SunDog: Frozen Legacy

Moby ID: 8256
Apple II Specs

Description official descriptions

You just inherited a one-man star freighter - the SunDog - from an uncle who died under mysterious circumstances. You also inherited the contract he signed to aid in the building of a colony for a religious group. You have three tasks to perform: find the location of the colony; find, buy, and deliver goods needed for its construction; and locate the cryogenically-frozen colonists needed to populate the colony.

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Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Atari ST version)

7 People

Program Design
Atari Development Team
Prologue
Box Cover Art

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 79% (based on 8 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 26 ratings with 2 reviews)

Space age Trading/Adventure/combat simulation that goes a long way with little

The Good
Graphics - At the time, it showcased the ST's color set, which was a vibrant 8 colors on low resolution.
- Space fighting was like Star Raiders (if anyone remembers that) - Street level fighting was fun and simple (right click to shoot, left click to move you character) Realism - Driving your car/transport vehicle around took time. You could get hungry and die if you didn't do something about it. Other items in the game were realistic too: drinking made you sleepy, and taking drugs made you unhealthy.
Interface - I personally loved the 'combat' aspects of the game. As this was a very simple point and click game, fighting was as simple as clicking. After advancing far into the game, I would purposefully wander the streets of some of the more dangerous planets/towns, looking for a chance to shoot others are grab their loot.
Differing views (world view, city view, ship view)

The Bad
- Saving was very strict. I recall turning off the computer in disgust by accident would mean my game was gone for good - I remember wishing that I could hurry the take off and landing animations. Nothing really happend then, so it would have been just as well to save 20 seconds and just be in space or on the ground.

The Bottom Line
Imagine being about to do all these things in one game: - Warp between stars - Picking interstellar fights - Pickup specific parts for your spaceship that were damaged in battle - Replacing parts on the fly so you can warp to your next destination.
- picking fights on different planets - driving between cities on a barren continent, hoping you have enough food to last - looking for a bank so you can grab enough credits to buy good items for later trading.

This game was new and novel. It was the most fun game I can remember from my old Atari ST. I would play this even till the late 80's, until we bought a Mac to replace it. If you like an Escape Velocity type of game with an RPG level of character/ship management, then you will love this game.

Atari ST · by eamonman (7) · 2004

Great economic simulation & action game years ahead of it's time!

The Good
The economic simulation presented in this 1980's game is astounding considering the time it was developed. Despite limited memory (64K on the Apple II), the game manages to keep track of the economies of a dozen star systems. The game play is open-ended and the users can accomplish the goals any way they please. SunDog sets up a universe--how you use it's rules are up to you.

The graphics were clean and crisp. They delivered just the needed information without cluttering up the screen with irrelevant images. The ZoomAction windowed interface was years ahead of it's time--beating Apple and Microsoft with the Windowed interface. The economic simulation was incredible for its time--it was incredible that it could save all the information in 64K.

The Bad
The action sequences were sometimes hard to control, but this shortcoming could be overcome with hi-tech parts which could be acquired later in the game. Lack of online access to economic data of other systems required copious note-taking. The interface would have been easier to control via mouse, but they weren't invented yet (for the Apple II version--the Atari version did use a mouse for some things).

The Bottom Line
A great well-balanced game that hasn't had an equal since it's release in the mid-1980's. The economic simulation and system-hopping is immersive despite its age and dated graphics.

Apple II · by Frecklefoot (188) · 2004

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Belboz.

Apple II added by Frecklefoot.

Additional contributors: Luckspeare.

Game added January 25, 2003. Last modified August 30, 2023.