Reach for the Stars
Entry updated 10 April 2015. Tagged: Game.
Videogame (1983). Strategic Studies Group (SSG). Designed by Roger Keating, Ian Trout. Platforms: C64 (1983); AppleII (1985); DOS (1986); Amiga (1988).
Reach For The Stars is essentially a skilfully implemented conversion of the board-and-counter game Stellar Conquest (1974) to a form suitable for home computers. As such it is the most important link between that seminal Wargame and Master of Orion (1993), the first work to be described as a 4X Game. Like Stellar Conquest, Reach For The Stars is a turn-based game which is entirely concerned with the strategy, as opposed to the tactics, of interstellar conquest. Unlike such earlier "space empire" Videogames as Galactic Empire (1979) (see Galactic Saga) and Andromeda Conquest (1982), this game allows players to develop the technology of their empire and effectively manage its economy as they expand out into space. While both the gameplay and the graphics are much simpler than those of such successors as Master of Orion, all the elements characteristic of 4X game design are present in Reach For The Stars.
Related works: Reach For The Stars (2000 SSG, Win) designed by Roger Keating, Ian Trout is an updated version of the original, which suffered from a lack of sophistication compared to such contemporary examples of the form as Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares (see Master of Orion) and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (1999). [NT]
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