![]() You can set specific orders for dealing with each conflict, setting target types and tactics. Space combat, while abstracted and not under user control, has a similar degree of custom control to it. If you give ships the same orders repeatedly (go to planet A, pick up minerals, go to planet B, drop off miners and pick up colonists, return to planet B, etc.), these can be stored in default files and easily implemented for numerous craft. Both complex (in terms of what you can do) and simple (in terms of actually implementing the orders), giving ships waypoints and orders is the heart of the game. As you click through turns, year by year, you get messages for every action that has been taken, and can go straight to the locus of that action to nudge it further along.ĭirecting the action of your various space craft, which will include probes, transports, colony ships, warships, and other treats, is extremely satisfying. It's all painfully straightforward, and managing everything is made relatively simple by a single screen interface that keeps all relevant controls and information in front of you at all times. The home planet begins by producing things like factories and mines, which in turn create the resources that go into making ships and researching new technology. Planets with good atmosphere can become home to a new colony, which will grow and expand. If you have the technology, you can attempt to terraform them to support life. Planets with poor chances for supporting a colony can be remote-mined. Beginning on a home planet, you build a fleet to explore other planets and discover a) how habitable they are and b) if they have any worthwhile minerals to exploit. As with similar games, you exercise your manifest destiny through the use of a star map and several menu screens. Explore, expand, colonize, exploit, crush, kill, destroy, and then expand some more. Stars! follows the tried-and-true premise that the universe is your oyster so you might as well slide that sucker down your gullet like a Blue Point. It features a solid Windows interface, plain graphics, a wide range of custom options, deep strategic content, and compulsive playability. VGA Planets and Spaceward Ho! are two of the best known, and Stars! is clearly in their company. These have modest graphics, few stylistic flourishes, straightforward gameplay, low hardware requirements, and, usually, a high degree of play depth. Now, partnered with Empire Interactive, "the Jeffs" have spiced up Stars! quite a bit to make it the best low-rent space strategy game around, edging out the previous leader, Spaceward Ho! 4.0Ĭonquer-the-galaxy games are as ubiquitous as ticks on a redbone hound, and one interesting offshoot is the category of simple "beer-n-pretzels" games. ![]() With extensive Web coverage, its own Usenet group, and a dedicated group of followers, the original shareware game from Jeff Johnson and Jeff McBride has been a solid hit for some time. Stars! is something of a cult phenomenon.
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