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[LordZsar1]

And here it is: Another thread of another poor soul that was born a decade too late to benefit from the greatest of games, with nothing more from a golden age than a few dusty memories - and that is about to ask all you unlucky readers to ease the pain of a late life...

Yes, you might have guessed or not that I attempt to find a game which I faintly remember from my illiterate days back in... uhm... not too sure, a little more than one and a half decade ago (and actually a year or two after those days).

Now, to have a chance in my quest I better do remember something, right? Would be a good start and indeed, I do remember a detail or two, of graphical nature mostly and thus not exactly useful for google search...
And here they come, those old memories of mine:

Timeframe:

- aquired on a demo cd between 1992 and 1996
- graphics indicate that probably much older (pre 1990?)

Gameplay:

 
- strategic game, futuristic setting, focused on space combat and planet control
- map with stars, similar to "Master of Orion"
- per star: map with planets, ships; no representation of the star itself in that
- differing resource value of each planet, added to player's unit limit if base
  placed
  - player could produce in any base as much as his total allows
- fighters useable in both space and ground combat
- ground troops and bases used in ground combat, all other units in space
- (at least) three different kinds of weaponry: beams, waves and missiles
  - one beam (on ground troop and fighter) and one missile (on fighter)
    weapon available in ground combat
  - missiles required to destroy a base
    (thus: ground troops alone unable to do that)
    (not entirely sure about that; tested with 20 ground troops against single
     base - yes, that I do recall)
- combat turn based and fully automatical, no way to influence it from start
  to end (of one side)

General "look & feel":

- colours: grey, magenta and turquoise dominating; all units in shades
  of one colour (e.g. if there is magenta in it, there is not be turquoise)
- equipment screen for each unit, showing abilities (as items); individual icon
  for all items
- individual sound for all weapons, single sound for hits

Unit design ("Name"/purpose):

base/factory  - like a modern city in Civilisation 2 (side view)
"Fighter"     - like a "Viper" from "Battlestar Galactica" (side view)
transporter   - like a "Miranda" from "Star Trek" (top view)
"Destroyer"   - like a "Constitution" from "Star Trek" (top view)
ground troop  - like a "Panzerkampfwagen 4"... from home (side view)
space station - like the "Earth Spacedock" from "Star Trek" (side view)
 
(all just silhouettes, obviously)

Why yes, it does look like a little bit... little. But what better could I do!

[Luchsen]

Reach for the Stars?

[LordZsar1]

Too much blue... and I recall that all stars had the same size but no names (displayed on map... though I think without being too sure that the planets did have names - but again not displayed on map).
... All screens had grey as their background color - quite close to the gray that our text editor frame here is painted in (and mayhaps even the same though I cannot remember that exactly).

Also much simpler in terms of planetary development - one kind of building and if one has it placed on a planet all potential resources of that planet are instantly and completely owned... no such things as "Social" or "Service" or "Colonist"... also those bases could be loaded into a transport just like tanks and fighters (instantly, without any simulation of hassle) and be flown to somewhere else.

Destination and ETA are displayed in the screen that is used for star-to-star navigation (there is none within a star system - either a ship is there or not)... but I cannot even recall if time passes turn based or not.
My memory might try to be funny, but I think Destination was actually a clickable button that brought up the star map (with the system map as standard view) - no guarantees on that, though.

[LordZsar1]

Sigh, a most predictable outcome. Why, oh why must the one CD I am missing from back then be that one! ~~

Well, nothing anyone can do about that - maybe someday someone will upload that game and I cheer at the sight of it in those "latest news".
... Until then, could anyone point me to a (preferably more detailed/advanced/"just better") simulation at the lines of "Wolf" and "Lion"?
One of these "survival games" but with actual kin to interact with (and dynamically, not in the stupid static RPG way)? That would be an even better find, I think.

[Luchsen]

Can you remember the name of the demo CD by any chance?

[LordZsar1]

Aww, not even the look of it. Just that there was a demo of "Blake Stone - Aliens of Gold" on there as well - which is surely a highly important piece of information, is it not? ^^

(At first, I thought it was on one of two "Canyon Pegasus Vol.2" disks, which I dabbled with around the same time - alas it is not.)

[CoarseDragon]

Dominium maybe? Came out in 1992

[LordZsar1]

If you mean that one:
http://www.abandonware-paradise.eu/G...e/Dominium.png

No, there was no depiction of planetary surfaces.

... Even though the typical CGA-colours magenta and turquoise dominated (as they were the player colours) it had at least an eight colour palette. I remember planets being green (the same colour as in "Elite Plus"),
one of two beam weapons shooting an olive-green and the other one a purple beam. All "shot" sounds had the same lenght, exept for that purple beam whose sound effect was roughly double as lenghty.

(You know, I would really be happy enough with a

(preferably more detailed/advanced/"just better") [s]imulation at the lines of "Wolf" and "Lion"
[- O]ne of these "survival games" but with actual kin to interact with (and dynamically, not in the stupid static RPG way).

... So, if you know about that instead - drop the word and get me bugger off you. ^^)

[Smiling Spectre]

Anacreon comes in mind, but it is definitely not it. Stars! looks good too. Space Empires 3, and maybe Space Empires 2 have something in common, but it definitely have population management... No, I cannot remember anything more.