Starflight

Starflight

released on Aug 15, 1986

Starflight

released on Aug 15, 1986

Starflight is a space exploration role-playing adventure video game developed by Binary Systems and published by Electronic Arts in 1986. Originally developed for IBM compatible and Tandy systems, it was later released for the Amiga, Atari ST, Macintosh and Commodore 64. A fully revamped version of the game was developed for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1991. Set in the year 4620, the game puts players in the role of a starship captain sent to explore the galaxy. There is no set path, allowing players to switch freely between mining, ship-to-ship combat, and alien diplomacy. The broader plot of the game emerges slowly, as the player discovers that an ancient race of beings is causing stars to flare and destroy all living creatures.


Also in series

Starflight II: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula
Starflight II: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula

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Reviews View More

the only definitive proof that autism existed in the 1990's.

This review contains spoilers

I think Starflight is an imperfect masterpiece. The Mega Drive version gets the closest to perfection as possible, since it's the only one that lets you get rid of the Uhleks by using the Black Egg on the Uhlek Brain World. But the exaggerated fuel consumption really kills the experience on the long run, you can't really do much with it until you seriously upgrade your ship.
The DOS version has the correct fuel consumption, but it doesn't have the Uhlek "glitch" (well, people say the MD "trick" is actually a glitch, but it seems pretty deliberate to me)

I still think it's a 5 star game because wow, the magnitude of everything for its time is insane. The mystery is also pretty cool to solve.

It trades the more robust space combat of Elite for more exploration and management systems. Highly visionary game for coming out in 1986, allowing you explore hundreds of planets across almost as many star systems. Beyond the exploration, trading and crew management, there's also a story that unravels as your journey of discover progresses. In other words it's the best Star Trek game to have come out at this point. I will say the visuals are very basic even for 1986, but it's an understandable tradeoff for the scope of the game.

The idea behind Starflight is good. If you think about it, it's amazing that such game could exist in 1986. Its mechanics are still being used by recent games such as Mass Effect and Starfield. In a way, you could get immersed into its universe and play the game for weeks, but the pay off is not as great as I wanted it to be. Being more of a sandbox game, it left me wanting more... of something else.