Game Research

#1 Well you missed all the Wing Commanders, but they might be a bit old for you. There was the strange Star Trek one where you got to fly the enterprise around with a joystick. There's Haegemonia(sp?) that was similar to homeworld, and had the best explosions i'd ever seen in a computer game :)

Although not technically space shooters the Aquanox games are worth seeing.

X2 is well worth getting, looks awesome (rather dull though). And I believe you mean Xcom Interceptor, Apocalypse was a squad based game, but you're right it's hardly worth the bother. Echelon wasn't really a space shooter, but worth seeing. Hardwar wasn't bad, reminded me a lot of G-Police. There's probably some merit in getting Dropship for the PS2 as well, since that has a lot of elements that would translate well to a space shooter.

#2 Man how could you leave off the classic

Elite

The space game that started it all back on the C=64!

#3 Actually, it was ported to the C-64... originally it was written for the BBC.

The Wing Commander series is definitely THE game series for space combat. I thought the first two were the most fun to play. 3 and 4 were more focused on moviemaking than gameplay, but they were still fun. Prophecy was pretty, back when 3D acceleration on a Voodoo card was a new thing.

Other games... I think there was a game by Microprose around 1992 / 1993 that was a pretty forgettable 3D space combat game, a rush-job attempting to cash in on the Wing Commander phenomenon. The one interesting bit The most interesting thing about it was, like the later ELITE (Frontier / First Encounter), it attempted to model space combat in a slightly more realistic light... with ships passing each other very very quickly and taking forever to turn around.

It wasn't fun.

Another oldie was Renegade: Battle for Jacob's Star. I don't think I ever got past the third mission on that one.

One of Take Two's freshman releases was a game called Star Crusader. It used real 3D texture-mapped models before Wing Commander did the same... although the textures looked like crap. It had horrible cut-scenes, and eye-jarring graphics, but I don't remember it being a bad game.

Allegiance you mentioned - that goes in my book as one of the best games nobody ever played.

There are also several games out there for the consoles that might be worth checking out. The Star Wars: Starfighter games, for example.

#4 But there is no denying that the C=64 version was 1000X more popular than any other version and the game would never have reached the cult status that it has on the BBC.

The C=64 version is considered by many to be the "grandfather" of all the space exploration sim's.

#5 Well, I played the BBC and the spectrum versions :)

But anyway, nice suggestions.

Jay: Yeah, I'm going to get hold of Rogue Squadron (the GC version) one of these days.

I'm not doing too bad though.. tried another couple out today.

#6 How about Privateer: The Reckoning? It came out shortly after Wing Commander III, and has good space combat.

#7 Maybe they have grouped Privateer with the Wing Commander series. Wasn't it a spinoff? Or, did it just use the same engine?

#8 Check out Starscape and Flatspace. Both are idependent, you can find them on Game Tunnel (www.gametunnel.com).

#9 I'm surprised the Descent series hasn't made into the list so far!

#10 Jeremy: Yeah, I already played starscape, but that and flatspace arent really 3D space combat games, theyre 2D scroller combat games :)

Privateer is an interesting one in so much as I remember a friend at work playing it and the interface taking forever to transition :)

Thanks for the suggestions.

#11 Robotech: Battlecry is an really awesome game, really give the feel of the massive space battles from the series! The space combat sequences around and against the massive Zentradi battle crusiers is awesome. Darklight Conflict was pretty neat also.

There is the new Battlestart Galactica game, Zone of Enders on the Playstation 2 is completely stunning! Colonly Wars was a great series also. There was also a game called Omega Boost that was all space combat.

here is a good google

#12 I got hold of a copy of ZOE2 over xmas :) forgot to put that down.

I'll have a look at those others too. Thanks.

#13 The original "Privateer" was fully titled "Wing Commander: Privateer." Still and all, an excellent game. "Privateer II" was infected by the whole interactive movie craze about the same times as WC3 and WC4, but still a pretty good sequel. Also, if you're looking for a hardcore space sim, the original "Independence War" (I-War in Europe) is worth a look, but be prepared for a brutal learning curve.

#14 There was one game on the Amiga called "EPIC" that really, really invoked the whole "Battlestar: Galactica" and the final sequence in both "Star Wars: New Hope" and "Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi"... Really awesome game, really...

#15 You didn't mention "Starlancer", although it kind of sux, I only paid $1.99 for it. It was the predecessor of "Freelancer". At least "Starlancer" lets you use the joystick. :)

Another good one from way back when was "Star Flight". It wasn't first person, but it was cool back in the mid 80's.

#16 Others are Master of Orion II and III (I know it is more stratagy but there is some good battles), And one other is Solar wind (I think that was the name of it ).

#17 There's always Escape Velocity series. But it is more interesting for its open-ended mission based universe than for its combat. It is a 2D top-down game, but probably the best of that sort that I've seen.

Also, there's the Star Control series, but again, mostly 2D top down, and somewhat less compelling gameplay than EV, at that.

#18 Space Quest !!!!!


;-)

#19 Http://marsmod.com

#20 These are both on the boundary of what can fairly be called space games:

Starfox

Incoming

Avoiding incest with your game design might be a good idea, though ;)