Space Rogue

The Good
This was way ahead of its time; A polygonal space flight sim in the vein of Privateer, with mulitple systems to explore, multiple ways to make a living, and a reputation system where everybody treats you differently. Geez... where to begin. Okay, the scope. This was a pretty cool blend of action and adventure. With a little imagination each visit to a space station would be a memorable encounter. There was the usual barter and trade stuff, but then again there were things quite unexpected. Civilians would approach you with offers to transport goods, or even want you to taxi them elsewhere! Sometimes the cops or the criminals would employ your help, and the favors they'd return would sometimes go beyond cash... maybe a special cargo pod to conceal that contraband? How to make a living... this you should recognize the most from Privateer. Merchant? Bounty Hunter? Alien Hunter? PIRATE!? This is where things started to get seriously intense, because it led straight into the... RATING SYSTEM: Not a cheap "One rating, everybody reacts to that" deal. You had ratings with EVERY FACTION AROUND. Save a merchant ship, score points with them. Save a merchant ship by destroying an attacking pirate, lose points with the bad guys... and if you ever need a favor from them, be prepared to pay through the nose... Help the cops by being a bounty hunter and they'll start to chum around with you. Hurt them and they'll start extorting your bounty out of you. It goes on and on. Gameplay was no slouch, either. All of the planets and stars were actually in there with you, no cutouts you could never reach but actual gameplay elements of gravity and velocity. Even binary stars, two stars orbiting each other! My fondest gameplay memory involved a binary star system where I was getting trashed by an alien, totally wrecked at the worst time. I couldn't outrun it and I was far, far away from any help. I turned the nose of the ship to face between the two stars and hit full burn. As the gravity started sucking I started flying in faster than the ship could possibly go under its own power. I started to get pulled off course, towards one of the stars, and then... I shot between them and out to the other side, leaving the alien way back in nowheresville. This is the kind of moment that makes me love a game.

The Bad
Okay, the sound and occasional music can't even be remembered at this point. They must not have been anything special. Also, there was one sequence when I had to make a landing on a station that had been ravaged by a mutant, get in to steal an item, and get back to the ship without getting slaughtered. The mutant was way too fast. I saw him enter the screen, then I died. And don't assume it was a system thing, I was running a P.O.S. Tandy 1000 S(U)X that was WAY underqualified to even be plugged in. No, that was something that made me turn over the keyboard to my buddy while I went and swallowed nerve relaxants by the bucket.

The Bottom Line
Possibly the FIRST space adventure with this kind of scope, Space Rogue was around and kicking butt long before Wing Commander conquered our monitors.