched, each carrying 10 million people. Sent ahead of each of these ships is a Trailblazer-class scout. 

🌟Controlling one of these Trailblazers, it's the players mission to find a suitable planet for a new colony, to scout for natural resources and to deal with various alien species, who might be both friend or foe. 

 

🕹From a robot-controlled home base, the Trailblazer starts exploring the nearby star systems (two different star clusters are selectable, representing different difficulty levels). 

🌟Planets in uninhabited systems can be claimed for their natural resources. If aliens already inhabit a system, diplomatic negotiations can be opened. 

🌟Since the resources of the uninhabited systems won't be enough for sustaining a colony, trade agreements with the aliens are necessary. 

🌟Each alien species has its own attitude and quirks. Not all of them are friendly, and some might demand that the player attacks their enemies before they agree to trading or a peace treaty. 

 

🕹If hostilities with aliens begin, there are a variety of combat options. 

🌟The Trailblazer itself is rather slow and sluggish, but is equipped with a powerful main gun and a gun turret. 

🌟It can also launch remote-controlled combat chassis in various configurations: as a guided missile, a kamikaze ship, or a fighter, the latter two being controllable by the player.

🕹The systems of the Trailblazer (the weapons, shields, sub- and faster-than-light engines) are powered by various parts. 

🌟On the engine room screen, these parts can be individually mounted or removed. Combat may damage the parts. 

🌟The same parts are used by different systems of the ship, so they can be moved around to improve one system at the expense of another. 

🌟New and replacement parts can be collected from the wreckage of destroyed alien ships and space stations, or be acquired through trading.

🚀 1991

01🧭MegaTraveller 2: Quest for the Ancients

🕹MegaTraveller 2: Quest for the Ancients is a faithful adaptation of the Traveller board role-playing game with over 100 fully explorable planets (most with multiple cities and each with its own sub-quests) and a non-linear storyline. 

 

🕹Before starting a new game, the player must assemble a party consisting of up to five characters. 

🌟A pre-generated team is available for quick access to the game, but it is also possible to use MegaTraveller's detailed character creation system to control the attributes, skills and inventory items with which the party members begin the game. 

🌟Character creation involves generating a character with randomly assigned attributes and subsequently guiding that individual through one of over two dozen available careers to build up his or her skills and possessions. 

🌟When characters retire or "muster out" from their career, they are added to the pool of available members from which the party of adventurers is selected by the player. 

🌟The skills they possess at the start of the game may be enhanced later on through repeated use or by paying for training. 

 

🕹Once a party has been outfitted, it begins the game in a city on the planet Rhylanor. 

🌟The player sees the city from an overhead perspective with various symbols denoting the buildings the party may visit. 

🌟The party may also travel to other cities or even traverse the planet's surface outside of the cities. 

🕹Players issue commands via hotkeys or clickable icons to direct party members to move around the planet's surface, interact with non-player characters, engage in combat, use items and enter buildings. 

🕹When the party is issued certain commands, the member whose attributes and skills best qualify him or her to perform it automatically volunteers. The player may override the automated selections made by this "PAL system" and choose another member instead to perform the assigned task.

🕹Travel to other planets is accomplished by either purchasing a ticket aboard an interstellar passenger liner or by boarding a private spaceship (if a member of the party happens to own one).

🌟Ownership of a spaceship also provides the party an opportunity to earn money by trading various commodities between planets or by attacking other spaceships for the purpose of stealing their cargo. 

🌟Three classes of spaceship are available for the party to use in the game, including a derelict, but repairable, vessel constructed by the Ancients.  

 

🕹Once the party has arrived on another planet, it may disembark and explore that world's cities and terrain. 

🌟Although all cities feature the same basic layout, the number of accessible buildings varies from one city to another. 

🌟On some planets, the party has the opportunity to explore a ruin built by the Ancients for items that may mitigate the crisis on Rhylanor.

🕹Gameplay is nonlinear; the player has the freedom to pursue various paths to gather clues and obtain the means necessary to resolve the crisis on Rhylanor. 

🌟Woven into this overarching theme, the game also includes numerous subplots which afford the player opportunities for earning money, obtaining items, and locating Ancient ruins and artifacts. 

🌟However, the player is constrained by a strict time limit of seven years in which to complete the main plot and thereby thwart the crisis on Rhylanor before the planet is completely inundate

02🧭Hyperspeed

🕹Hyperspeed is a space trading and combat simulation game, and a follow-up to Lightspeed. 

🕹The player controls a pilot who is sent on a mission to find a new home for humans, after the Earth has become nearly uninhabitable.  

 

🕹The goal is to encounter alien species and negotiate with them to allow the colonization of a planet by the humans. To do that, the player has to engage in diplomatic talks and trading, and also fend off hostile aliens.

🕹The gameplay mostly relies on the template introduced by Elite: the player explores the galaxy piloting a space ship, encountering alien races, trading with them, and purchasing better weapons, shields, and engine for the space ship, helping the protagonist to survive in combat. 

🕹There are four star clusters to explore, each one with its own difficulty level.

03🧭Planet's Edge

🕹The discovery of an alien craft entering our solar system causes quite a stir. When the small craft is accidentally fired upon, it creates a strange electromagnetic effect that envelops the Earth, causing it to disappear. 

🌟While its gravity remains, the physical Earth simply isn't there. 

🌟The moonbase, surviving on scrounged resources and manpower, builds an interstellar ship. 

🌟A team of four specialists is then sent into deep space to find unique parts for the construction of the Centauri Drive, a machine that the moonbase scientists hope will cause a reverse effect. 

 

🕹Planet's Edge is a sci-fi role-playing game with space exploration and other gameplay elements, including spaceship combat, mining for resources, trading, and light puzzle-solving. 

🌟The game begins on the moonbase, where the player can access the shipyard, crew quarters, warehouse, and research lab. 

🌟The player is put in control of four pre-made characters: William Dean (pilot), Katya Mershova (weapons officer), Nelson Ngatadatu (engineer), and Osai Tsakafuchi (medic) . 

🌟Each of these characters can be cloned for different attribute rolls, while retaining their primary skills: astrogation and ship weapons for William; light, heavy, and hand weapons for Katya; ship repair and computers for Nelson; and first aid and xenobiology for Osai. 

🌟Unlike most role-playing games, characters do not receive experience points and can only become stronger by equipping better weapons and armor. 

 

🕹The game is completely open-ended, allowing the player to travel to any of the dozens of stars. 

🌟The game world divides the interstellar space surrounding the Sun into eight sectors characterized by particular alien civilizations possessing varying degrees of technological sophistication. 

🌟Each of the eight sectors is associated with a particular subplot which must be solved in order to gain access to each of the eight pieces necessary to complete the construction of the Centauri Drive.

🌟The player physically navigates the ship on an overhead screen. Entering a star system enlarges the view, allowing the ship to orbit a planet. 

🌟Though most planets cannot be landed on, a large amount remains that can be explored on foot from a top-down view similar to that of Ultima VI. 

🌟Each planet is represented by an enclosed populated area, usually containing friendly NPCs as well as enemies. 

🌟Advancing the storyline involves gathering clues from various characters as well as obtaining objects, many of which have to be used in other locations in a puzzle-like fashion. 

🌟Combat on the ground is turn-based and can be avoided in most cases.

🕹Planets can also be mined for various elements such as organics, metals, liquids, etc. 

🌟These elements can be then brought back to the moonbase, where they can be used to produce better equipment for the crew members or upgrade the spaceship. 

🌟Alien technological blueprints can also be recovered and used in the research laboratory to develop new ship models.  

 

🕹The spaceship can carry cargo between planets, which can be traded or used to bribe hostile aliens. 

🌟If the bribe is unsuccessful or the player decides not to resort to it, a fight against a hostile ship ensues. These fights are action-based, requiring the player to manoeuvre the ship in real time while shooting at the opponent.

🚀 1992

01🧭Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed

🕹Matrix Cubed is an RPG navigated in first person for most places but with an overhead view for combat and ship navigation.  

 

🕹Players will create (or import) a party of up to six characters and assign statistics, abilities and equipment. Players move their party in a first person maze of corridors, open area and rooms.  

 

🕹Certain encounters will allow the player to make choices based on the party skills. In the case of combat, the player and enemy forces each have a turn, controlled on an overhead map.

02🧭Star Control 2

🕹Star Control II is a hybrid game based on exploration, space combat, and ship customization. 

🌟Unlike its predecessor, it has a heavily plot-driven, quest-based structure reminiscent of role-playing or adventure games. 

🌟The game's main focus is on exploring a vast galaxy consisting of numerous star systems and interacting with various alien species populating it. 

🌟Each species has its own personal traits and would usually require the player to exploit conversation trees or perform different tasks to convince them to join. 

🌟The main objective is to gather as many allies as possible, though only a few alliances are required to complete the game.  

 

🕹While in deep space, the starship can approach any star it comes across, and then the player can guide the ship around its system and land on its planets and their moons. 

🌟Space is treated as two-dimensional and presented in a top-down view. There is also a starmap available which shows the entire galaxy and allows the player to set the ship on auto-pilot to any star.

🕹Throughout space are different alien civilizations. 

🌟These are represented on the starmap by a sphere of influence. 

🌟Within the sphere, the aliens have a controlling presence and their ships will venture freely. 

🌟Outside the sphere, encounters are rarer. Aliens can be dealt with diplomatically, through a series of dialog options, or engaged in combat. 

 

🕹Alongside the main plot objective, the player also configures and upgrades his fleet in a role-playing fashion. 

🕹The main starship is the Precursor vessel and it can be used to travel between star systems, which uses up fuel. 

🕹Raw materials are used as currency to make purchases in the starbase.  

 

🕹It is possible to buy fuel, as well as improve the player-controlled fleet in various ways. 

🌟These include purchasing smaller ships to accompany the main one on its travels and participate in combat; 

🌟hiring crew members, which effectively act as the hit points of the ships; 

🌟and upgrading the main ship with enhancements that improve its speed, maneuverability, and combat efficiency. 

🌟Successfully completing a quest for an alien race may also result in their combat ships joining the fleet.

🕹Raw materials are found on the surfaces of planets and moons throughout the galaxy. 

🌟The player has to send a landing module to the planet and then guide it around the surface as it picks up materials found earlier with a scanner. 

🌟Each planet is unique in the type of minerals and metals it is formed of.

🌟Some planets are plagued by natural dangers such as lightning storms, earthquakes, or lava, which can damage or destroy landing modules. 

🌟Non-sentient lifeforms can also be found and stunned to obtain biological samples. 

🌟Special installations, objects, and ruins can also be found on certain planets and explored.

🕹Combat is action-based and utilizes the same engine as the first game, where action is controlled from a top view and influenced by the gravity of nearby planets. 

🌟Each alien vessel has unique abilities, and the player can select any ship from his fleet to participate in battles, attempting to find the best combination against specific enemies. 

🌟Combat can also be played as a standalone game (melee mode), separate from the main storyline. It can also be set on a cyborg mode within the main game, allowing the computer AI to take over the battles and calculate their results depending on the attributes of the ships.

03🧭Solar Winds: The Escape

04🧭Solar Winds: Galaxy

🕹The main character of both games, bounty hunter Jake Stone, takes on a series of missions that has him shipping cargo and fending off attackers. 

🌟The story is told through simple conversations and brief cutscenes. In some ways, the series is reminiscent of Star Control II, without the ship customization and fleet building aspects.

🕹Gameplay is presented in a top-down view. The focus is always on Stone's ship. The keyboard or a joystick is used to navigate the ship and fire weapons (which consist of lasers and missiles). Mice are also supported. 

 

🕹Many functions, such as scans, communication, and power distribution, are controlled by the control panel.The player can zoom out to see details, the amount of which depends on how much power is allocated to sensors.

🕹Power is allocated to various ship's systems, such as shields, weapons, life support, engines, and is consumed by the hyperdrive, whose maximum speed is determined by engine power allocation. Hull integrity is shown through a square superimposed on top of the ship.

🌟Over time, the ship will repair itself, the speed of which depending on how much power has been dedicated to the life support systems. 

🌟The waveforms of shields and weapons can be adjusted. The specific waveform selected for a laser blast or shield configuration dictates their effectiveness against each other. 

🌟Lasers can be set to fire for either one, two, or three laser cannons firing simultaneously.

🕹Communication is implemented in the form of the other party talking and the player selecting a response

🕹Items in the player's cargo hold can be transported to planets and other ships. In the first episode, many missions involve delivering cargo in return for useful items.

🚀1993

01🧭Nomad

🕹Nomad is a space exploration, trading, and combat game. 

🕹Its basic gameplay mechanics revolve around trading with various alien races (based on bartering rather than currency), as well as defending the ship against hostile crafts in action-oriented space combat.  

 

🕹Compared to other space simulations, the game is more story-driven, featuring scripted conversations with characters and information-gathering. 

🕹The game world includes several hundreds of planets and eleven alien races. 

🕹The player-controlled ship can be customized with weapons (such as missiles), loaders, shield generators, engines, scanners, and jamming devices.

02🧭Protostar: War on the Frontier

🕹Protostar: War on the Frontier is a space trading/exploration game in the same mold as Starflight and Star Control series. 

🕹The player can scour planet surfaces for resources, discover new planets and creatures and name them, use diplomacy, barter and trade with aliens, wage war against hostile races, find new crew members, and improve the financial situation of human organizations. 

 

🕹As the game begins, the player character is in command a poorly equipped spaceship docked at one of the game's three space stations. Each station provides the player with a variety of services including a:

🌟Communications Terminal: displays announcements and provides a contact line to the Human Defense Forces,

🌟Exchange Center: a place to sell various goods such as minerals and lifeforms,

🌟Biotech Center: disabled crew members may be revived for a fee,

🌟Frontier Craft: buys and sells spacecraft accessories including engines, weapons, and shields,

🌟Lounge: a place to converse with non-player characters possessing useful information.

🕹The player's spaceship may be outfitted with a variety of engines, defensive systems, and weapons. 

🌟Available weapons include wave guns and accel cannons, distinguished by an inverse proportionality in their recharge rate and ability to inflict damage, and pursuit pods (guided torpedoes). 

🌟Two types of defensive systems are available: dampening fields and energy shields, which provide some protection against wave guns and accel cannons respectively. 

🌟The spaceship is already equipped with an explorer vessel used for exploring planetary surfaces. It has a particle gun for self-defense.

🕹Both the spaceship and the explorer vessel feature cockpits containing icons through which orders are given to various crew members such as the navigator and biotech officer.  

 

🕹Players command both craft in real-time from a first-person perspective by selecting an icon representing the commander's control pad, which translates movement of the mouse into corresponding motions of the spaceship or explorer vessel. 

🕹During combat the mouse buttons are used to control the selection and firing of the ship's weapons. 

🕹Some encounters with other spaceships result in peaceful conversations which yield important clues or provide opportunities for the player to befriend one of the region's native alien races. 

🕹The player's spaceship is capable of hopping between solar systems via hyperpath tunnels, making regional journeys within a solar system, and making short-range maneuvers in circumstances such as spaceship combat. 

🌟It may enter orbit around any planet in a solar system and perform a scan to gain information on that planet's general characteristics and topography. 

🌟Using the topographic map generated by a scan, the player can choose a landing site. After doing so, the spaceship's crew transfers to the explorer vessel which undocks from the orbiting spaceship and lands on the planet. 

🌟The player drives the explorer vessel around on the planet's surface to collect saleable minerals and lifeforms and, on inhabited worlds, to locate alien trading posts at which the player may barter with the alien race to whom the planet belongs.

03🧭Wing Commander: Privateer

🕹The game is set in the Wing Commander universe, but is more of a free-form game similar to Elite. 

🕹While there is a central plot, the player can deviate from it somewhat and can continue playing the game after completing the main story missions.

🕹Wing Commander: Privateer is a space trading and combat simulation. The player assumes the role of a privateer. 

🌟Start with the lowly scout, and upgrade to one of the three other superior ships: Galaxy (superior cargo space), Orion (superior protection), or Centurion (superior offense). 

🌟Buy optional equipment such as armor, engines, shields, weapons, launchers for torpedoes/missiles, and more. 

🌟Take on missions (multiple sources, from the cheapest mission computer, to fixers who has the toughest but most rewarding missions) and earn money for upgrades. 

🌟Use spare cargo room to trade commodities to further add to the account. 

🌟Missions can vary from search and destroy to Fedex (i.e. delivery) to bounty hunting, and more.