Space Rogue Download (1989 Simulation Game)

The Princess Blue was a trading vessel. While cruising through space, it happened upon a derelict ship floating in space. Only one crew member was allowed to investigate the abandoned ship. Suddenly, Manchi raiders appeared on the viewscreen. The Manchi managed to ambush and destroy the Princess Blue. As the only surviving crew member from the Princess Blue, you swear revenge... but it's a big and expensive universe. In order to upgrade and repair the ship, you'll need credits. Which could be obtained through trading or hunting down pirates or maybe a special mission or two. There's also the matter of finding those who are responsible for the death of the Princess Blue. Following their trail will require obtaining information from several different characters.

Space Rogue is a space simulation, a predecessor to Origin's better known Wing Commander series and specifically, Wing Commander: Privateer. Space flight takes place in two different modes: Cruise Flight, which is ideal for travelling quickly, and Newtonian Flight, which works best for combat and precision flying. Each planetary system has a variety of destinations and obstacles to travel through via a top-down navigational map.

Interstellar travel, between systems, is done by finding a Malir Gate and using it to reach hyperspace. While in hyperspace, the game becomes a simple 'tunnel' game where you must manually control the ship not to hit any of the walls. Also hyperspace travel eats away at your ship, so the faster you can get through them, the more armor your ship retains. Finally, when docked on most locations, the game shows your pilot from a top-view and you can walk to different shops/bars/characters.

Space Rogue was released in 1989 by Origin Systems. You play a private whose mothership was destroyed by the sinister and mysterious Manchi while you were on EVA duty investigating a derelict spaceship. Using the derelict spaceship, you have to figure out why the Manchi are attacking ships in the Far Arm cluster, while equipping your ship and making a name for yourself.

The game is open, in that it doesn't force you to proceed along at any particular pace, so you can take your time making money and equipping your ship, or just jump straight into the plot by talking to everyone you meet. Initially, more of your time will be spent trading or otherwise getting credits to equip your ship. Eventually though, as you talk to more and more people, you are led to the main storyline, so in the later part of the game, more of your time is spent on figuring out how to further the plot. There are only nine star systems in the game, so the emphasis is not on exploring hundreds and hundreds of worlds, yet the game's universe is big enough that taking time to go everywhere is worthwhile. You will need to visit nearly every world at some point in order to beat the game.

Space Rogue is part 3D space combat sim, part top-down RPG. While traveling in space, you will encounter different ships, and you may choose how to interact with each one. Your past history with the Imperium (government), the Guild (merchants), and the pirates will determine how they react to you. When you dock at a base, the game changes to a top-down view, where you can walk around and talk to various people, trade, and upgrade your ship. There is even a game within the game, in which you hunt down those Manchi bugs and can earn money by getting to high enough levels.

You can trade at different bases to gain money, or be a pirate and hunt merchant ships, or be a bounty hunter and seek out pirates or Manchi to kill. These are not set-in-stone professions that you select at the beginning of the game, but avenues to making a profit that you can choose through your decisions. As is usual, trading is the safest if least exciting way to make money. However, towards the latter part of the game, once you are fully upgraded, there is little need to make money. At that point the best equipment will come from fulfilling quests, although you will still need some money to make repairs and replenish your weapons.

There is no music, and the sounds consist of the standard bleeps and bloops when you fire a weapon or run into something. However, the gameplay is very good, and bugs are few and far in between. It runs natively in Windows XP without problems.

I have many fond memories of this game, from the first time I managed to go through the Malir gate to a new star system, to figuring how to avoid the monster on Bassruti, to evading and fighting lots of Manchi ships. This is a game that will provide many weeks of fun as you explore the various quests and upgrade your ship, so try it today!

This game is very mod-able. If you want to try to mod it, there is a guideline included with the extras. In addition there is a saved game, OETA.SAV, which allows you to use every ship in game.

While scouting a deserted spacecraft, you witnessed a sudden explosion of your mothership that left you stranded. Aside from this novel plot, Space Rogue features one of the first believable and fun 3D space navigation that is populated with wormholes, starships, mining outposts, and planets. The ability to view the action from chase plane, cockpit, and cinematic modes also allows flexibility rarely seen in early RPGs. The spaceflight dynamic is also somewhat realistic, in that you will experience appropriate spin, loops and rolls. Once you dock with a space station, you will control the action from a traditional top-down view to converse with various NPCs to advance the plot. One of the best things about this game is that you can avoid the main plot as long as you want and just content yourself with buying and trading cargo at the various outposts to earn enough money to equip your ship with better systems. In short, Space Rogue doesn't break new grounds, but it is a solid sci-fi RPG that will provide you with dozens of hours of enjoyment (and dogfighting fun). Of historical interest is also the fact that this is the first game Paul Neurath designed for Origin before he founded Looking Glass Studios-- the first seed of a fertile relationship that would lead to the phenomenal Ultima Underworld.

While on a routine trade mission, a space wessel Princess Blue received a distress signal. Your captain decides to take a look and sends you to the deserted vessel to inspect the situation. As soon as you got into the ship, Princess Blue was attacked and destroyed by pirates. Now you're on your own, with your own little ship and just one goal - survive. Made after a highle successful Elite and a few years before Privateer, Space Rogue introduced some great new ideas into a gaming industry. You're given a complete freedom in what you want to do next: trade, wander around, be a pirate... Of course, there is a story that you should follow but the rest is all up to you. Most important things happen on space stations though. You can land and walk around, enter shops...

This game is great and must be played! Just to mention that one of the guys that worked on this game is Warren Spector, creator of games such as System Shock, Crusader, Thief: The Dark Project and Deus Ex. Quite a recommendation for a game, isn't it?

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

People who downloaded Space Rogue have also downloaded:
Sub Culture, Space MAX, Ultimate Domain (a.k.a. Genesia), Tau Ceti, Frontier: First Encounters (aka Elite 3), SimTower, SimFarm for Windows, Wing Commander: Prophecy - Gold