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A space flight simulator game is a genre of flight simulator video games that lets players experience space flight. Highly realistic examples lacking any sort of combat include Orbiter and Microsoft Space Simulator. Space flight simulator games are distinct from space-based shoot 'em up games that use side-scrolling or top-down perspectives.

Space flight simulators, at one time popular, have for most of the new millennium been considered a "dead" genre.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} However, massive effort of open-source communities has managed to produce some working, modern titles. It is remained to be seen whether this effort will re-vitalize the genre.

Sub-types [edit]

Space combat simulator [edit]

Space combat simulators^[1][6] feature a futuristic simulation of space flight involving combat, as opposed to the modern-day and highly realistic simulation of space flight in other space flight simulators. Such games generally place the player into the controls of a small starfighter or smaller starship in a military force of similar and larger spaceships. The prominent Wing Commander, Tachyon: The Fringe, X-Wing and Freespace series all use this approach. Exceptions include the first Independence War and the Star Trek: Bridge Commander series, which model craft at a larger scale and/or in a more strategic fashion.

Space combat simulators tend to be mission-based, as opposed to the more open-ended nature of space trading and combat simulators.

Space trading and combat simulator [edit]

The general formula for space trading and combat simulators,^{[7][8][9][10]} which has changed little since its genesis, is for the player to begin in a relatively small, outdated ship (that said, the ship the player controls is generally larger than that in pure space combat simulator) with little money or status and for the player to work his way up, gaining in status and power through trading, exploration, combat or a mix of different methods.^[11][12][13] Notable examples include Elite, Wing Commander: Privateer, and Freelancer.

In some instances, plot plays only a limited role and only a loose narrative framework tends to be provided (in certain titles of the X series, for instance, players may ignore the plot for as long as they wish and are even given the option to disable the plot completely and instead play in "sandbox" mode^[11]) -- but many games of this genre place a strong emphasis on factional conflict, leading to many small mission-driven subplots that unravel the tensions of the galaxy.

Games of this type often allow the player to choose among multiple roles to play and multiple paths to victory. This aspect of the genre is very popular, but some people have complained that, in some titles, the leeway given to the player too often is only superficial, and that, in reality, the roles offered to players are very similar, and open-ended play too frequently restricted by scripted sequences.^[11] As an example, Freelancer has been criticised for being too rigid in its narrative structure,^[12][14] being in one case compared negatively with Grand Theft Auto,^[14] another series praised for its open-ended play.^[15]

All space trading and combat games feature the core gameplay elements of directly controlling the flight of some sort of space vessel, generally armed, and of navigating from one area to another for a variety of reasons. As technology has improved it has been possible to implement a number of extensions to gameplay, such as dynamic economies, cooperative online play and realistic flight models based on Newtonian physics, but the core gameplay has changed little over the years. Some recent games, for instance EVE Online, have expanded the scope of the experience by including thousands of simultaneous online players in what is sometimes referred to as a "living universe"^{[11][16][17][18]}—a dream some have held (though maybe not in EVE's exact format) since the genre's early beginnings.^[19]

An additional sub-class of space trading games eliminate combat entirely, focusing instead entirely on trading and economic manipulation in order to achieve success.

Control systems [edit]

Most modern space flight simulators on the personal computer allow a player to utilise a combination of the WASD keys of the keyboard and mouse as a means of controlling the game (games such as Microsoft's Freelancer use this control system exclusively^[14]). By far the most popular control system among genre enthusiasts, however, is the joystick.^[4] Most fans prefer to use this input method whenever possible,^[14] but expense and practicality mean that many are forced to use the keyboard and mouse combination (or gamepad if such is the case). The lack of uptake among the majority of modern gamers has also made joysticks a sort of an anachronism, though some new controller designs^[4] and simplification of controls offer the promise that space sims may be playable in their full capacity on gaming consoles at some time in the future.^[4] In fact, X3: Reunion, sometimes considered one of the more cumbersome and difficult series of space simulations to master,^[20][21] was initially planned for the Xbox but later cancelled.^[22]

History [edit]

Early attempts at 3D space simulation date back as far as 1974's Spasim, an online multi-player space simulator in which players attempt to destroy each other's ships.

Elite, released in 1984, was one of the first home PC titles to feature fully three-dimensional graphics.^[23]

The modern space flight simulation genre emerged at the point when home computers became sufficiently powerful to draw basic wireframe graphics in real-time.^[13] The game Elite is widely considered to be the breakthrough game of the genre,^{[13][17][24][25]} and as having successfully melded the "space trading" and flight sim genres.^[26] Elite was highly influential upon later games of its type, although it did have some precursors, and games similar to Elite are sometimes called "Elite-clones".^{[27][28][29][30]}

Elite [edit]

Elite has made a lasting impression on developers, worldwide, extending even into different genres. In interviews, senior producers of CCP Games cited Elite as one of the inspirations for their acclaimed MMORPG, EVE Online.^[25][31][32] Thorolfur Beck credits Elite as the game that impacted him most on the Commodore 64.^[25] Developers of Jumpgate Evolution, Battlecruiser 3000AD, Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Hard Truck: Apocalyptic Wars and Flatspace likewise all claim Elite as a source of inspiration.^{[24][33][34][35][36]}

Elite was named one of the sixteen most influential games in history at Telespiele, a German technology and games trade show,^[37] and is being exhibited at such places as the London Science Museum in the "Game On" exhibition organized and toured by the Barbican Art Gallery.^[38] Elite was also named #12 on IGN's 2000 "Top 25 PC Games of All Time" list,^[39] the #3 most influential video game ever by the Times Online in 2007,^[40] and "best game ever" for the BBC Micro by Beebug Magazine in 1984.^[41] Elite's sequel, Frontier: Elite II, was named #77 on PC Zone's "101 Best PC Games Ever" list in 2007.^[42] Similar praise has been bestowed elsewhere in the media from time to time.^{[43][44][45][46][47]}

Elite is one of the most popularly requested games to be remade,^[21] and some argue that it is still the best example of the genre to date, with more recent titles—including its sequel—not rising up to its level.^{[12][13][16][17]} It has been credited as opening the door for future online persistent worlds, such as Second Life and World of Warcraft,^[40] and as being the first truly open-ended game.^[15][48] It is to this day one of the most ambitious games ever made, residing in only 22 kilobytes of memory and on a single floppy disk.^[16]

Other examples [edit]

Elite was not the first game to take flight simulator mechanics into outer space. Other notable earlier examples include Star Raiders (1979), Space Shuttle: A Journey into Space (1982), Rendezvous: A Space Shuttle Simulation (1982),^[26] Namco's Space Encounters (1980),^[49] and several Sega games, including Space Tactics (1980), which featured an arcade cabinet resembling a cockpit where the entire screen mobilizes and scrolls as the player moves the cross-hairs and shoots a laser into the screen to create a real-life 3D effect,^[50] Astron Belt (1983), the first laserdisc video game with the graphics presented using full-motion video,^[51] and Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator (1982),^[52] which featured five different controls to learn, six different enemies, and 40 different simulation levels of play, making it one of the most elaborate vector games ever released.^[53]

Other early examples include Taito's Space Seeker in 1981,^[54] Nasir Gebelli's 1982 Apple II computer games Horizon V which featured an early radar mechanic and Zenith which allowed the player ship to rotate,^[55][56] and Bandai's 1984 mecha games for the MSX computer, Gundam: Last Shooting, which featured an early cockpit view,^[57] and Ginga Hyoryu Vifam, which allowed first-person open space exploration with a radar displaying the destination and player/enemy positions as well as an early physics engine where approaching a planet's gravitational field pulls the player towards it.^[58] Following Elite were games such as The Halley Project (1985), Echelon (1987) and Microsoft Space Simulator (1994).

Star Luster, released for the NES console and arcades in 1985, featured free-roaming open space exploration with six degrees of freedom, a cockpit view, a radar displaying enemy and base locations, the ability to warp anywhere, and a date system keeping track of the current date.^[59][60][61] Kidō Senshi Z-Gundam: Hot Scramble (1986) featured first-person space combat levels in open space giving the illusion of six degrees of freedom.^[62][63] Arsys Software's Star Cruiser (1988) for the NEC PC-8801 and Sega Mega Drive featured space combat gameplay that allowed true six degrees of freedom while exploring a vast open space rendered in fully 3D polygonal graphics as well as featuring an automap displaying player and enemy positions.^[64] Namco's StarBlade (1991) was another early example of 3D polygonal graphics in a space combat game.^[65]

Some tabletop and board games, such as Traveller or Merchant of Venus, also feature themes of space combat and trade. Traveller influenced the development of Elite (the main character in Traveller is named "Jamison"; the main character in Elite is named "Jameson") and Jumpgate Evolution.^[24][66] Trade Wars and TradeWars 2002 were early BBS door games that featured trading and combat set in outer space, and were influential in their own right.^[67][68]

Decline [edit]

Vega Strike an actual space flight simulator game: a Llama class ship docks on a mine base (2008)

The seeming decline of the space flight simulators in the late '90s coincided with the rise of the RTS, FPS and RPG game genres, with such examples as Warcraft, Doom and Diablo.^[4] The very things that made these games classics, such as their open-endedness, complex controls and attention to detail, have been cited as reasons for this decline.^[4][5]

Resurgence [edit]

Some recent franchises such as the X series^[4] and EVE Online, may end a decade in which no new title of the genre was published. The open source community has also been active, with recent projects such as FS2 Open and Vega Strike serving as platforms for nonprofessional efforts.^[5] Remakes of Elite^{[citation needed]} and Privateer^[69] are even being made using the Vega Strike engine, and the latter reached the stage it is offered as a working title to the public.

In November 2012 Star Citizen set a new record for crowd funding. It managed to raise a total of $6,238,563. Elite: Dangerous was successfully crowdfunded on Kickstarter in November and December 2012. Born Ready Games also closed a successful Kickstarter campaign at the end of 2012 raising almost $180,000 to assist with the completion of Strike Suit Zero scheduled for release January 2013.

See also [edit]

• List of space flight simulator games

References [edit]