Starflight
 

Feel free to comment and discuss this game here. Also, if you have any useful tips or tricks don't hesitate to share them with the others! Thanks!

Review and Download (if available)

What's the windows emulator for? Couldn't try that emulator as it just refers to the abandonia homepage...

It's a new bug. All extras refers to AB homepage :confused:

Here is Vathras explanation on what's emulator for:

This is a small windows application to use for code wheel lookup
for the game Starflight I.

Run it in window while using starflight in another. Ocassionally
when switching the graphics will get messed up. I don't know how
to fix it, deal with it.

You need to have VBRUN200.DLL in your c:\windows\system directory.

And if that doesn't work you can make your own code wheel from the boxshot images provided. I just did it .. took me about 30 minutes.

1. Right click each image and "save as".
2. One at a time load each image into Paint, use the image stretch/skew to magnify 250% and then print.
3. Cut out the appropriate places, punch a hole in the middle, center smaller wheel inside larger and voila.

I'll be contributing a PDF scan of the manual when I have time to finish it as well (either tonight or tomorrow). And yea, you can print out and make your own little code wheel instead of using the program! Hurray!

This is such a great game. Good to see it here (as my original floppies have long since died).

Few games have ever matched the sheer size of this one.

And it fit on floppies!

Good to see it here. May have to take it for a spin again.

Extras
 

Lots of good extras here including Javascript code wheel.

http://necrobones.com/starflt/#software

Starflight was always one of my favorites! Exploring space and learning about the different races, very nicely done. I played it for hours.

Wasn't there a race in Starflight that only send you binary data? I never figured out what that meant. Could have been Starflight 2 though, I am not sure.

Thanks for reminding people of Starflight. I discovered it a couple of years ago, but didn't really get into it, because I found the interface too cumbersome. Recently, I "rediscovered" Starflight, and this time the interface was less of an issue for me (it's ok, given the time Starflight was developed). Instead I discovered the excitement and challenges contained in this game. You don't even have to go far - the planets of your home system alone can push your adrenaline level high (lack of fuel, aggressive native species, environmental conditions, in combination with your desire to collect minerals, samples of lifeforms, etc). Of course, once you start improving your ship and training your crew, you will soon have discovered more or less everything and you'll be ready to move on ...

In a way, Starfligh reminded me of Ironseed, by the way, another great space exploration game which appears to be more or less forgotten in these days.

2 technical comments:
- I play Starflight under DosBox only. It will run without (I have an XP PC), but for whatever reason, I always have to press all keys twice, before the input is accepted (without DosBox).
- The game status is saved in the files StarA and StarB. I recommend to create a couple of savegame directories underneath your Starflight directory and to copy the two files into one of these directories whenever you exit the game and want to keep the status (it has been mentioned already that you'll break your game if you leave without saving). I also keep the original StarA and StarB files safely stored away, just in case I want (or have) to start a new game. To revert the game to a different status, simply copy the two files back into your Starflight directory.

Have fun!

The things that send you binary data are The Mysterions, and you can translate it. (They give planetary coordinates)

Also another number based communication you will run into are the Veloxi drones (they protect good planets usually) who will attack you if you don't answer them correctly.