Author Topic: Stars! - An old Aurora like game  (Read 4118 times)

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Offline hephep (OP)

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Stars! - An old Aurora like game
« on: September 29, 2020, 06:17:38 AM »
I'm still new to Aurora, but it seems to be to be quite similar to a very old Windows game - Stars! https://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Stars! from 1995.  The interface is similar being "Windows default" and "spreadsheet in space" :-).  I suspect folks who like Aurora may like it.

It has aged extremely well due to the nature of the graphics (there are almost none!).



There's a website with a bunch of resources online here, including where to get it for free and how to run it on a 64bit OS (it's a 16bit game so won't run by default).
https://wiki. starsautohost. org/wiki/Stars_vs_OS#DOSBox
 

Offline cool_hc

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Re: Stars! - An old Aurora like game
« Reply #1 on: October 02, 2020, 11:30:25 AM »
Hi
I used to love Stars! years ago, and still have it via Dosbox. 
However, IMHO, Stars is quite a different game. 
Aurora4x is primarily a single player 4x game, with emphasis on the whole exploring, logistics in addition to the combat.
Stars! is actually more of a multiplayer PBEM military turnbased strategy wargame.  All aspects of the game (exploring, terraforming, colonising) has to do with making your war economy stronger in the most efficient time, to eventually kill off all the other players and be the last one standing.   There is a single player option, but the AI is pretty limited.  Pity there's hardly any Stars! players anymore.  The game is simple to play, but has enormous depth & complexity.

Nonetheless, Stars! was a fantastic game, and 20+ years on, there still isn't anything close to the briliance that Stars! had.  VGA planets tried to copy it, but its just not as good. 
The only game i've come across that has that similar PBEM wargame with high depth is the Dominions series, albeit with a fantasy setting.
 

Offline Castinar

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Re: Stars! - An old Aurora like game
« Reply #2 on: October 02, 2020, 11:44:46 PM »
I loved Stars! as well --- in fact, I just found my S/N for the game (I had purchased 5 S/Ns so I could play with friends...but only have found one of them).  Sadly, w/o some work I can't run it on modern machines (and don't feel like going back to it anyways w/ so many other games to play :P)
 

Offline Steve Walmsley

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Re: Stars! - An old Aurora like game
« Reply #3 on: October 03, 2020, 06:56:28 AM »
I used to play Stars a lot and I still have the game. It was once of the early influences on Aurora.
 

Offline spartacus

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Re: Stars! - An old Aurora like game
« Reply #4 on: October 03, 2020, 01:50:55 PM »
Stars was a great game and I was really looking forward to Supernova Genesis, it was a real bummer the way it played out ending in a cancelled release.
 

Offline Jarhead0331

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Re: Stars! - An old Aurora like game
« Reply #5 on: October 04, 2020, 02:33:17 PM »
Somehow I missed this one when it was released. I just booted it up and I'm shocked at how similar it is to Aurora in several obvious ways. The influence on Aurora is extremely clear. Somehow, the UI manages to seem more user friendly, and the tutorial is of tremendous value. Aurora is clearly a much more complex game, and I suppose that has a great deal to do with Stars! feeling much more intuitive, but still...its awesome how closely related these games are in some ways.

Stars! could almost serve as somewhat of a tutorial for Aurora. Kind of reminds me of the relationship between Matrix games Uncommon Valor and Pacific Admiral. One serves as a fantastic lead in to the other.
« Last Edit: October 04, 2020, 02:35:13 PM by Jarhead0331 »