What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.
On sale at 1PM EST, sold out by 1:30. Payment processing failing awfully. Any lucky tildos score one?
What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.
Server host: tildes.nore.gg (Running Java 1.21.11)
Verification site: https://tildes.nore.gg
BlueMap: https://tildes.nore.gg/map/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TildesMC
Plugins:
/co inspect)The server operates on a soft whitelist. Anyone can log in and walk around, but you need a Tildes account to gain build access.
We recommend you install our mod web-chat so that you can chat while in your web browser. It turns the server into an old-school chat room.
Etiquette:
It is fine to make multiple top-level posts throughout the week.
It is also fine to respond to your own posts.
If you are playing Backlog Bingo, you can share your table either by markdown or through screenshots.
Gameplay guidelines:
Goals for this event (if any) are entirely individual and self-determined.
Playing Bingo is optional and not required.
You do NOT need to finish games unless you want to. The point is to try out games and have fun, not force ourselves to play things we're not interested in.
Your "backlog" is all those games you've been meaning to play or get around to, but never have yet. This event is an attempt to get us to collectively dig into that treasure trove of experiences, scratch some long-standing itches, and knock a few titles off our to-play lists.
It runs every May and November. New discussion topics will go up once a week during those months.
You do not need to sign up in advance -- the topics are open to all. If you would like to be included in the notification list, comment in this topic to be added.
That's it!
Optionally: you can play Backlog Bingo which is a fun way of cutting down the choices you have to make and playing games you might not have normally selected on your own.
Nope! Not at all.
There aren't really any requirements for the event so much as this is an incentive to get us to play games we've been avoiding starting up, for whatever reason. Play as much or as little as you like of a given game.
Try out dozens for ten minutes each or dive into one for 40 hours. There's no wrong way to participate!
Yes! Each discussion thread stays live for a full week, so feel free to make multiple comments in the topic as you play different games. This isn't considered noise -- it's considered valuable participation in the event!
Important: All data for your Backlog Bingo card is stored on your device, not the server. Clearing your browser data will delete your card. You can use the export feature to make backups or move your card between devices.
If you've already created a card and wish to start over, click the Settings button in the header to access your card settings. Then click the Reset button, and confirm the prompt. This will irrevocably delete your present card, allowing you to start fresh.
All data is stored by your browser in local storage. There are no accounts, and nothing is sent to the server, so it's privacy-friendly by design. This does mean that you are responsible for not deleting any browser data on wescook.ca, either manually or through automatic cleanups performed on browser close.
Backlog Bingo is open-source, and licensed permissively under MIT.
In Standard Mode, each square on the bingo card corresponds with one single game. Duplicate games cannot be entered into different squares. A winning card would have a row of five different games that each filled in one square.
In Golf Mode, duplicates are not only allowed -- they are encouraged! The purpose of Golf mode is to try to find a single game that will fill multiple categories at the same time. For example: Stardew Valley might fulfill You got it on sale, A solo-dev project, and Has romanceable characters all at the same time. A winning card would have all twenty five squares filled, but possibly only six or seven different games.
That is the "wildcard" or "free space."
In Standard Mode, there are no requirements to fill it. You can choose any game you want! Anything goes!
In Golf Mode, it does not need to be filled. Because Golf is all about stacking up categories on a single game, any game used in Golf would fill it automatically, meaning it has no real function. As such, the square will be pre-filled for you if you play in Golf mode.
The new Free list defaults to having this space turned off. Because you already have full freedom in how you fill the squares, having a free space is redundant (though if you miss it or just like the aesthetics, you can certainly turn it back on!).
Absolutely! The Backlog Bingo app reads in simple JSON files which define the available categories. We've created a couple prebuilt lists for this event, but you're free to tweak our categories, or create completely new ones. You could even use them for books, anime, movies, recipes -- anything!
If you are interested in learning more, you can find documentation on the wiki, and use an example JSON category file. You can also ask for help in the topic!
Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week!
Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle are most worth my attention?”
Rules:
If posting a sale, it is strongly encouraged that you share why you think the available game/games are worthwhile.
All previous Save Point topics
If you don’t want to see threads in this series, add save point to your personal tag filters.
I consider myself an author. Not that I have ever published anything that I have written.
If I'm not mixing up my timelines, Sid Meier's Pirates! was the basis of my second unfinished novel. It was the story of a 17th century French sailor, thrust into the world of piracy as he searched for his long-lost family while trying to acquire a new one by courting the beautiful daughter of the mayor of Caracas. In the end, the only family that he managed to find was the band of rowdy pirates that he captained across the Caribbean.
This might sound like a good story, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't. I would have been ten, maybe nine years old at the time. I knew very little about family dysfunction, romantic love, or the age of piracy. I understood next to nothing about the demands of narrative style or structure. I simply played the game on my Commodore 64 and wrote down what was happening to me.
Some of the fighting bits were pretty good, though. If I recall correctly, later that year I repurposed bits of them for a novella that I wrote for a school assignment. It was called Knights of the Square Table and featured four French musketeers. I would like to claim that this was a brilliant post-modern blending of Arthurian legend and Alexandre Dumas, but I'm pretty sure I was just quite confused about some of the classics that I had been reading.
Not that mine wasn't an impactful piece of literature. It made our teacher create a new rule: from then on, there would be a strict upper limit to the length of stories that we could give him.
I sometimes wonder if you guys feel like my teacher.
Despite his new rule, later that semester our teacher nonetheless accepted an even longer story where I riffed on the ending of So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams. He really liked it. He was a great teacher.
So, Sid Meier's Pirates! has been a fairly big part of my life. I have not only played the game (many times), but I have spent a considerable amount of time thinking about it. I could even say that, through the act of creative imagination, I have lived it. It is certainly part of my identity.
And yet, I have never finished the game. Just like my early novel's fictional French captain, I have never found all of the missing family members. And while I have retired many of my characters, I have never been hugely successful in the outcome. I have never reached an ending that I would consider definitive.
Just like I have never published anything that I have written.
And this is exactly the type of game that Pirates! is. It is an open world game in the truest sense of the word: it gives you a world to live in, to sail in, to plunder and fight in, to look for treasure and lost family members in, to court beautiful daughters in and to change the course of colonial history in. But it doesn't give you any definitive goal. The journey in Pirates! matters far more than the destination. Because there really is no destination.
Just like in my writing.
Or perhaps also in life, you could say?
Sid Meier's Pirates! is a collection of systems that harmonise rather beautifully. It is one of my favourite game designs.
You start by selecting the era in which you want to play, a choice that determines what the world looks like and how it behaves, and some details about your character. You are then given a ship and a crew, and off you go. You can read the incredibly detailed manual, and you really should because it's wonderful, but you don't have to. It's quite an intuitive game.
Your crew expects you to provide for them. Their loyalty is for the plunder and the plunder alone, and it is up to you to make them rich. If you don't have enough gold for them, they will begin to mutiny. The bigger your crew is the easier it is for you to plunder, but the more of them there are, the smaller each individual member's cut is, and therefore the unhappier they are. And the longer you wait until you divide the gold with them, the less happy they will be with you. There is this constant push and pull, which is at the heart of many of the game's systems.
And here is the catch: every time you divide the plunder, time progresses. The game gets more difficult, not only because you can change your difficulty level at this juncture, and not just because you lose much of your crew and fleet, but because your characters ages. And the older you are, the more difficult fighting becomes. Them old bones won't be so flexible.
You cannot die, though. If you are captured at any point, you go to the gallows. It's not game over, but you lose possessions and time, as you age in prison.
And at some point, you will just be too old. Continuing the life of a pirate makes sense no more. Age has defeated you. Piracy is a young man's game and it is time for you to retire. And when that happens, the game looks at your possessions and other accomplishments, and tells you what your character's life in retirement will look like.
Within this overall frame, the game loop itself is basically a collection of mini-games: navigating the Caribbean winds, making decisions in towns, arcade-style ship combat, a light strategy game for land battles, a fighting game for sword fights. And, in a later edition, a rhythm game for dancing that many didn't warm to. You can look at maps and search for lost treasures, hunt for other pirates, do heists on silver trains (for some reason removed from later editions), build your reputation, court governors' daughters, conquer cities, trade goods, micro-manage your fleet and crew, and so on.
Underneath it all, most events are random, which makes each time you play the game unique. This includes everything from smaller details to the larger geopolitical reality that is happening around you in the Caribbean. Nations go to war, make peace with each other, cities change hands, all without caring one bit about your plans or needs.
It really is as close to a perfect game that I can think of.
Sid Meier's Pirates! was designed and programmed by the industry legend that is Sid Meier. Although Meier was a co-founder of MicroProse and had already created around twenty games, Pirates! was the first game to feature his name in the title; something that comedian Robin Williams had apparently suggested that they should do. Or alternatively, as Meier himself remembers, the marketing department came up with the idea to try to get people who loved Meier's flight simulators to give a chance for this otherwise impossible-to-sell pirate game that Meier had insisted on creating. Whatever the reason, it started a trend. Later on, we would get titles like Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon, Sid Meier's Gettysburg!, Sid Meier's SimGolf, Sid Meier's Starships, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Sid Meier's Colonization and, most famously, a game and series called Sid Meier's Civilization. Not all of them always led by Meier, but always given his stamp of approval.
The game was something of a departure for the designer, as he had mainly worked on flight simulators and other war games until then. Interestingly, Meier programmed most of the game in BASIC, which means that a lot of the code for the original Commodore 64 version is openly readable. If you'd like to learn more, this 8-Bit Show And Tell video is a really interesting dive into the code.
Platforms & Versions:
Sid Meier's Pirates! has had a long history after its initial Commodore 64 release. I personally count five major versions and say that you can decide which one you want to play based on which version of our previous pirate game, The Secret of Monkey Island, you preferred:
Genre(s):
Open world, action-adventure, strategy, Sid Meier
Links:
Stores:
The main purpose of this topic is to get people up and running with the game. As such, it's recommended that you:
Share which version of the game you're playing
Share what hardware you're playing it on
Share if there are any tools/mods that you recommend
Share anything you think is important for people to know before they start the game
Ask questions if you need help
Another purpose of this topic is to revisit the game and its time period:
Do you have any memories or associations with this game itself?
What about its system or era?
What aspects of retro gaming were common at the time?
What other games from the same time period are you familiar with?
What are you expecting from this game in particular?
Finally, this topic is the beginning discussion for people starting to play it:
Post updates sharing your thoughts as you play.
Ask for help if you get stuck.
Offer help to others.
It is recommended that you reply to your own posts if you are making consecutive updates so that they are in the same thread.
Any links to the game should be legal distributions of the game only. Please do NOT link to any unauthorized copies.
Put any spoilers in a dropdown block. Copy/paste the block below if needed.
<details>
<summary>Spoilers</summary>
Spoiler text goes here.
</details>
Colossal Game Adventure (CGA) is Tildes' retro video game club.
Each month we will play a different retro game/games, discuss our thoughts, and bask in the glorious digital experiences of yesteryear!
Colossal Game Adventure is a reference to Colossal Cave Adventure. It's one of the most influential games of all time, one of the first text-based interactive games, and one of the first games to be shared online.
What do we want to do with this group? Play influential games; interact with each other through text; and share the love for retro games online!
It also abbreviates to CGA (because we love chunky pixel art), and its name communicates the Colossal amount of fun and excitement that we have with retro video Games in our shared Adventure of playing them together.
No. Participation is open to all.
There is a Notification List that will get pinged each time a new topic goes up. If you would like to join that list, please PM u/kfwyre.
Each month will have a focus game or games that will guide our discussions. Beyond that, there are no restrictions. The philosophy of CGA is to play in a way that works for you!
This means:
Choose whichever version of the game you want.
You can use cheats, save states, mods, etc.
You can watch a streamer or longplay instead of playing it.
If you have already played a game and want a different experience:
Try a randomizer or challenge run.
Play a different version of it.
Play a related game (sequel, spiritual successor, something inspired by it, etc.)
There is no wrong way to participate in CGA, and every different way someone participates will make for more interesting discussions.
Each month the Insert Cartidge topic will be posted on the 1st, while the Remove Cartridge topic will be posted on the 28th (25th for February).
Nomination and voting topics will happen in March and September (every 6 months).
Schedules are also posted then.
All CGA topics are available using the colossal game adventure tag.
Inserting and removing cartridges are our retro metaphor for starting and stopping a given game or games.
The Insert Cartridge topic happens at the beginning of the month and is primarily about getting the game up and running.
The Remove Cartridge topic happens toward the end of the month and is primarily about people reflecting on the game now that they've played it.
There are no hard restrictions on what has to go in either topic, and each can be used to discuss the game, post updates, ask questions, etc.
Hello there, space rogue! It's time to dock with the mothership, put a glide in your stride and a dip in your hip, and report to us about your adventures.
Did you play Space Rogue? Did you uncover the mysteries of the universe? Did you conquer Hive? Did you forget to fill in the friendship book? Tell us about your experiences! Or if you didn't play, tell us why this title didn't pique your interest.
In a couple of days, we will leave behind the life of a pirate, trader and bounty hunter, disembark from the Jolly Roger and hoist the Jolly Roger for a life of a pirate, trader and bounty hunter, this time in Sid Meier's Pirates!, a game so brilliant that it deserves an exclamation mark.
See you on the salty seas! Or not, if my lookout spots your vessel before yours spots mine, and my master gunner is on top of their game. Arrrr.
...for another Backlog Burner -- the event where you try out games you've always wanted to play (but haven't yet -- for whatever reason).
The Backlog Burner for May 2026 will officially begin in two days on May 1st.
If you're new to the Backlog Burner, check out our previous events to get an idea of what's going on:
You might notice that the already beautiful Backlog Bingo site has gotten even more beautifuller. That's because our intrepid u/Wes has been hard at work once again adding polish to the site, changing things on the backend to make them smoother and more elegant, and even sprucing up the category lists.
Backlog Bingo has literally never been better! Or more beautifuller!
If you participated last time, clear your old card and start fresh with a new one.
If you're new to the event, click the link above to generate your card (but only if you want to -- playing a bingo card is NOT required to participate).
If you are interested in participating in the Backlog Burner, please comment in this topic. Anyone commenting/replying here will automatically be added to a notification list for the Backlog Burner, unless you specify otherwise.
Technically the event starts in two days, so you have time to roll your cards (if you're playing Bingo) and plan out what you'd like to play for the month. That said, if you're eager to jump right in, and start early, I certainly won't stop you!
Let's get ready to burn through these backlogs!
Your "backlog" is all those games you've been meaning to play or get around to, but never have yet. This event is an attempt to get us to collectively dig into that treasure trove of experiences, scratch some long-standing itches, and knock a few titles off our to-play lists.
It runs every May and November. New discussion topics will go up once a week during those months.
You do not need to sign up in advance -- the topics are open to all. If you would like to be included in the notification list, comment in this topic to be added.
That's it!
Optionally: you can play Backlog Bingo which is a fun way of cutting down the choices you have to make and playing games you might not have normally selected on your own.
Nope! Not at all.
There aren't really any requirements for the event so much as this is an incentive to get us to play games we've been avoiding starting up, for whatever reason. Play as much or as little as you like of a given game.
Try out dozens for ten minutes each or dive into one for 40 hours. There's no wrong way to participate!
Yes! Each discussion thread stays live for a full week, so feel free to make multiple comments in the topic as you play different games. This isn't considered noise -- it's considered valuable participation in the event!
Important: All data for your Backlog Bingo card is stored on your device, not the server. Clearing your browser data will delete your card. You can use the export feature to make backups or move your card between devices.
If you've already created a card and wish to start over, click the Settings button in the header to access your card settings. Then click the Reset button, and confirm the prompt. This will irrevocably delete your present card, allowing you to start fresh.
All data is stored by your browser in local storage. There are no accounts, and nothing is sent to the server, so it's privacy-friendly by design. This does mean that you are responsible for not deleting any browser data on wescook.ca, either manually or through automatic cleanups performed on browser close.
Backlog Bingo is open-source, and licensed permissively under MIT.
In Standard Mode, each square on the bingo card corresponds with one single game. Duplicate games cannot be entered into different squares. A winning card would have a row of five different games that each filled in one square.
In Golf Mode, duplicates are not only allowed -- they are encouraged! The purpose of Golf mode is to try to find a single game that will fill multiple categories at the same time. For example: Stardew Valley might fulfill You got it on sale, A solo-dev project, and Has romanceable characters all at the same time. A winning card would have all twenty five squares filled, but possibly only six or seven different games.
That is the "wildcard" or "free space."
In Standard Mode, there are no requirements to fill it. You can choose any game you want! Anything goes!
In Golf Mode, it does not need to be filled. Because Golf is all about stacking up categories on a single game, any game used in Golf would fill it automatically, meaning it has no real function. As such, the square will be pre-filled for you if you play in Golf mode.
The new Free list defaults to having this space turned off. Because you already have full freedom in how you fill the squares, having a free space is redundant (though if you miss it or just like the aesthetics, you can certainly turn it back on!).
Absolutely! The Backlog Bingo app reads in simple JSON files which define the available categories. We've created a couple prebuilt lists for this event, but you're free to tweak our categories, or create completely new ones. You could even use them for books, anime, movies, recipes -- anything!
If you are interested in learning more, you can find documentation on the wiki, and use an example JSON category file. You can also ask for help in the topic!
Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week!
Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle are most worth my attention?”
Rules:
If posting a sale, it is strongly encouraged that you share why you think the available game/games are worthwhile.
All previous Save Point topics
If you don’t want to see threads in this series, add save point to your personal tag filters.
What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.
Server host: tildes.nore.gg (Running Java 1.21.11)
Verification site: https://tildes.nore.gg
BlueMap: https://tildes.nore.gg/map/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TildesMC
Plugins:
/co inspect)The server operates on a soft whitelist. Anyone can log in and walk around, but you need a Tildes account to gain build access.
We recommend you install our mod web-chat so that you can chat while in your web browser. It turns the server into an old-school chat room.
Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week!
Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle are most worth my attention?”
Rules:
If posting a sale, it is strongly encouraged that you share why you think the available game/games are worthwhile.
All previous Save Point topics
If you don’t want to see threads in this series, add save point to your personal tag filters.
What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.
I went harvest, hotfoot, evil eye, butler, larcenist, and culling so far and I’m gonna go back for the clue one and maybe take the axe for t8
I did kandarin and kourend regions and planning on doing mory for 3rd
Did the mage water/air build but kinda messed it up so I need like 2-3 more pacts to echo boss to fix it
Regret butler kinda, but idk I go back to work tomorrow so it’ll be nice to log back in to a big xp drop. Evil eye has also been meh but I know itll be great once I actually start bossing
How about yall?
If you were a hip gamer back in 1989, your first point of contact with our game of the month, Space Rogue, might have been this video ad (timestamped) that explains exactly why Origin's new space adventure is the hottest thing in gaming right now. Or you might have marvelled at this magazine ad.
I'm starting with these ads because the game is currently on sale on GOG! The sale ends in just two days, so get it while the getting is good! And while there, consider also grabbing Sid Meier's Pirates! Gold Plus (the 1993 remake) and/or Sid Meier's Pirates! (the 2004 remake) for our next month's gaming, as both are also heavily discounted. Thanks to /u/J-Chiptunator for the heads-up!
All of these do exist on Steam as well, of course, and don't cost much even when not discounted. I will write more about platforms and general availability later. But now, back to our regular programming.
So, this is what it's come to. You in the pilot's seat, surrounded by the vast emptiness of cold, dead space. A row of cryptic console buttons. A user interface that seems to come from an entirely different era, if not species. One wrong move, one mistaken button press, and you are probably dead. Great. Just great.
It's not even your seat, or technically your spaceship, just something that you stumbled into when the aliens blew your crewmates into smithereens. You are the sole survivor, alone on board the Jolly Roger (who the hell named this ship?) and now seriously evaluating your life choices.
Go to space, they had said. Space is exciting, it's fun, it's different, they had insinuated. You specifically remember the poster screaming that it had "everything for everyone".
Bullshit.
Instead, you find yourself hunched over the console with a thick manual in one hand and a glass of the galaxy's worst gin in another, trying to figure out how this piece of crap Jolly Roger functions. You don't feel jolly at all. Or roger.
Just as you are about to give up and slip into cryogenic sleep for the next thirty days until that vacation in the Caribbean, you notice something buzzing on a side table. It's the quiet, gentle buzz of a smallish electronic device. Friendly, inviting. You pick it up and the screen lights up. It's a warm, welcoming glow of an e-reader. It is here to help. The page it opens simply reads:
In my CGA lobbying post, I wrote that although Space Rogue was a fairly major release at its time, for modern tastes, it can feel a little clunky, perhaps difficult to get into. It is not only the oldest game that we have played so far, but also the first one on our list that was designed with a personal computer and its keyboard in mind, rather than something that would be controlled purely with a controller, joystick or mouse. If you are not familiar with this era or style of gaming, it may take a bit of a mindset adjustment to get going.
I will try my best to help you get started without too much headache. Just trust me that there really is a very good game in there, in fact one that has been voted as one of the best Commodore 64 games of all time. It is a galaxy spanning scifi RPG that mixes the space sim combat of Elite and Wing Commander with the adventuring of Ultima and Mass Effect. A game that combines some of the best of late 80s design while paving the way for what was to come.
Although the game starts with a cutscene that sets up the story, it still very much expects you to take a look at the documents that originally came in the game box. As so often with games of this era, these are not "supplementary" materials but an actual part of the game. Both Steam and GOG releases should contain the following:
With GOG, you should be able to download the files directly from the website. With Steam, the Manual shows up in the "Additional Content" section of the game page, while the rest can be found in the game's installation directory under the directory "Bonus Content".
The original game box also included an advertisement for the game-within-a-game arcade hit Hive!, but the GOG and Steam releases seem to not have it. You can find a copy here. And you can also find all of these documents in one package on scribd.com, although the manual there lacks colour and the reference card is for the Amiga version.
That's a lot of materials, I know. But you don't need to study them all at once. Here's what I suggest you do:
Once you are through the opening cinematic, begin with the Quick Reference Card and its section titled "Commands Used in Space Flight". This will teach you how to move your ship in the cockpit view. Don't worry about the dashboard information right now, just concentrate on controlling the Jolly Roger. You should be safe to experiment at this point as you are in empty space and no one is going to be bothering you. I personally use the WASDZXC keys, but I know some prefer mouse controls.
When in the Cruise Flight mode (the default mode), the STOP key (S or 5) is very handy. It stops all of your turning and rotation immediately. Learn to use it.
Note also the Quick Reference Card's section titled "Saving the Game". In addition to remembering the keyboard command Ctrl+S, it is important to keep in mind that you can only save when you are in space. It's a good idea to save before docking at bases.
You need to give your save game a name. Remember that name because you need to type it again when you want to load it. You can only load games when starting the game. Loading a game asks a copy protection question that requires the manual.
If you forget your save file name, you can find it in the game's installation folder as a SAV file.
Next, take a look at the section called "Quick-Start Instructions", still in the Quick Reference Card. It is like a tutorial, telling you what to do first so that you get used to the game's UI. For you convenience, below is what is says, together with my additional notes:
You start the game deep in the Karonus star system, [which is the site of the magnificent Hiathra Starbase and the historic MiCon I mining station. Piracy has been virtually wiped out in this sector.] To get to the nearest starbase, follow these steps:
Plot a course. Press N for navigation mode, then use the joystick, mouse or keyboard cluster [i.e. arrow keys] to select the CHART command. Press Return. Move the cursor across the map of the Karonus star system until you find Hiathra Starbase: the green square symbol at coordinates 13,19. Press the space bar.
Select the HELM command. Autopilot will guide your ship to the new coordinates. [As you move, you may notice the interface telling you about messages or space ships. You should be able to ignore these and just let the autopilot move you to your destination without interruptions.]
If a ship attacks you on the way, the journey stops. Select COCKPIT to fight the battle. Press T to target the enemy, and the space bar, joystick button or mouse buttons to fire a weapon. Consult the next section for other commands. [But I think the chance of being attacked here is very low.]
After your ship arrives at its destination, select COCKPIT to return to the space view. Press T to activate your targeting computer. It tells how far you must travel to the starbase and in which direction. Move your ship so that the arrows on the edge of your viewscreen are centered and point inward. The starbase should appear onscreen as two pyramids connected by a light-colored axle. To dock at the base, manoeuvre your ship to touch the axle [which is the bright part inside of the station, or the top tips of the two pyramids. Don't fly too fast, as you need to be traveling at 20 m/s or less (the number next to the letters CF or NF in the bottom left of your dashboard) for docking to succeed. Also don't fire at stations as they will deny docking -- if you do it by mistake, pop out and return the next day.]
At the base, walk around [using arrow keys or WASD or mouse], talk to everyone [pressing ENTER and selecting TALK when facing them] you meet, and buy some cargo [and inspect signs, items, closed doors and other things by pressing ENTER and selecting INSPECT while facing them]. You're on your way....
After you have explored the Hiathra Starbase a little bit, it's a good time to learn more about the world in which the game takes place.
The novella gives you background information about your character and the world. Unlike the intro cutscene, the novella also gives you a goal. It's worth reading not just for the flavour but also for the information and guidance that it provides.
The manual also gives you background information about the universe. Take a look at these three sections to better understand the world that you inhabit:
Additionally, take a look at the map provided and figure out where you are.
After you have an idea of the world that you inhabit, start to learn everything you can about your spaceship. While this is an RPG, you will actually not be levelling your character; instead, you will be upgrading your ship. So, sooner or later you should know the Jolly Roger inside out. At the very beginning, avoid combat and hazards and instead get accustomed to:
It is also a good idea to leaf through the rest of the manual, and to check out the hand-written notes that the previous owner of Jolly Roger jotted down. Once you get the hang of flying and docking and encounter some enemies, pause and read the remaining sections about combat and ship types.
In case you feel a little aimless and/or overwhelmed, here are some further tips for the early game:
Before you can purchase those, you need a pilot's licence. You can get it from the Imperium Representative at Hiathra, the station you docked at first if you followed the quickstart instructions.
The game just assumes that you know these things. It's not a copy protection measure or anything. The answers are:
3.26, O, F=ma, Imperium
In addition to the dialogue options that are given, you can sometimes (if the option "Other" is given) ask people about topics using keywords that you type in. Try to ask about places and people you have heard of. Sometimes people can have interesting things to say.
In addition to the Hiathra Starbase, the system you are in at the beginning also has the MiCon I mining station. It might be a good idea to visit it. Maybe you can even make some money ferrying cargo between the two?
There are various ways to make credits:
Yikes! Don't sneak up on me like that!
Now, Thriftweed, keep in mind that your actions have consequences. There are factions in the game (Imperium, Merchant Guild, Pirates) and those factions react to what you do their members. Attack a merchant ship, and merchants won't be happy about it. Same with the others. This affects how other ships interact with you and what NPCs are willing to say to you.
At the same time, the more battles you win, the higher your reputation will be. People will know about you. Admire you. But also perhaps hunt you down to increase their own reputation.
You won't really stumble into the main story until a little later in the game, so feel free to explore the world at first on your own. But if you want to get to the main plot quicker, the novella offers a hint.
You might remember that your character is slightly fixated about Duchess Avenstar. You also happen to know what system she is in. Perhaps go and find her?
However, you need to be "a seasoned warrior" before she takes you seriously. You need to have some reputation. So do also read those combat pages in your ship's manual and practice your space fighting skills.
Well... Space Rogue sort of exists in a universe that conforms to Berkeley's ontological theory of subjective idealism. By which I mean, things only exist if you perceive them. And you only perceive them in front of you. Which means, hazards only get generated in front of your ship. Therefore, if you fly backwards, you can't really bump into hazards. Just keep in mind that this is clearly a philosophical statement and not a tech limitation or a bug.
Space Rogue has little sound and no soundtrack, apart from the Japanese versions which are no longer available. In case you would like to listen to some music while adventuring, I have put together a Spotify playlist of tunes that might work. You can find it here. I hope you like it. You might be able to convert it to your preferred streaming service somehow.
Developed by Origin Systems towards end of the golden age of the Commodore 64 and Apple II, Space Rogue was something of a pioneering hybrid that bridged the gap between the space flight simulator genre, led by titles like Elite, and the deep narrative-driven RPG systems found in Origin's own Ultima series. The game was marketed as the first of Origin's "cinematic experiences" and while I don't think Origin ever used that marketing term again, their wildly successful and quite cinematic Wing Commander series launched a year later and in many ways stood on the shoulders of Space Rogue.
Space Rogue was created by Paul Neurath, who later went on to found his own company that developed a number of influential titles such as Ultima Underworld I & II, Thief I & II and System Shock 1 & 2. Meanwhile, a young Origin Systems designer by the name of Chris Roberts was quite influenced by Neurath's work and took its combination of 3D space flight and cinematic storytelling to create the Wing Commander series. These days, Roberts is perhaps even better known from his crowdfunded in-progress magnum opus Star Citizen, which in many ways seems to continue the Space Rogue legacy.
Platforms & Versions: The game was originally released for Commodore 64 and Apple II. It was later ported to Amiga, Atari ST, DOS, FM Towns, Macintosh, PC-9801 and X68000. The versions are largely the same, with minor graphical differences, apart from the Japanese releases, which feature some music and improved cutscene visuals.
Genre(s): Space combat simulator, RPG
Stores: GOG and Steam. Note that the game is sold as "Space Rogue Classic". Don't confuse with the unrelated game from 2016 called "Space Rogue".
The main purpose of this topic is to get people up and running with the game.
On Windows and Linux, the game should run directly from Steam and GOG without problems.
On a modern Mac, you likely need to extract the DOS files and run them in a DOSBox emulator.
For other versions and platforms, I'm afraid you are on your own. But do tell us if you decide to do something funky like run it on a C64 or hunt down and emulate an FM Towns or a PC-9801 version!
It's recommended that you:
Another purpose of this topic is to revisit the game and its time period:
Finally, this topic is the beginning discussion for people starting to play it:
It is recommended that you reply to your own posts if you are making consecutive updates so that they are in the same thread.
Any links to the game should be legal distributions of the game only. Please do NOT link to any unauthorized copies.
Put any spoilers in a dropdown block. Copy/paste the block below if needed.
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<summary>Spoilers</summary>
Spoiler text goes here.
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Colossal Game Adventure (CGA) is Tildes' retro video game club.
Each month we will play a different retro game/games, discuss our thoughts, and bask in the glorious digital experiences of yesteryear!
Colossal Game Adventure is a reference to Colossal Cave Adventure. It's one of the most influential games of all time, one of the first text-based interactive games, and one of the first games to be shared online.
What do we want to do with this group? Play influential games; interact with each other through text; and share the love for retro games online!
It also abbreviates to CGA (because we love chunky pixel art), and its name communicates the Colossal amount of fun and excitement that we have with retro video Games in our shared Adventure of playing them together.
No. Participation is open to all.
There is a Notification List that will get pinged each time a new topic goes up. If you would like to join that list, please PM u/kfwyre.
Each month will have a focus game or games that will guide our discussions. Beyond that, there are no restrictions. The philosophy of CGA is to play in a way that works for you!
This means:
Choose whichever version of the game you want.
You can use cheats, save states, mods, etc.
You can watch a streamer or longplay instead of playing it.
If you have already played a game and want a different experience:
Try a randomizer or challenge run.
Play a different version of it.
Play a related game (sequel, spiritual successor, something inspired by it, etc.)
There is no wrong way to participate in CGA, and every different way someone participates will make for more interesting discussions.
Each month the Insert Cartidge topic will be posted on the 1st, while the Remove Cartridge topic will be posted on the 28th.
Nomination and voting topics will happen in March and September (every 6 months).
Schedules are also posted then.
All CGA topics are available using the colossal game adventure tag.
Inserting and removing cartridges are our retro metaphor for starting and stopping a given game or games.
The Insert Cartridge topic happens at the beginning of the month and is primarily about getting the game up and running.
The Remove Cartridge topic happens toward the end of the month and is primarily about people reflecting on the game now that they've played it.
There are no hard restrictions on what has to go in either topic, and each can be used to discuss the game, post updates, ask questions, etc.
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