Another one for the “not news, but news to me” pile: you can download a free updated version of classic 4X space strategy sim Starships Unlimited from creator Andrew “APEzone” Paul Ewanchyna’s website. Originally released in 1999 – an era of relative mental calm, before the Broadband Blight – it’s a turn-based affair with four ages of technology to discover, a range of alien factions who (in the original version, anyway) all look like gurning hoover attachments, and the prospect of zesty tactical combat involving ships of your own design.
There are few pleasures in the games journalist’s life richer and more poignant than the opportunity to write about a game you’d totally forgotten you played. I didn’t recognise Starship Unlimited at first, when I saw it on the 4X subreddit. The madeleine-soaked-in-tea moment was a screenshot of ships in orbit featuring firing ranges – arcs and wedges of yellow, red and green painted onto an invisible tabletop around each craft. I adored those firing ranges as a kid. I used to field highly specialised fleets consisting of acutely near-sighted, 360-degree firing escort cruisers and tunnel-vision artillery vessels that couldn’t win a dogfight against a cactus.
The free version available on APEzone’s site is the Starships Unlimited 3.5 – sadly, Ewanchyna doesn’t seem to have preserved the older versions, including the one I played with the (imo) very best nozzle-faced aliens. If you’re interested, you’ll need to sign up with your email to access the download page.
As ever with these projects, part of the thrill is the weird time-traveller condescension that comes from digesting a set of two-decades old system requirements. 50MB of HD space? Woah, guess I’ll have to suck it up and delete my Alan Wake 2 install. 64MB of RAM? I’d better close all applications before starting this game. Vintage spec sheet notwithstanding, Starship Unlimited seems to run happily enough on a current-gen Windows PC, like the Dell thinkpad I’m writing this on.
Stumbling on this has charged my torpedo tubes and suffused my phaser banks with rampant enthusiasm for games involving genuinely tactical fleet combat. Any lesser-known favourites you’d like to share? Anything new and unexpected, or old and unfairly overlooked?